It’s been a good long while since we’ve seen anything concrete from Konami and developer Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake, but the project has now received a fresh airing as part of Sony’s latest PlayStation State of Play showcase, this time with a trailer
Combat perhaps isn’t the first thing you’d expect Konami’s marketing material to dwell on given it’s quite some way down the list of elements that made the original Silent Hill 2 such a beloved horror experience, but the trailer does, in fairness, hang back a whole 40 seconds before switching out the atmospheric meandering for bat-swinging, shotgun-blasting action.
Additionally, it’s reassuring, and perhaps even a little surprising, to see just how closely Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake hews to aesthetic of the original 2001 PlayStation 2 game – it certainly doesn’t look like we’re in for a radical tonal reinvention here.
One thing we didn’t get during today’s State of Play showing, alas, is a release date – or even a vague release window – for Silent Hill 2. A PlayStation Blog post earlier this year suggested the game was aiming to launch in 2024, but today’s trailer dodges the question entirely, ending with the proclamation the remake is merely “in development for PlayStation 5”.
Speaking at the end of last year, Bloober said work on the remake was “progressing smoothly”, but called for patience until Konami was ready to share more. Thankfully, the publisher isn’t leaving Silent Hill fans completely wanting – it’s just announced a new “contemporary” first-person Silent Hill entry, The Last Message, will release for free on PS5 today.