After the disaster that was Silent Hill Ascension, Konami is doing all it can to crush any excitement for the upcoming remake of Silent Hill 2. A recently released trailer for the game has killed any enthusiasm fans had by eradicating femininity.
The remake of Silent Hill 2 was one of many titles showcased during Sony’s PlayStation State of Play event. The game had already caused a stir on social media when it was revealed in October 2022, primarily due to the aged-up appearance of protagonist James Sunderland.
Fans eagerly awaiting what was hyped to be Konami’s resurgence in the gaming industry had to wait over a year to see how Bloober Team would recreate the cult classic.
The original Silent Hill 2, released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2, was renowned for its haunting atmosphere and dense fog, which not only added to the game’s eerie aesthetic but also served as a clever way to mask the PS2’s hardware limitations.
Bloober Team describes their Silent Hill 2 remake as preserving the original game’s authenticity while adapting the horror classic for “modern audiences,” which is an oxymoron.
A noticeable trend in modern games is becoming increasingly apparent: they are often simplified in terms of gameplay and progression, as well as toned down in fear, to allow for greater accessibility to a wider range of customers.
The dense fog, a defining feature of the original, has been significantly downplayed in the remake to improve visibility, likely due to being unbound by hardware limitations.
The overall graphical style lacks the gritty, oppressive ambiance of the original, opting instead for a clean, corporate-approved look that feels similar to other modern horror titles like Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 Remake only on a more limited scale.
This approach, reminiscent of the Dead Space remake, fails to evoke the same sense of dread as the original, and the graphics are not particularly impressive, however its simplified art direction isn’t particularly what has peeved fans of the illusive horror classic, more rather it’s the revised model designs of Silent Hill 2’s iconic characters.
Fans of the horror game series have noticed significant changes in characters like Angela from Silent Hill 2, whom players encounter several times. In the remake, Angela appears far less feminine and has been given a more androgynous, fattier appearance.
This alteration seems to reflect a broader trend in gaming to reduce femininity. This can be seen in actions from companies like Sony, which often pressures Asian developers and imposes rigorous censorship on games featuring attractive women.
Similarly, Microsoft has introduced a product inclusion framework with guidelines to eliminate themes and tropes that may “objectify” female characters. These guidelines encourage developers to avoid creating female characters with “exaggerated body proportions” in the name of inclusivity.
This trend aligns with BlackRock’s ESG agenda, where game developers contractually hire consultation services to ensure compliance with their regulations. For example, Niantic partnered with GaymerX to modify the portrayal of biological women in Pokémon GO, replacing female avatars with androgynous hybrids featuring altered chest, shoulder, and hip proportions.
Anyone who insists there’s no pattern here is either lying or willfully ignorant. Angela’s background is one of the most psychologically distressing, as she is a victim of sexual abuse. However, in Bloober’s bid to make the game appeal to modern audiences, it’s quite obvious that they’ve downplayed her previously feminine depiction in favor of a slightly overweight, mundane appearance that could easily be mistaken for a transvestite.
Hilariously enough, some have even pointed out the similarities between Angela’s new design to that of Shawne Benson, the soon-to-be former head of Sony’s third party relations.
Despite Angela’s transformation into a more haggard appearance, a character who wasn’t even remotely “sexualized” in the original game, fans have another reason to be agitated over the modern progressive agenda in gaming.
Maria, another significant character in the game, now appears overly polished, with her clothing radically altered. Her previous pink leopard print skirt and cropped waistcoat, considered too sexualized and inappropriate for today’s society, have been replaced. She now sports a mundane jacket paired with a full-body black dress, with her navel no longer being exposed.
The motivation behind these design choices has become more evident. It appears that Bloober Team has enlisted guidance from a DEI/ESG-oriented consultation firm named HIT Detection.
Their website reflects the typical style of companies in their field, filled with buzzwords surrounding “diversity” and “representation.” They claim to assist in broadening your game’s appeal to a wider audience by assessing “sensitive issues” and identifying risk factors for problematic character depictions.
Interestingly, Hit Detection openly reveals the collusion between consultation firms like themselves and Sweet Baby Inc. Their official website boldly states that their members have extensive experience across various media outlets and companies, including Eurogamer, Polygon, GameSpot, GamesRadar, Wired, Riot Games, Electronic Arts, Obsidian, The Verge, and IGN, before proclaiming that their consultants have gone on to join major companies like PlayStation and Xbox.
It is noteworthy how various journalist outlets, which often voice their disdain for gamers and “gamer culture,” end up advancing to higher positions to these consultation agencies. They essentially work with game developers to determine what is offensive and how to broaden the product’s audience.
By treating the consumer like a child who needs constant hand-holding, they alienate the very fans who made the product iconic in the first place. This approach not only dumbs down the horror mystique but also sanitizes the characters, making them appear more bland and masculine.
While these redesigns are not the worst seen in modern game development, a downgrade is still a downgrade, you could very well summarize such changes as censorship. These new designs are purportedly more “realistic” by eschewing femininity and traditional beauty standards. Angela and Maria have been replaced with more socially acceptable renditions, featuring squarer and more androgynous facial structures and simplified, inoffensive costumes.
Needless to say, Team Bloober’s rendition of Silent Hill 2 is a water-down soulless rendition that sacrifices depth and authenticity for the sake of mass appeal and adherence to certain globalist ideologies, an agenda that wants nothing more than the total eradication of femininity in gaming by proclaiming that women in games are nothing more than sexualized dolls.
Konami clearly doesn’t give a shit. They genuinely tried to push a monetized weekly streamed series under the Silent Hill brand. Their re-release of the Metal Gear Solid HD collection even features a woke disclaimer about “expressions and themes which are outdated,” likely due to “vulgar” elements like pinup posters of female models or a lack of diverse characters.
Team Bloober’s repertoire includes 2017’s Observer, followed by a series of mediocre and mundane games such as The Medium, Layers of Fear, and Blair Witch, all of which received mixed receptions from not only the players but surprisingly even the so-called “critics” didn’t go much on their efforts.
When Konami announced they had given the reins of the Silent Hill 2 remake to Bloober Team, it raised questions. It was evident that this would likely be a half-arsed effort made on a small-ish budget handed to mundane studio.
With the new redesigns, combined with the game’s appearance being watered down by the removal of the dense fog that originally changed the atmosphere, this remake seems like another cash grab exploiting a recognizable and iconic game to maximize Konami’s ESG payout rather than staying authentic to the original.
From poor visual choices and a lack of atmosphere to misguided character redesigns and the overreach of sensitivity consultants, the remake fails on multiple fronts. This modernized take tarnishes the legacy of Silent Hill 2.
