Sam Barlow calls Silent Hill 2 a “poison chalice,” wishes Bloober luck

With the Silent Hill 2 remake a way off, former series developer and Immortality director Sam Barlow tells PCGamesN about how he’s cautiously optimistic for the Bloober Team-headed Konami revamp, and why he can’t wait to see how the horror games grow with the new direction announced alongside Silent Hill 2 last year.

PCGamesN had the chance to talk with Barlow, Natalie Watson, and Connor Carson of Half Mermaid while at GDC 2023 in San Francisco, and while we got a cryptic answer about Half Mermaid’s next game after Immortality, Barlow was much more clear-cut on what he thinks about the new direction Konami is taking the Silent Hill series in.

“Personally, I’m less excited about playing a remaster,” Barlow tells PCGamesN. “It’s also like the biggest poison chalice in videogames, doing a remaster of Silent Hill 2. I mean, good luck to them because I don’t know how you can do that without upsetting people.”

Layers of Fear, The Medium, Blair Witch, and Observer developer Bloober Team is heading up the Silent Hill 2 remake for Konami, and while Barlow is less interested in the remake than he is in the new projects, it’s absolutely clear that he holds no disdain towards the remake or its developers, instead understanding that the Silent Hill 2 remake is a tall order for one of the most beloved games of all time.

Konami put out a call for Silent Hill game pitches earlier this year, after announcing all of its new horror games in the series. Barlow is in a unique position to comment on these games as he worked on both Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and he’s actually pretty excited about the series’ new direction.

“The version of Silent Hill that I would love – which it sounds like they’re pushing – is that ‘we use this as a platform to have a range of interesting psychological horror games,’ right? And actually, can we see a breadth of gameplay? You know, Twilight Zone, and those kinds of anthologies give you a sense of what you’re getting yourself in for but you’re also excited to see the different ways in which they can be explored.”

Barlow makes particular mention of No Code’s upcoming Silent Hill Townfall, saying he’s a big fan of the studio and that he can’t wait to see what they’ve been teasing. We actually published a Silent Hill Townfall trailer breakdown, with suggestions towards the enemy types and settings being used in the series spin-off.

On top of news stories, we’ve also got a full interview with Half Mermaid from GDC 2023 all about the art of making games, the game industry as a whole, and much more on the way soon. In the meantime, we’ve got the Silent Hill 2 system requirements for you to check against your rig alongside a look at the best single-player games if you’re feeling that Silent Hill itch.