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It has been a very, very long time since we’ve seen anything from the Silent Hlil series, with a full decade having passed since the release of Silent Hill: Book of Memories on Vita–and an almost unbelievable eight years since PT gave fans hope for the Hideo Kojima-led reboot Silent Hills. Now, however, it appears we could finally be returning to Konami’s legendary horror series, and it could be with multiple games. Here’s what we know–including rumors–about the Silent Hill franchise’s future, as well as what we hope to see as we head into Summer Game Fest and the other Not-E3 events in June.
Multiple games?
Despite being on ice for so long, it appears the Silent Hill franchise will be returning with not just one, but several different games. Assuming reports on these games are accurate, Konami seems to be catering to multiple different types of players across these titles rather than trying to produce one game capable of pleasing them all.
According to Grubbsnax host Jeff Grubb, who corroborated a Twitter post from user NateTheHate2, there is a new mainline Silent Hill game in development, though details on it are scarce right now. The two also say other “side stories” are also in development, as is a full remake of Silent Hill 2. This will not be a straight recreation of the game, but will instead offer changes to puzzles and endings–it’ll be a timed console exclusive on PlayStation, according to these reports.
Familiar faces
The reports say Bloober Team is creating the Silent Hill 2 remake. The studio has a well-established background in horror and psychological thriller games, including The Medium, Layers of Fear, and Blair Witch. For its part, the studio’s CEO, Piotr Babieno, declined to comment on the reports during an interview with IGN, but did seem to at least entertain the idea they were true. Bloober Team confirmed it was working with Konami on something last year, but didn’t specify what that would be beyond “existing and new IPs.”
According to VGC, one of the projects in the works is an episodic series of shorter games, and that this was at one point being discussed with developer Supermassive before the studio instead created its The Dark Pictures anthology games. At this point, it’s not clear what studio–if any–is actively developing these games.
The least seems to be known about the next mainline Silent Hill game. The series has varied fairly wildly over the years, ranging from the classic survival-horror gameplay of the first few to the more combat-focused Homecoming.
And it appears there is actually a fourth game in development, though it’s unclear if we’ll actually ever play it. Grubb said he’s heard it’s a spin-off project, possibly for mobile devices, being made in Taiwan. However, Grubb emphasized that if it is a mobile spin-off, there is a chance it gets canceled before development is complete. We’ve seen this with similar projects related to other major franchises like Titanfall, so it’s best not to get too excited for this game quite yet.
It isn’t Abandoned
One thing we know for a fact is that Abandoned–the possible vaporware horror game first announced on the PlayStation Blog in 2021–is not Silent Hill. Rumors almost immediately started that the vague teaser for the horror game was actually a Kojima-produced resurrection of the franchise, sometimes encouraged by developer Blue Box Game Studios’ tweets. However, this isn’t a Moby Dick Game Studios and Joakim Mogren situation this time: Kojima is not involved, and Abandoned is not and never has been a Silent Hill game.
What we want to see from Silent Hill
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So, what do we want to see from a new Silent Hill game? What would one even look like after such a long time away for the series? And we won’t take the easy way out and just say “revive PT.”
First off, Konami would be wise to consider a clean break from the previous games’ characters and storylines. Capcom almost did this completely with Resident Evil 7 before reintroducing some past characters in Resident Evil Village, but there also wasn’t an enormous gap in between games like there is for Silent Hill. It appeared Kojima was set to do this with Silent Hills, as Norman Reedus’ character was new, and PT was different enough to make its revelation as a Silent Hill game a surprise.
That doesn’t mean the past has to be completely forgotten, of course. The titular Silent Hill could still definitely be the setting, and Pyramid Head is such an iconic enemy that it would be unconscionable to omit the character.
True survival-horror games have seen a big resurgence over the last several years, ditching the firefight-happy formula that Resident Evil fell into for a period of time in favor of tense, atmospheric exploration. Combat still exists in modern horror games, of course, but an emphasis on resource management and getting away from danger rather than directly confronting it makes for a more terrifying horror game. Especially with a series like Silent Hill, which has largely focused on regular people instead of special agents and police officers, this approach makes a lot of sense.
