Silent Hill 2: Everything We Know

After spending the last twenty years skirting around the question of whether or not Silent Hill will ever get its well-deserved reboot, Konami has finally made the call to remake one of its most popular chapters of all time: Silent Hill 2. But what do we know about the remake, exactly? What has Konami let slip since bringing it to the table in late 2022? Well, here's everything we've been able to pull from the bucket, and everything you should jot down before making that all-important pre-order.

What Is Silent Hill 2?

Silent Hill 2 is an upcoming remake of the universally acclaimed 1999 original, a game that many consider to be one of the best survival-horror titles of all time. Working from the source, the forthcoming remake will feature an entirely new and revitalized world, and will be brought to life with the power of Unreal Engine 5. At the time of writing, it will be exclusive to PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam.

“The SILENT HILL 2 remake revisits main protagonist James Sunderland and his search for clues in the namesake town relating to a mysterious letter from his wife Mary…who had long been dead,” Bloober Team's official snippet reads. “Experience the eerie creatures and other manifestations of James' consciousness reworked after 20 years using state-of-the-art technology to play on modern entertainment systems in 4K.”

Story

It goes without saying that, if you've played the original game, then you'll no doubt already have all the pieces to construct a portrait of the story. If you're clueless about it, then we'll lay it out for you, plain and simple (and spoiler free).

Silent Hill 2 follows the story of James Sunderland, a waylaid widow who's led to the isolated and ashen world of Silent Hill, a town in which dark monstrosities roam the grounds and forbidden secrets are commonplace. After James loses track of his supposedly dead wife Mary, he makes the decision to follow the breadcrumbs leading to the twisted underworld that looms beyond the fog. Enter Silent Hill, the last place on earth you'd ever want to spend the night.

Gameplay

So, will Silent Hill 2 be anything like the original on PlayStation? In short, we don't actually know, as the announcement trailer failed to actually shed any light on the gameplay itself. What we do know, however, is that the fixed camera will no longer be a thing. Instead, Bloober Team will adopt an over-the-shoulder style, similar to the one seen in the recent Resident Evil remakes. To accommodate this new perspective, the devs will be rebuilding the combat from the ground up.

If we're to go by the original, then the new Silent Hill 2 will keep a firm grasp on its puzzles, intense combat and immersive exploration segments. Although not a action game on any account, the remake will most definitely feature its fair share of in-your-face encounters and a variety of melee and ranged weapons to boot. At its heart, though, it's bread and butter survival-horror, and will mostly rely on creating tense atmospheric settings and thought-provoking story arcs.

“Developed by Bloober Team, composer Akira Yamaoka and artist Masahiro Ito the unsettling town shrouded in the brooding fog will be remade with enhanced visuals, sounds and gameplay,” Bloober Team adds.

Development

The Silent Hill 2 remake is being developed by Bloober Team, a reputable firm known for popular games including Layers of Fear, The Medium, and Blair Witch. Also pitching in to the remake are both Masahiro Ito and Akira Yamaoka, two known artists and composers who helped forge the earliest Silent Hill entries alongside Team Silent and Konami.

Bloober Team first announced the remake during the Silent Hill Transmission, an online showcase that aired on October 19, 2022. At the time of writing, the developer has yet to confirm any release date for Silent Hill 2. If we're to go by rumors, though, then we could very well see it come to fruition by Q4 2023. Having said that, it's probably best to take any sort of rumor with a huge grain of salt at this stage.

Trailer

So, has Bloober Team released a trailer to go along with its announcement? As luck would have it, yes. You can catch the one and only sneak preview of the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake in the embed above.

Release Date, Platforms & Editions

Silent Hill 2 will be coming to PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam at an undisclosed date, which Konami has yet to announce. Due to the game being built in Unreal Engine 5, the chances of it being available on PlayStation 4 are slim to non-existent. It's also exclusive to PlayStation, which means Xbox users will not have access to it at any point in the foreseeable future. That is, unless Konami decides to up sticks and port it for the sake of building on its horizons, à la Silent Hill HD Collection.

At the time of writing, Konami hasn't made it clear whether or not the game will be a day-one exclusive on PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium. Given its immense popularity and potential backlog of pre-orders, though, it's becoming increasingly unlikely that it will be coming to the service at all. Perhaps, then, it'll be offered out after a year, maybe two, to long-term subscribers of the platform, with a boatload of terms and conditions tied at the waist. Who knows.

As far as editions go, consumers can no doubt expect a select number of them to come to light in the months building up to the release date (whenever that is). At the time of writing, though, we can only speculate, and perhaps go as far as to assume that Silent Hill 2 will come with a standard edition, a digital deluxe edition, and a collector's edition. Don't take our word on that, though.

For more information and updates on Silent Hill 2, be sure to follow the official social handle here.

So, what's your take? Will you be picking up a copy of the latest Silent Hill 2 remake when it drops? Let us know over on our socials here or down in the comments below.