Silent Hill HD Collection for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

I feel bad about rating these games a 3/10, and in fact I am not saying that the games themselves are bad--in fact, they're amazing--but this 'collection' is beyond bad. It's downright horrifying.

The graphics are 'cleaned up' so much that the gritty, foggy, rusted worlds are now pristine and free of tension or character. The sound, likewise, has been tampered with to such a point that the original PS2 version is superior in every way. Even the sound of walking on steal plates, like in Silent Hill 3, is made clunky and poorly recorded/put out. There is also a myriad of sound syncing issues. The game's voice track struggles to match the lips of the characters' mouths in an obvious and sad way. The sound of swinging a sword or shooting a gun is often lagged and plays noticeably later than it should. It's embarrassing, really.

Then there's the actual bugs and glitches. This game is a mess. It struggles frequently with frame rate issues. In Silent Hill 3, which has more enemies on screen at once, the game often slows to a crawl as the main character runs in slow motion. The screen will often jerk around while loading, and sometimes a simple action like moving the camera around will cause immense slow down and lag. It's sad when this supposed 'HD Collection' for the powerhouse systems of 2012 struggles to run this years old PS2 game. It boggles the mind.

Again, the games themselves are not actually bad. It's the port--this 'remastering' that is the stinker here, and man does it stink. It ruins the entire experience. For that reason, I highly recommend finding the PS2 originals. For Silent Hill 2, there is also an Xbox version which is better than this port. Both games also have PC versions, though they may be hard to find. Silent Hill 3, in particular, looks great on PC and will run well on most gaming rigs. So please, play these games...just pass on this 'collection'.

P.S. You wouldn't know it by this 'collection', but there is also a Silent Hill 4 for the

A five-gig download is what awaits you, followed by a long installation. That's how you're introduced to this iteration of the game, and it's a pretty appropriate introduction. For character and environment physics based on a PS2 game, one would think the PS3 would be able to handle the game gracefully, but it doesn't. You get slowdown less than a minute into SH3. I'm dead serious. Nothing was done to fix the awkward, motion-sickness-inducing camera swings, and the character models were just sharpened instead of upgraded. A good emulator will do the same thing, and it won't cost you the extra money (or queue slot, as the case may be).

These titles were gorgeous and groundbreaking on the PS2, but their dialogue was forced and the voice acting induced eye-rolls from start to finish, and seeing that kind of neglect carry over into this generation of consoles makes me cringe. It's like being shown of your sophomore high school yearbook photo and reminded of how much about your appearance you thought wasn't all that noticeable, only to have it come screaming back to you.

Those who are willing to put real thought into their gaming will find cause to liken this unto highlighter scribbled across all of the flaws of the series, putting a soul-jabbing context on the many mistakes it continues to make. Sloppy, cliche, and aimless. I still love the overall story of SH2, but nothing about either title has aged better than your average glass of milk left on the counter. Neither title had a technologically or generational need to be brought to HD (especially not without SH1), and this ends up nothing more than a sadly transparent cash grab whose target audience consists only of PS3 owners who never had a PS2 and who can forgive character models and voice synch limited by the older system's tech. Oh, and people who knew nothing of the series and were drawn in by the random O-face on the cover.