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If you don't want a horror game, The Longest Journey has a similar protagonist to Ariane and has a great story despite how different it is to Signalis.
Also, I'll recommend Forbidden Siren and Tormented Souls.
Thats a massive inspiration for this game and it shows.
The remake is meh. Its not bad for new fans, but its missing a lot of the careful detail that the original had. So if you really care about the little things, the Original is much better for the story.
That's not exactly true. The Remake was crafted expertly under the supervision of former Team Silent working with Bloober. Any changes they made, they made with the approval of the former members. The new things, or changed things were *changed* not for the sake of change, but because the original members weren't happy with the original product due to time constraints while working on Silent Hill 2 back in early 2000.
I can't deny the OG SH2 has a special charm, and far better Soundtrack to fit the mood, as well as the extra Born from a Wish scenario (Which is super short, but very sweet).
But literally NOTHING was lost in transition or translation with the Remake. All themes are exactly the same, if not expanded and better explained. Not dumbed down, mind you, just better conveyed. It's not for modern audiences, but for older fans. Only thing modernized about the game is the gameplay, which works better. Melee is greatly improved, gunplay feels meaty and has body damage depending on where you injure an enemy, and enemies are dangerous, while in the original, they felt just thrown together and you can easily avoid them taking no damage whatsoever. It also felt scarier to me, and i played them back to back recently.
Puzzles were kept exactly the same, with quality of life changes without the horrible micro-management of going back and forth into the inventory.
So both Silent Hill 2 OG and Remake are great choices. They aren't exactly as SIGNALIS, but a lot of inspiration came from there. Quite frankly, there is nothing like SIGNALIS out there. Even just the music makes me feel special emotions.
And SOMA is highly recommended when it comes to oppressive atmosphere and story.
However it lacks survival horror elements. And if you are in for the survival horror elements, Resident Evil 1-3 OG, REmake1 and REmake2 are the best choices for those type of things. Amnesia: The Bunker is also a solid choice, but that's just the gameplay, not the story, not the atmosphere.
Also the Remake is garbage and if you disagree you're artistically challenged.
A couple team silent members were involved yes. The music producer, monster designer were there.
But claiming all of Team Silent were even present is false. Especially when the cutscene director was nowhere involved.
We also don't know how much of their input was even taken into consideration overall.
A LOT was lost in in adaptation. Too much (and too spoiler filled) to even get started.
(and complaining about item management in a survival horror game says a lot about the style of 2 Remake. Its overall a "movie adaptation" style of remake. Simplifies, makes things easier to pick up on, but also looses a ton of the original meaning behind things. Both intentionally and unintentionally)
Its like if in 20 years, someone takes a look at Signalis and decides "this story is too mysterious and subtle, we should make it more clear". Not realizing the appeal of the game is the mystery and how its told.
The most important ones were involved, and a lot of their input was taken into consideration. We know that because they already told us so in the interviews/twitter.
That doesn't mean they decided what was going on or off. Bloober team asked for their input and adjusted things based on that. They also made their own choices, like they should as a studio.
You somehow think the originals are better for whatever reason than the remakes, yet that was proven wrong by REmake2, REmake4, Dead Space Remake, Demon's Souls Remake and so on which improved upon the gameplay, story, tone and atmosphere.
But don't get me wrong, i am not saying they replace the originals here. They aren't meant to replace them them.
Making Quality of Life changes to Item Management in a Survival Horror game is a GOOD choice, not a bad one. All of the above titles have done so, and have lost nothing in return because of that. Discarding Useless Items in Resident Evil didn't make it a worse game. Neither did discarding healing items or ammo. It's a choice you make. You lose the item either way, or you backtrack if you want to save it.
SIGNALIS actually made one too in 1.2 Update. They streamlined the items for the better.
Silent Hill 2 Remake only removed the downtime spent in the actual menu of the game, picking items, then going BACK to the same menu. Nothing of value was lost here if you can freely pick up items in real time when it comes to puzzles and shuffle them around.
Spending time in menus is fun, said no one ever. This is why we have quick slots for weapons now. Those weren't the decisions made by developers on purpose, it was hardware and memory restrictions on PS1 and PS2.
In Devil May Cry 1 you couldn't equip multiple weapons/firearms because the system couldn't handle it at the time when they were making the game. It wasn't until Devil May Cry 3 that they fixed the issue. And again, NOTHING was lost, it only made the game better.
The story is exactly the same, the tone of the game is exactly the same. There was nothing changed or dumbed down. Everything Silent Hill 2 in 2001 did, Silent Hill 2 Remake did too. The only difference being is that Remake is 23 years late to the party when it comes to the delicate themes present in the second game.
And what exactly counts as *movie* like these days? Better presentation, voice acting, camera work? Because yes, if those count as movie-like, then count me in on how good those things are, and i want more of those.
Oh, and if someone was to actually remake SIGNALIS for whatever reason, it would be for all the wrong reasons. Since SIGNALIS wasn't made to be on the radar of current-gen game trends. If the title was made today, and be obsolete by time by clunky gameplay that was a limitation of the past, then maybe it would work.
However since SIGNALIS was made on purpose as a PS1 styled game in a PS5 era, a Remake wouldn't work because it wasn't limited by anything, everything here is a design choice made by the developers. Inventory included, which was improved later on, but not dumbed down.
A remake of SIGNALIS would only work if current OS wouldn't work with the game anymore. Since SIGNALIS lacks serious replayability as a Survival Horror title, a Remake could include various options such as randomized enemies, doors, items, puzzles, arranged OST, a harder mode, etc.
Why this wasn't included as a default when you beat the game is beyond me. Or as a free update, or a paid DLC. Even Silent Hill 2 OG has 6 Endings, and Remake 8.
None of them are modular and have fixed enemy and ammo spawns, however enemy AI isn't always the same. Unlike Resident Evil 2/4 for example which randomize some of the enemy health with a dynamic difficulty. REmake4 even include randomized item drops. And both games got unofficial Randomizers now.
Not that any of them lacked replayability with how much official and unofficial challenges they put into those games by unlockables. Even the original games are one of the most replayable games ever made.
But I'll stick to the original.
I mainly only mention how the story of 2R is toned down and made more direct (and how some characters are misunderstood, mostly James and Maria). You may not have noticed any of the subtleties and implications being removed or changed around, but that doesnt mean its not there in the original and was not picked up on properly. But this is a Signalis recommendation post, not a place for an SH2 analysis.
But if we want to go into actual gameplay issues, the pacing is what gets destroyed. Turning a 7 hour game into a 20 hour game destroyed the original pace.
Its a case of "more" not really meaning "better".
Just because something has more shiny graphics doesn't mean its automatically better. Artstyle, atmosphere, intent, vision - all of these matter. When you make gameplay changes you don't automatically improve a game - you make it different. At best there will be people that like both for different reasons, but when talking about remakes, you can't change the gameplay and preserve the original work at the same time. You can either keep it as is, or change it and lose authenticity, which by default will make the Remake impossible to be better. It can be good in its own way, but it wont be better, in the same way how the Lord of the Rings films, as good as they are, are nowhere near as good as the books.