Take Me Home
The Silent Hill franchise is beloved by many, including me, with Silent Hill 2 being my favourite psychological horror of all time. Like many fans, I lost all hope of Silent Hill ever making a proper return. After the Silent Hill showcase, I nearly passed out from excitement. It’s been ten long years, and the wait is finally over. We got our fill of announcements.
The first announcement was Silent Hill 2 Remake, developed by Bloober Team. I knew this was on the cards, but I held some hope that they would remake the first Silent Hill. It starts in the bathroom we all know and love. The graphics look top-notch, and where the main protagonist (James Sunderland) doesn’t portray as I envisioned from the original. I can live with it. The town looks fantastic, and they are going with an over-the-shoulder camera which excites me. They even left the controversial pyramid head having some fun times scene. Now for my concerns, I know it is in early development, but all the characters, including the enemies, looked too clean and bright, kind of out of place, if you will. The pyramid head had no blood on him and pure, unblemished skin. Overall though, I can’t wait to go back to Maine.
Next came the reveal of Silent Hill Townfall, developed by Stories Untold and Observation maker No Code alongside Annapurna Interactive. There wasn’t much to say about this one. It was just a radio chatter on a table in an office. From pure speculation, It sounds like two people are trapped in Silent Hill. One portrays the other as a monster but, in psychopathy, as doing something terrible and not wanting to be around when they come to terms with what they have done. From the surroundings we are given and how the one person speaks over the radio chatter. Could this be a psychiatrist and their patient?
A new Silent Hill film named Return To Silent Hill by Christophe Gans, director of the first Silent Hill movie from 2006 was up next. The first movie divided fans, but in my opinion, if you don’t pay too much attention to the lore compared to the games, it is an excellent psychological horror flick with some nice gory kills. Its plot closely follows the events of Silent Hill 2 Game, which kind of made me laugh. We are getting a Remake of Silent Hill 2 and a movie of Silent hill 2. It blew my mind in the same way; they Re Remade The Last Of Us and Made a TV show of the Last Of Us following the same events with the same characters in the same year. I loved that they did not mention the atrocity of the film Silent Hill: Revelation.
The fourth announcement, and yes, I know four. It was an obscure one Silent Hill Ascension. Ascension is a “live, real-time interactive series” in which players watch together as the story continues. The players can become a part of story development and change the lore forever. Genvid, J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot Games, Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour and DJ2 Entertainment are said to be behind this project. It sounds very ambitious, and I have no clue what it could be. Someone part of our team speculates it could be a VR experience. It’s said to be released in 2023
Finally, we saw a trailer for a brand new Silent Hill game called Silent Hill f. It’s set in a 1960s Japanese town and follows a young girl running from what looks like the silent hill curse, blossoming into many flower heads. It does keep showing an old Japanese doll. The trailer ends with the girl being caught by the curse and transforming into a flower creature, and then her face falls off, sounds fun. I think this could be an origin story of how the curse began. I know we got Silent Hill Origins, but this game predates that or perhaps it’s just another form of the curse. I am very intrigued and excited about this instalment. It reminds me of a blend of Fatal Frame and The Last Of Us. It is being written by Japanese visual novel specialist Ryūkishi07.
I hope you enjoyed my overall thoughts on the Silent Hill showcase, and for once, I believe Konami have knocked it out of the park. Yes, they have outsourced most of the franchise to other developers, which I have my reserves about, but I cannot complain. I’m very excited to have one of my beloved franchises back.
Que the amazing Silent Hill Soundtrack
