Join members of the Bloober development team for a behind-the-scenes look at Silent Hill 2 remake, and bringing back the iconic fog-shrouded town from the original game with current technology and design techniques. Silent Hill 2 is available now on PS5 (PlayStation 5) and PC via Steam.
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00:00Silent Hill is one of the most iconic locations in the horror genre.
00:22In the game, the town appears differently to everyone who visits it.
00:31This unique approach presents a visual representation of our deepest fears and emotions.
00:41For me, the town behaves like another character because it reflects the emotions of the people
00:46that are in it.
00:47The same applies for the level design because it mirrors those emotions.
00:52You can observe it with environment, with its creatures, with the puzzles, with the
00:58level design and the places that you are exploring.
01:03But the biggest fun lies in the moment when you don't know yet what to do.
01:07You wander through those foggy, empty streets.
01:11You bump out from one door to another.
01:14And in the moment of the biggest desperation, you may find something more interesting looking.
01:22So we definitely wanted to make sure that the fans could experience the iconic Silent
01:28Hill the same way as they could experience it in 2001.
01:32So for that reason, you're going to find a lot of customizable gameplay options that
01:37will basically allow you to craft your own perfect Silent Hill experience.
01:44But we didn't stop just there.
01:46We wanted to accommodate to the players who also have some physical limitations.
01:50For that reason, we spent some time developing different accessibility options that they
01:56could access.
01:57And one of them is the high contrast mode that will allow you for easier navigation
02:01to the town of Silent Hill.
02:04I think the best approach to deal with innovation in a new entry of a franchise or in a remake
02:12is through embracing nostalgia.
02:15Not deny what people loved about the franchise.
02:19There's a reason why it's so inspirational after so many years.
02:26The town design remains quite faithful, but in the remake, we really wanted to give the
02:30players the ability to visit places that we couldn't visit in the original game.
02:37Maintaining the right balance between innovation and nostalgia was definitely one of our big
02:44challenges.
02:45But I think we got it right because besides being just developers, we were also big fans
02:51of the franchise first.
02:52And so every design decision that we made was having Silent Hill in our hearts and knowing
02:58that it's such a big legacy that we have to basically honor it.
03:08The fog is a crucial element in the game, serving multiple design purposes.
03:15It's not only an effective tool for generating fear or optimizing performance, but it also
03:21carries deep symbolic meaning for James' story, blurring the truth from him as he navigates
03:27through the town.
03:31The very feeling of being lost creates a notion of horror.
03:36The essence of darkness is to hide things, and what we fear the most is unknown.
03:49In darkness, our imagination starts working and manifests stronger images than any real
03:58representation of danger.
04:04The decay has a more symbolic meaning.
04:07It refers to Mary's illness, but also it represents what is inside of James.
04:18We put a lot of effort into creating the fog in a very specific way.
04:24It crawls through the streets, clings to objects and changes direction like a living organism.
04:31It's almost like it is another character in the game.
04:39We were using the volumetric fog on the locations to keep the atmosphere as we want it, keep
04:46it a bit of mystery and keep the players thinking of a slow incoming danger and curiosity what
04:52is behind it.
04:53Later on in the game, we added to the volumetric fog also a bit of new gamma systems to have
04:58it more dynamic.
04:59I produced some events for the player to achieve a different feeling, not the static one but
05:05more dynamic and give a bit of a surprise for them.
05:13A lot of puzzles we had covered with a cloth, which for me as a player gave me the feeling
05:19that I don't know what is behind it, it's a bit of a mystery for me and uncovering the
05:25puzzle with the cloth was like opening the gift and I discovered something to play with
05:32so I'm hoping that the players will have the same experience as we had.
05:39The horror in Silent Hill 2 is so effective because it's subtle and doesn't rely on cheap
05:46tricks.
05:47We fear most what we cannot see.
05:50The greatest terror comes from our imagination as our minds fill the gaps with our own worst
05:56fears.
06:00We will be afraid to walk down the dark corridor but you will know that the truth in this game
06:07lies in the deepest shadows.
06:50Silent Hill 2 is available on PC, PS4, Xbox 360, PS5, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox 360, PS5, Xbox
07:04360, PS5, Xbox 360, PS5, Xbox 360, PS5, Xbox 360, PS5, Xbox 360, PS5, Xbox 360, PS5, Xbox