Silent Hill 2 Controversies Are Missing The Biggest Problem With Remakes

Last week's PlayStation State of Play — and the Transmission that followed it — confirmed the release date for Bloober Team's remake and provided a new look at the game and its recreation of certain characters and scenes. As with anything with a passionate fan base, there was plenty of controversy covering the changes made to modernize the game, from the over-the-shoulder camerawork to the redesigned character models.

[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Silent Hill 2.]

This was most evident with the backlash to the character designs for Angela and Maria. In the case of Angela, the changes finally made some fans realize just how young she was actually meant to be in the game, with her looking closer to 19 than her original counterpart, who many thought resembled a woman in her 30s.

The changes made to Maria's attire were even more controversial, however, due to its implications in the greater story of, as the character is supposed to resemble protagonist James Sunderland's wife, Mary, but be far more sexualized in her appearance, being a manifestation of James' mind and representing his sexual desire and frustration after the death of his wife, which is something the remake seems to be downplaying.

The Silent Hill 2 remake finally has a release date, with a new trailer having debuted at the May 30 PlayStation State of Play. Here’s what to expect.

The problem with remakes, in general, stems from a lack of proper game preservation in many cases. While Xbox has tried to keep past generations of games alive through its backward compatibility schemes, Sony largely dropped traditional backward compatibility after the first generation of its PS3 console, only making select titles available to purchase digitally on the PlayStation Store. There was no such feature present on the PS4, as Sony offered up very select «PS2 Classics» and remasters of the PS3 generation's titles that players could re-purchase, with remastering and remaking games becoming a