Sam Barlow, the writer for prior Silent Hill games, is concerned that the Silent Hill 2 remake by Bloober Team cannot be done “without upsetting people.” Having worked on Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Barlow is actually excited to see how the developer will change and modernize the classic horror game, but he also believes that doing a remaster of it is “like the biggest poison chalice in videogames.”
Bloober Team said it would take “a very safe approach” to the Silent Hill 2 Remake
Speaking with PCGamesN at GDC 2023, Barlow believes that the Silent Hill 2 remake is a difficult task to fulfill:
Personally, I’m less excited about playing a remaster. It’s also like the biggest poison chalice in videogames, doing a remaster of Silent Hill 2. I mean, good luck to them because I don’t know how you can do that without upsetting people.
Silent Hill 2 is definitely a classic that many fans don’t want altered in any major way, which is mainly the reason why Bloober Team stated in January that it would be playing things safe for the remaster. At the time, the developer said that it wants to “remain faithful to the original title.”
That said, Barlow is excited that Konami is finally using the Silent Hill brand “as a platform to have a range of interesting psychological horror games.” In particular, he is very interested in what developer No Code has brewing for Silent Hill Townfall.
In October 2022, Konami also announced Silent Hill f, which is set in 1960’s Japan, in addition to the real-time interactive series Silent Hill: Ascension.
