Silent Hill: First Impressions Will Be Everything For…

Bloober Team is pivoting from its surprisingly terrific Silent Hill 2 remake from last year and chipping away at a remake of the first Silent Hill, much to the excitement of horror fans around the world. The first game in the series is often overlooked in favor of the delectable psychodrama of Silent 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 to Silent Hill 2, the first Silent Hill is 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 like Jacob's Ladder, which so obviously inspired its sequel. This isn't to say that Silent Hill 1 is "worse" than SH2 or 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 with Silent Hill's iconic opening—which is fundamentally different from Silent Hill 2's equally iconic opening moments.

The Case for and Against Bloober’s Silent Hill Remake Being Longer Than the Original

The Silent Hill 2 remake was longer than the original, and Bloober Team is bound to do the same again with the first Silent Hill.

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By LB Beistad

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 the best parts of Silent 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 the Silent Hill 2 remake, Bloober demonstrates its clear passion for and understanding of the source material through this intro.

Silent Hill 2 has long been an important game for Bloober Team, as evidenced by its clear influence on the studio's previous games, like The Medium.

Bloober will probably need to shift up a few gears for Silent Hill 1, though. That game kicks off with Harry Mason waking up in a crashed car in Silent 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

While Silent Hill 1 is a different song and dance than Silent 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 with Silent Hill 2, but Silent Hill 1's fast-paced intro can offer an opportunity for creative growth.

Much like how Bloober elevated the slow and uncertain tension of Silent Hill 2's opening hours, so too can the developer polish the sense of naked fear that defines Silent Hill 1. Shocking the audience with more abject horror is something that Silent Hill 2 does at several points as well, so as long as Bloober can tackle Silent Hill 1 with the same reverence and deft touch as Silent Hill 2, then the upcoming remake has the potential to be just as revolutionary and evocative.

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