Forums / Media / Video Games

So on October 19 Konami did a showcase dedicated specifically to the long neglected Silent Hill series, and while expectations were pretty low for the whole thing due to the company's history, there were some pretty big surprises in addition to some more low key stuff. In order of announcement we've got:

Silent Hill 2 remake
Yep the entry most often regarded as the series best is getting a remake, with the game being a PS5 console exclusive, but also getting a PC release on Steam. Development of the game is being handled by the studio Bloober Team, the same company mostly known for "horror adventure" games like Layers of Fear, The Observer, and The Medium, but this will be a "modern survival horror" game in the same vein as games like modern Resident Evil as there will be combat ("horror adventure" games typically forgo combat and instead have the tension come from the fact the protagonist can't fight back), and the camera is going to be using the "over the shoulder" camera style (which Silent Hill has technically already used with Homecoming and Downpour, but those games are pretty contentious). But while development is being handled by a different company, the original monster designer Masahiro Ito and original composer Akira Yamaoka are returning, so a good amount of the original game's look and sound will be similar to the PS2 classic.

Silent Hill Townfall
What exactly this game will be like is unknown at the moment as no gameplay was shown off (they seemed to pretty much confirm it's still rather early in development), but the game is being made in collaboration with indie publisher Annapurna (best known for publishing games like The Outer Wilds and Neon White) and indie developer No Code, who made the puzzle adventure games Stories Untold and Observation, so going by the studio's track record this will likely be a narrative heavy puzzle adventure as well. It's far too early to say if the game looks like it'll be a neat spinoff like that GBA visual novel retelling of SH1 or a dud like when Konami attempted a Silent Hill dungeon crawler on the PS Vita that one time, but might be worth keeping an eye on regardless.

Silent Hill Ascension
A very experimental spinoff that's more of an "interactive experience" than a traditional game. The whole thing with Ascension is it's going to be a very literal "live" game where people watch the story unfold in real time and can influence it via live chat. The project is a collaboration between JJ Abrams studio Bad Robot and Dead By Daylight developer Behavior Interactive, and all I can say is this whole thing has equally opportunity to either be a surprisingly good experimental project, or a huge flop that barely lasts two livestreams, the biggest factor definitely being the level of control the live chat will have and if the story is captivating from the start.

Return to Silent Hill
Christophe Gans, the director of the original Silent Hill movie from 2006 (and note he was NOT involved with the highly hated second movie "Revelations") is on board to direct a new Silent Hill movie, which at the moment is still quite early into production as all they could show off at the moment was storyboards and key art (with it being noted casting is still underway). While the first movie was a loose adaptation of the first game, Return will be an adaptation of Silent Hill 2's story following James Sunderland and the storyboards show Maria and Eddie will be in the movie, along with key locales like Brookhaven Hospital and likely the apartment building too. Given the 2006 movie was generally regarded as being a surprisingly better than expected game-to-movie adaptation (even I quite like it) it's possible Gans might have lightning strike twice.

Silent Hill merch
A whole bunch of merch was shown off, primarily figurines based on the second game like James, Maria, and the dog from the famous dog ending. Also interestingly it looks like we now know what Konami considers the "legal name" of the famous monster fans know as Pyramid Head, specifically Konami always calls the monster "Red Pyramid Thing," which does kinda line up with what James called the monster in the game.

Silent Hill F
A brand new SH game in development by studio Neobards. A major thing setting this game apart from others is this will be the first Silent Hill to not be set in America, but rather Japan, giving the game more of a traditional Japanese horror feel akin to Fatal Frame or Kuon. One really notable aspect about the game is it is confirmed the writer for the game is Ryukishi07, best known for writing the highly acclaimed horror visual novel series When They Cry, so that alone gives me a lot of confidence the story will be a good one. Gameplay wasn't shown off or detailed, but given the studio did assist Capcom in making recent Resident Evil spinoffs like Resistance and Re:Verse it can probably be safely assumed it'll be a "modern survival horror" game akin to the Silent Hill 2 remake.

I've seen people complain about Bloober team doing the remake. I get that their previous games might've not been the best, but would you rather take another studio with no horror experience, like they did with every Silent Hill after 4? All they have to do is follow the original blueprint and they'll be fine.

As for the other games, there isn't much to talk about. F aside from a stupid title looks promising, though it's kinda lame that they're doing Silent Hill, but Japan

"F" might just be a working title, like maybe the final game is titled something like "Silent Hill: Forgotten" for something. And while yeah the change in setting does seem a bit odd since the series was traditionally always set in small town America (though 3 and 4 also branched out to city locales for some sections), given the writer is best known for doing "small town Japanese horror" maybe it's best to have him stick to his strengths and see the concepts of Silent Hill reimagined in a new setting (it'd be neat to see this also applied to places like European countries with their own interesting history of supernatural folklore, plus 3 and 4 did already show the "influence of Silent Hill" can reach well beyond the town, though I kinda expect SHF might be set in a completely separate continuity).

As for Bloober Team, this could be the game which shows they can make a more traditional survival horror game and it could help shape their future going forward. We've seen smaller studios who made "mid" games in the past reach their true potential when paired with the right IPs, like Next Level Games' non-Nintendo stuff is pretty "meh" but give them a Nintendo IP like Luigi's Mansion and Punch-Out and they shine bright.

A quick correction from earlier:

The PS5 exclusivity of SH2 remake is actually timed for only one year, so if you're more of an Xbox person it'll come to that platform a year after PS5 and PC. Interestingly this is kinda similar to what happened with the original game, coming out on PS2 first in September 2001 and then an Xbox port came out a few months later in December 2001 (well unless you lived in Europe where for some reason the Xbox port was released a year after the PS2 version).

Also I just thought of this, will the remake include the "Born From a Wish" extra story that was first included in the Xbox port (and then later put in the PS2 release with the "Greatest Hits" edition)? It wouldn't surprise me if Konami wants to sell that scenario as DLC for the PS5 and PC versions but include it as a part of the Xbox Series version day 1 so they can keep up this weird semi-mirroring of the original early 00s release.

Seeing how Silent Hill may return from the grave, I will say I'm cautiously optimistic. I do hope the remake for 2 can be good though that'll be something I'll have to wait and see when gameplay teaser footage is posted.