S&S Reviews: Silent Hill HD Collection

Title: Silent Hill HD Collection
Format: Xbox 360, PS3
Release Date: March 20, 2012
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Team Silent/Hijinx Studios
Price: $39.99
ESRB Rating: M

I am not going to review Silent Hill 2 and 3, rather I'm going to review the improvements from the original games to the HD collection.

Silent Hill 2 and 3 have always been fan favorites of the series. When they decided to remake them in HD, I was thrilled. The graphics are much crisper, but obviously converted from a PS2 game. The dense fog has been slightly enhanced, making navigation easier. Although the game is still dark, the added contrast makes it much easier to see details and items. Although some may not like this because it take away from the survival horror on the games, I appreciate being able to see more easily where heath drinks and bullets are. But there are obvious places where, because of the added contrast, previously unseen areas were shown and thus look strange when revealed.

Example: Notice the supposed drop off the lake where the textures ended in the left pictures.

The voice acting was always laughable and never quite matched the lip movements. Although there has been controversy over the new voices, I feel they are an improvement from the original. They are deeper and more believable, although still a bit silly and obviously scripted. I have not experienced any technical difficulties with frame rate or graphics, and I played it on the 360. My main complaint is the lack of CG in the cut scenes, which are still grainy, and the problems with matching voices to mouth movements.

If you were not a fan of Silent Hill, the HD collection most likely won't change your mind since no content has been added or changed (despite the rumors of the Pyramid Head scene...it's still in there). But fans of Silent Hill will no doubt appreciate the remake and will likely spend hours getting those new achievements Capcom added.

Final Score: 8.25/10

E-mail: wbulna@yahoo.com
Twitter: @WhitneyBulna