Konami has been beavering away on horror franchise Silent Hill and the fruits of that labour are now being revealed. During its Silent Hill Live Transmission, the developer announced a plethora of upcoming games and movie instalments, including the long-rumoured Silent Hill 2 remake by Bloober Team Studios. There’s a lot to unpack, so here’s a quick rundown of everything fans need to know.
Silent Hill 2 remake
Developed by Bloober Team Studios, the cult classic has seen a fresh coat of paint and will arrive sooner than expected thanks to the game being in development since 2019. Now running on Unreal Engine 5, the remake has already been paid in full by Konami with the developers stating they’ll receive additional kickback from every sale of the game thanks to a lucrative deal signed between the two, with a trajectory of at least a half a million in sales expected.
As many of you may know, the game is the second psychological horror in the series featuring main protagonist James Sunderland who recently lost his wife Maria to an unknown illness. Upon receiving a letter from his deceased wife, beckoning him to the dark and dreary town of Silent Hill, James sets on a journey toward the mysterious town in the hope of seeing her one more time.
Though no official release date has been announced just yet, Silent Hill remake will land first as a timed exclusive on PS5 and PC.
Silent Hill: Townfall
Yet another game outsourced to an external developer, this time brought to you by the makers of Observation, a sci-fi thriller released to critical acclaim back in 2019, receiving multiple BAFTA awards since its release. A minute-long teaser trailer with a creepy voice over was released. Unfortunately, no real glimpse of the game was given suggesting it’s still in early development.
Published by Annapurna Interactive and in development by No Code, we can’t wait to see (and hear) what co-founders, lead writer Jon Mckellan and creator Graeme Mckellan are cooking up for the franchise.
Return to Silent Hill
While not the be all and end all of video game adaptions, the original Silent Hill film was a visually impressive treat back in 2006, though it was plagued by silver screen tropes of “inane dialogue, a muddled plot, and an overlong runtime,” according to Metacritic’s overall consensus.
Taking a second shot, Director Christophe Gans confirmed the film will be a true-to-form adaption of the original Silent Hill 2 video game, while implementing his own creative vision of the game as a story for a modern movie audience. A daunting task, to say the least but the initial glimpse of the upcoming film seems to indicate the passion project is being handled with extreme care and could be Gans’ opportunity to redeem past mistakes.
Silent Hill: Ascension
Developed in collaboration with three stellar studios including Genvid, Bad Robot, and Behaviour Interactive, Silent Hill: Ascension is described as an “interactive video streaming experience.” Information is vague at best, though Genvid has stated it is producing what it calls “Massively Interactive Live Events,” or MILEs for short. We assume this means interactive story content in episodic format that encourages viewer engagement to affect the story and the world.
My guess best is an interactive tale akin to Black Mirror: Bandersnatch or Minecraft: Story Mode, with elements centred around the dark-and-dreary psychological horror.
Silent Hill f
Konami’s stream ended with one final major game announcement. This time set in ’60s Japan and follows the story of a young Japanese schoolgirl transported into a nightmarish dreamworld. The trailer sees the girl in a classic Japanese town with sinister Silent-Hill elements peppered in its design.
Fending for herself, all alone, the surrounding areas are enveloped by creepy, fungus-like, fleshy creepers before she too succumbs to the invasive plant. The ending sees her sitting in the dream world with flowers blossoming from her body, her face then peeling off completely revealing her bloody innards.
It’s shock-worthy to say the least, and an interesting direction for the survival horror franchise. The game has no release date to speak of but is being developed by Neobards Interactive, the team responsible for the 2022 enhanced ports of Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, with pseudonymous Japanese writer, Ryukishi07, penning the story.
Altogether that totals one remake, a digital interactive experience, a movie sequel and two brand-spanking new games from Konami. Whew! In case you missed out, the Silent Hill Transmission event can be viewed in its entirety down below.
