An email from Jeremy Blaustein, “I’m there now, in our special place, waiting for you,” set the stage for a new interview with internet culture site Postmode. Blaustein, best known for his work on Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and the Silent Hill series, now runs Dragonbaby, a localization company based in Osaka, Japan.

Few games have left as lasting an impression as Silent Hill 2, which follows protagonist James Sunderland through a town that mirrors his deepest, darkest fears. Blaustein’s work on this classic added significantly to its eerie depth, combining his own stylistic influences with his admiration for avant-garde filmmaker David Lynch, particularly films like Lost Highway and Blue Velvet. This connection to Lynchian storytelling adds a distinct psychological nuance, as seen in scenes like the closet-peeking moment, which is reminiscent of Blue Velvet.

Blaustein’s dedication is evident in his pride over ‘Mary’s Letter,’ a pivotal monologue in Silent Hill 2. He described how actor Monica Taylor Horgan’s reading perfectly fulfilled his vision, emphasizing the importance of writing dialogue that actors can perform naturally, bridging the gap between script and player.

There wasn’t any gap at all; it was exactly the way I wanted it.

However, despite its cult following today, Silent Hill 2 received a lukewarm reception at first. Early reviews led Konami to split development teams, resulting in Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4: The Room.

Blaustein said development on the sequels was rushed, and lamented that the development team was split to work on parts 3 and 4 simultaneously. The iconic character Claudia Wolf from Silent Hill 3 was a standout, shaped by Donna Burke’s Galadriel-inspired performance.

Silent Hill 4’s story was notably fractured compared to its predecessors, a consequence of reduced collaboration. Jeremy Blaustein faced unique challenges during localization, working with isolated scenes that sometimes didn’t entirely make sense until assembled in-game. Characters like Cynthia Velasquez had layers drawn from films like The Cell, adding depth, even without direct storytelling visuals.

The haunting ‘Room of Angel’ song, penned by Joe Romersa, served as an emotional bridge. It captured Silent Hill’s tragic melancholy with lyrics hinting at themes of lost innocence and family trauma.

Reflecting on the series’ legacy, it’s clear that the Silent Hill games deserve broader accessibility. Silent Hill 4 remains the only title easily available on digital platforms, and playing other classics often requires fan-made patches.

With new projects now being released, like the Silent Hill 2 Remake by Bloober Team, there’s renewed interest in the series. However, there’s a chance that this revival will eclipse the originals. To ensure that the franchise remains a part of gaming history, fans hope that Silent Hill receives the same treatment as the MGS series, with a similar compilation in the form of a Master Collection. A modern collection of the original games would not only allow anyone to experience them but would also honor the original developers who created this disturbing but essential series.

[Source]

The post Original Silent Hill 2 Localizer Jeremy Blaustein Talks Shop appeared first on Rely on Horror.

At this year’s annual PAX West show in Seattle, the lineup for horror-related content was in rare form, with one of the strongest showings of any year so far, where we got to play nearly twenty unreleased horror titles, from big to small, and got to chat with developers and publishers about nitty gritty details on their upcoming projects.

In no particular order, we’ll start with the games we were able to check out and our overall impressions, beginning with a highly-anticipated title from some early Silent Hill and Siren alumni, Slitterhead.

Slitterhead

With several Silent Hill veterans working on the project, this one had been on our radar for a while, but finally getting some time to play for ourselves gave a more clear impression of how the game is shaping up, compared to the recent trailers that had been released. The game focuses on the body-swapping mechanics that are featured in most of the footage, but after getting to play it, there’s a ton of other elements that come into play and manage to all blend in a satisfying way, which I was not expecting.

