Silent Hill 2 remake will “expand this world” and show “new elements that were previously inaccessible” by ditching the original’s fixed camera

(Image credit: Konami)

A senior developer working on Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake says the loss of the original game’s fixed-camera perspective will open up new elements for fans to explore for the first time.

Like the Resident Evil 2, 3, and 4 remakes, Silent Hill 2 is being modernized with a more traditional (nowadays) over-the-shoulder third-person perspective, and although I’ll miss the tension-building merits of a fixed camera, I’m excited to explore the game’s iconic locations without those restraints. During this week’s Silent Hill Transmission (timestamped here), senior narrative designer Barbara Kciuk confirmed the story told in the original horror classic is “largely the same” in the remake, but said that modern technology has allowed Bloober Team to “expand on some aspects.”

Namely, freeing up players from the constraints of static cameras will open up new “elements.”

“When making a game with static cameras, you as a designer have much more control over what players see, where they go, and so on,” Kciuk. “The change to the third-person perspective was a challenge. That being said, it’s a chance for us to expand this world, to show players new elements that were previously inaccessible, and just make this world richer.”

The Silent Hill 2 remake is releasing on October 8, just in time for Halloween, and alongside that announcement Bloober Team and Konami revealed a terrifying new trailer showing main characters James Sunderland and Angela Orosco navigating a mysterious town crawling with nightmare-inducing monsters like nurses, Abstract Daddy, Lying Figure, and The Mandarin.

Also revealed during this week’s showcase were Angela and Maria’s redesigned looks, and longtime Silent Hill fans are split on what to think.

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After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer, I’m responsible for managing the site’s western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I’m too afraid to finish.