The very art director and creature designer from the original Silent Hill didn't want this to exist.

That was what set the alarms off for me. I agree with him, I wish Konami would let this franchise alone already before making it worse, but we now have this remake (something that never happens in this day and age). Those saying it is faithful are either paid actors or lying through their teeth willingly.

Puzzles. It becomes a chore. Solving it/finding a key does not feel good after 7 hours straight of doing the same thing over and over again. I was an avid horror fan in my teens so I have plenty of experience with horror games using puzzles as a resort to fill a very very short story. But this is simply excessive.

The 'horror' aspect died, if it even lived, extremely quickly for me. The scenarios don't look all that scary when you can't see anything because it's just so dark and the flashlight is quite the mandatory standard for a horror game: small ball of light barely shining. It suffers from using realistic graphics, the old ones added to the feeling of being in the 'wrong place'. By now, we've seen this type of otherworldy places ad nauseam and somehow, they feel far more underwhelming than I expected for being used to it. It is rare when you find yourself with more than one monster and you can still manage to defeat them without issue. In that term, yes, it is faithful; But if they keep throwing enemies at you, one by one with a combat system that has swift movements and no fatigue, it just has no effect. This remains true for a very large portion of the game, which allows you to save bullets and become Terminator when you do encounter larger groups of enemies. As per the sound aspect, then again, I find no outstanding features about it. The noises and ambient music only become obnoxious when they constantly loop; They're not a 'surprise' as in the original and they don't have that awful screeching noise that pierces your eardrums (yes, I'm saying it's good that the original gives me headaches).

The enemies whose only purpose is to jumpscare you are easily noticed due to the modern camera and bright color, to which must be mentioned that the ''looking at objects of interest'' feature from the original becomes useless. James' head always moves when you move the camera, so it's very easy to miss when he is actually looking at something. Most objects are at eye level anyway.

Almost every door can be opened or find your way inside. Plenty of rooms are useless too, only two bullets or a drink waiting for you.

I already despised the OG's story, so I can't talk much about that. Good ol' ''Something happens to a woman, how does the closest man to her feel about it?''. Don't even make me mention Angela. Horror writers stop writing about men hurting women challenge. I'm utterly convinced that if James was a woman and Eddie had Angela's backstory, people wouldn't praise it as much.

Still, it is to be noted that the character's personalities are extremely watered down in the remake. Plenty of good dialogue has been modified or completely cut out. Do NOT expect the same camera angles, you'll be deeply disappointed. Basically, they took a piece of passion and turned it into a product that could be easily digested by the masses instead of finding its own niche like it did 23 years ago.

More changes, the one that pisses me off the most: Pyramid Head's first battle. In the original, the Otherworld is build up very slowly. Weird stuff in toilets, water on the hallways' floor, etc. In the remake, it's quite black and white, the apartments do suffer a very noticeable change. When you first defeat Pyramid Head, he goes underwater and it gets drained. You know, a fantastic parallel to that one ending? Yeah, it's gone. The water theme is misunderstood to the point of making me wonder what this team was thinking when changing so many crucial points.
Weird object combinations (strand of hair + bent needle) are gone.

No 'Born From A Wish' scenario. Can't say I didn't expect this.

I will now mention what I did enjoy: The combat system is easy to learn, the dodge button is the same as Resident Evil Revelations 2 (controller) so whoever played it will be thankful. I have my own button mapping for Resident Evil 4 for speedrunning and the running button is also the same so, basically, the controls are perfect for me. Toluca prison has been my favorite part. No boring, repetitive puzzles with clues hidden in documents; You build your way out by slowly advancing. Good stuff.

Overall, I do not like it and the replay value is close to none for me, especially due to the excruciating first eight hours having explored every corner. My main issue is that it feels like a completely pointless game. They couldn't expand on the story (lacking the original creative minds and Masahiro Ito probably didn't want to do add to it either) so the extra hours are merely white noise between cinematics you already know, but... honestly, worse. The lightning in that iconic Maria scene (''Don't you want to touch me?'') doesn't hit the same. Lacks contrast. Plenty of elements are absent which decreases the feeling it's trying to convey. It explains the 'creative differences' between Ito and Blubber.

If I want to experience this story again, I'll simply boot up my ps2 to play the far superior version with the side scenario.

