Konami’s Silent Hill franchise is considered to be an all-time classic among fans of the survival horror genre. The only problem is, that it’s been a long time since the Silent Hill series has been at its peak.
Not including recent entries such as the interactive Silent Hill: Ascension and the surprisingly decent Silent Hill: The Short Story which is a free title recently launched on the PS Store for PlayStation 5, the wait for this series to return to its former glory has been a patient, yet painful journey for fans.
Check out the Silent Hill 2 remake trailer below!
Since Silent Hill 4: The Room we’ve had to make do with the likes of Silent Hill: Origins, Silent Hill: Homecoming and Silent Hill: Downpour, all of which were underwhelming. Not to mention the interesting, but not scary remake of the original game, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories in 2009. The latter of which can barely be considered a Silent Hill game in anything but name, in my opinion.
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It’s fair to say that Konami’s psychological survival horror series was at its peak with the original Silent Hill trilogy from 1999 to 2003. Konami had previously tried to capitalise on the success of two of its most popular games, Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 by releasing a remastered collection for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012. However, anyone who was there during the launch of that remastered collection will know that it was botched, to say the least.
The anguish in waiting for the Silent Hill series to return to form is why fans' excitement was through the roof when Konami announced the Silent Hill 2 remake in 2022 to be developed by Bloober Team, though not every fan is excited about that remake. That being said, it does pain me that Konami has ignored remaking the 1999 original once more. After all, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was a very different game and I think it's fair to say it wasn't the remake many hoped it would be. Anyway, that’s a rant for another day.
As reported by Eurogamer, it seems that Konami is considering releasing the OG Silent Hill games on modern consoles. Recently Konami dropped a series of developer diaries on its YouTube channel following the launch of Silent Hill: The Short Story. In the fourth video, a level designer at Hexadrive, Rika Miyatani a member of the studio that worked on Silent Hill: The Short Story revealed that it pitched to develop the Silent Hill 2 remake, which we now know was handed to Bloober Team.
During the Silent Hill 2 pitch, conversations had also taken place with Konami about “porting the Silent Hill series.” Miyatani explained: “Everyone, including myself, who were part of that discussion were big Silent Hill fans, so, internally, people started talking, and we said, ports would be nice too, but what we'd really like to see is a Silent Hill remade for current-gen consoles.”
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It wasn't mentioned during the developer diary series which games Hexadrive wanted to port along with a Silent Hill 2 remake, but it might be safe to assume that it would include the Silent Hill trilogy and hopefully, Silent Hill 4: The Room, at least. Whether the ports actually happen, remains to be seen. That being said, with Konami releasing Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 with more volumes teased, it’s not outside the realms of possibility that Silent Hill will get the same treatment too.
The Silent Hill 2 remake is expected to be released this year for PC and PlayStation 5 with an Xbox Series X|S launch to follow at least 12 months later. You can also check out the free Silent Hill: The Short Story now for PS5.
Featured Image Credit: KonamiTopics: Silent Hill, Konami, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch