Before I discovered the Resident Evil franchise for myself, I was obsessed with a different horror series—Silent Hill. I’d rented Silent Hill 2 as a teen, and it blew me away. Never before (and arguably never again) had I played anything like it. It was formative for me as a (ugh) gamer. Silent Hill 2 was the game that made me realize that the medium could be about more than high scores and saving the day. I didn’t feel accomplished when I beat it. I felt melancholy and spent weeks thinking about the game’s themes and characters.
Over the years, Konami would keep releasing new Silent Hill games and I would keep playing them. I played Silent Hill 3, Silent Hill 4: The Room, Silent Hill: Origins, and Silent Hill Homecoming. With each new entry, my interest in the franchise lessened until it had almost dissipated completely. SH2 was still hugely important to me and I had a fondness for The Room, but I didn’t feel the need to play new entries like Shattered Memories or Downpour. My interest in the franchise wouldn’t be re-ignited until Hideo Kojima’s phenomenal P.T. had its surprise release, and, well, we all know how that turned out.
Now, after years of scaling back their video game business, Konami is teasing “updates for the Silent Hill series” on Twitter and using a line from Silent Hill 2 in their tweet. Wednesday’s broadcast will likely finally reveal Bloober Team’s long-rumored Silent Hill 2 remake, but fans across the internet are speculating about what else could be revealed. I don’t have much interest in speculating at this point. Part of me wants Konami to just put the franchise to bed. Their track record for preserving and nurturing their franchises has been spotty at best, but if they’re insisting on doing this, I wanted to share my thoughts and wishlist ahead of Wednesday’s stream.
Silent Hill 2 Remake
First, let’s talk about the rumored remake. It seems like it’s probably happening, especially considering the SH2 quote Konami used in their tweet. But just don’t.
If Konami wants to let Bloober Team to make a Silent Hill game, fine. But letting any developer remake a game like Silent Hill 2 would be a mistake. Sure, it doesn’t erase the original, but I’m very concerned about what a team like Bloober would do with the themes and characters in a remake. On top of that, SH2 is a sum of its parts. On their own, many aspects of the original are mediocre or even bad, but together they create something special. We’ve seen SH2 without the original voice actors in the HD remaster on PS3 and Xbox 360, and it’s like playing a totally different game. Sure, remakes are working for Capcom and they’ve been really good. But I don’t think it should be done here.
Wishlist
Here’s what I want from their stream… it’s a pretty simple list.
- Relist P.T. – Just do it.
- Make past Silent Hill games available on modern consoles and PC. I know they lost the code for Silent Hill 2 and 3, but find a way to do it. A moderately powerful PC can emulate the PS2 version of SH2 with results that far exceed the crappy PS3 and Xbox 360 ports. Make it happen for modern hardware. But beyond those two, make the rest available, too. The Room shouldn’t be lost to time. It might not be a great Silent Hill game, but it is still a very interesting product that should be played. The rest, while middling to bad, should be available, too. I’d buy a collection. Let me.
And that’s it! That’s my list. I have my own idea for what I want from a modern Silent Hill game, but I’d rather Konami take these steps and then just let the franchise be. I don’t want Kojima back to finish Silent Hills. That ship has sailed.
Anyway… I’m off to play more Resident Evil.
