INSIGHT: Silent Hill Presentation Oct 2022

Konami made a surprise appearance with not just one silent hill series announcement, but 5! Top of the bill is a new Silent Hill 2 remake from Bloober team in conjunction with some of the original Team Silent. The trailer shows some fantastic visuals and atmosphere that encapsulates the original game while also revealing some of the stylistic and probable gameplay adjustments being made. This looks fantastic and although Bloober team are often looked down upon it looks mightily like they are up to this task. At Cubed we've enjoyed their games such as The Medium and have no reason to doubt they can manage this! It will be exclusive to PS5 and PC for the first year and will leverage PS5's unique systems such as haptic feedback and 3D audio to get players even more immersed.

There were also two new game announcements. One is Silent Hill: Town Fall, by NoCode, the Glasgow based developer who made Observation and published by Annapurna. There is not much info on this game but given NoCode's history it's fair to expect a story-driven experience with some form of interesting and unique hook! 

The final game that was revealed, which capped off the presentation, is a new Silent Hill game set in Japan called Silent Hill f. This game is being developed by NeoBards (responsible for many Resident Evil side projects) and written by visualnovelist Ryukishi07. It's promising a new mainline entry with a fresh spin on what Silent Hill can be! It looks very promising from its disturbing teaser trailer.

Alongside this they have a new movie in the works, called Return to Silent Hill, that will adapt Silent Hill 2's story in a similar way to the first Silent Hill movie. They're promising to stay as faithful to the game as possible, and finally Pyramid Head will be in the correct setting (never forget he is only appropriate in Silent Hill 2's world). This movie is being directed by Christopher Gans, who directed the first movie, and is being concepted and produced alongside key Silent Hill figures to ensure it doesn't lose its way.

On the stream they also announced a new type of online experience. It's not terribly clear what it is but it's called Silent Hill Ascension. It appears to be a live series run as an event where the viewers can steer the story and "create Silent Hill canon", so it sounds incredibly interesting! It's being produced by interactive livestream platform Genvid Technologies, Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive, and DJ2 Entertainment.

Overall it was a promising and exciting announcement showcase that appears to be promising the return of Silent Hill not only in remade form but as new games and merch too. It is an exciting time to be a fan and only time will tell how these games and media wash with players. It's a good time to be a Silent Hill fan!

Watch the full presentation here: