After a long silence, the past year has been full of Silent Hill-related news: a new film set in 1960s Japan (opens in new tab), NoCode's Silent Hill Townfall (opens in new tab), and perhaps the most eagerly anticipated project There is: a complete remake (opens in new tab) of Silent Hill 2, which some consider not only the best of the series, but also the best horror game of all time.

Unfortunately, Konami's Team Silent no longer exists, so development is being handled by Bloober Team, a studio that calls itself a horror specialist; Bloober's CEO, Piotr Bavieno, has been working on a project that is more than this developer usually handles: a remake of "Silent Hill 2" (open new tab), which is not only the best of the series, but is also considered by some to be the best horror game ever made. Ambitious about what can be accomplished with a large-scale project, he has recently talked about going beyond the oft-quoted term "walking simulator" in terms of how it sets up the player and how it scares them.

"We still want to make meaningful games, and we want to keep the DNA of telling [stories] about things that matter to us," Babieno said in an interview with IGN (opens in new tab). But we can appeal to the masses more through complete action rather than environmental storytelling." And I think this is why we chose Silent Hill."

Bavierno also went on, perhaps unsurprisingly, to defend Konami, the Japanese publisher behind Silent Hill. Konami's reputation is, unjustifiably, at an all-time low in some parts of the gaming community, and the hangover from Hideo Kojima's acrimonious departure continues to this day.

"The people who are now in charge of Konami Gaming, of course I can't go into detail, but I think they understand how games work. "They come from a company that has been involved in a lot of great projects, and I'm sure they're making great choices in choosing their partners, choosing their projects ...... And I understand that people are a little bit angry at Konami because of what has happened in the past, and I think that's a good thing, but I think they've done a great job of making sure that they've got a good partner.

Sadly, Babieno has not been very forthcoming about the studio's plans for Silent Hill 2 and how to reimagine (opens in new tab) the mechanics it so desperately needs without losing the unique atmosphere and paranoia of the original. The only thing that bothers me is the old cliché of moral choice when Babieno talks about the studio's approach to horror games in general.

"Our idea is to make games that shock you, that make you understand more about yourself, not about the characters or the universe we are creating. Because the choices we offer in our games make you ask, 'Am I (sort of) human? Why did I make this choice and not another? Is there something wrong with me? Usually there never is. But playing the game gives us the opportunity to identify ourselves and thus understand ourselves and others better."

Keep in mind that the above does not necessarily refer to Silent Hill 2: Bloober Team is not only working on that, but also on an unnamed project with Private Division, Layers of Fear (open in new tab) is in June It is scheduled.

I raise this flag because "Silent Hill 2" has what I would call a "moral choice," but it is implemented with such subtlety and nuance that players could be forgiven for not noticing it. This subtlety is one of the reasons for the praise; the moral conflicts to which Babieno refers are not explicitly stated and must be gradually pieced together; Bloober has previously said that he wants to "stick to the original (open in new tab)." Let's hope that will be the case.