In October of last year, fans of ‘Silent Hill’ were given their first big joy in years: the saga was going to make a comeback in a big way, with the remake of the second part, an interactive game called ‘Ascension,’ and two spin-offs: ‘Townfall’ and ‘F’. Since then until today, they have only fulfilled one of the promises: ‘Ascension,’ which has caused public outrage. What has happened with the rest? Will we ever see this promised resurrection?
Return to Silent Hill
At least we can say there’s some good news amid the radio silence: Konami has hired more team members for the new ‘Silent Hill,’ or at least, they’re in the process of doing so. On their job portal, they’re looking for artists, planners, engineers, and project managers, showing a determined commitment to the franchise. There are more confirmed remakes in the pipeline… but apart from that, little else is known about it lately.
It’s a shame because ‘Silent Hill Townfall’ has everything to be a success. No Code in development, Annapurna in publishing, a game filled with small independent stories that… Well… that’s about it. For a year now, we’ve known exactly the same information. Supposedly, they’re still expanding the studio to bring this game to light, so the recommendation is to wait patiently. It’s not very different from the situation with ‘Silent Hill F.’
We know it’ll be a new installment in the main series, which has been dormant for eleven years. However, for now, all we have is a question posed by the game director, Alan Yang, on Twitter asking followers what they thought the “F” stood for in a work-related bet. Other than that, no details have been revealed, so the only thing we know for sure is that Konami still believes in the game. It hasn’t been canceled. Yet.
As for ‘The Short Message,’ we have a bit more information. It’s been hinted that the game will tackle subjects like suicide, leading to it being rated for adults only (18+) in Australia. However, the game remains in limbo because Konami hasn’t even officially announced it yet.
The one that has been announced, and with a big fanfare, is ‘Silent Hill 2‘, slated to land on our consoles in 2024, without a specific date yet. The fact that the studio believes in this franchise again doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll give us bait to reel us in. There’s still a long way to go before we can feel scared again. Even ‘Return to Silent Hill,’ the movie accompanying this relaunch, has indefinitely postponed its release. We’ll see how it all turns out, but they’re taking their time.
