During the January 2024 Sony State of Play, a new trailer for the much-awaited Silent Hill 2 remake was released, finally giving viewers a taste of what they can expect from combat. I watched the footage, puzzled as to what I saw. A part of me understands why changes were made — a new audience doesn’t want to deal with “bad” controls — but I feel like something was lost as James Sunderland staggered enemies by shooting them in the knees or blasting a Bubble Head Nurse in the head with a shotgun.
While Team Silent may or may not have intentionally made the combat in those first four Silent Hill games clunky, it served a greater purpose within the Survival Horror genre. A majority of the most popular Japanese Horror games of the time functioned on Tank Controls, which arguably isn’t great and requires some getting used to.
But the fact that it was so unwieldy and unrefined created a sense of tension, and in the case of Silent Hill 2, really let the player know that James was, for the most part, in over his head. He’s an average man with a heavy conscience, a villain in his own story, but I won’t say more than that for the sake of spoilers. The game may be old, but it’s effectively been inaccessible for years. And the Silent Hill 2 remake will be their first taste of one of the most influential Japanese Horror games ever made.
I’m not saying this to be a curmudgeon, either. The controls in the Silent Hill series up until Homecoming, which Team Silent didn’t develop, were pretty abysmal and received criticism from major outlets until the games effectively changed direction. What concerns me about Silent Hill 2 is that the combat looks extremely similar to the Resident Evil 4 remake.
There isn’t anything wrong with that, but Silent Hill 2 isn’t meant to make the player feel good while controlling James. He swings steel pipes with a sort of desperation, throwing his entire body behind the strike because he’s never clubbed someone to death before. That’s important. James has the capability to enact brutality (talking lead pipes, planks of wood, etc.) on others, but he hasn’t until this point. Maybe James has shot a gun before. Who knows.
One could argue semantics over that for the shift to the over-the-shoulder camera. Or you could say that Bloober Team probably just wanted the game to feel better in terms of controls or that there was potential pressure to chase the success of the Resident Evil series — much like the original Silent Hill had. It makes Silent Hill 2 feel less tense and more like a power fantasy. Resident Evil 4, for all of its merits, was a shift in the genre. But you were also playing a member of that universe’s secret service.
It was campy and packed with action, but it knew how to keep that tension strong by restricting players to standing still while shooting. James slapping around enemies with a plank of wood, shooting enemies with precision, and having that larger free range of movement without some kind of restriction eliminates that. And it impacts the atmosphere of the game. Why would I be afraid of enemies if I can just aim for the head and shoot? Why would I be afraid of fighting more than one enemy at a time if James could just barrel through them with a wooden plank in hand?
It just doesn’t sit right. I don’t know. I’m probably overthinking it. Silent Hill 2 isn’t even my favorite game in the series. But it’s strange to feel a sense of loss over something that added to the general experience of the game. Maybe there will be a greater sense of weight to James and the combat once I get my hands on the game. Maybe there won’t be. However, as of right now, the footage I’ve seen doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.
The Silent Hill 2 remake is in development for PS5 and PC.
