P.T. deserves to be revived following Silent Hill 2’s success

I have a very distinct gaming memory. Sometime pre-1999, I loaded up a PlayStation demo disc and watched a trailer for a new and upcoming horror game from Konami. It was a game called Silent Hill.

Resident Evil is my all-time favourite video game series, with the other being Metal Gear Solid from Konami. The success of Capcom’s Resident Evil series in the 90s sparked my love for the survival horror genre. That’s what originally drew me to the Silent Hill trailer, but it immediately became clear that there was something different about this game, something more visceral.

Check out the Silent Hills trailer below!

I must have waited a whole year, at least, before Silent Hill was finally released on the original PlayStation, long before the internet was accessible to just about everyone, and that wait was more than worth it.

No game has ever scared me like Silent Hill (well, apart from the Resident Evil Village baby) and thus, it joined the ranks alongside Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid as one of my favourite video game franchises ever.

Silent Hill would spawn multiple sequels and depending on who you ask, they might give a different answer as to which is the best game in the original trilogy. Personally, I might say Silent Hill 2. Scratch that, I’ll go for Silent Hill 3 or is it the first game? I don't know! I even feel that Silent Hill 4: The Room had a bad rep but over time, it’s finally getting the love it initially deserved when it was released in 2004.

My point is, that you can’t go wrong with any of the first three Silent Hill games. Each is a classic in its own right. However, that’s not to say that Konami has solely blessed us with a plethora of critically acclaimed entries from this beloved survival horror series.

Konami

Sadly, post-2004, it’s been more misses than hits for Konami, with 2008’s Silent Hill: Homecoming and 2012’s Silent Hill: Downpour being my personal worst picks. Nothing has been able to live up to the standards of the original trilogy, that was until Gamescom 2014.

I can remember waking up on a Tuesday morning and feeling the hysteria online about this playable demo called P.T. (Playable Teaser) and it was the scariest game anyone had ever played. P.T. was so iconic that it spawned countless clone games with its influence still seen today in games such as Visage, MADiSON, and to an extent, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, to name a few.

P.T. had clever puzzles that without the help of others on the internet, many of us wouldn't have had a hope of solving. It had a level of tension that I had not felt since 1999 and above all else, a sinister ghost called Lisa who stalked you in a small house through its looping and claustrophobic corridors. Lisa became internet folklore with fans theorising her demise before she became a ghost with hints of her cruel end being suggested in P.T. as players desperately wanted to escape her house.

When players completed P.T., it was revealed to be a new survival horror game starring The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus called Silent Hills. Yes, the “Hills” is plural and it was believed that Silent Hills would be a game that had multiple universes and not just the one that featured Lisa. P.T., which later became Silent Hills, gave us a taste of something truly special.

Konami

Silent Hills was going to be developed by Kojima Productions, led by the creator of the Metal Gear Solid series Hideo Kojima. It would be the famed developer’s first venture into the survival horror genre.

Sadly, following a messy divorce between Kojima and Konami, Silent Hills was not only cancelled but Konami ensured that no one could ever play P.T. again by removing it from the PlayStation store and bricking the demo consoles. This was a game that began its development in 2012 which also brought in the services of horror movie maker Guillermo del Toro and suddenly, it had gone to waste. It was a travesty for what was one of the most highly anticipated games ever.

As an outside observer, when Silent Hills was cancelled in 2015, it seemed that many sided with Hideo Kojima. This did a lot of damage to Konami’s once vibrant reputation although, to be fair, the company never helped itself by releasing the likes of Metal Gear Survive, an attempt to milk the last game Hideo Kojima would ever create for Konami, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Yet, just when Konami seemed dead and buried, it announced the Silent Hill 2 remake in 2022, developed by Bloober Team. Admittedly, I was very sceptical about whether Bloober Team could handle the pressure of developing a remake of one of the most beloved games of all time.

Konami

Thankfully, all those concerns were washed away when I played the Silent Hill 2 remake which was not only hands-down my favourite game of 2024, but I believe it sits alongside other legendary remakes, namely Capcom’s Resident Evil (2002) and Resident Evil 2 (2019), as one of the all-time best.

In my review of the Silent Hill 2 remake, I said, “Bloober Team has treated this remake with the utmost respect and despite that forced stealth section, this is about a perfect remake of Silent Hill 2 and everything I could have hoped for. Bloober Team has finally realised its potential, and its remake of Silent Hill 2 deserves its place amongst the upper echelon of modern survival horror greats.”

The most logical next step for Bloober Team would be to remake the original Silent Hill before moving on to Silent Hill 3. I know it’s unlikely that Konami would hire Kojima Productions and Bloober Team might have too many other projects in the works.

But if by some miracle Konami could recruit some members of Team Silent, the original developers of the series, now could be the perfect time to revive the Silent Hills project that began with P.T., a simple demo that made a huge statement more than a decade ago.

So what are you waiting for, Konami? Make it happen, you cowards.