The Big Spoiler at the End 20 Years Later

[Caim]

I remember playing SH2 for the first time, and upon finding out the truth about what happened to Mary, being absolutely gobsmacked. When this game was released, it was much tougher for me to get spoiled. This twist ending has been discussed, dissected, and sometimes aped and imitated for 20 years. How much impact can this twist still have? I wonder if it will still work for all/some of the serious fans, but mostly, if it'll still catch some players off guard.

I hope that a lot of people still have their guts wrenched when James watches the tape. Or Angela's final ascent. Or... Eddie eating pizza.

What do you guys think? Can a twist and a plot that most everyone knows about still have impact? Is this why Square went the way they did with FF7R?

[Chris Sunderland]

It's crazy 20 years of SH2 almost 20 years I was gushing so hard and joined this site at age 15. I'm not envious of the task bloober has remaking SH2. I'm usely very open minded to these type of things and found myself judging the game harsher than I would if it was another franchise I cared for. SH2 is a unique story that is even more revered than FF7 and creative license will be taken already and even the smallest ones will be held to the sword by the fan base so I don't think they should change anything to drastically if they want this to live along next to the original.

[WhiteHarbor]

Incredibly for me it was never really about the twist because I had kind of figured it out before James sat down to watch the video.
It was more about the emotion of the scene with James realizing what he done and having that just wash over him.
Then to pour salt in the wound having Laura come in and human confessing to her.
It's still hunts me to this day just how perfectly crafted this game is.

[Droo]

I started to figure it out the second time Maria died and he found her corpse on the bed in the jail cell.

I also have a feeling this retelling is going to alter a few things. Not enough to change the entire plot necessarily, but I think it will be like RE2R and RE3R that it keeps the skeleton of the story but changes a lot of the details.

[NanayaShiki]

The twist still hits hard. Like two years ago I watched some friends play through the game for the first time and they had the same reactions we all had back then. I think even 20 years later there aren't a lot of video games out there telling a story like this. Video games have gotten more cinematic and better at the ways they tell the stories but the stories themselves rarely go for things like SH2 does, you know?

[Caim]

I guess I was 13/14 when I played this for the first time, so a lot of the deeper themes went over my head (as evidenced by a lot of my earlier posts on this forum... ). I was just like, damn. Maria has some shit luck.

WhiteHarbor: That's a good point. I'm still replaying this game 20 years later and it still affects me. Whether or not the remake will have the same amount of impact waits to be seen, but if it's just a gussied up 1:1 remake with better combat, I don't see how it couldn't. But then we get to:

Droo: I think this is what's gonna happen. They saw how well Capcom is doing with the RE remakes and might sort of follow that formula. Which honestly, would be great! I liked RE2R quite a bit, especially how they kept a lot of the exploration and puzzles. (Random thought: are we still gonna get doors with broken locks?)

Nanaya: It's hard for me to have any different level of perspective on this because I love this game so much, but yes, I agree. Nobody has done it like SH2 has. Hellblade comes close, sort of.

[Droo]

It's crazy 20 years of SH2 almost 20 years I was gushing so hard and joined this site at age 15. I'm not envious of the task bloober has remaking SH2. I'm usely very open minded to these type of things and found myself judging the game harsher than I would if it was another franchise I cared for. SH2 is a unique story that is even more revered than FF7 and creative license will be taken already and even the smallest ones will be held to the sword by the fan base so I don't think they should change anything to drastically if they want this to live along next to the original.

OMG how did I not notice you had come back and posted!

Another OG member returns! How have you been?!?!

[WhiteHarbor]

I'm so excited to have a whole new generation discover Silent Hill.

Do you guys remember that when Silent Hill 2 came out they had mentioned that a lot of the code had been lost, ans several of the planned areas and monsters had not been included in the game?

I remember Masahiro Ito in particular expressing some sadness about that (since he freaking designed them).

It would be so amazing if they decided to include that missing content; that would be a huge wish on my list.

[Droo]

I know the loss of code made making the HD Collection challenging but I don't recall lost code ever impacting the original release. I stand to be corrected though.

[WhiteHarbor]

Yes. Back in the day they explained the reason the otherworld shifts weren't as clear cut in SH2 as them losing some of the code. Also, if I remember correctly, there was at least one monster that didn't make it because of that.

[Chris Sunderland]

It's crazy 20 years of SH2 almost 20 years I was gushing so hard and joined this site at age 15. I'm not envious of the task bloober has remaking SH2. I'm usely very open minded to these type of things and found myself judging the game harsher than I would if it was another franchise I cared for. SH2 is a unique story that is even more revered than FF7 and creative license will be taken already and even the smallest ones will be held to the sword by the fan base so I don't think they should change anything to drastically if they want this to live along next to the original.

OMG how did I not notice you had come back and posted!

Another OG member returns! How have you been?!?!

Aye been a long time, how you been! I'm doing fine was surprised this place survived the last 10 years of nothing burgers and even more surprised my account and password were still in working order. Felt like I stumbled upon Silent Hill itself, haha.

On topic I'm all in on cut content being added back as long as it's true(hehe) to what the OG team intended. I'm also okay with added exploration of buildings and areas not in the original SH2 as long as it doesn't detract from the tone. Probably should avoid new characters and "side missions" to prevent the fantastic pacing of the games story to feel too bloated. I will say I loved over coming my fear and going around town finding little notes and messages. I think as much as I love the story of SH2 I'm most excited to explore Silent Hill in Unreal 5 PS5 graphics. Homecoming and Downpours Silent Hill looked off to me like ( though Downpour looked as if it was set in the 60s or something could never be assed to beat that) it will be nice to see the PS2 era town 3 generations of tech later. Judging from the the snipits we seen in the trailer it looks absolutely perfect.