Summary
Beep beep, it’s hair splitting time! As you were probably already aware in the unlikely event you clicked on this article on purpose,fans aren’t super happy with the new character modelsinBloober’sSilent Hill 2 remake. It’s not my favorite decision in the world, but nor is it the first timeKonamihas allowed a team to make stupid changes to aSilent Hillgame. It’s a cliche that Silent Hill fans spend most of their time complaining about Silent Hill, but that’s only because Konami has spent most of its time giving Silent Hill fans something to complain about. Oh, and we don’t always complain:the trailer for the new movie looks lovely.
So here’s where I take out the tiny scissors to split those hairs. A small group of very loud fans are saying that these character design changes are censorship. This is the same amorphous mass of fans who call it censorship when a game has a patch thatgives a character a slightly larger bikini, which is at least within the parking lot of the ballpark of a coherent argument. I’ve seen a couple people post that Bloober is working with dreadedconsulting groupsthat must have made them cover up the characters to be more “woke”. These critics attribute any and all design changes to the team having the bad faith goal of making women characters less desirable for… reasons. They’ve had trouble with the ‘reasons’ part of the conspiracy.
This is all frustrating because the Silent Hill 2 character redesigns are ridiculous and miss the point of the characters, but they’renotcensorship. For example, a lot of fans are upset that the new design for Maria is more conservative than before. Her leopard print skirt and red crop top are replaced by a black dress and less revealing red leather jacket. This wouldn’t be an issue except for the fact that Maria is - spoiler alert on a game that’s been out since the 9/11 attacks - a sexualized fantasy version of James’ dead wife Mary.
James resented his wife for being physically sick and emotionally abusive, so he unconsciously created his ideal version of her: fit and seductive. Maria’soriginal outfit was even inspired by Christina Aguilera. There’s a head canon world in which James subconsciously processed the getup of a hyper-sexualized pop star and recast his wife in the role.
In other words, Maria’s sexy design is part of hercharacter, not part of herappeal. With a lot of sexy game characters - of any gender - their physical sexiness has little to do with their actual in-game abilities. Lara Croft or Nathan Drake could be covered head-to-toe in a sneaking suit that masked their entire body shape and they’d still be able to do the same adventures. Maria’s sexuality iswhyshe exists in the town of Silent Hill. In the in-game-prequel Born From A Wish, Maria wakes up in a strip club with little memory. She’s literally objectified by James’ desires. That makes her later confusion and suffering all the more harrowing.
So changing this is a bad decision, but it’s not censorship. Bloober isn’t altering theoriginalgame. Nor are they denying that there was some other outfit - or even stating that they changed it because they disapproved of that lady’s goods being all over the place. My guess would be that they thought Maria’s outfit looked too gaudy to be sexy or that she could be more sleek and seductive in a slightly cooler, more modern outfit.
I don’t think they wanted to hide Maria’s sexuality. If they did, they’d probably need to change a lot more than what we’ve already seen. But they aren’t trying to get us to change our minds about Maria, as if the community was horny for her as they are for melted-face-boob-nurses. I don’t even know if anyonemakeserotic Maria fan art. Her sexualityis part of the tragedy. It adds to the depressing slowburn dread!
Changing this is a bad decision, but it’s not censorship. Bloober isn’t altering the original game.
Which brings me to Angela. I do get some fans saying Bloober wanted Maria to be less sexy, but they arewayoff on Angela. Angela was never attractive and nevermeantto be attractive. At all. Angela’s original character model was gaunt and fearful, her age almost impossible to tell. Her voice rises and falls between adult anger and child worry. Her entire life has been a loop of sexual abuse and violence. When we meet her, we don’t know any of this or that she just killed her abusers. We just know that she’s extremely distressed and even more hopeless. Angela was never sexy.
And her new character design isn’t sexy either! Thank God! Because, that would be the ball game if that happened. Fans saying that Bloober intentionally made Angela less attractive are wrong and should be shamed. Again, for everyone in the back, Angela was never attractive. If you wanted to have sex with Angela, you have either missed every moment in her story arc or enjoyed her story arc far, far too much. The change seems to mostly make Angela’s appearance line-up more with her age.
You know, not censorship. Still an idea I disagree with! I prefer Angela’s age as hard to define because that’s how - and I’m saying this from some experience, but not nearly the experience of the character in the game - sexual assault makes you feel. When you turn it over in your head, you’re both forever a child being hurt by someone and forever an adult having to deal with the shame and anger of it.
You’restillconfused about why it happened, but also now have the infuriating knowledge of what youmighthave done, blaming yourself where there’s no blame due. Her diving in and out of childishness and numb adulthood felt realistic and painful in the original. When she screams, “I’m not lying!” the first time, it’s almost threatening, like her rage at her family will spill over onto you.
You Can Disagree With The New Designs Without It Being Censorship
Here, from the trailer, that’s less the case. She seems a bit more stable in who she is. She looks younger and her turtleneck collar is pulled up. Her expression is less confused and more solely fearful. She seems just slightly more aware of the town’s issues in this version. Whether or not that’s true is hard to tell, however, because we only get a small look. But there is no world in which Bloober making a visual design change here means they’re trying to ruin Team Silent’s original vision for the game. It’s just kind of a weird choice that I don’t like. Then again, I’ve never updated a 23 year old game for modern audiences playing modern consoles.
And,to be fair, this is all speculation from a trailer for a game none of us have played yet. Angela’s actor seems to get the assignment pretty well. And Maria’s redesign seems more like a goofy choice, not a game breaker that ruins the story. We’ve only seen seconds of gameplay. Perhaps Konami is going to go full evil and nickel and dime people to get the original outfits back on characters. I don’t like either reasoning, but neither is censorship.
The Original Silent Hill 2 Still Exists
Why is this point important to me? Because it waters down whatactualcensorship is. When Konami re-released Silent Hill 2 & 3 in an HD collection forPS3andXbox 360, they made a lot of stupid decisions like reducing fog and adding new voice actors for better audio quality. These weren’t decisions to ‘fix’ the games or keep from ‘offending’ someone. They were stupid decisions that somebody (incorrectly) felt would help the experience.
Bloober isn’t deleting the original game from existence.Capcommay have changed the look of some characters inResident Evil 4, but the original game still exists. Bloober isn’t making Silent Hill 2: Definitive Ultimate Edition Director’s Cut, and thank God. They’re making their version of Silent Hill 2 the same way people remade Texas Chain Saw Massacre or Friday the 13th.
It’s possible to disagree with a company’s decisions without thinking that company is making them in bad faith or because a consulting firm with a cringey name put a gun to their head. Or because they want to score points with some Gen Z people you’ve made up in your head. Sometimes game developers don’t do exactly what you want. It’s okay to disagree. It’s okay to complain. But it’s also okay to remember that those peoplealsowant the game to be good.
