Fans ofSilent Hillhave recently gotten the unexpected news of it crossing over with the hit asymmetrical horror title,Dead by Daylight. This crossover brings the infamous monster,Pyramid Head, as the game’s newest killerand protagonist ofSilent Hill 3, Cheryl Mason, as the newest playable survivor. With this news, it seems that Konami wants to bring attention back toSilent Hill.
There have been many rumors spiraling around the possible continuation or reboot of the famous horror franchise, but most agree that the next title would have to appear on the upcoming Playstation 5. However, there were also manySilent Hillfans who had given up on anything past pachinko machines pertaining to their favorite series.
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Silent Hill’s Future
Konami in the past couple yearshas become infamous among fans and developers alike with its treatment of staff and franchises, making these fans lose their hope. This can also be coupled with the mostly broken HD rerelease ofSilent Hill 2andSilent Hill 3that had to be completely remake from scratch due to losing the original source codes. Of course, the cancelling of the widely praisedSilent Hillscemented the complete loss of hope.
Even with the rumors flying about anewSilent Hilltitle, the new crossover withDead by Daylightmeans something is most likely coming forSilent Hill’s future. WithDead by Daylight’s popularity, Konami must be planning to do something with the series and could be usingDead by Daylightto help rebuild fan-interest in the series. The possible sale numbers of the upcoming DLC could also help Konami gauge the fan-demand for something new.
Considering the recentResident Eviltitles and remakes as well as the demo forSilent Hills, gameplay for a new game would likely bedifferent than any otherSilent Hilltitle from to past to help the game survive in a modern market. The horror market and horror game scene has changed completely from the late 90s and early 2000s whereSilent Hillpeaked. While the atmosphere and nightmarish visuals are timeless, the gameplay that lends players to being scared is always evolving.
One of the most important aspects aboutSilent Hill,however, is that many of the games serve as character studies of the main character or another important figure. The basis of the town has the various monster abominations representingaspects of the characters' lives, whether it be their regrets, fears, or memories. In order to make a newSilent Hillgame that stands up to the absolute classics, it has to tell a compelling story or show interesting characters that grow among the nightmares as well as the past darkening horrors.
However, a theory that many have is that a newSilent Hilltitle may serve as a possible rebootof the franchise. This would allow the writers to start from scratch and ignore any lore established in previousSilent Hillgames. While this may allow for a sense of freedom for developers, this would definitely upset many of the long-time fans. This would also not be necessary for the most part, as theSilent Hillgames in general don’t require knowledge of anything that happened in previous games in order to enjoy the story due to the games being more character focused.
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There is one way that could justify a sort of reboot and possibly satisfy fans and that would be remaking and rebooting the original games themselves in a new universe. This would allow for many classicSilent Hillmonsters to return while also having brand new monsters to represent even more parts of the protagonists. WithPyramid Head coming toDead by Daylightwith his originalSilent Hill 2design, this could mean his appearance in a remake or re-imagining ofSilent Hill 2.
While rather polarizing to some players upon release,Silent Hill 2rose to one of the most popular games in the franchise due to the complexity of the main character, James Sunderland, as well as the introduction of the infamous monster, Pyramid Head. This title focuses less on the town of Silent Hill and its lore involving cults, gods, and sacrifices, and is more focused on James and his struggles with coping with the death of his wife, Mary.
As James searches Silent Hill to find his wife after receiving a post-mortem letter from her, he encounters many other characters that are each also dealing with their inner demons. While players go deeper into the story told inSilent Hill 2, they find that their most subtle of actionsaffect how the story endsand that they shouldn’t trust everything that the game tells them. Blindly playing through this game has impacted many players throughout the years and it do so again through a remake, as the game is extremely hard to find physically and play legally.
Due to the lack of connectionSilent Hill 2has to other titles in the series, it may be the best one to reboot and test the waters with as it could stand on its own well if no other games were to come out afterward. A reboot or remake ofSilent Hill 2could also greatly benefit from the strange ways theSilent Hillsdemoperformed to mess with and disorientate the player.
Now with the possibility of areboot or remake coming to the PlayStation 5, fans may worry about there being too many changes to the story to try and appeal more to a modern audience. Many characters in theSilent Hillfranchise are morally grey characters that can do and have done horrible things that leave the players up to how they want to see them. It could be possible that some of these controversial characters could be rewritten to become more obviously good or bad.
However, it is unknown what kind of team would work with the franchise. There areteams that want to work onSilent Hillas an outsource, but currently no concrete information is out, except for Behavior and its crossover.
There is currently no new information on when or if a newSilent Hilltitle is coming out.
