HD Collection Review
Posted By: Whitney March 25th, 2012 | 4:35 pm
I found the Silent Hill HD Collection to be a big disappointment. It is broken, lacks serious polish, and is not the upgrade we were promised. Instead Collection is a major downgrade.
Now I should tell you I’ve only completely played half of this collection. After running through Silent Hill 2 I was quite upset over its HD upgrade; that coupled with reading reports of how bad Silent Hill 3 peformed (missing textures, missing audio, lighting, and shadows) by other fans meant I just didn’t have to heart to continue playing. So this review will focus on my underwhelming experience with Silent Hill 2.
Before I get completely negative I would like to say I did find some positives in collection like the great texture upgrades that allowed for sharp clarity on a home console. I’ve never played the PC version so seeing everything from James’ jacket, store signs, and paintings in such high detail was a real treat for me. I’ve mentioned before, in my hands on preview, how impressed I was that so many hidden details are more prominent in the HD Collection now and I really think the game shines in that regard. It was exciting to see in game that James has replaced the corpse in the prison cafeteria painting or that there’s a staff photo hanging the the Silent Hill Historical Society without having to dig through ripped PC texture files for a closer look.
I was also quite fond of some of the new voice work. I know many fans are unhappy with the choice to recast the voices in Silent Hill 2 and 3 but I actually found myself liking some of the re-recorded lines more than the original. I felt that James’ later scenes in Silent Hill 2 were better acted and I really digged the raw emotion I could hear in Troy Baker’s performance. I was also quite fond of Angela’s new voice; she sounded like a troubled teen instead of a woman in her forties. That being said, I was not overly-wowed by everyone: Laura had the obvious sound of an older woman playing a child and as I’ve mentioned in the past I’m not fond of Mary Elizabeth’s deep voice for Mary Sunderland.
Unfortunately, the improved clarity of environment and a few better acted lines were are only small consolations given everything that is just so wrong with the collection.
Let’s start at the beginning, as you leave the rest stop by the Toluca Lake it’s immediately apparent something is off. It’s the main road; it is way too clean. This glaring change was pointed out before the HD Collection’s release by fans who had viewed the Gamespot comparison videos. Before the release I held out hope that Gamespot had a slightly older build and that once I played Collection in person maybe the texture difference would not be that off but, unfortunately, the reality is that the road sticks out like a sore thumb. It has very little texture and given the overall low contrast in Collection it looks more like a freshly paved road than the grungy and cracked road one would expect in such a run down town. Granted, a poorly rendered road texture isn’t a huge deal, but this lack of attention to basic detail is indicative of a larger pattern that repeats throughout the rest of the game.
Original Versus HD Collection
Fairly quickly in the game, you pick up a radio; this radio is a core element of the game since it alerts you to the presence of monsters by the increasing and decreasing levels of static. It’s an established staple of the Silent Hill games so I was shocked that its implementation in Collection was handled so poorly. There’s now a discernible pause between the static sound-effect loop which makes the sound of the radio distracting and intrusive instead of what it should be: a steady white noise in the background that alerts you to danger without drawing you out of the game’s action. It was so annoying and grating for me personally that I ended up turning it off in my own play through. If I was playing the game for the first time this would have put me at a severe disadvantage. You don’t need to be familiar with the game to be annoyed by the sound of the radio so I can see people turning it off like I did before realizing it’s supposed to be of aid to the player.
Collection Radio versus Radio in Original
The next jarring sound is when James runs for awhile and stops to catch his breath. Really, the first time this happened I thought he was going to die: James didn’t sound human; he sounded mechanical! It was like they took audio of one quick breath and only looped that one sound. It’s hard to describe – you will have to listen to it yourself in the video below but this particular audio change was not for the better.
