The Silent Hill 2 remake managed to shock lots of devoted followers with a devoted retelling of a much-beloved story, and to rejoice the sport’s launch, Bloober Crew shared a behind-the-scenes video that demonstrated how a lot thought went into creating not solely the remake, but in addition its protagonist.
“I do not know if it reveals, however I am really sufficiently old to have performed the unique Silent Hill 2 when it got here out, and with none exaggeration, it was a life-changing expertise,” the lead author, Andrzej Madrzak, says within the video. “I do not assume I might be doing what I do now if I hadn’t performed it at that cut-off date. And lots of the influence it had, needed to do with James and the best way the sport portrayed his internal wrestle in methods which had been simply ground-breaking.”
Our information author Joshua Wolens was pleasantly shocked in his preview of Silent Hill 2, saying that the appearing felt very fashionable whereas being very devoted to the unique. Though one of many largest adjustments within the remake was that every character’s dialogue was rerecorded. Some gamers might miss the marginally janky previous performances, however I really want James’ newfound stage presence and barely totally different design.
“We needed to remain true to the unique design, however we additionally needed to make use of fashionable expertise to broaden on the idea of an bizarre man pushed into extraordinary conditions,” artistic director and lead designer Mateusz Lenart says. “Our model of James has three-day facial hair—you will notice his garments getting dirtier and his face extra drained as he progresses by means of the sport.” This can be a fairly small function, however one I feel makes the remake all of the extra fulfilling—lastly, James will look the identical manner that I really feel after trekking by means of the foggy, nightmare-filled city of Silent Hill.
“It could be very straightforward to get carried away with a really flashy design, however this could miss the purpose of who James is,” Pablo Poliakov, lead character artist, says. “He needed to be not too cool, not too handsome. There’s this facet of James of being a bit extra of a fake hero than an precise heroic determine.”
James nonetheless undoubtedly offers off the vibe of somebody extra accustomed to combating a damaged workplace espresso machine than freakish bloody monsters, however I do assume that Bloober gave James one thing of a Leon Kennedy makeover. The brand new James appears to have had at the least a number of retouches to his face, however one thing was at all times going to vary, at the least a little bit bit.
The behind-the-scenes video additionally dives into what it was like for James Sunderland actor Luke Roberts. “It was essential to have an actor who was capable of painting all of these feelings, and Luke Roberts was our greatest selection,” Lenart says.
Roberts was clearly up for the duty, particularly as so many followers of Silent Hill have come out in help of the actor’s rendition of the stilted and dreamlike dialogue. “James’ voice actor (Luke Roberts) completely killed a near-impossible activity,” one participant says. However apparently, it wasn’t at all times clean crusing for the actor: “It is humorous as a result of throughout Luke’s preliminary audition, the whole lot went incorrect,” Barbara Kciuk, senior narrative designer, says. “The audio high quality was horrible—we had been working tremendous late, and the strains obtained combined up. However there was simply one thing so particular about this specific actor embodying this function.”
The key to James’ character hasn’t actually modified regardless of an outstanding graphics face-lift—it must be clear that he is not minimize out for all this combating, and he is misplaced in each sense of the phrase, and I am actually joyful that Roberts understood this activity so effectively. “[James] is eminently relatable, and he is out of his depth which is one in all my favorite situations,” Roberts says. “So he is not an motion hero by any means—he’s only a man who’s a little bit misplaced.”