Silent Hill HD Collection

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Silent Hill HD Collection
Single-player

Silent Hill HD Collection is a 2012

Xbox achievements and PlayStation trophies
.

The Silent Hill HD Collection was in development for more than two years. The development team had to work with incomplete source code provided by Konami, as the published source code had not been archived. This consequently resulted in their having to fix technical issues both arising from porting the two games and those that the original development team had previously dealt with. An arrangement was eventually reached between the original voice actors of Silent Hill 2 and Konami to allow for an option to have the original voice acting present in Silent Hill 2's port, although the Silent Hill 3 port does not have that option. Critics were divided over the Silent HD Collection, particularly in regards to its updated graphics and voice acting. Some enjoyed it as an updated presentation of two favorably regarded games, while others criticized the quality of the compilation, citing the technical issues.

Background and development

The Silent Hill HD Collection, a compilation of the

achievements for Xbox Live, and trophies for PlayStation Network.[5][6]

A comparison of the original PlayStation 2 version of Silent Hill 2 (right) and its remastered PlayStation 3 port before the patch (left)

Because the original source code for Silent Hill 2 and 3 had not been preserved, the development team at Hijinks Studio had to work with the incomplete code provided by video game publisher Konami, which was not the code from the published games. Thus, the team had to simultaneously handle technical issues arising from porting the two games as well as those which the original development team had previously fixed; some of those problems included Heather turning blue. Furthermore, the team examined game textures that were present in the original games but not seen by the players, and highlighted them in the remaster; among the previously unseen textures and details are scratches on walls and clues to the games' puzzles.[2] Masahiro Ito, the art director for Silent Hill 2 and 3, has speculated that the games' translucent textures, such as those used for the fog, might have proven difficult for the hardware of the PlayStation 3 to handle.[7]

New voice actors were brought in to re-record dialogue from both games, directed by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who had previously provided vocals for various soundtracks in the Silent Hill series.[8] Because the games kept the original animations, the voice actors had to sync their vocal performance with the lip motions done by the previous voice actors.[9] Guy Cihi, who had provided the original voice and motion capture for James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2's original release, refused to allow Konami to re-use his voice work in the remaster because he believed that the company owed him residuals for his performance.[10][11] Troy Baker, the new voice actor for James Sunderland, disputed this, arguing that residuals for voice acting in video games were unheard of in Japan.[9] Eventually, an arrangement between Konami and the original voice actors of Silent Hill 2 was reached to provide an option for the original voice acting on the remastered port of Silent Hill 2; Silent Hill 3, however, did not have that option, with "technical and logistical" difficulties cited.[12]

During the production of the Silent Hill HD Collection, senior associate producer Tomm Hulett was the target of harassment by a small portion of the Silent Hill fanbase, being blamed as the source of everything perceived as wrong in the series, including lost source code, the inclusion of new voice acting in the Silent Hill HD Collection, and that

dungeon crawler.[13]

Release

The compilation was officially announced by

backwards compatible for the Xbox One in July 2018.[22]

Reception

The Silent Hill HD Collection received "mixed or average" reviews on both consoles, according to rating aggregator Metacritic.[24] Several reviewers voiced their opinion that the title of the collection was misleading, as it actually contained only two games from the franchise and excluded Silent Hill 4: The Room, Silent Hill: Origins and the first Silent Hill game, particularly given that the first two had appeared on the PlayStation 2 console as well.[6][25][26][27][30] The updated visuals were a point of contention among reviewers: some wrote that the absence of fog in the remastered Silent Hill 2 revealed previously hidden textures and technical limitations of the game to its detriment; the updates to Silent Hill 3, which did not depend on the effects of the fog as much, were generally better received.[26][27][29][30] In contrast, other reviewers enjoyed the updated visuals.[3][28] Glitches[29] and issues with the frame rate were also noted.[6][28]

The new voice acting drew a range of responses. Some critics praised it as a general improvement over the originals,[3][6][28] while others expressed more mixed feelings about it.[25][26] Issues with the audio syncing with the character animations was remarked on,[4][26][27] and some critics wrote that the subtitles had not been updated to reflect the few changes made to the script.[26][29] The absence of bonus material drew criticism from some reviewers as well.[25][30]

Overall, opinions on the compilation were mixed. Some enjoyed it as a nicely updated port of two well-regarded games,[3][6] while others recommended it despite technical faults.[29] Other reviewers wrote that the quality of the compilation was lacking,[4][26][27] especially in comparison to other recently released remastered compilations, such as the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection.[4]

References

  1. ^ https://www.konami.com/games/eu/en/products/shhd/
  2. ^
    1UP.com. pp. 1–3. Archived from the original
    on June 6, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  3. ^
    IGN Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Silent Hill HD Collection Text". GameTrailers. April 2, 2012. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  5. ^ Leadbetter, Richard (April 10, 2012). "What Went Wrong with Silent Hill HD?". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 18, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  6. ^ a b c d e f McGee, Maxwell (March 5, 2012). "Silent Hill HD Collection Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 3, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  7. ^ Dutton, Fred (March 23, 2012). "Original Silent Hill developer disappointed at "poor" HD re-release". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 21, 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
  8. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (July 26, 2011). "Silent Hill HD Collection release window". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  9. ^ a b Yin-Poole, Wesley (August 24, 2011). "Voice actor defends Silent Hill 2 HD". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  10. ^ "James Voice Actor Speaks Out About Silent Hill 2 HD Re-Casting". The Gaming Liberty. June 10, 2019. Archived from the original on June 8, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  11. Game Set Watch. Archived
    from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  12. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (November 23, 2011). "Silent Hill HD Collection has original Silent Hill 2 voices". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  13. ^ Blake, Vikki (February 24, 2019). "Life after harassment: ex-Silent Hill dev Tomm Hulett speaks out". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 20, 2019.
  14. CBS Interactive. June 3, 2011. Archived
    from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  15. ^ Vore, Bryan (August 17, 2011). "Silent Hill HD Collection Coming To Xbox 360 Alongside PS3". Game Informer. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  16. ^ a b Goldfarb, Andrew (March 1, 2012). "Silent Hill Release Dates Updated". IGN. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  17. ^ a b "Silent Hill: HD Edition" (in Japanese). Konami. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  18. ^ "Silent Hill HD Collection". Konami. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  19. CBS Interactive. Archived
    from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  20. ^ Phillips, Tom (July 11, 2012). "Silent Hill HD Collection finally gets PS3 patch". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  21. ^ Goldfarb, Andrew (August 8, 2012). "Silent Hill HD Patch Hits PS3, Canceled for 360". IGN. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  22. CBS Interactive. Archived
    from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  23. CBS Interactive. Archived
    from the original on April 27, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  24. ^
    CBS Interactive. Archived
    from the original on April 27, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  25. ^
    Rovi Corporation. Archived from the original
    on November 15, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g Sterling, Jim (March 24, 2012). "Review: Silent Hill HD Collection". Destructoid. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  27. ^ a b c d e Minkley, Johnny (March 30, 2012). "Silent Hill HD Collection Review". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  28. ^ a b c d Turi, Tim (March 12, 2012). "Silent Hill HD Collection Review: Old Nightmares Reborn". Game Informer. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  29. ^
    Game Revolution. Archived
    from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  30. ^ a b c Martin, Liam (March 31, 2012). "'Silent Hill HD Collection' review". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved October 20, 2019.

External links

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