Darth Sunderland
These weird audio problems continue to crop up throughout the rest of the game. Monster walking-sounds are extremely loud – to the point where I was confused: not only could I not identify it, I couldn’t figure out where “this loud clacking noise” was coming from. I had just left Brookhaven Hospital and thought there was something wrong with my game for a second because I only saw one monster near me on the street and it wasn’t moving, but I was hearing non-stop movement all around me. After running around for a bit I finally discerned that there was another monster several frames behind me, but there had been no variation in the sound to indicate distance: regardless of whether the monster was ready to attack or still 3 blocks away, the sound was equally loud. So again, we see one of the battle elements of the game that a new player might depend on being poorly executed in Collection. I found that the loud footsteps were not limited to the general enemies either because it cropped up again in a boss fight later. It’s almost comical how unbalanced the Collection’s audio is.
Speaking of audio volumes: there were times when it wasn’t even there at all! Key sound effects are either very muffled – like the scream in the apartment complex – or are completely removed like the fog horn in the Silent Hill Historical Society. The scream, for example, is supposed to direct your attention down a hallway to your first encounter with Pyramid Head, outside an apartment with a bloody corpse inside. In the original game, this scream is loud so it’s obvious why James is so surprised and wants to investigate its source, but in Collection it’s extremely weird seeing James’ jump and indicate there was a scream in subtitles when you can barely hear it in the game.
As for the missing foghorn in the Silent Hill Historical Society, its omission is very odd. The sound of the foghorn is a big audio clue to the player that they are traveling beneath Lake Toluca before they enter the old prison. These missing and muffled sound effects are not a big deal in terms of gameplay but overall it takes away from the atmosphere of the environments you are exploring. It has a negative impact for established fans who wonder what the heck happened to the missing sounds, and new players will miss out on the true aesthetic potential of Silent Hill. It’s further evidence of the lack attention to detail that went into the game.
Missing Foghorn
Moving on from audio to visuals, one of the most glaring differences from the original game was the treatment of the fog. Like the radio, the fog is iconic to Silent Hill and it helps define the game’s aesthetic, but in Collection the fog has been downgraded to an afterthought. Originally the fog served a dual purpose: to establish atmosphere and hide imperfections in the rendering of the game environment. But now it does neither. The fog line is incredibly stark as you are traveling outdoors and at times it looked like a large white wall of fog was racing away from James. It didn’t look natural. In fact, one of the scariest elements of the game has been turned into a cartoonish caricature. To be fair: the mechanics of the fog may act the same way in the original but, unlike Collection, there’s a whole lot of fog in that game to mask the wall. Fog completely fills the screen in the original game, making it extremely difficult to see buildings, monsters and objects not directly in front of you – but now the fog is only a minor inconvenience. Given that we were promised an HD remastering of the game, leaving out one of the core elements, a claustrophobia inducing fog, is not acceptable.
Wall ‘O Fog Versus Original
This lack of fog is glaringly obvious when James first meets Maria at Rosewater Park. In the original game the fog shrouded the horizon so the environment of the scene felt complete; however, in Collection this shroud has been lifted and the end of the world is blatantly obvious. Again, the effect is comical; it strips yet another layer from the town’s sinister environment and leaves the game looking unpolished, which is exactly what use of the fog was intended to avoid in the first place.
Meeting Maria fog comparison
This blatant disregard for visuals continues later in the game when you have to cross Lake Toluca by boat. It’s sad when games from the 8 bit era can render more realistic water than modern hi-fidelity hardware. At first it looked like James was taking a boat that was floating in the white fog but it got a lot worse when he started to cross the lake. Not only could I make out the grid that mapped the plane for the surface of the water, but the current was now made up of large bright white rings rippling over the black grid. It didn’t look like water and it certainly didn’t look that bad in the original game!
Horrible Water
I also found it upsetting how overall desaturated the game looks. It’s just too dark and murky, and the difference in color saturation is very apparent when you compare the original and Collection side by side (as in the videos above). Again, this may not be a problem for any new players but as a long time fan it was incredibly disappointing once I realized how stark the saturation difference really was.
Less blatant (but just as annoying) was the application of a grain filter over the CGI cutscenes. The scenes were already slightly stretched and blurry to fit the new aspect ratio in Collection, but with the filter on top of that they look very low quality and nothing like an HD upgrade.
