As Summer turns into Fall in the Northern Hemisphere, many people are getting in the mood to play horror games. With Halloween just around the corner, plenty of gaming enthusiasts are returning to their favorite horror franchises for more terrifying experiences. One of gaming's genre-defining franchises is Silent Hill, but many fans think that the last truly good game in the series was Silent Hill 3 with 2 being the pique of its quality. As a result, newcomers to the franchise are often pointed to the PS2 games, but, due to how difficult they can be to locate physical copies of, turn to the Silent Hill HD Collection to play both titles.
Unfortunately, Silent Hill HD Collection isn't a great way to play Silent Hill 2 and 3, and those looking to truly experience the games might consider trying to hunt down a PS2 along with physical copies. While that might be a pain and potentially a little costly, it's worth it in the end as the HD Collection turned out to be a definitively poor way to experience both classic titles.
Silent Hill HD Collection's Fog and Visual Design
One of Silent Hill's strongest qualities is the franchise's attention to detail when it comes to visuals. The oppressive fog of Silent Hill 2 gives the titular town a truly haunting atmosphere that enforces many of the themes that the game is trying to convey. When it was re-released in the HD Collection, the thick fog was made much thinner making it far easier to see what's on the horizon. This completely ruins the feelings of being lost in a town where something horrible could be lurking behind every corner as players are easily able to see what's in front of them.
There were plenty of issues behind the scenes with the development of Silent Hill HD Collection that caused problems in the finalized release. The team working on it didn't have the original source code of the game, which means that they needed to make a lot of its assets from scrap resulting in a lot of poor quality textures. The visual design of both Silent Hill 2 and 3 was lost in a lot of areas and ended up amounting to poor-looking areas and lighting that didn't match the horror aesthetic that the series is known for.
Changes to Silent Hill's Voice Cast
The voice cast for Silent Hill HD Collection was completely different than that of the original games. While sometimes redubbing characters is necessary for the betterment of a game, many fans were left unsatisfied with the performances featured in the collection. Silent Hill 2's remaster cast Troy Baker and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn in lead roles and, while they did serviceable jobs, many fans preferred the original voice actors. Luckily, Silent Hill 2 allowed players to use the original voices in the HD Collection, however, Silent Hill 3 didn't include that feature, and fans were stuck with the similarly controversial cast. Many fans site the original voice acting as feeling more genuine and less dramatic, making the story feel like it's happening to ordinary people, not to distinguished voice talent.
Although the changes might not be too noticeable for newcomers to the franchise, it's advisable to avoid Silent Hill HD Collection if playing the original versions of the games is an option. They aren't unplayable by any means in the HD Collection, but they're certainly missing a lot of things that made the original games so distinct. Hopefully, a more faithful remaster of both titles will be made available on modern consoles soon, but Konami hasn't had much to say about the Silent Hill franchise ever since Silent Hills was canceled in 2015.
Silent Hill HD Collection is available on PS3 and Xbox 360.