Silent Hill 2 remake: game release date on PS5, Xbox and PC, new games announced including Townfall, and movie

It’s been more than a decade since the last SIlent Hill game, but now fans have plenty to look forward to

Just in time for Halloween, Konami has announced that it is resurrecting its acclaimed Silent Hill series of psychological horror games.

Well, we say “just in time”, the projects announced during a YouTube presentation on Wednesday (19 October) evening won’t be ready for a while yet, but just ahead of the spooky season seems as good a time as any to announce the game’s return.

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Among the announcements includes a reboot of one of the series’ most revered titles, as well as brand new games, a movie, and a live-action, interactive series.

Here’s everything you need to know about it.

What is Silent Hill?

Silent Hill is a series of survival horror video games designed by Keiichiro Toyama and developed and distributed by Japanese video game company Konami.

Beginning with 1999’s Silent HIll, the franchise has spawned eight mainline games, and has grown to include a variety of print works, two feature films and spin-off video games. The series had sold over 8.4 million copies globally as of 2013.

The Silent Hill games take place in the series’ titular fictional American town, and are strongly influenced by the psychological horror literary genre.

What was announced?

The remake of Silent Hill 2 is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, meaning it should be graphically impressive (Image: Konami)The remake of Silent Hill 2 is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, meaning it should be graphically impressive (Image: Konami)
The remake of Silent Hill 2 is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, meaning it should be graphically impressive (Image: Konami)
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In recent years, Capcom’s remaking of key titles in the Resident Evil franchise have breathed new life into the series, arguably Silent Hill’s closest market competitor.

Rebuilding classic games like Resident Evil 2 (the team are also working on a modern remake of Resident Evil 4, one of the most acclaimed games in the series, due for release in 2023) from the ground up, and reimagining them for modern audiences has proved a boon for the series.

Konami obviously wants a piece of the remake pie, and so the headline grabbing announcement - ahead even of the reveal of two new Silent Hill games - is that it is working on a similar reboot of Silent Hill 2, one of the best regarded games in the series.

First released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, Silent Hill 2 follows James Sunderland as he searches for his late wife in the town after receiving a letter from her stating that she is waiting for him there.

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The game received positive reviews from critics, and over one million copies were sold within the first month of its release. It received widespread acclaim for its story, and stands as a crucial example of video games as an art form, making masterful use of metaphors and symbolism.

Widely regarded as one of the finest horror games ever created, it did receive some criticism for its clunky control scheme, an issue that will surely be fixed with the reboot overseen by Poland’s Bloober Team, a relatively small team known for its previous horror games like The Medium.

Key members of the original Silent Hill production team are also involved in the project, including composer Akira Yamaoka and concept designer Masahiro Ito, best known for creating Silent Hill’s most infamous monster, Pyramid Head.

It was explained during the recent video presentation that while the studio wants to stay true to the atmosphere of the original game, certain elements are being modified for the modern era, including a shift from a third-person camera to a "over-the-shoulder" viewpoint, similar to that of the recent remakes in the Resident Evil franchise.

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A release date for the Silent HIll 2 remake has not yet been announced, but it will release on PlayStation 5 and PC. It is likely to come to Xbox consoles eventually, and Konami confirmed that the game is a console exclusive for 12 months, meaning it will be at least a year after the PS5 version’s release until it does.

What else was announced?

The first of two new Silent Hill titles also revealed, Silent Hill Townfall, is being created in collaboration with publisher Annapurna Interactive by No Code, a Glasgow-based team behind the brilliant, space-station set horror, Observation.

The fact that Annapurna Interactive is involved seems to suggest a more artistic, small-scale project, perhaps one that will distance itself from the mainline game’s relatively more standard gameplay, though a teaser trailer depicting a retro portable TV device gave little away.

Silent Hill F, the second new title announced, is set in Japan; its teaser suggested a crossover between Japanese mythology and Swedish folk horror seen in films such as Midsommar.

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No release date was given for either of the two new announced games.

In addition, two new multimedia spin-offs were also announced. Return to Silent Hill, a film by the original Silent Hill director Christophe Gans, is in the works, as well as Silent Hill Ascension, an interactive streaming series planned to premiere next year that will allow viewers to affect the path of the narrative as it unfolds.

During the broadcast, it was also revealed that Konami is collaborating with different developers around the world on unannounced Silent Hill projects.

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