In the end, it was lucky I was playing the Xbox 360 copy of Collection as I only had to deal with what were, ultimately, aesthetic issues. On release day there were many reports that if you were unfortunate enough to play this on a Playsation 3, the game was effectively unplayble. Konami released a patch for PS3 owners the following day but there continue to be reports of technical issues with the patch. In fact, I’ve had several PS3 Collection owners comment on this site from that the patch has done nothing to fix their issues.
Even beyond that, the assumption that you can release a broken game and patch it a day later is disrespectful and unprofessional as it assumes people have the internet access and subscription services needed to download such fixes. Playstation Network maybe free now but it may not always be, and if knowingly releasing incomplete games becomes an acceptable model, it will, in a way, force players to pay for the game multiple times. You may not have to pay for the patch itself but you do have to pay for the internet access and, possibly, the subscription service you’ll use to download it. It’s worth pointing out that Xbox Live is currently a paid service which, by the way, does not seem to be getting a patch any time soon.
This is not acceptable. At all.
The advantage to owning a console has always been that when you buy a game it will be playable. We don’t have to worry about upgrading to the latest graphics card, sound card, or processors: if we have the console, the game will play. Nothing else is required. The compromise we have always accepted for that assurance is that the games may be limited by the hardware in the console until the next console upgrade. So our games may not have always been as pretty as those on PCs, but we accepted that as the price we paid for stability. I’m not liking the growing trend of companies releasing incomplete and broken games then counting on the ability to patch them later if enough people complain. A game should be fully functional once you’ve given someone money for it.
As a result, my recommendation is that no one buy this collection. Not only are there aesthetic issues that make the game a downgrade instead of the upgrade we were promised but there are technical issues that render the game unplayable for some. Buying the game will not only reinforce the message that poor development and shoddy QA are acceptable but that we are okay with buying an incomplete product which may or may not be fixed in the future.
As much as I love the series and I love the idea of being able to play older titles on my next generation console, I feel this collection does not deserve to do well in its current state. After all the delays it’s mind boggling just how bad this looks. We need to send Konami a message that this sort of shoddy “upgrade” is not okay. Already the game is under review on Amazon due to the numerous costumer complaints about Collection’s sub-par quality. I hope Konami takes notice and will not only patch this collection but also re-release a fixed version down the road. Until that happens I highly recommend playing/buying the originals over Collection if you can. But if you can’t and this collection is your only option just be forewarned that you are getting a lackluster shadow of the original game. It’s not the HD upgrade you are paying for!
Agreed. Hope something is done soon!
I could get past some of these technical problems mentioned but after playing Silent Hill 3 I can’t say I’m happy with the collection at all, it seems like they DNR’d the heck out of that one removing just about every single speck of grain leaving the image quality compromised and subject to almost sickening motion blur.
VERY good review Whitney! I absolutely your sincere writing style!
Anyway, this is just so sad. I mean, in my opinion, Konami completely messed up things that were SO simple… this is so far beyond being the HD ports those two horror masterpieces deserve. I mean, c’mon, what’s with that disgusting water effect in Toluca Lake? I was shocked when I saw it. It’s completely unacceptable.
Very good review and down to the “T” about all the flaws. It’s a shame that the HD Collection turned out this way. I’m not sure how are why this was handled, let alone a studio like Hijinx remaster this. After looking them up, they’ve barely made a mention in releases they have, other than Vandal Hearts as a download.
Out of curiosity, how is the framerate on the Xbox 360 version? Does it look like its constantly at 60fps? PS3 owners, like myself, have it going all over the place, in addition to the slowdowns that occur.
It’s a shame really and some people are comparing this to the whole ordeal with Mass Effect 3, but I don’t see it that way. Those people are complaining because they can’t get “what they want” in a trilogy that’s huge, while we are complaining for something that affects the performance and “degrade” of 2 games that are classics. Totally different, right?
I’m not sure why Bluepoint wasn’t chosen to do this, but I do hope they step in to help out, collaborate with Hijinx, or even take over the project. I’m not mad, but just purely disappointed like you and everyone else is. As for Tomm, I feel bad because he’s a huge fan of Silent Hill and is willing to bring it back to today’s standards of gaming and yet, fans hate on him so bad for “ruining” the series.
