Silent Hill HD Collection

AKA

Silent Hill HD Edition (Japan)

Developer(s)

Team Silent
Hijinx Studios

Publisher

Konami

Release date

March 20, 2012
March 20, 2012
March 29, 2012

ESRB rating

M (Mature)

Platform(s):

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

European cover

Japanese cover

Silent Hill HD Collection is a port of Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams and Silent Hill 3 to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with 720p resolution. It includes the Born from a Wish scenario from Silent Hill 2.

It features an alternate voice dub directed by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, as well as PlayStation Network Trophies and Xbox 360 Achievements. Players have the option to switch between the original voice acting and the alternate voice acting for Silent Hill 2. For Silent Hill 3, the re-dub is mandatory.

It is often criticized and cited to be one of the worst HD collections created, not only due to technical problems, but also due to some core changes from the original presentation (listed below).

Development

Silent Hill HD Collection was first announced in Konami's 2011 Pre-E3 Show. It was revealed that both games would be given new voice-overs. The collection was originally supposed to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive but an Xbox 360 release was eventually announced.

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn was approached by Konami to direct the new voice acting. The reason for the new voice-overs was due to Guy Cihi requesting residuals for the multiple ports and re-releases of Silent Hill 2 as he claimed that he owned the rights to James's voice and motion capture. [1]

McGlynn, Troy Baker and Thessaly Lerner refuted this, stating that Cihi did not own James's voice and motion capture and that his performance was always owned by Konami; this was the reason Konami never paid Guy for any residuals as "there are no residuals in video games." [2][3][4]

In an open letter to Konami, Cihi stated that it was not about the money but rather "the thoughtless way that those involved in the production have been treated" such as not notifying him of any re-releases and hiding his contributions in "The Making of Silent Hill 2" video. Cihi also called for Konami to allow the original voices in Collection and give fans the option to choose between the original dub and the re-dub. [5] Cihi's close connection with fans of the series played a strong part in his decisions regarding these issues. Monica Taylor Horgan supported giving fans an option as well. [6]

In late September, Guy Cihi (James Sunderland), David Schaufele (Eddie Dombrowski), Monica Taylor Horgan (Maria/Mary) and Donna Burke (Angela Orosco, Claudia Wolf) signed their rights to Konami to re-use their voices in Collection, allowing the original voices in Silent Hill 2.

Initially planned for January 24th, 2012, the release was delayed to March 6th. [7] Later on, the game was delayed once more to March 20th.

Notable changes

Silent Hill 2

• Characters tend to use new words when starting sentences. This occurs most often with Laura.

• The textures on the first aid kits and the medical cross posters have been changed. [8]

• The street and sidewalks textures have been changed to look much cleaner.

• The video tape is now bordered by a TV screen rather than showing up full-screen, and the cutscenes are stretched horizontally to appear as widescreen.

• The distances on the sign at the beginning have been altered.

Silent Hill 3

• All music has been reworked or changed entirely. It is most noted in the Otherworld mall; the ambient music has been changed to a punk rock type of beat.

• There are some script changes. Jeremy Blaustein approved of these changes. Despite these changes, the subtitles still read from the original script. This might have been missed by the HD Collection developers:

• Claudia says, "They've come to witness the Beginning. The rebirth of Paradise, unspoiled by mankind." She previously said "despoiled".
• The sewer fairy says, "I have finally found a truly honest person" rather than, "I have finally found a truly honest man."
• After Heather Mason finds her father murdered, she finds Claudia and says, "I'll kill you, you bitch!'" rather than "I'll get you for this!".

• The scene in which Heather returns to her apartment to find her father dead has been reworked so that more of Harry Mason's corpse is seen.

• In the original game, Cheryl Mason, Harry Mason and Lisa Garland's voices were extracted from the first game. They have been re-dubbed for the HD Collection.

• When Heather discovers an injured Douglas Cartland for the first time, his coat is noticeably much bloodier than in the original.

• 14 of Heather's unlockable costumes were removed that were present in the PS2 version. [9]

Technical issues

Due to the age of both games involved, the only code available to be given to Hijinx Studios was an unfinished copy of the final product. [10] This resulted in both versions of the HD Collection being hampered by severe technical issues. Many problems included:

• Severe frame rate drops in both games.
• Lag upon receiving Trophies/Achievements.
• Graphical glitches.
• Sound loops.
• Audio glitches.
• Reduced transparencies of fog, glass, etc.
• The game being too dark, even with the in-game brightness maxed.

Some issues specific to the PlayStation 3 version upon launch were:

• Erratic walking speed, at worst rendering the game virtually unplayable.
• Game running before loading screens cleared (potentially allowing players to take unavoidable damage or miss the first bits of many cutscenes).

A day one patch was soon released for the PlayStation 3 version. Many players claimed that the patch made no difference.

Another patch was announced by Konami on April 25th, 2012. It was released for the PlayStation 3 on July 11th, 2012. It fixed a number of problems such as the frame rate and voice sync which were greatly improved. Missing sounds and music had also been fixed along with the fog density issues. Other minor visual/audio problems were also improved.

The Xbox 360 patch was canceled on August 8th, 2012 due to "technical issues and resources" which made any attempts at resolving the problems ineffective.

Reception

Both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game have received mixed reviews on Metacritic. The Xbox 360 version holds a 69 on Metacritic[11], and the PlayStation 3 version holds a 70. [12] However, both were met with negative reactions by fans, the PlayStation 3 version more so due to slightly more severe tech flaws.

Many fans questioned Konami's handling of the game to Hijinx Studios, whose only console games were Frogger Returns and Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment, and felt that the port was rushed and should not have been released in the state that it was.

The day one patch indicated that Konami and Hijinx Studios knew about the problems before release, thus causing an even larger fan backlash in various Silent Hill communities. Many fans felt it was unacceptable for games about a decade old.

Konami offered compensation for owners of the Xbox 360 version by offering many other games including the same game for the PS3 if they sent their copy and receipt for proof of purchase to Konami. [13] This offer, however, is only valid for purchases made in North and South America.

Cast

Trivia

• Many of the voice actors are from the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series. These include:

• James — Kanji Tatsumi / Eikichi Mishina
• Mary / Maria — Noriko Kashiwagi / Naoto Shirogane (anime)
• Eddie — Akihiko Sanada
• Heather — Yukiko Amagi / Ulala Serizawa
• Douglas — Kinshiro Morooka
• Vincent — Yosuke Hanamura / Minato Arisato / Ryoji Mochizuki
• Angela / Claudia — Rise Kujikawa / Minako Arisato

• Kirk Thornton, Laura Bailey and Yuri Lowenthal previously voiced Harry Mason, Dahlia Mason and John from Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

External links

• Comparison images and videos of HD Collection and original versions

Gallery

A glitch with Maria's eye being replaced by the texture for her teeth.

Psychedelic lake water

Defeat enemies and solve puzzles as you progress deeper and deeper into the story.

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