Bloober Team's Work on Silent Hill 2 Isn't Actually Almost Finished At All

Good. I am in no rush to be disappointed. This studio sucks.

@GrimReaper what a lousy thing to say. I hope they deliver and wish them the best.

I’m cautiously hopeful; take your time, Bloobs. They were onto something with the Medium, hopefully this will be the project to push them over the edge into greatness.
Lot of expectations 😬

I tend not to consider a game completed until it's actually been released. And given that bugs can crop up at any time for any reason, speculating a game may be "near completion" is disingenuous.

I’m not getting my hope up high so I’m not disappointed if it’s not good. I will be playing it when it comes out but keeping those expectations low. If it turns out to be great, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Take your time Bloober Team.

Perhaps they had to remake some of the work they've done on this remake.

What a load of bluster

Always been a bloober fan and I definitely have confidence that they have the potential to deliver on this! If they actually deliver is another matter of course...

Bloober are an unpopular* underdog and seeing as Silent Hill is one of those franchises with a rabid fanbase I'm sure there will be plenty of people upset regardless of its quality.

*I expect a lot of the harshness seen is due to The Medium, along with bloober's other titles, having Game Pass releases and is a prime example of certain game types (AA and narrative "walking sims" - a terrible and inaccurate term imo🤮) being hamstrung in popularity because it's available to a much wider market who would otherwise have no interest in the genre. Not to mention "walking sims" (🤮) being a pretty niche genre anyway with a large amount of detractors.

@BeerIsAwesome These days, I don’t consider a game complete until a year or two after release. With a few exceptions, day one buyers are usually paying for an early access build.

I wish gamers — and publishers — would just leave developers alone until their work is actually done, instead of complaining that they don’t have a release date yet. A release date that might get changed a couple of times anyway, due to delays — delays that occur because management can’t seem to figure out how long it actually takes to make a modern video game.

Well it's bloober so whenever it is finished I still won't be interested

@Loamy I think you may be being a bit dismissive of other people’s opinions of Bloober Team.

From what I’ve seen online, there are a lot of people that liked Layers of Fear, with a few that didn’t, mostly because they felt it was a bit cliche. With The Medium, I think it was closer to 50/50, in terms of people that liked it vs. people that didn’t. And most people disliked the Blair Witch game that they made.

There are also some legitimate criticisms about how their games negatively portray people with mental health issues. It’s a problem with a lot of horror media throughout history, which is what Bloober Team is inspired by — but it doesn’t mean that isn’t a valid critique, given the changing attitudes toward mental health over the years. As someone with mental health issues myself, it’s a topic I really care about.

All of this is to say: people are worried about how Bloober Team are going to handle the Silent Hill 2 remake. I personally think they might do a good job, as long as they stick closely to the original story and mostly focus on updating the graphics and game mechanics. But I can understand other’s concerns, given their track record.

And, to be completely transparent, I’m basing all of my opinions on the online discourse surrounding their previous projects. I’ve never played one of their games myself, unless you count the 15 minutes I played of the first Layers of Fear before I noped out because I’m a wimpy baby that can’t handle first-person horror games. So take my hot takes with a grain of salt, and know that I also hope Bloober makes this game worthwhile to play, even though some Silent Hill diehards may not be happy with the end results.

@Impossibilium Oh no I completely get some of the criticisms are valid even if I don't agree with them. Criticism is good. It's not that bloober is nothing but greatness, it's just that some comments (like the top comment) are overly harsh and empty. They are an AA developer who develops narrative-heavy and slow-paced games which is pretty divisive in taste, hence my reasoning that GP releases likely did them more harm than good. Then, that exposure, the divisiveness of genre + the internet social structure i.e. popularity contest means there have been some very harsh words against bloober which are a little OTT in my opinion.

However, as for the whole "portrayal of mental health" thing put to The Medium, I personally believe it was ridiculous. It caught hold on Twitter (need I say more) and was a ridiculous interpretation of a genre of fiction (you're correct in that it's the horror genre, not just The Medium) where the key point is to emphasise feelings of fear, hopelessness, insanity and tragedy. I have played all of bloober's games. I suffer from several mental health issues that have severely impacted my life and will continue to do so. I care greatly for the improvement of mental health and trauma care. I'm a huge fan of horror and these themes partly because of the stuff I've struggled with. It's way more terrifying and impactful if you've experienced it. It's fictional entertainment.

Criticise the writing, pacing, plotholes, graphics gameplay, whatever... but to claim that The Medium was attempting to offer any real-world solution to mental health problems/trauma or is uniquely offensive and/or damaging to the cause helping mental health education is absolutely absurd imo. To claim this is equal to saying that videogames or films promote violence because they picture exaggerated versions of it. Don't go after the horror genre, The Medium or other works of fiction, just keep educating people about mental health and trauma.

Okay, thanks for clearing that up for me. The Medium has been on my wishlist since release on PlayStation, I’m just waiting for a significant price drop. I’ll play it someday and form my own opinions on it. Still, fingers crossed that Silent Hill 2 remake is good. I hope Konami has chosen the right studio for this, as well as the other Silent Hill projects in the works.

@Impossibilium I can't argue there. Although there are some publishers that are okay in my opinion. Not the ones who throw software at you every 5 minutes, but those who are more than happy to just provide a release to that small but good indie game that otherwise wouldn't get a release. Like Stardew Valley or Undertale for example.

@BeerIsAwesome Yeah, there are probably more games released in a decent state than the “few” exceptions I was referring to. I was mostly speaking about AAA or AA releases.

There are a few big publishers that pretty good with this. Nintendo usually waits until a game is done before releasing it — reportedly even sitting on complete games, like the Metroid Prime remaster, until they feel the time is right. (I am of course leaving Pokémon Company out, because yikes with Scarlet & Violet.) Sony is usually pretty good as well, except for their PC ports, and they sometimes leave out inessential features like photo mode or new game+ to get the games out the door, patching those in later. There might a couple more publishers that I’m not thinking about at the moment, but these are mostly the exceptions that prove the rule.

Indie devs are pretty much not in the conversation at all. Even if they have a bigger publisher behind them — like a Devolver Digital or Annapurna — they are usually new creating new IP with no audience expectations or pressure on them, as well as no huge budget or AAA competition, so they are usually left alone to release whenever. The other trend with Indies is to, y’know, actually release a game in early access on Steam, like Hades or Vampire Survivors did, to point out a couple of examples. They are honest about what state their game is in, listening to feedback, and going 1.0 when the game is fully tested and complete. Then, if the game gains an audience, they release on console later, or hire a reputable port expert to do that for them. And — for the most part — release big updates to the game for free, with paid DLC either a rarity or coming long after the game’s release.

There can be some Indie games that release in a rough state though, but usually when it’s a sequel to their previous hit. The only ones I can think of are Sports Story, the sequel to Golf Story on the Switch, or one of the sequels to Trine being bad if I recall correctly.

This is all to say that you’re right, and I was over-generalizing before.

(And, as a side note, please forgive my excessively long posts and replies. I’m autistic and can’t help over-explaining stuff ☺️)

@Impossibilium No sweat, that's just called being passionate! Either about this particular topic or gaming in general.

You make fair points everywhere in that reply, so I can't really add much more to it. I do notice the mention of Pokemon, but I would argue that the games should be looked at q little more sympathetically, since they are basically annual releases at this point, what with all the spin offs as well. But for the most part, Nintendo is fine. They are amongst the last to resist trying to monetize every aspect of a game just because they can. But conveniently that goes hand in hand with the quality of a game. 🙄