Summary
After years of development, often inducing more concern than hype about its arrival, theSilent Hill 2 Remakeis finally here, and it turned out well. It managed to maintain the original’s mix of psychological horror and outright terror while modernizing the gameplay and updating the visuals. Still, there’s room for improvement.
The visuals are meant to be grim, but perhaps they could be a little clearer, or the cutscenes could have a higher frame rate, or there could just be less fog. Luckily, people have already been tweaking the game one way or the other. As a result, they’ve made some interesting mods for the PC version that could make it more to a player’s liking.
1Play As 2001 James Sunderland
Replace The New James With The Real James
SH2R’s James Sunderland will visibly get more tired and dirty as the game goes on. It’s a nice graphical touch that illustrates the toll the horrors of Silent Hill can wreak on a person. Or it’s mere graphical window dressing. What if people wantedthe original James Sunderlandfromthe oldSilent Hill 2?
Thanks to NorskPL, fans can do just that by using his mod to replace the new model. It comes with its own facial animations too, though since it (and as of this writing, every other mod on this list) is new, there is a chance of encountering a bug or two. But if all goes well, there could be more mods to make this all-new game look more old-school.
2Play As RE4 Remake Leon
Someone Took A Wrong Turn
Horror media is full of people taking unfortunate turns in grimy, creepy towns.Resident Evil 4and its remake saw Leon Kennedy have a more explosive but equally harrowing turn when he came across a zombie-infested village in Spain. But what if he took a wrong turn along the way, and ended up in an entirely different but equally cursed town? SpiritHun sends James Sunderland off somewhere else and bringsLeon from theRE4 Remakeinto Silent Hill.
It’s a cosmetic mod, so Leon won’t be suplexing Pyramid Head, or pulping monsters Mercenaries Mode-style throughout the town. Nonetheless, it’s a neat way for players to cross the series over, and see Leon deal withSH2R’s monsters. Then, someone could mod the new James Sunderland intoRE4 Remakeand leave him surrounded by Ganados. To this date, that hasn’t happened yet, but players coulddress Leon up in James' threadsin the meantime.
3Silent Hill 2 HD Collection
Turn The Remake Into The Remaster
Konami updated both theMetal Gear SolidandSilent Hillseries back in the early 2010s. One of them became a hit, and the other was theSilent Hill HD Collection. Dodgy coding, lacking textures, and new but worse voice acting made playing eitherSilent Hill 2or3on the set miserable. The lack of fog also exposed details that were meant to be covered up.
So, what ifSH2Ralso lacked that fog, turning the titular town of nightmares into another wet burg in Maine? FrancisLouis managed that with hisSilent Hill 2 HD Collectionmod, and it has some benefits. No fog means a slightly better frame rate. But is it worthtaking awaySH2R’s atmosphere? Probably not, but it’s good for a laugh, and to bring back bittersweet memories of the original game’s last big release.
4Simple Freecam
Take The Camera Anywhere Around The Town
That fogless mod could come in handy if players want to explore the game at their leisure. See how the town and its surroundings were reconstructed. However, there’s only so much that players can do within the game’s boundaries. This is where KeinZantezuken’sSimple Freecamcomes in and does what it says in the title.
It lets players break the boundaries of the camera and warp all around the place. They can see what lurks in the woods, how the developers load enemies in and out of the game, and see ifthere are any easter eggsor other things left behind in one spot or another. Its controls take some getting used to, but it’s a good tool for people who want to roam through Silent Hill.
5Clean Flashlight
No Need For Grimy Torches Here
Silent Hilloftenhands its protagonistsa flashlight so they can explore its dark depths, often missing gruesome discoveries until they swing the miniscule light their way.SH2R’s acts like an accurate flashlight too, with a grimy lens and a visible hotspot. Still, some players might prefer it if James got a better light and cleaned the lens off a bit.
Enter Caites’Clean Flashlightmod. It removes the dirt and the hotspot to provide a pure, bright light. It’ll help lighten up dark rooms more clearly without completely illuminating the place. That way, players can still fear whatever’s lurking in the shadows. They can just find them more easily once they spin James’ light in their direction.
6Cutscene Improvements
Replacing The Cinematic Approach With A Video Game-Based One
With a decent rig and setup,SH2Rwill run at a steady 60FPS. Except in cutscenes where, to be more cinematic, it’ll run at 30FPS and have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. It’s an artistic choice, though if players want to make a different choice, they can use RoseTheFlower’sCutscene Improvementsmod.
It’ll remove the black bars from any cutscene set at anything but 16:9 and unlock the frame rate to run at the same pace as the game. It’ll also sort out any ghosting or flickering effects some screens can suffer when running at low frame rates. Even when some character animations are set at 30FPS, it’ll keep the game stable and flicker-free.
7Classic Health Indicator
No School like the Old School
When the player takes damage inSH2R, they get the glowing red frame of doom that every game in the past decade and a half has used to represent low health. It’s a handy way to let the player know something’s up without needing to fill the screen with a HUD. But that’s not the way the older games used to let players know they can’t take too many hits.
They useda cross as a health indicator, which would glow redder if the player took too many hits. Some people thought it would already be a toggleable option in the game. However, aside from everyone being used to the red frame, the Red Cross organization is surprisingly litigious about anything resembling their logo, leading to games past and present avoiding red cross icons (seeEarthbound). So, whether it’s due to the law or convenience, players will have to use this mod to makeSH2Rfeel more likeSH2.
8Silent Optimizer And Enhanced Silent Visuals
Letting The Player Tweak The Graphics To Their Heart’s Content
FrancisLouis’ fog-removing mod can raise the frame rate a touch, but they also made a mod that does that without turning the game into a tribute to a bad remaster. TheirSilent Optimizerlets the player adjust the lighting and shading, alongside asset streaming, to their liking. As a result, it could give the player 5-10 extra FPS, depending on their PC.
It’s also compatible withtheir other mod,Enhanced Silent Visuals, which will tweak the graphics further. It’ll reduce bloom and lens flare in favor of anisotropic filtering. Then, if the player has a beefy setup, they can use the Epic preset to increase the draw distance, shadow resolution, and other details. With both mods combined, players can makeSH2Rlook however they like.
9Ultra Plus Fixes And Visual Improvements
Get Everything Looking Right With One Download
If those two mods together sound a little fiddly, players could pick up SammiLucia’s simpler, straightforward visual mod. TheUltra Plus Fixes and Visual Improvementsmod is an all-in-one deal that’ll fix stuttering, particle effects, and reflections. It’ll even reduce the sheen on James’ hair, so he’ll at least look like he took a shower before reaching the town.
The mod does this by taking some settings from the Cinematic and Epic presets, and disabling some plugins and effects in favor of others. That way, the game will look stronger visually without sacrificing performance. It’s simple to install too. Players just need to drag the contents into the game’s folder or use a mod manager, and they will be on their way.