Aside from the body-swapping, you’ll also encounter more horror chase segments, the return of Sightjacking from the Siren series (it’s even called that by name,) and Souls-like combat encounters, all coming together with a mysterious narrative that keeps you wanting to know more.  The combat mechanics took a little time to get used to, and there’s a lot to learn, but it all fell into place by the end of my thirty minutes with the game, and I’m personally anticipating this one when it releases on November 8th.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster

Next up is getting full access to the preview build for the remaster of the original classic Dead Rising, which was an absolute blast. The game looks fantastic and plays/runs better than ever before, with a whole suite of updated features and quality of life improvements that make the experience better across the board, without changing the core or tone of the game. We asked a lot of questions to the folks at Capcom who have had more time to dive into the builds and who are privy to some yet-to-be-released info about the game to dig deep into what we can expect from this release.

Improvements like extra save slots and the ability to save in different modes, the ability to fast-forward in-game time at certain points, ability to skip survivor conversations, lots of new costumes and magazines in game (including some Resident Evil crossover outfits,) improved survivor AI, revamped visuals from the ground up, new voice acting, and several other features all make this a package that fans of Dead Rising won’t want to miss when it drops in a few weeks.

Clock Tower: Rewind

Getting hands-on time with the new remastered and translated version of the Super Famicom classic was pretty exciting for me, as I’ve been a fan of the game since the 1990s and have been dying to see how they’re updating this release. I was definitely not disappointed, as this package presents two different versions of the original game, where you can play it just as it was on the original Super Famicom release, plus the Rewind mode, which adds back in all of the new content that was put in for the PS1 release titled The First Fear, as well as a few quality of life improvements and some save state features.

Since I’ve played the original game’s different versions many times over, I also took some of my time with Rewind to look into the new bonus features added for this remaster, outside of the normal game, and there’s a treasure trove of fantastic extra content included here. The extras run the gamut from the gorgeous new opening animation that was created for the game, which includes a new theme song sung by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, plus a lot of other great features like a long interview with the director, Hifumi Kono, motion comic adaptations (and translations) of the original prologue manga released for the game in 1995, a playable copy of the store kisok demo that was available around the time of release, and several other very nice features to round out the extras.

Fans of the game will be very happy with the amount of care and content included with this release when it releases later this year (dates will vary per region.)

Corpse Party II: Darkness Distortion

Corpse Party II is an official new chapter in the series, and only the third game in the long-running series to be rendered in full 3D, which is a nice direction, since many of the titles are either visual novels or 2D RPG-style games with no real survival horror mechanics.

In my time with the game, I was thrust into exploring an abandoned hospital with a group of young girls who start being haunted by strange sounds, phone calls, and dead bodies appearing around them, all featuring the typical gross-out body horror that the series is known for. The story also attempts to bring live streamer culture into the mix, with one of the characters being a streamer herself, and acting appropriately absurd in the name of “getting content,” which the game also pokes fun at in its own way, amidst the slow-paced horror exploration.

I’m glad there’s another 3D entry in the series coming, since 2016’s Blood Drive and it’s pseudo-sequel, Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient (different from this CPII) were a nice change for the series, and this one looked to be potentially more fleshed-out than the others, so we’ll be keeping an eye out, as it’s set for release by the end of 2024, without a final date set as of now.

WayForward’s RetroRealms: Halloween and Ash vs. Evil Dead

After years of already working on this project, it was announced just a two weeks ago that the Halloween and Ash vs. Evil Dead franchises would be getting brand new, new retro-inspired video games, created by the masters at WayForward, and they’ll be releasing this October 18th. The initial trailers left me having lots of unanswered questions and uncertainty of how these games would actually play and how they’d tie into their respective series’ histories. All of those questions and more were answered when I got a full hour to sit down with the folks at Boss Team Games and WayForward to play and discuss the games, the movies, and everything in between, and I’ve come away from the experience fully convinced that these games will be a blast for classic 2D action fans who also love these horror franchises.

