You're remembering correctly; they weren't so visible on CRTs.
Part of the issue is that is that CRTs were interlaced instead of progressive. They actually did render like that where every other line was omitted, but they did so in an alternating method every other frame that happened fast enough that your eyes didn't clearly see the empty space. The led to a slightly less "stationary consistent" image (for real lack of better words), as well as one that was softer. CRTs were also resolution flexible, and often dealt with source consoles feeding them low resolution images.
How do you mimic this on HD, progressive displays? You truly can't, so no method will be exactly as we remember CRTs. It's precisely why I said you need a CRT to truly get the original look. But the scanlines are a part of doing our best to mimic the look (if you're wondering why not have the scanlines alternate, that would probably be too awkward and visually identifiable due to the differences in how LCDs and CRTs inherently work). The scanlines in the example I gave here are definitely a bit aggressive/exaggerated though.
Precisely why I liked it.
You wouldn't happen to know if there was a certain TV that was mimicking, would you? Or is it just a custom, creative filter?
I'm aware of the difference between the shadow mask and aperture grille ("Trinitron") types of CRTs, and I've never seen that from either type. Maybe something extra in the glass of a certain TV in particular had it give an image like that?
By no means am I far enough to make a broad review, but since I played another two sessions since my first one, I feel like I'd come back to this with some more thoughts of what little I've seen.
The streets of Silent Hill look, and more importantly,
feel fantastic. It's eerie, it's unsettling, it's moody, and I love it. The way the fog rolls over everything, the way the creatures weave just in and out of vision along the edge, it's all so perfect. It's ironic that the fog was originally a way to deal with the limited render distance of the PlayStation, and here it is looking fancy (and probably cutting into performance, haha) and being something I love.
I've found a few routes that appear like they would give you a choice in how you approach something, perhaps to either avoid an encounter, risk another one for an item reward, or to reach a destination/enemy from another angle. Don't mistake it for an open world, of course, but some of the environment set pieces (like extra businesses and back entrances) are nice. Most, of course, are blocked off.
The combat (disclaimer, I've only dealt with the first melee weapon and a couple of enemy types, so no firearm or boss encounters yet) seems pretty basic, but for me, that's a good thing. Combat was never a strong part of the Silent Hill titles, and in many of the older ones, it was actually borderline bad. So to say it's simple, but works well, and isn't a complicated mess for a game that doesn't need a complicated mess of a combat system, was very welcome.
The pleasant surprise is that repeatedly stomping/bashing in enemies does
not leave them stun locked or hopeless! They can and will interrupt between your strikes with a strike of their own, or to spit something at you. I think (?) you can avoid it with some recognition of when it might come, but I'm still pretty inexperienced with the combat and learning that. I've just noticed so far that getting the first hit in doesn't always equal beating it to death while it's stun-locked, so while the combat is simple... it's not simple in that way.
You can hear James' struggle/desperation when he attacks.
The one thing I don't like is that James will automatically ready a weapon if something is nearby, even if you can't see it (maybe the radio alerts him though?). This gave me the advantage of being ready for something that I didn't yet notice. This is a small "I'd like it to be harder on myself if I could" nitpick and not a real issue, however, but hey, I'm listing some first impressions and that's one of them. My qualms so far are only with really minor stuff.
I unfortunately can't speak for how faithful it is because while I definitely remember most of the major story beats, I never played through the original myself. Instead I watched a friend play a lot of it. I did play through 3, 4, and Homecoming completely though so I have experience with most of the early series. Based on that, this remake definitely gets the setting and overall feel right for me, but I can't speak for accuracy. From what I've heard most fans say, the story and characters (visuals aside) are left largely unchanged, but the environments are expanded and changed a bit.
As long as the rest of the game (namely, firearms and boss fights) aren't a big detraction for me, I'll probably love the rest of the game.
As always, I'm one single person, so others' opinions may vary.
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