After what at this point feels like forever, the Bloober Team developed remake of Silent Hill 2 has finally been revealed. After months and months of expectations, rumourmongering, and leaks, Konami still spared no expense in the presentation of the game, kicking off their Silent Hill Transmission stream by revealing the hotly anticipated title.
Silent Hill 2 will be a timed PS5 exclusive title, but will also be launching on PC – supposedly the exclusivity on the PS5 will extend for a period of 12 months. Of course, the game did not receive a release date, or even a release year, so it’s quite possible that players won’t get their first opportunity to go hands-on with the title until 2024 at the earliest, letalone audiences on other non-PlayStation or PC platforms who will have an even more agonisingly long wait beyond that. While the game is being devloped by Bloober Team, it was revealed that the project is still being overseen by some of the old hand, with original creators such as art director Masahiro Ito and composer Akira Yamaoka, all being “closely” involved with the project’s development.
The Silent Hill 2 remake project will be led by Bloober Team’s Mateusz Lenart, who has previously acted as the Creative Director on two of the studio’s more recent works, 2019’s Blair Witch, and 2021’s The Medium. Speaking about the project, Lenart offered the following “Silent Hill 2 is a cult classic, and it’s widely recognised as one of the best games ever made. We want Silent Hill 2 to make the same strong impression today that the original game did 21 years ago.”
Addressing the nature of time, and how it can age concepts that are now, in the case of the original Silent Hill 2, over 20 years old, Lenart said “While we want to achieve the same end result, players’ expectations evolve over time, and certain things need to be modernized to have the same or similar effect. For example, that’s why we went with the over- the-shoulder camera so we can immerse the players into the game world as much as possible.”
Meanwhile, the Silent Hill experienced hands of Masahiro Ito, and Akira Yamaoka shared some of their own insights into the remake project, Ito speaking about the excitement and challenges of remaking the project, and avoiding fan questions, saying “It’s been a really long time. But now we’re able to remake this title and finally we can tell you all about it so I am very excited, I had a hard time dodging the many questions from fans.”. Yamaoka, in discussing the music of the remake also shared the following, “The remake also has a new musical style, new challenges, and sound design and music that will be able to please the existing fans, and of course for the players who don’t know Silent Hill 2.”
It sounds like that with the combination of fresh and familiar faces all working on the title, that Silent Hill 2 is well positioned to be representative of that breath of fresh air that Bloober can bring the game, but also true to its roots with some of the old hand on the task too.
Silent Hill 2 is coming to PS5 and PC at a to be determined time.