Even though they are releasing as separate games, the option to purchase them together is available, and owning both games opens up tons of new gameplay options and content in each game, including being able to use characters from one franchise in the other’s game, including unique dialogue and story to go with those crossover options. As far as the gameplay, these played closely to the early Castlevania games, with more of a focus on action versus exploration, even though there are unique collectibles in each stage for each character, but there’s no open world-style backtracking like the later post-SOTN Castlevania games or Simon’s Quest. The controls felt snappy and tight across the board, and each character felt unique to one another, including having unique sub-weapons and abilities for each, and it made for a great approach to doing these horror crossovers in a way that feels like some care was put into the experience.

The story for each game is unique, and RetroRealms is essentially an over-arching side-narrative universe that doesn’t directly tie into the canon of the films or TV series, but rather serves as a place for all these characters to come together in fun ways, but that steers clear of meddling with any particular established storylines in any egregious way. There was a lot of talk between us and some hints that there’s some other future games planned for the RetroRealms universe that will also all tie back into these first two games, and they’re in the works of figuring out which horror icons they’ll be able to give a similar treatment to next.

Color me excited for the start of a new franchise that’s showing love for some of our favorite horror worlds in a new and fresh way without the expectation of a modern, more realistic take on the IPs, and I’ve got confidence that any fans of 2D side-scrollers who are also horror fans will get a huge kick out of these games. We’ll be doing a full review when the games launch this October, so keep an eye out for more coverage as the release date gets closer.

Ender Magnolia

Next up is Ender Magnolia, the sequel to Ender Lilies, which ended up being one of my favorite Metroidvania style games of the last several years, so to say I was excited to try out the most recent build of its follow-up would be an understatement. Though the game has been out in Early Access on Steam for a few months, the build we got access to was further along than what’s publicly available right now.

The time I got to spend with Ender Magnolia introduced me to some of the differences that make it stand out from its predecessor, including some changes in the general aesthetic and setting it takes place in, with a much less medieval feel, and something that approaches a little more modern, steampunk-ish vibe overall. The changes were a little strange at first, but soon the gameplay and the gorgeous visuals started to remind me of why I like this series so much.

I found myself wanting to play more as I was exploring the world that the game offered and started learning new systems and gameplay elements, and it made for a great experience that left me wanting to play the final version once the developers are confident enough to launch the full release.

Little Nightmares III

Getting time for some hands-on with Little Nightmares III was a treat, especially since the game is now being developed by a favorite of ours, SuperMassive Games (Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures Anthology) and what I got to play did not disappoint, especially the new co-op features that allow you to play with other players online to have a unique experience similar to the Dark Pictures games’ online modes.

The aesthetics and gameplay feel right in line with what we’ve come to expect from the previous Little Nightmares games, where the dark fairy-tale setting allows for some unique puzzle-platformer gameplay, and it’s a style that I am always up to play more of, as long as the standard of quality stays up to what the previous games were able to accomplish. I’m excited to see the further updates that come as the development presses on towards its release next year, and I can’t wait to try it out when it releases.

The Killing Antidote

Made by a small team of two people, The Killing Antidote is a game that’s close to the Resident Evil remakes in structure and aesthetics, but the environment/sound design works even better in some ways, and the gameplay has a great balance of resource management and combat, where melee combat is very useful and a viable option to avoid using ammo for guns, but it comes with its own risks. Some elements of this very early version of the game feel better tuned for hardcore horror fans than even what the RE remakes were able to accomplish, which is quite impressive coming from such a small team.

There’s an element of character cosmetics customization that’s never quite been a thing in the RE games, and something you don’t see too often in survival horror games, for those who are into those elements. I was able to play an early build of the game for around an hour, and if the rest of the game continues to shape up similarly to what I was able to play, this will definitely be one to watch out for if you’re a fan of indie takes on the Resident Evil remake style. They’re planning to launch into early access this October, and you can wishlist and follow the game on Steam right now, and even try out an early build for yourself.

The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest

Made as a homage/parody of the early Castlevania games, especially Simon’s Quest, this is a fun attempt to re-create the experience of those original NES games. It’s also a bit meta and tongue-in-cheek overall, and plays much like its inspiration. It’s very close to something like the Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon games, in a good way.