I just hope we hear about something good soon
I am disgusted that Konami could even think of releasing these two classic games in this state and after numerous delays. I am just so glad I read about these complaints before I opened the game myself and I plan on returning it on Tuesday. After seeing the water effect on Toluca Lake I just have to ask WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!
Whitney excellent article and I agree 100% about what you said at the end. This generation is terrible. These patches won’t be around forever since servers will eventually be gone. Game developers need to stop depending on patches and as you say not everybody has an internet connection.
I was so looking forward to this. What a shame.
Truly a disappointment. Being a long time Silent Hill fan, as I’m sure many of us here are, it is disheartening to see such a beloved series treated like complete garbage. Konami is quickly losing any respect I once had for them. I never thought I would say this, but if they continue to treat the series this poorly, I don’t want to see another Silent Hill game. How could such a well respected series be brought to such a level?
I loved Downpour, but I believe that the technical faults of that game are also unacceptable, especially after a six month delay. I will not be buying this collection, and I sincerely hope Konami learn that selling an incomplete game is absolutely not okay. I am upset and appalled seeing my favorite series mistreated in such a way.
There are no words to express how angry I am. Thanks for the videos, cause I am definitely not buying this shit. I own the originals in PS2, and have the PC versions too. No way I am playing a downgrade, that would be masochist. This month is like a nightmare for Silent Hill fans: so many franchises out there and the best one (imo) has been being badly raped and killed. There is no return from this I guess, what a pity.
there is also a cut in the rape scene in the motel!! (silent hill 2)
the first 1-2 seconds with a closer look of whats pyramid head is doing is cutted out or cross faded.
original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtrJTn6hd8c
vs.
hd collection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd4kJUxAFjc (1:50)
wtf?
but thanks for the great review!
masahiro ito(art director of sh2) himself is also absolutely disappointed with this mess. –>https://twitter.com/#!/adsk4/status/168646658408710144
Well, I agree with all of that. Even when I find myself enjoying playing through (trying to get the PS3 trophies) I sort of know that what I’m enjoying are the original good games shining through the mess that is this collection. And I agree that buying this (knowingly, I had it preordered forever) is sending the message that this is okay, and it’s not. There are just way too many problems here.
I got mine on Saturday (I’m cheap so I got amazon’s free shipping), and the patch was already out, so I didn’t get to play it pre-patch, but everyone is saying the PS3 patch did absolutely nothing, anyway. Other people seem to have had worse framerate issues before, so maybe it helped a little with that, I don’t know. I get minor hiccups on mine still. And I still haven’t really played through sh3 or bfaw yet.
Is it really bad? That sucks, I was so buzzed for it :/
I’ll get downpour instead then I guess
I loved that your review was more on the technical flaws of the collection and provided video and proof of exactly what you described. I gave the Collection a great score because, overlooking some of the graphical and audio flaws, I still thought it played great. I guess I focused more on the story and gameplay over the “remastering” so to speak, but great review!
8 bit era, indeed.
Great overview. You’ve effectively made me push any desires for this collection into the background. Definitely won’t pick this up unless a major patch is released. Also, it’s worth noting that xbox live is not a pay-only service. You can purchase content or download patches without a subscription a la PSN.
Spot on review, and a fair one at that. I like that despite this collection being so utterly disappointing that you were still fair and found some things you liked.
I just finished SH 3 and even though parts of the game look great the slowdown is bad and the audio is out of sync. I started playing SH 2 and it does not look right and I still encounter muffled voices and sound effects. I don’t think the patch did much.
@xjohndoex86
The motel scene you’re speaking of was never in the final cut of any release. Only in a pre-release trailer.
Silent Hill died with Team Silent.
Konami has been doing nothing but milking a dead cow since, feeding us with milk substitute and mammary rot juice.
@xjohndoex86 the scene is still in there it was not censored. I watched it in full on Xbox 360. It’s a loading glitch for PS3 copies.
I’m glad you guys liked my review and found the videos helpful!
