Konami has unfortunately been a controversial publisher with ulterior motives behind its lucrative decisions, as well as its neglect of Silent Hill for nearly a decade—not to mention the abrupt cancellation of Silent Hills. It should come as little surprise to fans that Silent Hill 2, Konami’s most popular installment, would be what receives a remake, even before the original game. Now that the Silent Hill franchise is undergoing a modern metamorphosis, it will be interesting to see where the psychological horror progenitor finds its inspirations. One such inspiration seems to be from Resident Evil.

One of the few tidbits from Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 that fans know about now is that it will feature a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective. This may not seem like an enormously important bit of information, but it does make some obvious suggestions as to how the remake may play. Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise, for example, has set the industry standard for remakes since its seminal Resident Evil 2 remake. It seems like both Silent Hill and Resident Evil are aligning more closely with one another in the modern era, and that could be a boon for both survival-horror franchises.

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How Silent Hill and Resident Evil Are Different

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Fundamentally, Silent Hill and Resident Evil differ in multiple areas. The former franchise is chiefly involved with psychological horror and a profound lack of action or combat, while the latter franchise has experienced many structural gameplay alterations, but began as survival-horror.

Silent Hill is built upon an incredibly simple premise that can seem overwhelming or nonsensical depending on the lore expressed through individual installments. Rather, while Silent Hill is thought-provoking, poignant, or deeply depressing in many of its narratives, Resident Evil is primarily composed of insignificant or absurd storylines with cheeky one-liners and bombastic characters.

In gameplay, the two franchises are undoubtedly different. Silent Hill is more explorative with fewer guidelines on how to progress, especially in Silent Hill 2, where progression requires particular items for oblique puzzles. Silent Hill games do feature combat, but there is arguably not a single Silent Hill game that has truly satisfying or comprehensive combat enough for it to be positively regarded.

Resident Evil’s original entries followed a similar explorative design, but even its early installments are much more centered on action and combat. Resident Evil then became fully action-oriented later on, and has made a celebratory return to survival-horror with its latest releases.

How Silent Hill and Resident Evil Are Similar

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Besides Silent Hill: Book of Memories on the PlayStation Vita, Silent Hill has not had an actual release since Silent Hill: Downpour, the eighth mainline installment that launched in 2012. That will not be the case for much longer, though, as many more Silent Hill entries with eclectic genres have recently been announced.

It is difficult to estimate what direction some of these titles may go in, but Bloober’s Silent Hill 2 remake is making a decision for its modern gameplay that takes after Resident Evil’s own recent remakes. Indeed, the idea to rehash original installments in reimagined remakes is already an inspiration drawn from Resident Evil and Capcom, which has proven hugely successful for them. In the meantime, not much is similar at all between Silent Hill and Resident Evil. However, the Silent Hill 2 remake seems to emulate the cinematic atmosphere and graphical fidelity of Resident Evil’s popular remakes.

It will be interesting to see if combat is improved sufficiently in Silent Hill 2, which is one of its biggest concerns at the moment. But in terms of nailing a faithful tone from the original game, Silent Hill’s future could be incredibly bright if it leans more on what has made Resident Evil such a beloved franchise in recent years.

Silent Hill 2 is in development for PC and PS5.

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