Silent Hill 2: Everything we know about Konami's survival horror remake
Silent Hill 2 has finally started emerging from the fog. It's been two years since publisher Konmai announced that it would be remaking the most beloved entry in its flagship series – widely regarded as one of the best survival horror games ever – so it's a relief that we're finally getting clued up on what exactly to expect when it launches later in 2024.
A recent gameplay and extended trailer reveal means we now have a release date firmly under our belts. This upcoming horror game is set to deliver some spooks just in time for Halloween – after all, what would autumn be without a Bubble Head Nurse or two to smack in the face with a wooden plank? It seems developer Bloober Team has taken its job seriously in bringing us a reimagining of James Sunderlands' haunting journey to his own personal hell, so here's everything we know about the Silent Hill 2 remake right now – from a release date to recent news and an analysis of the extended gameplay reveal.
Silent Hill 2 news
Silent Hill 2 release date
The Silent Hill 2 remake release date has been set for October 8, 2024. Konami revealed the date as well as a brand new trailer at a Sony State of Play showcase on May 30, followed up by a dedicated Silent Hill Transmission broadcast to further flesh out Bloober Team's vision for the remake.
Silent Hill 2 platforms
Bad news, Xbox Series X owners: the Silent Hill 2 remake will launch on PC and PS5 only on October 8. This makes Silent Hill 2 one of our top upcoming PC games as well as upcoming PS5 games to watch for this year.
However, that doesn't mean Konami won't consider an Xbox release later down the line. After all, that's what happened two months after the 2001 original released on PS2! Many of the best Silent Hill games are still available to purchase from Microsoft, so at the very least, you can take this opportunity to revisit the classics – or experience them for the very first time.
Silent Hill 2 pre-order
You can now pre-order the Silent Hill 2 remake on the official PlayStation store or the digital version via Steam. There are two to choose from, with the standard edition setting you back US$69.99 / ￡59.99 and the deluxe coming in at US$79.99 / ￡69.99. Both versions come with Robbie the Rabbit Mask and Mira the Dog Mask cosmetics, but Silent Hill 2 deluxe pre-orders also include 48-hour early access, a Pyramid Head Mask cosmetic, a digital art book, and a digital soundtrack with original music composed by Akira Yamaoka.
If you're shopping from the UK, you might want to check out GAME for an exclusive steelbook copy of the Silent Hill 2 remake to add to your physical media collection.
Silent Hill 2 story
Much like the original, the Silent Hill 2 remake's story revolves around protagonist James Sunderland as he navigates some deep psychological torment. After receiving a letter from his dead wife, Mary, James is summoned back to their beloved vacation destination of Silent Hill to pursue her. Cue a living nightmare in which James faces a number of horrifying enemies, including the infamous Bubble Head Nurses and everyone's favorite conical-headed baddie. In its reimagining of Silent Hill 2, Konami and Bloober Team strives to repackage a classic survival horror story for a brand new audience, without sacrificing the tense atmosphere or stylistic heart of the original.
Being a remake of arguably the most famous game in the franchise, we already know the broad narrative strokes of how Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 remake will probably play out. That's because the developer is dedicated to providing "the best possible emotions - both to those who played the original over 20 years ago, and to those for whom this will be their first approach to the famous series" [via Eurogamer]. We won't spoil things for you if the latter applies, but just know that nothing is as it seems in Silent Hill.
Silent Hill 2 gameplay
We finally have a veritable wealth of Silent Hill 2 remake gameplay to pick through, thanks to Konami's most recent Silent Hill Transmission. As part of it, a 13-minute extended reveal trailer walks us through some of the opening sequences of the game, showing off Silent Hill 2's snazzy cinematics courtesy of Unreal Engine 5 and a sizable taste of the third-person shooter action we can expect from combat encounters. Capcom's Resident Evil 2 Remake is largely responsible for kicking off the triple-A survival horror reboot resurgence we've seen over the last five years and counting, so it makes sense that its over-the-shoulder perspective has become a modern industry standard for survival horror games that Bloober Team holds to in Silent Hill 2. That's right: no more fixed camera angles, thank goodness.
Despite Bloober Team's dedication to staying faithful to the 2001 original, we do see some deviation from it in the above clip. James' initial conversation with little Laura has been shortened, or perhaps the lines have been shuffled backward on the timeline to add an extra sense of confusion to his story. Nit-picking aside, though, Bloober shows a firm grasp of the tone it's working with, the oppressive character of Silent Hill as its own entity coming across in the foggy, bleak environment our hero picks through, like fragments of shattered glass. There's still work to be done yet, and opinion has definitely been divided among fans, but that's to be expected when a studio remakes a classic.
Silent Hill 2 development
Silent Hill 2 is being developed by Polish studio Bloober Team. This isn't Bloober's first rodeo in the realm of horror, having cut its teeth with titles like Layers of Fear, The Medium, and Blair Witch, but this might be its biggest title yet. Konami announced that it was working with Bloober Team on the Silent Hill 2 remake back in 2022, but for a long time, that's all we had to go on. Rumor and speculation started mounting up due to the relative silence.
That didn't deter Bloober Team from making its goal of excellence widely-known. "Konami bestowed great honor upon us by granting us the privilege to remake Silent Hill 2, one of the most important horror games of all time," head of production Kacper Michalski told GamesRadar+ back in 2023. "Such a distinction speaks for itself and proves that our studio breathes horror. I believe that thanks to our upcoming big projects we will achieve our goal and reach the top of the pantheon of horror creators in the coming years, while retaining our values intact."
While adhering to Bloober's values, Michalski reiterated the importance of staying true to the source material: "It’s astonishing how developers use their creativity and push cutting-edge technologies to the limits to spiff up the original titles. However, this poses new challenges, like how to make an entirely new game while keeping that mojo that everyone loved about the original." So, that means we can expect Silent Hill 2 to be very Silent Hill – albeit with a touch of Bloober Team flair for good measure.
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