What's your favourite part of Silent Hill 2? Mine has to be James Sunderland's various superpowers: Teleportation, phasing through walls, psychosexual yearning, all the abilities he got after he was bitten by a radioactive widower. They're what make him such a potent horror game protagonist but, alas, apparently the first two of them are bugs, and they've just been yoinked out of the game in the Silent Hill 2 remake's most recent patch.
Patch 1.04 hit today, and it contains all sorts of things to, hopefully, improve Silent Hill 2's performance issues and rectify a few bugs. I'll paste the whole list below—which, just for the record, I want to say is actually more of a chore than it sounds on our website, so please pore over every word like it's a sacred text—but let's zoom in on the particular fixes that have caught my eye.
First up is that James can no longer jaunt through peepholes like a low-budget Gully Foyle. Pre-1.04, SH2 had a bug that would teleport James through the peephole in Brookhaven Hospital when he looked through the wrong side. Now he can peep all he wants.
Also, he'll no longer get stuck on the window frame of Neely's Bar or fall plumb through the Earth when approaching Laura around the hospital. If your only exposure to Silent Hill 2 was these patch notes you'd be forgiven for thinking James Sunderland was some kind of absent-minded wizard.
In slightly meatier news, Bloober says it's also fixed some of the visual glitches that were happening for people using Nvidia DLSS. People using Nvidia's frame-generating tech have reported little issues like blowing leaves leaving trails in the air and other minor visual glitches, so with any luck Bloober has managed to stomp those out.
Also, more relevant for me, the studio says the game now runs better on Steam Deck. I actually loaded the game up on my Deck ahead of a trip a couple of weeks ago, and was disappointed to find it was practically unplayable. If the game now actually runs on my portable powerhouse, I'll be a happy camper.
We had a pretty good time with the Silent Hill 2 remake around here, with Kerry Brunskill scoring it 78% in our Silent Hill 2 review and remarking that "when it's good it's excellent." It's gotten a positive response from elsewhere too, with even die-hard Bloober sceptics admitting the studio managed to pull it off.
Here are those patch notes in full.
Silent Hill 2 Patch 1.04 notes
Technical
- Reduced visual glitches when using the latest version of NVIDIA DLSS.
- Added an option to enable DLSS frame generation in the menu when using DLSS for supersampling.
- NVIDIA Reflex is now active when DLSS frame generation is enabled.
- Added support for AMD FSR 3.1.1.
- Added an option to enable AMD Fluid Motion Frames in the menu when using FSR 3.1 for supersampling.
- Updated Intel Nanites to support upcoming driver updates.
- Improved performance and optimization for Steam Deck.
- Fixed stuttering issues related to sky map generation.
- Added an option to enable/disable HZB culling to fix stuttering on some AMD/Intel GPUs.
- All graphic settings should be saved locally.
Gameplay
- Fixed an issue with translation for UI “High” preset not being translated and displayed correctly
- Fixed an issue with Wooden Plank appearing during James’ death animation
- Fixed streaming issue where staring at the walls inside the Grand Market caused problems with loading all of the environment around James
- Fixed an issue where interacting with the wrong side of the peephole in Brookhaven Hospital teleported James to the other side
- Fixed an issue where breaking windows near Neely’s Bar got James stuck in the window frame
- Fixed an issue that allowed James to access the inaccessible balcony in Blue Creek Apartments
- Fixed an issue with Abstract Daddy’s behavior during boss fight where the enemy was not hitting James properly
- Fixed multiple issues with Abstract Daddy’s 3rd TV – it should now have the correct audio, and the wall won’t interfere with its position
- Fixed an issue with a question mark from the Conference Room not disappearing after obtaining Cinderella figurine in Lakeview Hotel
- Fixed an issue with collision detection with the Dayroom walls in Brookhaven Hospital
- Fixed an issue where James was falling under the map when approaching Laura entering Brookhaven Hospital from the bushes on the left
- Removed debug numbers displayed behind wallpapers in Blue Creek Apartments' Clock Room
- Resolved an issue with James not being able to leave the 3F corridor in the Lakeview Hotel
- Fixed an issue with the lightbulb on the 3rd floor of Blue Creek Apartments constantly switching on and being impervious to destruction
- Resolved an issue with the small coffee table blocking James in the corner of the room located in Woodside Apartments
- Fixed an issue where after completing the Disgust Path in Labyrinth, the player was forced to do it all over again
- Fixed an issue with Spider Mannequins getting stuck when attacking James while he is going through squeeze traversal
- Fixed an issue with James getting stuck in the window frame while attacking Lying Figures located outside of the window
- Added more natural movement for James when switching weapons while aiming
- Fixed an issue with triggering Spider Mannequin event on Fear Path in the Labyrinth multiple times
- Improved the ability to pick up items during the final boss fight
- Fixed an issue with picture frames overlapping in the Moth Room
- Improved the deformation of Nurses’ skirts
- Fixed an issue occurring when displaying the information about unlocking NewGame+ which didn’t appear in the player’s chosen language
- Fixed visible unloading of the door of an abandoned garage in the west side of South Vale
- Fixed question mark on the map during Chute Puzzle in Woodside Apartments
