Silent Hill 2 Remake Devs Respond to Backlash Over Combat Trailer

Bloober Team, the studio behind Konami's upcoming remake of Silent Hill 2, has responded to recent backlash from fans after the game's latest showing. During PlayStation's recent State of Play showcase, Silent Hill 2 was shown off for the first time since its initial reveal in 2022. This new trailer for the horror title specifically centered around the game's combat, which a number of Silent Hill thought looked quite underwhelming. Now, Bloober Team has released a new statement to quell concerns that have come about in the wake of this trailer. 

In a conversation with investor.tv (which has since been deleted), Bloober Team's CEO Piotr Babieno said that the latest trailer for Silent Hill 2 "does not relflect the spirit of the game." Babieno went on to say that Bloober itself is only responsible for developing the remake and has no control in how the game is then shown to the public. He also added that those within Bloober Team are trying to ensure that this new version of Silent Hill 2 is very closely related to the original.

"We're not responsible for the marketing side. Our partner [Konami] is entirely responsible for this. This trailer certainly does not reflect the spirit of the game," Babieno said. "This is neither the spirit of what once was nor what we are creating now. We try to fully reflect this romantic vision of the game that debuted 22 years ago. We think that when players see real gameplay, the real game, they will evaluate it in a completely different way."

Based on these comments from Babieno, it seems that even those at Bloober Team weren't fans of how Silent Hill 2 looked in this new trailer. As many fans were quick to point out, combat was never a major component of the original Silent Hill 2, and Babieno sounds as though he's suggesting this again won't be the case with this remake. Why Konami opted to highlight this gameplay element in the latest trailer then is a bit puzzling. Hopefully, the final product is one that can live up to lofty expectations from fans as Babieno has said it will. 

Moving forward, Silent Hill 2 still doesn't have an official launch window of any sort, but the game is known to be coming to both PlayStation 5 and PC. At the start of this year, PlayStation released a new trailer that seemed to confirm that SH2 would be launching before the end of 2024. Konami itself has yet to verify this to be true, although recent comments from the company have indicated that it should be releasing relatively soon. 

[H/T Eurogamer]