Like many of you, my admiration for the Konami has gone down the toilet ever since their falling out with Hideo Kojima. The Japanese company once renowned for critically beloved single-player games like Castlevania and Silent Hill has decided to ditch their these beloved IPs in favor for the soulless cash grabs that are pachinko machines.
Considering that this happened over nine years ago, there’s been a lot of time to cement an unfavorable position for Konami that there’s almost no hope of recovering their once renowned status as one of video gaming’s giants. With the company being silent for the better of almost a decade only to release what seems to be a lazy port of the Metal Gear Solid trilogy, they honestly can’t seem to sink any lower. And quite frankly, they don’t really seem to be putting much effort into getting back in the video gaming industry.
However the Silent Hill 2 Remake may just be what they need to get back into people’s good graces. Why bother creating another bad Silent Hill game when the last ones were complete flops? Surely it’s best to stick to what already worked and what better way to do that than recreating a legendary title in the horror genre.
There may be more to the Silent Hill 2 Remake than just another simple cash grab. And it’s driving me crazy as to why Konami is keeping so hush about it save for that one teaser trailer they released over a year ago near 2022 Halloween.
The Silent Hill 2 Remake is being developed by the Bloober Team. You may have heard of them before since they’re no stranger in the horror genre. Bloober was the ones who developed Layers of Fear and Blair Witch. I actually got a chance to review The Medium which caught my eye thanks to its Silent Hill aesthetics and the fact that Akira Yamaoka was the musical composer.
According to the Deep Dive video with the developers, it seems the Bloober Team is doing more than just recreating Silent Hill 2 from the ground up with a fresh new code of paint. Instead they also seem to be adding new enemies and trying to see what they can do to add more to the combat. While Silent Hill 2’s combat might have been clunky, Bloober isn’t a developer that has much experience in terms of combat so I am skeptical as to how this Polish developer will handle it.
You should know that there’s been a couple of changes, such as James being older than he was in the original. According to series producer, Motoi Okamoto, after speaking with Masahiro Ito they wanted the protagonist to have a bit more troubles as an adult. And the fact that players of the original 2001 game have aged since then and they wanted to reflect that. It’ll be interesting to see how these new changes affect the original Silent Hill 2 story.
Konami hasn’t exactly been active in advertising Silent Hill 2 Remake’s development. Which considering their infamy at the moment, this might actually be the right move. Overpromising will just push people away into becoming even more skeptical about its release. However being developed by Bloober doesn’t sound too promising.
If by some miracle that the Silent Hill 2 Remake somehow becomes a success, it might just be what Konami needs to turn the tables on their bad reputation. It may also get them into looking to bring back their other IPs such as Castlevania back into the spotlight.
Out of any other works save Metal Gear Solid, a Silent Hill 2 Remake is the safest bet for Konami to be getting back into the right side of video gaming. Slowly threading back on their beloved IPs via remakes until fans are confident that a new entry will be something to actually look forward to. Unfortunately, this is Konami so some skepticism is warranted especially after the poor Metal Gear Solid Master Collection which was a bit expensive for a lazy port.
The good news is that we’re likely to see if the Bloober Team does the Silent Hill 2 Remake any justice very soon. A trailer of upcoming 2024 games from the official PlayStation Youtube channel lists the Silent Hill 2 Remake and the Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake as coming out this year.
The bad news is that the Silent Hill 2 Remake is a timed exclusive for the PS5. Those who want to play the game on other platforms will have to wait a little longer. On the bright side, you can save up some money if it ever turns out to be a flop.
