Silent Hill is Back! Here’s What You Need to Know!

Whether you can believe it or not, Silent Hill is back with a vengeance. True, true, many of us had been expecting the Silent Hill franchise to make a return sooner or later, but most certainly not in such a substantial and - dare we say it - unprecedented capacity. You see, Konami has revealed way more than just a new Silent Hill game. We've got several new standalone titles, flagship and not, as well as a few extra franchise entries that will help re-establish its lore anew.

It's a huge, sprawling project, and one that we couldn't be more thrilled about. Oh, and what better time to announce it, what with all the Spooktober festivities out and about! Indeed, as you can tell, we're pretty excited about this whole shindig, and we think you'll be too, once we show you everything Konami has shown off.

To that end, consider this the start of our renewed Silent Hill coverage. Why the start? Well, you'll understand as soon as you scroll on ahead and see what Konami's got in store for us...

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Silent Hill is Back - Full Reveal Summary

Depending on how familiar you may or may not be with Konami and Silent Hill, in particular, this is quite unprecedented. Namely, the popular publisher has unveiled a whole slew of Silent Hill media that's coming out in the short and long term. While the IP has been on the backburner and out of the limelight for quite some time now, that's all changing in the future.

"Silent Hill returns as a high-end game," said Motoi Okamoto, Konami's Production Manager. We're quite prone to agree, with the added bonus being the fact that the franchise is finally moving past its roots, ready to bring its trademark horror experience to the new generation of gaming hardware.

Down below, we've gone into a bit of detail on each and every one of Konami's newly announced Silent Hill experiences. Starting - of course - with Bloober Team's remake of the fan-favorite Silent Hill 2!

Silent Hill 2 Remake

The obvious first order of business is Bloober Team's remake of Silent Hill 2. An indie horror gaming studio, Bloober Team has made a name for itself by producing a variety of high-tier games. For example, they've made:

Layers of Fear
Layers of Fear 2
Observer
Blair Witch
Medium

These are all fairly respected and solid horror games. And, considering the fact that this is a remake of an existing game, they've got a very solid frame of reference to work with. The game is already showing up on Steam with some hefty system requirements, more of which you'll be able to find out in our up-and-coming Everything We Know article.

Stay tuned!

Silent Hill: Townfall

Townfall is an all-new Silent Hill game that we know virtually nothing about. It's being made by Annapurna (Stray, Neon White, Solaris, etc.) and No Code (Observation, Stories Untold). Both of these studios are known for their experimental and narrative-heavy thrillers, which gives us high hopes for Townfall in broad terms.

Aside from the short teaser, we've got virtually nothing on this game so far. This makes us think it's still a ways off and may be a 2024-2025 release if our estimations are correct.

Return to Silent Hill

Konami is at it with a mixed-media campaign, as we said, and Return to Silent Hill is the most prominent non-game piece of Silent Hill media that's been announced. This is, indeed, a feature film made by Christophe Gans, the original director of the 2006 Silent Hill movie.

"The film tells the story of a young guy coming back to Silent Hill, " said Gans, "where he has known a great love and what he's going to find is a pure nightmare." That certainly sounds like a Silent Hill film, alright. Not much is known about it so far, but we've been told that the storyboard and image boards are already wrapped up, with casting and filming still in the works.

Silent Hill: Ascension

Silent Hill: Ascension is an interesting game. It's described as a real-time interactive series in which players watch together and make decisions in pivotal moments to affect the narrative. From everything that's been shown so far, it may be somewhat similar to the concept on show in The Dark Pictures games, which would be a hoot.

If nothing else, it's going to be fascinating to see an innovative new take on Silent Hill storytelling. As for what comes of it or, indeed, when anything comes of it - for that we'll need to wait a bit longer, it would seem.

Silent Hill f

Now, as for Silent Hill f, this is an especially interesting game. Unlike most any other piece of Silent Hill media, it doesn't actually seem to take place in the sleepy town of Silent Hill. Instead, it's set in 1960s Japan, which could have all manner of fascinating new implications for this horror universe.

Perhaps most importantly, it's being written by Ryūkishi07, a popular Japanese writer that specializes in horror media. This title could have a massive effect on Silent Hill as a whole, and Konami might use this game to move the franchise to its next stage at some point in the far future. Exciting stuff, indeed.

Exciting Times Ahead for Horror Fans!

Silent Hill is Back: Article Pic 1

By now, you should have a pretty good idea of just how incredibly comprehensive Konami's plans for Silent Hill are. This is an all-out media onslaught with games, movies, and experimental offerings all working in tandem to bring the franchise up to a new standard. From our point of view, horror game fans could not have asked for a better Spooktober reveal.

The sad bit is, of course, that we don't have a firm, concrete release date for any of these projects. Not yet, at the very least. With the Silent Hill 2 remake having just received its official Steam page, however, odds are good that it's looking to be a 2023 release. Next Spooktober, perhaps? Only time will tell!

In the interim, just seeing Silent Hill alive and well is thrilling news indeed. If you, too, are happy that Konami is ready to kick butt in the horror genre once more, then stay tuned. We've got heaps more horror and Silent Hill-themed coverage planned in the short term, so check back in daily!