There were many of us who had our doubts that Bloober Team and Konami would be able to pull off a legitimately good remake of Silent Hill 2. Bloober Team as a developer has never really been at the level that you would expect from a studio bearing the responsibility of remaking a game as legendary as Silent Hill 2, while Konami’s actions over the last decade or so had made the company one of the least trustworthy brands among gaming audiences for very good reason. With those very legitimate reasons in mind, it would be fair to say that a lot of the skepticism that Silent Hill 2’s remake was met with in the couple of years leading up to its release wasn’t unwarranted- but at the same time, you have to give credit where it’s due.
Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake is incredible. It’s the sort of remake that strikes the perfect balance between being smartly faithful to its source material and adding in its own ideas and flourishes, and in doing so, delivers a game that feels like a sufficiently enhanced and expanded form of what was an already stellar gaming experience. Not only does it keep the strengths of the original intact, the new Silent Hill 2 even enhances those strengths, with the end result being a survival horror remake that is good enough to stand in company of other modern classics in that very specific subset of games, including the likes of Resident Evil 2, and Dead Space.
The question, of course, is this- what’s next for Bloober Team and Konami? And cutting right to the chase, we can probably safely assume that Silent Hill 2 isn’t the last time the two will be collaborating on the psychological horror franchise. There is, in fact, a very good chance that Bloober Team is going to develop another Silent Hill remake, which is something that the studio has strongly hinted at on a couple of occasions. Recently, for instance, Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno said in an interview with Polish outlet Bankier that the Silent Hill 2 remake was “not the end of the adventure with Konami”. Going back a little further, in an interview with GamingBolt, when asked about the possibility of developing more Silent Hill remakes in the future, Silent Hill 2 producer Maciej Głomb said, “It still remains to be seen, but in my opinion, you should never say never.” Sure, that was far from a confirmation- but you wouldn’t expect such an answer from a studio that wasn’t looking to continue working on the IP going forward.
Now that Silent Hill 2 is out and is receiving the sort of widespread acclaim that it is, assuming that it sells well enough (which it hopefully will), we’d be surprised if Konami didn’t greenlight at least another remake with Bloober Team. But even if we were to work on the assumption that that does happen, we would still have another interesting question left to answer- which game should Konami and Bloober remake next?
That Silent Hill 2 was the right choice as the first game to be remade, in spite of being the series’ second entry, is something that we can all agree on, at least in hindsight. Obviously, there was immense pressure on the game to succeed as not only the remake of a beloved and legendary title, but also as the first major release for a fan-favourite franchise that had been dormant for too long (and hadn’t been genuinely good in even longer). But Silent Hill 2 was, narratively speaking, perhaps the best suited for a remake where the developer wouldn’t have to change too much, which meant that most of the attention could be diverted to enhancing the experience’s gameplay and technical aspects, while trying to preserve its narrative strengths.
Both Silent Hill 1 and 3 would likely allow Bloober Team to continue onward with that approach. Having released in 1999 and 2003 respectively, both titles have aged significantly at this point, which means that, just like with Silent Hill 2, the developers will have to spend a lot of their time on reimagining and enhancing the gameplay, design, audio, visuals, and what have you. On a narrative level, meanwhile, neither Silent Hill 1 or 3 have the same level of prestige that something like 2 does, even though they obviously have their fair share of fans, which would likely also allow Bloober Team to maybe be more ambitious with the creative liberties it takes in adapting the source material.
Would that attract skepticism (once again)? Probably, yes- but the studio has done an undeniably good job with Silent Hill 2, which means it’s earned at least a certain amount of trust. Especially if Bloober continues to work with Silent Hill veterans who worked on the originals – as it did for the Silent Hill 2 remake, which saw both creature designer Masahiro Ito and composer Akira Yamaoka taking an active part in development – we wouldn’t be opposed to the idea of the studio making at least some changes in future remakes. We’ve seen with plenty of remakes in recent years that not sticking closely to the script can often make for even better experiences than the original games, and we’d very much like for future Silent Hill remakes to benefit from such an approach, if they were to get made.
Either one of Silent Hill 1 or 3 would be a smart pick for the next remake, then, though of course, there’s an argument to be made that Silent Hill 4: The Room should also be in that conversation. That is, of course, the black sheep of the mainline numbered Silent Hill line of titles, but it is also the sort of game that is perhaps in more desperate need of improvements and enhancements than Silent Hill 1 and 3, both of which are great games already. Then again, for a franchise that has only just started its comeback journey, perhaps it wouldn’t be the smartest decision to remake what is decidedly one of the series’ least popular entries.
Beyond the mainline numbered titles, Silent Hill does also have a number of spinoffs that are, at least on paper, also candidates for remakes, with Silent Hill: Origins, Downpour, Shattered Memories, and Homecoming. You wouldn’t be wrong for thinking that each of those games have their sets of fans, but while that might be the case, it’s also undeniable that they’re all seriously flawed. For the same reasons as The Room, it’s unlikely that Konami will want to move on to remakes for these titles just yet- and at least The Room is a numbered entry.
Recent reports have claimed that Capcom is currently developing remakes of Resident Evil Zero and Code Veronica, but that’s only after the company spent the last few years pumping out one numbered remake after another. Once Konami has that sort of solid footing beneath Silent Hill’s legs, we’re sure the idea of spinoffs and the less popular entries being remade won’t seem so out of reach anymore, but at least for now, we’d be surprised if Konami decided to remake anything other than Silent Hill 1 or 3.
That is, of course, based on the assumption that Silent Hill 2 will sell well enough to warrant a follow-up. Hopefully that does happen, because what Bloober Team and Konami have accomplished with the newly-released remake is truly special, and we’d hate to not be able to see them try something like that with other instalments in the franchise in the not-too-distant future.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