@whitney
oh ok, good to know. at last something they didn’t fucked up.
great article. i played a half hour of SH2 HD the other day and have been too busy to play further. But what i noticed during that first 30 minutes gave me serious pause. Mainly the frame rate problems and horrible SFX quality (the weird sound James makes after he runs was seriously freaking me out). But now i’m seeing this internet firestorm in full effect it only confirms the things I’d begun to notice (but were hoping would go away). I’ll play a bit further so that I’m in on the joke that is this HD collection, but that is all.
Silent Hill 3 is my favorite in the series. Heather’s new voice is out of sync with her mouth and sounds too old for a teen. The soft shadows and depth of field are totally gone. Rusty textures are gone too. Coupled with frame rate issues(mostly tied to the third game), this is an absolute disappointment. I hope they’ll re-release the game(or patch it up) with the voice and lighting. Fingers crossed.
correction *original and lighting
There can only be “one” Heather and her name is Heather Morris. Get her voice back!
Here’s true ‘HD remake’ quality, boys. Complete with widescreen expansion of the original games. Looks damn better than these shoddy rereleases.
Silent hill 2 (ntsc)
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PCSX2-Widescreen-Game-Patches?pid=215433#pid215433
Silent hill 3 (ntsc)
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PCSX2-Widescreen-Game-Patches?pid=215321#pid215321
Silent hill 3 (pal)
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PCSX2-Widescreen-Game-Patches?pid=215437#pid215437
What a terrible HD collection! I should’ve read the reviews and articles before buying this sloppy port. The textures are so clean compared to the original. Fog’s gone, soft shadows gone and even with those elements taken away, the frame-rate stutters. Konami, please remind me what the huge 30MB patch is supposed to fix? Lip sync is off most of the time especially in SH3, the new dub is atrocious! Douglas sounds too suave and Heather sound like she’s in her 40’s. Avoid at all cost, SH fans and any sane gamers out there. Either wait for a proper patch or a fixed re-release of this sub-par HD remaster. The other only option is getting the PC version which is really hard to find now.
Hi!
what a shame 🙁 . I send several mails to Konami for this (Vatra too because DOwnpour is a box of techicals problems jaja), the collection is garbaje but sadly mi ps2 is too old and don`t work good, i must buy this crap of collection…Bur PLEASE, comments the effects of the patchs….the fog is back??? runs better than after??? please comment, “Saludos” from Chile
Hi!
what a shame . I send several mails to Konami for this (Vatra too because DOwnpour is a box of techicals problems jaja), the collection is garbaje but sadly mi ps2 is too old and don`t work good, i must buy this crap of collection…But PLEASE, comments the effects of the patchs….the fog is back??? runs better than before??? please comment, “Saludos” from Chile (edit reasons: ortographycal mistakes)
@Guillermo
No, the patch doesn’t bring back the fog effects or fix anything. Try to avoid this and get the PC version version if possible. With Xpadder app, you can play this game with a gamepad.
What an ultra-craptacular port. I couldn’t bare to look at Silent Hill 3 for 10 minutes in this state. It’s just so ugly i had to switch it off. Bad graphics, missing sound, lame dub… is there anything remotely good about this Collection? Maybe James’ new voice. I don’t think any patch in the world could save this below average HD remaster. Konami should be ashamed.
Thanks TonyToad …. there is no words to describe the great deception 🙁 . I hope they will release more patchs …. 🙁
“Saludos!
Thank you. I am genuinely sad about this shoddy treatment of such a classic. I was so looking forward to returning to Silent Hill in HD, but now I wont be buying this, i will just keep my ps2 games instead. very sad 🙁 and no way to treat your classic games konami or your fans. Hijinx studios and konami really should be very ashamed.
I played through silent hill 2 with my friend back when it came out.
He died this year and I was going to play through SH2HD as a kind of personal tribute to his memory and remember our time playing the original in one sitting.