There’s nothing that will reinvent the wheel here, as is intended, but it’s an admirable attempt to call back to Simon’s Quest in a way that shows love and care, but also doesn’t take itself entirely seriously. You can keep an eye out and wishlist on Steam if retro Castlevania nods are your thing as we near the 2025 release window.

Mouthwashing

As we reported a few weeks ago, the upcoming narrative horror title with PS1-style aesthetics called Mouthwashing is due out in a few weeks, and I got a chance to play through about thirty minutes of the game, and this is shaping up to be a unique horror title with a strong focus on narrative and puzzles, with an emphasis on themes like mental health, addiction, fear, and several other topics that feel deeper than what you might expect from a retro-aesthetic game at first.

The story follows a group of workers on a crashed space ship that’s meant to look like a vacation amusement park, but the dark fate that seems to be awaiting all of them as they lose hope for rescue ends up in a spiral into madness, with a slow-burn narrative structure. Just playing the beginning of the game that I got to experience already showed signs of being a great narrative-focused title and we’ll have more coverage of it as we near the release date on September 26th.

Threshold

I had a chance to play around a half hour of a near-final build for Threshold, which is a first-person PS1 aesthetic horror game where you play as a character starting their first day at a fairly mysterious job at a train station on top of a mountain with very little oxygen. Constantly having to refill your oxygen while you explore the strange and dark workplace environment and solving mysteries as you explore makes for an interesting gameplay loop that promises to get much more frightening as you keep playing.

You can try out an early prologue demo of the game and wishlist now on Steam if you’re into slow-burn narrative mysteries with light survival mechanics.

GHOSTS

GHOSTS is a neat FMV game that’s similar to something like Night Trap or Double Switch back in the 90s, but with a modern twist, where you play as the producer of a live streaming horror show, and you’re tasked with watching the monitors on a video production console that shows all the different cameras set up around the “haunted” house that the stars of the show are exploring.

Strange things start to happen inside the house and within your production space, and since the game will feature some monster designs from Siren Head creator, Trevor Henderson, you can expect some creepy fun once things go haywire. This felt like a fun modern update to that classic style FMV manipulation game, and I’m excited to see more of this as production continues towards a release date next year. You can check out the recent trailer here to get a glimpse of the game’s style and see if it’s one you want to follow for yourself.

Homura Hime

Homura Hime is an upcoming indie hack-and-slack title that feels like a cross between Devil May Cry and OneeChanbara, with lots of fast-paced demon-hunting action and a much more fun combat system than I was expecting from such a small game like this. The enemies range from Japanese folklore Yokai to zombies and demons or malformed creatures of many types, and the gameplay has a very solid combat system with a focus on timing your parry/deflect moves correctly. I had a blast playing through what it had to offer and can’t wait to dive deeper into this combat system.

You can view more info and wishlist the game now on Steam in anticipation for its 2025 release date if this is the type of game that grabs your attention.

Don’t Be Afraid II

A sequel to 2020’s first-person horror narrative game, Don’t Be Afraid, this one looks to continue the tradition of a dark horror narrative featuring the viewpoint of children thrust into traumatic situations. We got to play a short demo that showcased gameplay that was pretty similar to the original, showing lots of exploration and creepy hallways with a little puzzle solving.

You can follow and wishlist on Steam as the development progresses if you’re a fan of the first game or enjoy your first-person narrative horror experiences.

Brokenlore: Unfollow

Brokenlore: Unfollow is the first game in a planned trilogy, from the Japanese Serafini Productions, and this one uses a first-person horror narrative to tackle subjects like depression, eating disorders, and the effects of social media on mental health, with the narrative being one of the most stand-out elements here. It ends up feeling a bit like Silent Hill: The Short Message, with the narrative being broken up by some tense chase sequences and puzzle solving.

