It’s official: after months of rumors and speculation, Konami is remaking Silent Hill 2.
During today’s Silent Hill Transmission event, Konami showcased a three-minute trailer that provided a look at the famously foggy town in 4K. In addition to providing glimpses of Pyramid Head and other notable elements from the original game, the trailer confirmed that Bloober Team will handling development and that it will utilize the Unreal Engine. It will be a PS5 console exclusive while also releasing on Steam.
Masahiro Ito will provide the creature design while Akira Yamaoka returns as the game’s composer.
Fully remade to terrify audiences, the intense psychological horror masterpiece SILENT HILL 2 is coming to PlayStation®5 and STEAM® #SILENTHILLhttps://t.co/erxCqMr3qp pic.twitter.com/xZH79a2kP1
— Konami (@Konami) October 19, 2022
The trailer begins with a close-up shot of a cockroach — a properly repulsive glamour shot designed to show off the game’s graphics — followed by hero James Sunderland looking into a mirror amid a voiceover about his deceased wife. It’s followed by familar shots of Sunderland walking through the fog, glimpses of some familiar moments, and of course, Pyramid Head, who is seen hulking in the rain.
Ito appeared in a short conversation afterward, where he seemingly referred the leaks when talking about dodging questions from fans on Twitter. In a separate conversation, Yamaoka recalled the challenges of developing the original game’s soundtrack and how he wanted to create a “new kind of music.” He also expressed gratitude that the series remains popular after 20 years.
To put it simply, our goal is to make everything that made the game a timeless classic, but delve even deeper into the foggy streets of Silent Hill
“The remake also has a new musical style, new challenges, and sound design and music that will be able to please the existing fans,” Yamaoka said.
Bloober Team, meanwhile, expressed their intentions to remake the game while also modernizing it. That includes adding an over-the-shoulder camera among other enhancements.
“To put it simply, our goal is to make everything that made the game a timeless classic, but delve even deeper into the foggy streets of Silent Hill,” said director Mateusz Lenart, who previously served as creative director of The Medium.
The Silent Hill 2 remake has been rumored to be in development for months, but has remained tightly under wraps until now. It marks Konami’s first foray into the series since Silent Hill: Book of Memories, which was released almost exactly a decade ago on PlayStation Vita.
Originally released on PlayStation 2 in 2001, Silent Hill 2 is consistently lauded as one of the finest horror games ever made. Its contributions to the genre include the aforementioned Pyramid Head, who is counted among the scariest characters in video game history.
Rumors of a return to Silent Hill have swirled since the release of P.T. back in 2014, which was billed as a demo of sorts of a Hideo Kojima-led project titled Silent Hills. In the years that followed, Konami seemingly gave up on games entirely, but rumors persisted that the franchise was being farmed out to other studios. Some of the rumors were even connected to Kojima, who departed Konami under acrimonious circumstances.
The rumor mill went into high gear earlier this year when leaked images appeared online before being swiftly deleted. They were further driven by Konami renewing its trademark and director Christopher Gan claiming multiple games are under development.
Now, at last, we know these rumors are true.
Silent Hill 2 is under development for PS5 and Steam, and does not yet have a release date.
Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
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