Bloober Team is pivoting from its surprisingly terrificSilent Hill 2remake from last year and chipping away at a remake of the firstSilent Hill, much to the excitement of horror fans around the world. The first game in the series is often overlooked in favor of the delectablepsychodrama ofSilent Hill 2, but it’s still a powerful and essential piece of horror gaming history, and it will be fascinating to see how Bloober chooses to handle its modern reinvention.
Compared toSilent Hill 2, the firstSilent Hillis decidedly less psychological and more action-heavy. The game is still disturbing and cerebral, but its plot is less personal, lacking the clear influence of films likeJacob’s Ladder, which so obviously inspired its sequel. This isn’t to say thatSilent Hill 1is “worse” thanSH2or any other entry, but it’s a different beast, and will therefore require a different creative touch from Bloober Team during the remake process. There are innumerable pieces of the puzzle to get right, but it all starts withSilent Hill’s iconic opening—which is fundamentally different fromSilent Hill 2’s equally iconic opening moments.
The Beginning of Silent Hill 1 Will Have To Be Approached Differently
Silent Hill 1’s Intro Is More Fast-Paced Than Silent Hill 2’s
One of thebest parts ofSilent Hill 2, whose strengths are retained in the remake, is its opening hour. James Sunderland begins his journey at the top of a hill, near a parking lot—a totally pedestrian and normal place. He slowly descends a hill, has a bizarre encounter with Angela, and wanders around the empty, foggy town for quite some time before having any explicit encounters with monsters. This is elevated, to an extent, in Bloober’s remake, where the tension is drawn out over a longer period of gameplay. Like much of the rest of theSilent Hill 2remake, Bloober demonstrates its clear passion for and understanding of the source material through this intro.
Silent Hill 2has long been an important gamefor Bloober Team, as evidenced by its clear influence on the studio’s previous games, likeThe Medium.
Bloober will probably need to shift up a few gears forSilent Hill 1, though. That game kicks off with Harry Masonwaking up in a crashed car inSilent Hill, immediately searching for his daughter Cheryl, who has disappeared from the vehicle. After a very short while, Harry finds a flayed corpse and is set upon by monsters. It’s a comparatively aggressive and straightforward introduction, one that doesn’t give the player a chance to get their bearings in this new, strange world before being faced with death and danger. As such, it will demand an entirely different approach to tone and setpiece-building from Bloober to be impactful.
Bloober Will Have to Take a Different Approach with Silent Hill 1, but That’s a Good Thing
WhileSilent Hill 1is a differentsong and dance thanSilent Hill 2, Bloober Team being challenged with its distinct tone and narrative will hopefully only lead to a better project overall. The studio has proven its ability to tell mature, nuanced, and thoughtful stories withSilent Hill 2, butSilent Hill 1’s fast-paced intro can offer an opportunity for creative growth.
Much like how Bloober elevated the slow and uncertain tension ofSilent Hill 2’s opening hours, so too can the developer polish the sense of naked fear that definesSilent Hill 1. Shocking the audience with more abject horror is something thatSilent Hill 2does at several points as well, so as long as Bloober can tackleSilent Hill 1with the same reverence and deft touch asSilent Hill 2, then the upcoming remake has the potential to be just as revolutionary and evocative.
