Silent Hill 2 Remake Leak Reveals Major Change to Protagonist James Sunderland

Fans of the original Silent Hill 2 will dig this change.

By Tyler Fischer

In the announcement trailer for Silent Hill 2 Remake, there is a shot of protagonist James Sunderland looking in the mirror, which is a recreation of a scene from the original game. A new version of this shot has been uploaded to the back-end of Steam by publisher Konami and developer Bloober Team, and in this shot some changes have been made to the appearance of the protagonist, changes that bring the look closer to the original design of the original character in the original game. This new screenshot is not uploaded on the game's active Steam listing, but it can be found on SteamDB, a third-party database of everything on Steam that often leaks various things before they are pushed to the public via the live version of the actual storefront. 

At the moment of writing this, Konami and Bloober Team haven't officially revealed the screenshot in question or announced any tweaks to the appearance of James Sunderland. Nor have either suggested to expect as much at any point. That said, eagle-eyed fans over on Reddit were quick to notice the change log on SteamDB and unearth the new screenshot. As you can see for yourself -- here -- the changes are subtle, but are still recognizable. 

"That's very different from the original shot with a completely different face model. Looks like they took the criticism to heart," reads the post sharing the discovery. 

Meanwhile, the top comment reads: "The new face looks tremendous. He's supposed to be 'disassociated,' and his original design in the trailer didn't reflect that. He looked way too 'emo' and 'fragile'." Another comment adds: "I didn't really have much of a problem with the original one, but I definitely prefer the new model." 

So far, most of the reception to the change has echoed the sentiments above, though, of course, there are some who seem to prefer the old design. And for what it is worth, the old design may still be what is being used. We don't know what is going on at the moment, but the implications of the new screenshot on SteamDB signals a slight redesign. 

If Konami or Bloober Team comment on the situation, we will be sure to update the story accordingly. If there is fire to go along with all this smoke, we may see this redesign and the game again next month at the rumored PlayStation Showcase. In fact, there are rumors of exactly that happening. Meanwhile, a recent release rating suggests a release and release date announcement are also on the horizon. 

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