Konami's Silent Hill franchise is one that has seen some atmospheric highs and some subterranean lows. The inaugural title in the series was released in 1999 to major critical success. The subsequent sequels that followed, most notably Silent Hill 2, helped push the franchise into the upper echelon of the survival horror genre. Unfortunately, it wouldn't take long for Silent Hill's reputation to take a complete nose dive. The series struggled to make the jump to the next generation of consoles as titles like Silent Hill: Homecoming and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories tried to take the franchise in a new direction, but lacked a lot of the things made the original games great. After Silent Hill: Downpour released in 2012 to mixed reviews, a new entry in the series hasn't been released since.
Despite the series' poor track record over the last decade, fans are still eagerly awaiting the rumored next entry into the Silent Hill series. There were attempts at a new game in 2014 with the terrifying, free-to-play P.T. which served as a playable trailer for an upcoming Silent Hill title. A falling out between Konami and the game's head developer, Hideo Kojima, left it dead in the water, much to the disappointment of fans. Thankfully, there is still some hope for the franchise. It was recently leaked that Konami and Sony are currently working on a reboot of the original Silent Hill as a PlayStation 5 exclusive. While there hasn't been any confirmation from Konami or Sony, it is believed that the director of the original Silent Hill, Keiichiro Toyama, is returning to work on the reboot, as well as the original composer, Akira Yaomoka, and illustrator, Masahiro Ito. The game is specifically listed as a reboot and not a remake, but if true, it's hard not to see this as Konami's attempt at copying what Capcom was successfully able to do with the Resident Evil franchise.
The Resident Evil series saw a similar tumultuous stretch as Silent Hill. Early games in the series helped the franchise reach prominence in the survival horror genre, but later entries lost the horror feel that made the original games great. It wasn't until the franchise began remaking the older games that Resident Evil was able to get back to its horror roots. The Resident Evil 2 remake is seen as one of the best remade games to date and changed the way people look at remakes of classic games. The Silent Hill reboot should be able to take some notes.
Silent Hill Reboot Needs To Be Scarier Than The Original
One of the biggest things that separate Resident Evil and Silent Hill is that the latter puts a greater emphasis on story. This is an area where the Silent Hill reboot could surpass the Resident Evil 2 remake. The PlayStation 5 seems to be putting an emphasis on storytelling in games, which makes the Silent Hill reboot a perfect console exclusive. A graphics update alone will make the town of Silent Hill much more terrifying, but it also allows for better storytelling and can help make the town feel like it's actually alive, much like the Resident Evil remakes did with Raccoon City.
The fact that these alleged leaks list the new Silent Hill game as a reboot rather than a remake seems to imply there might be changes coming to the original story in hopes of restarting the entire franchise. This might sound off putting to some fans, but considering the core of the original development team is working on the reboot, the source material is in good hands. It's unlikely they'd completely change the original story, just retell it in an enhanced way.
Resident Evil's remakes are gorgeous re-tellings of the original games, but they only add so much in terms of horror. If the Silent Hill reboot can build upon the original story, while overhauling the graphics and making the town of Silent Hill even more terrifying, then it should be a major hit and surpass Resident Evil 2's remake in many regards. Resident Evil has already laid out the perfect remake template for Konami, the only question is if the Silent Hill reboot will actually follow it.