The very art director and creature designer from the original Silent Hill didn't want this to exist. That was what set the alarms off for me. I agree with him, I wish Konami would let this franchise alone already before making it worse, but we now have this remake (something that never happens in this day and age). Those saying it is faithful are either paid actors or lying through their teeth willingly. Puzzles. It becomes a chore. Solving it/finding a key does not feel good after 7 hours straight of doing the same thing over and over again. I was an avid horror fan in my teens so I have plenty of experience with horror games using puzzles as a resort to fill a very very short story. But this is simply excessive. The 'horror' aspect died, if it even lived, extremely quickly for me. The scenarios don't look all that scary when you can't see anything because it's just so dark and the flashlight is quite the mandatory standard for a horror game: small ball of light barely shining. It suffers from using realistic graphics, the old ones added to the feeling of being in the 'wrong place'. By now, we've seen this type of otherworldy places ad nauseam and somehow, they feel far more underwhelming than I expected for being used to it. It is rare when you find yourself with more than one monster and you can still manage to defeat them without issue. In that term, yes, it is faithful; But if they keep throwing enemies at you, one by one with a combat system that has swift movements and no fatigue, it just has no effect. This remains true for a very large portion of the game, which allows you to save bullets and become Terminator when you do encounter larger groups of enemies. As per the sound aspect, then again, I find no outstanding features about it. The noises and ambient music only become obnoxious when they constantly loop; They're not a 'surprise' as in the original and they don't have that awful screeching noise that pierces your eardrums (yes, I'm saying it's good that the original gives me headaches). The enemies whose only purpose is to jumpscare you are easily noticed due to the modern camera and bright color, to which must be mentioned that the ''looking at objects of interest'' feature from the original becomes useless. James' head always moves when you move the camera, so it's very easy to miss when he is actually looking at something. Most objects are at eye level anyway. Almost every door can be opened or find your way inside. Plenty of rooms are useless too, only two bullets or a drink waiting for you. I already despised the OG's story, so I can't talk much about that. Good ol' ''Something happens to a woman, how does the closest man to her feel about it?''. Don't even make me mention Angela. Horror writers stop writing about men hurting women challenge. I'm utterly convinced that if James was a woman and Eddie had Angela's backstory, people wouldn't praise it as much. Still, it is to be noted that the character's personalities are extremely watered down in the remake. Plenty of good dialogue has been modified or completely cut out. Do NOT expect the same camera angles, you'll be deeply disappointed. Basically, they took a piece of passion and turned it into a product that could be easily digested by the masses instead of finding its own niche like it did 23 years ago. More changes, the one that pisses me off the most: Pyramid Head's first battle. In the original, the Otherworld is build up very slowly. Weird stuff in toilets, water on the hallways' floor, etc. In the remake, it's quite black and white, the apartments do suffer a very noticeable change. When you first defeat Pyramid Head, he goes underwater and it gets drained. You know, a fantastic parallel to that one ending? Yeah, it's gone. The water theme is misunderstood to the point of making me wonder what this team was thinking when changing so many crucial points. Weird object combinations (strand of hair + bent needle) are gone. No 'Born From A Wish' scenario. Can't say I didn't expect this. I will now mention what I did enjoy: The combat system is easy to learn, the dodge button is the same as Resident Evil Revelations 2 (controller) so whoever played it will be thankful. I have my own button mapping for Resident Evil 4 for speedrunning and the running button is also the same so, basically, the controls are perfect for me. Toluca prison has been my favorite part. No boring, repetitive puzzles with clues hidden in documents; You build your way out by slowly advancing. Good stuff. Overall, I do not like it and the replay value is close to none for me, especially due to the excruciating first eight hours having explored every corner. My main issue is that it feels like a completely pointless game. They couldn't expand on the story (lacking the original creative minds and Masahiro Ito probably didn't want to do add to it either) so the extra hours are merely white noise between cinematics you already know, but... honestly, worse. The lightning in that iconic Maria scene (''Don't you want to touch me?'') doesn't hit the same. Lacks contrast. Plenty of elements are absent which decreases the feeling it's trying to convey. It explains the 'creative differences' between Ito and Blubber. If I want to experience this story again, I'll simply boot up my ps2 to play the far superior version with the side scenario.