But not now. It has been ruined. I feel very sad 🙁
Thanks for this review. I was at a local game shop yesterday and I discovered Silent Hill Collection but I was originally intending to purchase Jak & Daxter Collection. I was torn between the two for a while, but I finalised my decision and chose Jak & Daxter Collection. I’m wholeheartedly overjoyed that I did. The saddening thing is, Silent Hill Collection was to be my first experience with the Silent Hill games and that experience is effectively destroyed now.
hi guys,
i read the reviews after getting this, i don’t know technical terms but does anyone else have the problem that when you’re running you stop for no reason? if this has been already explained can some explain it to me in layman’s term? i have only played the 2nd one so far i’m enjoying it but it can’t compete withe the ps2 version. thanks!
This collection is not that bad. I played the games back in the day but not to the point that i recognize all of these technical issues. Even if I played them I wouldn’t have noticed them unless i read this full review but I saw enough and you are going above and beyond for nit picking. I am enjoying my playthrough with SH3 and experienced slowdown once. The lip syncing is also not that bad because they were not good to begin with in the originals. Like you said if you want to play the originals then go play the originals. They did what the could granted could have done a little more for this collection but over all I enjoy it and dont find it as bad as everyone is making them out to be.
@Breakdown: Like I said in my review the things that are missing wouldn’t be a big deal to most people but I found it very disappointing as fan. Glad you enjoyed the game (you are not alone, I know others who really like it as well) but for me the missing stuff made it a downgrade that I hope Konami will try and fix in the future.
Thank you very much for this comprehensive piece, Whitney. I was seriously considering buying this collection since the PS2 versions lack widescreen support, but I’ll have to back off.
Just one little thing: for stuff like patches and small updates, both PSN and XBL are free, you just have to connect your console(s) to the Internet and sign up for an account, and you’re all set. But of course it doesn’t take out the fact that you’re 100% completely right in assuming the game will just work right out of the box.
I haven’t read the long review, but when I first saw the new captions compared with the old ones, first thing I thought was that the old ones seemed much more real, as in the new ones you clearly see the borders of the objects over the background, etc. and the original has a very soft blur that makes it all seem real.
Currently playing through SH2 with the HD collection. I haven’t noticed framerate problems, the ‘breathing’ voice is still terrible (As it was in the original) and the core gameplay is intact.
I like the HD textures, though I am sorely disappointed about the lack of fog in SH2. All you get is that dumb wall, which messes up the outdoors cutscenes. Also, has anyone noticed that you can see the mannequin enemies even before they get within detection range, leaving you staring at a motionless enemy looking for a free shot?
All in all, most of this review seemed like a lot of nits being picked (aside from the very major fog issue). I didn’t notice that much of a change in the radio, I happen to like the new voiceovers, and places like the apartments and Brookhaven are still incredibly creepy and claustrophobic.
I’ll have to see how the later part of the game plays, and then move on to SH3. Though I wish they could have cleared them earlier, hopefully a patch will make up for some of these issues.
NOTE: A friend of mine pointed out that the closest this game is to is the ‘Restless Dreams’ XBox Release instead of the ‘Greatest Hits’ release on the PS2. So maybe a lot of these issues go back further than this company messing it up.
Still rather play this than downpour, though.
These HD port is terrible, glad I got it 2nd hand as the awful developers and konami get money from these. RE: comment 44: there is no HD textures, the game has been just be up scaled, no work has been put into the graphics and especially the state of the chi video and its laughable to defend anything about these port as “nits being picked” Also it has nothing to greatest hits or Restless Dreams releases. To put bluntly, it was given to a crappy, cheap developer who don’t have any skills (hopefully they will go under before they destroy any more games)
Not sure if it happens on ps3, when an achievement pops during a cutscene, the frame rate drops to choppy slide show. There is a nasty game crashing bug just before the final boss of sh3. The machine gun sounds broken and wrong. No sign of a patch (I heard there was one on ps3 in the US but does nothing
Your good review came too late for me. I bought the game a few weeks ago and the magic I felt playing SH on the PS2 didn’t come. :/
I agree so muchj.
So it turns out that in actuality they didn’t make a HD Collection from the final version of the games. It was a HD Collection on the Beta version of the games, because Konami lost the orignal source codes. Brilliant!
http://www.destructoid.com/silent-hill-hd-was-made-from-incomplete-code-228158.phtml