When Konami a Silent Hill 2 remake by Bloober Team last year there was some concern over whether a studio making a name for itself with streamer-friendly scares in the Layers of Fear series was right for such a beloved survival horror game. Especially when it became known that the remake wouldn’t have the fixed camera perspective of the original and was rebuilding the fight.
In a recent interview with DreadXP (opens in new tab)Bloober’s chief marketing officer Anna Jasińska tried to address these concerns saying, “Long-time fans don’t have to worry about us ‘missing the point’ as we liven up the title. We’re staying true to the traditional story canon while we’re improving the gameplay. and updating the graphics from scratch. These are the reasons why Konami entrusted us with the remake in the first place.”
As Jasińska tells it, remaking the beloved game was something Bloober has wanted to do for a long time. “Silent Hill 2 is a classic that has shaped the way our studio works on psychological horrors. The idea of working on this project has haunted us for many years,” she said.
Bloober seems to understand that Silent Hill fans are a demanding bunch, with high hopes for a game that was notoriously ill-served by the 2012 HD remastering. we’re dealing with one of the best psychological horror games ever made. We want to stay close to the original and we’ll be putting the spotlight on it for years to come.”
The trailer for the Silent Hill 2 remake went out of its way to show off familiar locations like Brookhaven Hospital and recreate specific story beats like James reaching through bars to get a key. There may have been some actual cockroaches and cigarette butts in that dingy bathroom, but it was still recognizably Silent Hill 2’s dingy bathroom.
These statements from Bloober’s chief marketing officer align with those to portray a developer cautious in its approach to remaking a cult classic and presumably anticipating more backlash. That said, there are suggestions that a few tweaks may have been made to the remake, other than making the fight scenes and camera angles more dramatic. “We stay true to the original title,” emphasized Jasińska. “Nevertheless, we apply adjustments in certain areas where things need to be modernized due to the passage of time.”
The Silent Hill 2 remake is just one of many revivals of the Silent Hill series currently in the works. No Code, the studio behind Stories Untold, is working on it Silent Hill: City trapwhile NeoBards is developing a prequel set in 1960s Japan called Silent Hill Fand Bad Robot Games Studio is planning a “massive interactive live event” of sorts called Silent Hill Climb.