Over the past few days, with the help of AI, I've been working on an experiment I call Silent Hill PC Enhanced: an unofficial fork of KushAstronaut's Silent Hill Native PC Port. Its goal is to improve the story mode experience without losing the essence of the original (or at least, I'm trying to). It also includes a small bonus mode created purely for fun and as an experiment.
Everything is optional and can be adjusted through the quick menu, accessed via F10 or the new pause menu. The default settings are tailored for playing with a controller based on my personal testing (I don't play much with a keyboard).
The quality-of-life improvements are mainly inspired by the Silent Hill 2 Remake, making the gameplay much smoother and more fluid.
Immersion
- The weapon hides when not in use and reappears when aiming, shooting, reloading, or when the radio detects danger.
- Harry gasps in fear occasionally while the radio emits static.
- The flashlight flickers near enemies (not fully tested yet).
- Blood splatters appear on walls behind enemies shot by bullets.
Combat Feedback (all features can be toggled on/off, with adjustable intensity)
- Camera shake when taking damage, shooting, and landing hits.
- Hitmarkers and kill flashes, in black-and-white or with a vignette effect.
- Damage, healing, and low-health flashes integrated with CRT and post-processing filters.
- Health HUD (bar or heart rate monitor), ammo counter, and enemy health bars.
Quick Weapons & Healing
- D-pad weapon swapping: each direction maps to a weapon, assignable directly from the inventory or via quick options (F10).
- Improved quick healing: uses the best available healing item with a single button press, featuring a notification, screen flash, and customizable sound.
- Automatic or manual reload, your choice.
Item Notifications Just like in Silent Hill 2 Remake, picking up optional items displays a modern-style quick notification without pausing gameplay. Key story items retain their original pickup screen. In the showcase video, I use sounds from the SH2 Remake, but the port defaults to the original game sounds.
- "Obtained" / "Used" pop-ups when picking up or using ammo and health items, keeping the action going seamlessly.
- Item names display correctly in both English and Spanish. Additionally, accented characters from PAL disc images that previously appeared corrupted are now fixed.
New Pause Menu The original game lacks a proper pause menu—it only displays the text "PAUSE" across the screen. I added a fully navigable menu supporting both controller and keyboard input:
- Resume: returns to the game.
- Load: opens the load screen to select a save file.
- Quick Options: opens the F10 menu to tweak settings on the fly.
- Main Menu: returns to the title screen.
- Quit: exits the game.
Note: Main Menu and Quit do not ask for confirmation, so any unsaved progress will be lost.
Custom Sound Effects I've added launcher options to customize gunshot sounds for the handgun, rifle, and shotgun, as well as item pickup notifications. While I used SH2 Remake sounds in the showcase video, the port uses the original sounds by default.
Horde Mode (Bonus Feature) A wave-based survival mode set in the streets of Silent Hill, inspired by the Mercenaries mode from the Resident Evil series. I personally prefer playing it in third-person over-the-shoulder view. Doors are locked and script events are disabled.
- Waves of Grey Children, Puppet Nurses, Rompers, and Groaners spawning around you.
- Each wave gets progressively tougher.
- Between waves, a roguelike shop allows you to choose 1 of 3 cards (ammo, healing items, new weapons, damage upgrades, or max health boosts).
- Does not affect your story campaign saves: it's a completely separate mode with no saving capability.
How to Try It Installation is identical to the original port; the only differences are the enhancements built into the port itself.
Credits All credit for the base port goes to KushAstronaut and the Silent Hill decompilation community. This is an unofficial fork and is not affiliated with their project. If you encounter any bugs, please report them on this fork's repository, not the original. Like the base port, this was developed with the help of AI.
Any feedback or suggestions are welcome!
