An update for the Silent Hill 2 remake intended to fix issues with the PS5 Pro's PSSR upscaler has unintentionally introduced a new issue to the game. Although Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 remake launched to very strong reviews back in 2024, the PS5 Pro version of the game had problems with a shimmering effect on certain surfaces when running in Quality Mode. However, now Performance Mode is suffering from a visual bug after this latest update.
The Silent Hill franchise has seen a massive resurgence in recent years after going nearly 11 years without a new entry. Following the cancellation of the infamous P.T. demo for a Hideo Kojima-directed Silent Hill game, it seemed like the series was gone for good. However, the success of Bloober Team's 2024 Silent Hill 2 remake, followed by 2025's brand-new entry Silent Hill f, has reignited the franchise's spark, and now the future looks bright for Silent Hill fans, even in the face of pesky performance bugs.
New Silent Hill 2 Update Causes Visual Issues on PS5 Pro Performance Mode
Silent Hill 2 remake players have noticed a severe visual bug that came along with the new update meant to fix surface shimmering on the PS5 Pro. This new bug in the recent Silent Hill 2 remake update causes crushed blacks, a visual effect that makes darker areas so dark that details are lost entirely. Konami has acknowledged the existence of the bug and is working with Bloober Team to deliver a fix.
The crushed blacks bug seems to only affect Silent Hill 2 while playing on Performance Mode, with Quality Mode remaining unaffected.
Images of this crushed blacks effect on Silent Hill 2's Performance Mode show just how much detail is lost on affected areas. Trees around the town of Silent Hill become black blobs rather than showing details like branches and leaves, and the corners of rooms become entire black voids. While Silent Hill 2 is known for its creepy details and oppressive atmosphere, there is a point where visual bugs like this one severely hamper the experience.
Thankfully, it seems like this bug is only affecting the PS5 and PS5 Pro versions of Silent Hill 2, so PC players should be unaffected. However, for PS5 players having trouble with this bug while waiting for a fix, simply switching to Quality Mode should alleviate the problem. The drawback of playing on Quality Mode is that Silent Hill 2 becomes locked to 30 FPS, which might be nearly as bad for some players as having crushed blacks.
Still, the Silent Hill franchise is lined up for a solid second half of 2026 despite this Silent Hill 2 bug. Silent Hill: Townfall is slated for release on September 23, once again taking players away from the titular town and into Townfall's 1990s Scotland setting. Although September is a massively busy month for gaming, Silent Hill: Townfall should be a great way to kick off spooky season, which will be doubly creepy if Silent Hill 2 can iron out its graphical issues on PlayStation 5 by then.
Silent Hill 2
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 87/100 Critics Rec: 94%
- Released
- October 8, 2024
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Bloober Team
- Publisher(s)
- Konami
WHERE TO PLAY
Source: Push Square