When Bloober and Konami introduced that they had been remaking Silent Hill 2 as a part of a comprehensive series reboot, it made quick if barely deflating sense to me. Silent Hill 2 is the extra feted of the Hills – if I had been a calculating franchise custodian tasked with ‘bringing again’ one of many acclaimed unique trilogy, that is in all probability the instalment I and my spreadsheets would repair upon. I imply, it is the sport with Pyramid Head in it – the closest factor Silent Hill has to a mascot, and it isn’t like there’s a problem of slicing out plot materials: every sport within the Silent Hill sequence is, on some degree, a definite story with a definite protagonist.
Nonetheless, the choice to ‘skip’ the first game in the series, whose world, narrative themes, music and artwork course set the parameters for all the remaining, made my mind itch a bit, and after I bumped into Bloober’s artistic director Mateusz Lenart and lead producer Maciej Głomb at a Konami occasion, I needed to ask about it.
“I feel Silent Hill 2 simply matches our DNA means higher,” Lenart started. “It is rather more emotional, a way more private story than, for instance, the primary sport or the third sport. And we at Bloober had been at all times followers of telling private tales about folks’s experiences, folks’s emotions and the way they undergo them. Not a lot about, you realize know, occultism and issues from different worlds, proper? So I feel that was the principle cause, principally.”
Some context: with out giving an excessive amount of away, the unique Silent Hill is extra of a supernatural affair, together with your character Harry swept up in numerous diabolical doings, although it is also a piece of psychological projection. The sequel switches priorities, putting a sorely disquieted mind on the centre, although it retains one foot in that lineage of occultism.
Lenart added that Bloober prefers to inform tales which can be equally “grounded” and focussed. “Clearly [our games] characteristic some supernatural parts, however in the long run it is all a couple of particular particular person, on a particular journey that they should make to search out out the reality about themselves.”
In fact, the selection of which Silent Hill sport to deal with was broadly out of Bloober’s arms. “Yeah, Silent Hill 2 is one of the best match for us as Bloober Crew, by way of our DNA and the video games that we have executed and that we did beforehand,” Glomb agreed. “Alternatively, it isn’t like we had been making this resolution, proper? The franchise is linked to Konami’s plans.
“So we had this proposition, in all probability due to our DNA, our backgrounds with Silent Hill 2. And we had been very glad to do that model of the sport, simply because it suits our emotions. Even in our earlier video games, we had been so impressed by Silent Hill 2 in additional particular elements – in Layers Of Worry, which is a very totally different sport, however having these totally different endings, it was impressed by Silent Hill 2. Having these small issues in the course of the sport the place we do not inform you that it will result in a unique ending.”
As I stated, if I had been a canny Konami exec, I might in all probability greenlight Silent Hill 2 for the remake therapy earlier than any of the others. As a participant, nonetheless, I am curious to understand how Bloober’s remake will land with individuals who have not performed the horror sport that began the ball rolling. It is nonetheless my favorite of the Hills, and Silent Hill 2 is a richer play for understanding the way it responds to the unique sport – what it preserves, what it rejects.
Whereas there was a “remake” of types within the form of Silent Hill: Shattered Recollections, the primary Silent Hill lives on in the present day principally within the form of the retro horror scene: its PS1 graphics and visible course have grow to be a definite aesthetic, evolving alongside the hi-fi photorealism of later Silent Hill sequels. I assume we’ll at all times have Itch.io.
