Konami Debuts New Silent Hill Games, Movie, Remake in Botched ‘Transmission’

Ryan Epps, Tech Times 20 October 2022, 05:10 pm

Ten years following the last real release in the Silent Hill series, Konami has finally debuted not one but three full upcoming titles in tandem with a new movie and an interactive experience amid its Silent Hill Transmission.

The first will be a ground-up remake of the original Silent Hill 2 by the infamous Bloober Team with help from original concept artist Masahiro Ito and composer Akira Yamaoka. Starring James Sunderland, the beloved sequel to Silent Hill remains one of the series' most captivating tales, showing the descent of its protagonist into a purgatory of his own creation.

The remake will be developed on Unreal Engine and exclusively released for the PS5, with a slight potential for a PC release in the near future. There's no official release date yet, but the remade Silent Hill sequel will most certainly arrive by 2023.

Konami announced yet another original Silent Hill game called Townfall. No Code will make the experience in partnership with Annapurna Interactive and Konami. The limited teaser showed very little information about what fans may expect, with a radio discussion of a man seemingly being interrogated juxtaposed with an overhead shot of a beach as waves crashed onto the shore.

Following both games reveals, Konami's Silent Hill Transmission dove into details on a new film being adapted by director Christophe Gans and producer Victor Hadida. The film seems to take inspiration from the second Silent Hill game, which makes sense given the upcoming remake. It will be called Return to Silent Hill and feature several characters from previous film entries, such as Pyramid Head.

All in all, Konami truly botched the entire Silent Hill Transmission due largely to a number of factors, the main among them being its prerecorded nature. The entire 48-minute broadcast was released immediately at 5:00 P.M. EST, as opposed to being a premier, so YouTube viewers could skip through the entire show without really watching.

That's all, not even to mention the multitude of leaks that surfaced in the run-up to the show over the past 24 hours. Konami mishandled the YouTube uploads, causing metadata and various tags on the unreleased videos to showcase information, the most prominent of them being the remade sequel's reveal.

Some bits in between the showcases were spent hyping merchandise, too. From sculptures to skateboards, it felt very tacky and uncouth, given how long fans have been waiting for news - it must be just a game, but news in general on one of their most beloved horror gaming experiences. A series that has seemingly been left to line Konami's pockets whenever necessary.

The Silent Hill broadcast culminated with a reveal of what is being called Silent Hill: Ascension, a so-called "interactive video streaming experience," which will go live in 2023. More information and details can be found on the aptly-named website, Ascension.com.

One last entry came in the form of Silent Hill f, arguably among the most exciting bits of news out of the broadcast. The new Silent Hill game takes place in 1960s Japan and is led by famous Japanese visual novel writer Ryūkishi07. Silent Hill f is being developed by Taiwanese game studio NeoBoards Entertainment, makers of Resident Evil Resistance, and the upcoming Re:Verse title.

As a long-time fan of Silent Hill, I wish Konami gave more respect to the series and its fans. That's probably asking for too much, I thought. At least we revisit the town of all our myriad dreams soon enough ...