On October 19th, 2022, Konami announced the return of the Silent Hill franchise in the form of multiple projects. However, the current endeavors to revive the IP are failing to capture the attention of their target audience and this could potentially lead to the series revival being over before it began.
All Of The Projects
Before we dive further, let’s first outline every Silent Hill Project announced on the previously mentioned date.
Silent Hill Ascension
Silent Hill Townfall
Silent Hill f
Silent Hill 2
While Silent Hill: The Short Message was not part of the original announcement line-up, it too did little to garner fanfare for the once-forgotten IP.
The State of The Releases So Far
With ripping the bandaid right off, let’s talk about Silent Hill 2. With regards to reception, many people were ecstatic at the teaser trailer showing off a brand new visual identity to the 23-year-old game. It was the combat trailer that did little to impress.
A lot of fans are divided with the combat trailer presentation, and even more so, by the lack of new content shown pertaining to the actual gameplay itself. Another major gripe shared by everyone is the addition of Quick Time Events (QTEs) during combat.
While we still don’t have a fixed release date for the title, the amount of actual gameplay we have seen so far is disappointing, and what we have seen so far is not very promising for fans. However, I still intend on givng Bloober the benefit of the doubt.
Moving on to Silent Hill: Ascension, it was an experimental project where fans would watch episodic content from a new setting taking place in the world. It is a visual experience where players can vote on the outcome of the show, and frankly, this is where I lost interest. Telecast voting for video games was something left behind in the 2000s with the popularity of American Idol, and it’s no surprise anyone even remembers Ascension because of this.
Frankly, I have little to say about Ascension, but I speak for a majority of fans when I say that this could have been a far better project. Even something like an interactive film akin to Until Dawn would have been significantly better. Did I also forget to mention how it has its own battle pass?
The last project that I can talk about is Silent Hill: The Short Message. A free to play single player game released on the PS5 that many people had a lot of mixed reactions on. If you can ignore the confusing setting and characters, the overall message of the game completely deviates from the rich themes and ideas that the series is known for.
The final message of the title was “Stop social media bullying”. While the message means well and I am sure the developers had good intentions, fans were not happy with it being a Silent Hill game.
The series is known to be able to tell a good story, even with a youthful protagonist, with Silent Hill 3 telling the story of Heather Mason who is a 17-year old. The girls in The Short Message were easily close to Heather’s age, but the game felt completely lackluster as a Silent Hill entry.
A few of the reasons why The Short Message failed for me was because I was unable to understand why there were 3 Japanese students in a German high school. Were they local students? Were they exchange students? The disconnect between between characters and to setting confused me. Why were they there, who brought them there? These are always core ideas important to the theme and setting of previous games in the series.
How Silent Hill was rebranded as a “Phenomenon” in one of the entries you find in the game. The discovered entry says that Silent Hill is a state of mind caused by high stress and other similar factors. However, we know from every entry before it that these are real locations that the protagonists have ventured to and have experienced their own journey based on real people they have met.
At this point, the developers themselves have only created confusion in their own universe for what may or may not be a canonical entry to the series.
Every Other Project
I am still hopeful for Townfall and f but the problem with it is that so far, the content that is out for the series currently is not earning it a favorable reception from fans. The people who are currently satisfied with the current releases can definitely be counted on one hand, as ardent fans of the series are having a hard time adjusting to what the series return is doing.
Conclusion
The current entries do little to none for giving fans any hope for the series future, perhaps the release of Silent Hill 2 can prove me wrong and bring back the excitement for fans to remember Silent Hill Townfall and f. Unfortunately, in its current state, the series could go back to the drawing board for another extended period should the current revival fall short of capturing the attention of fans.
