1999 saw Konami drop a seminal franchise out of nowhere. What initially looked like an attempt to cash in on the gold mine Capcom struck with Resident Evil, turned out to be a completely different beast. While Silent Hill was a Japanese survival horror game with tank-like controls and was big on atmosphere, it leaned more towards the survival horror side of things. It featured fewer zombies and more macabre creatures. More importantly, it told a tragic tale of loss and grief with a hint of psychosis, as well as a hot female police officer, for some reason. Naturally, it got a sequel, which doubled down on everything that made the first game work, weirdness and all.
No game has captured the same feeling of losing trust in your brain, sense of direction, and even instincts.
Perhaps this explains why, after several sequel attempts and a couple of failed live-action adaptations, Konami rebooted everything and put Silent Hill 2 at the center of it all.
What makes Silent Hill 2 so iconic isn’t that it’s a horror game – it’s a horrifying game that, on paper, shouldn’t be. All memes about its “secret” Shiba Inu ending aside, you wouldn’t be caught dead being scared by a couple of mummified nurses flailing around or a lumbering man with a pyramid for a head.
These creatures remain emblematic of all things Silent Hill – a mark that, somehow, subsequent projects missed.
With Bloober Team at the helm, a studio that somehow turned staring at paintings into a haunting experience, there’s little doubt that the remake of Silent Hill 2 will do well. But, while it’s the highlight of this revival, Konami has several other projects lined up that aren’t exactly doing well, starting with Silent Hill: Ascension.
In a nutshell, Ascension is a “interactive horror television series” that used to stream daily scenes from Monday to Friday but the schedule has since shifted to thrice a week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays). The “game” gives each main character three endings: Redemption, Suffering, and Damnation. To influence this, you have to log onto the website to gather IP, which you can only obtain by watching the scenes on the app, solving daily puzzles, or by paying with real-life cash. Obviously, the whales (those who pay a lot of money) hold the most influence regarding where the story goes.
This would’ve been fine if the writing was great, or if the animation was good, or if the characters were interesting, but they’re neither of the three.
As the first project in Konami’s grand Silent Hill resurrection, Ascension’s success (or failure) sets an awful precedent. So far, it’s tracking towards the latter, making the impending failure of future Silent Hill projects all the more likely. If Konami thought it could get away with something this mediocre, we doubt the others are any better.
But, hey, maybe we’re just making much ado about nothing. Bloober’s name is as respectable as it gets in the genre. It’s not like the Polish studio is alone in this revival either. Spearheading the entire thing is Motoi Okamoto, who was with Nintendo for most of the 2000s. Finally, the original creature designer and composer for Silent Hill 2, Masahiro Ito and Akira Yamoka, respectively, are both on board for the remake.
If we’re lucky, the Silent Hill 2 Remake will stick its landing, especially when Konami finally decides to reveal more of it.
However, a full-on revival requires more than just one successful remake. Don’t forget that Silent Hill, as a franchise, has been dead for the better part of the past decade. You could argue that it died as soon as Team Silent disbanded in 2004. The good news is that Silent Hill f, which is the franchise’s first proper mainline addition since 2012, could help make this revival happen. Developed by Neobards Entertainment, a studio with a penchant for remastering old Japanese survival horror titles, Silent Hill f has the looks and eerie feeling down pat.
Unfortunately, we won’t know how Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill f will do until both have hit the storeshelves, which could take anywhere between a few months from now to a few years.
Ultimately, it’s still too early to tell if Konami has failed with its Silent Hill revival. What’s clear is it’s off to a rough start. A single successful release could change this. Until then though, don’t expect to see the naysayers turn into believers.
