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

pcgamesn.com:

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