The remake for Silent Hill 2 is being developed by Bloober Team, and there are several mistakes present in the studio's game, The Medium, that should be avoided. With the original Silent Hill 2 being a classic horror game, inspiring other titles even decades after its initial release, there is plenty of excitement to see it come back in a modernized version, but plenty of fear that the remake won’t be as good as the 2001 game.
[Content warning: The following article contains mentions of pedophilia, abuse, assault, suicide, and trauma. ]The Medium, which was inspired by the Silent Hill franchise, shined in its aesthetic, with the protagonist, Marianne, traveling simultaneously through the worlds of the living and the dead. The game presented an unusual depiction of ghosts, with most of them being completely friendly and humanized, instead of scary monsters. While The Medium’s success covered development costs quickly, there were several grave mistakes that made it quite a controversial title among players. The Medium’s problematic depictions of pedophilia, sexual assault, and trauma were invalidating victims’ trauma while glorifying the perpetrator. And with the team having been confirmed to be developing Silent Hill 2, these issues shouldn't happen again.
The Silent Hill 2 Remake Must Have A Comprehensive Content Warning
Although there were several interesting features in The Medium, such as a split-screen for exploring two worlds, its story often dives deep into pedophilia and child abuse, two disturbing topics about which the player receives barely any warning. The game's content warning mentions that sensitive themes will be discussed, but never specifies exactly what will be in the game, leaving players wondering what the warning is for. This mistake can be very dangerous to certain players, being potentially life-threatening depending on how triggering the topics are, and Bloober Team must avoid this mistake with the Silent Hill 2 remake.
Much like The Medium, Silent Hill 2 often discusses distressing topics, such as rape, abuse, and suicide. For example, Angela Orosco, a side character James meets, has been sexually abused all her life, and the player fights the physical manifestation of her trauma, which re-enacts the moments when she was raped. Not only that, but in one of Silent Hill 2's endings, James commits suicide by driving his car into a lake, which can also be triggering. While the original game didn’t have a content warning at all, given it lacks the amount of gore and violence present in most of the series’ titles, it’s essential for games that dive deep into distressing topics, like both Silent Hill 2 and The Medium, to include more specific warnings. These warnings not only help fans make a conscious decision of whether they should play the game, but they also assure that they will be safe when doing so.
A good content warning should include a clear and precise description of what will be discussed in the game, and it should be shown in trailers and teasers, the description of the game, and at the beginning of gameplay, making sure that players know exactly what sensitive topics will be discussed. Although controversial because of Sony’s censorship, Martha Is Dead provides a good example of this type of warning, which chooses to spoil parts of the game to assure everyone’s safety and provides a link to a website that contains phone numbers for suicide hotlines, advising players to look for help when struggling with mental health issues.
The Silent Hill 2 Remake Must Be Respectful To Real-Life Victims
Bloober Team also made several controversial decisions about the main story for The Medium, with the biggest one of them resulting in a disappointing ending that treated a victim’s trauma as a major burden her family had to carry for her. This is not only a harmful notion on its own, given it treats one’s suffering as a burden to someone else, but is also incredibly disrespectful to real-life victims who went through similar situations as the character. And this shouldn’t happen in the Silent Hill 2 remake.
Mental health and abuse are common themes that appear throughout the story of Silent Hill 2, and the game approaches them with a tremendous amount of respect. The characters’ trauma is depicted as the result of terrible events which impacted them deeply, never being treated as inherently bad or being used to justify their wrongdoings. Not only that, but self-harm and suicide aren’t treated as actions to be glorified or acts of bravery, but instead the result of a hostile environment, unlike The Medium, which presented it as the only way to prevent even more harm from being caused. Silent Hill 2 managed to successfully avoid harmful tropes, and it's something that must be kept in the remake as well.
The Medium was a popular and intriguing game with unique mechanics, and there is plenty the Silent Hill franchise can learn from it, both from what it excelled at and the major mistakes that made it a controversial title. With Bloober Team currently being responsible for the development of the Silent Hill 2 remake, many of these need to be reviewed and avoided. Not only can they be potentially dangerous to players' own safety, being gateways to severe mental distress, but they can result in a highly offensive and controversial game, something that the developers should avoid when remaking a classic like Silent Hill 2.