You can wishlist on Steam to follow the game and even play an early demo for yourself to see if the Brokenlore series might be your cup of tea.

That’s everything from PAX West that we covered. Aside from all the great games featured here, there were even more horror games at the show than we had time to play for ourselves, including a new build of Heartworm, >one way, Niraiya of.., and Regular Home Renovation Simulator that we’ll be catching up on soon.

Stay tuned for more coverage of these games here at Rely On Horror. We hope you found some new games to be on the lookout for over the next year or so!

The post PAX West 2024 Hands-On Impressions Featuring Slitterhead, Halloween, Dead Rising, Clock Tower, and more appeared first on Rely on Horror.

Capcom has announced that Resident Evil Village has surpassed 10 million units sold worldwide. Released in May 2021, the game has reached this milestone in just three years, making it the fastest-selling title in the Resident Evil series.

Resident Evil Village follows the success of Resident Evil 7 biohazard, offering a blend of horror and action with expansive gameplay. The game’s critical acclaim is evident through its awards from the Golden Joystick Awards 2021 and Japan Game Awards 2022. These accolades highlight its polished gameplay and emotionally engaging story, which have captivated a global audience.

The release of RE Village Gold Edition, which includes additional story content, and support for devices like the iPhone 15 Pro, has further boosted sales. Each year since its release, the game has consistently sold around 2 million units, contributing to the massive popularity of the series.

The Resident Evil franchise has sold over 157 million units since its inception in 1996. Alongside RE7 and the remake of RE2, Resident Evil Village stands out as one of the series’ top sellers.

Capcom remains dedicated to meeting player expectations by leveraging its game development capabilities to create highly entertaining gameplay experiences.

The post Resident Evil Village Surpasses 10 Million Units Sold appeared first on Rely on Horror.

All horror games are different, whether they are full of jump-scares, based around a strong story to take the player on an emotional journey, contain slow-burn psychological terror that stays with a player long after the credits roll, or are chock full of pin-drop tension to test your nerve.

Two titles sitting at vastly different points on the ‘horror game’ spectrum are last year’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a multiplayer, asymmetrical experience that tested the wits, nerve, and stealth of its players; and the upcoming Still Wakes the Deep, which puts players at the heart of the story as they navigate an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea after disaster strikes.

To celebrate being Halfway to Halloween, Jade Jacson, Senior Game Designer at The Chinese Room who’s currently working on Still Wakes the Deep, along with Steve Kirby (Lead Game Designer) and Kelvin Moore (Project Design Director) from Sumo Nottingham who developed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, share their eight eerie tips for how to make a great horror game.

Why do we love to be scared?

According to the American Psychology Association, ‘Fear’ is defined as “A basic, intense emotion aroused by the detection of imminent threat, involving an immediate alarm reaction that mobilizes the organism by triggering a set of physiological changes.”

In other words, ‘fear’ is the way we process a threat, how we react to it, and the physiological response we have. When we experience tension or fear, our body produces adrenaline to prepare us for fight or flight. This primal instinct is what gives us the post-scare rush during a jump scare, after an intense scene, or in the aftermath of a shocking sequence: it’s adrenaline converting to dopamine, and our mind and body rejoicing that we managed to escape unscathed. This response is why for some, consuming horror is a fun-filled experience to get the blood pumping, while others only feel dread and terror.

Horror games double down on these feelings by putting the player into the driving seat, where every decision they make has consequences and their actions determine their fate. All those fear and adrenaline responses are heightened to the maximum, and our fear levels can begin to directly impact our performance.

If horror games push our limits and stress us out, why do we keep playing games? The answer is simple: we love novelty. For most of us, horror is fantasy and exists outside our day-to-day lives, so getting close to poltergeists or measuring up to monsters are things we don’t encounter. These new and exciting experiences, combined with the adrenaline rush of survival, keep us coming back for more.

Eight Eerie Tips for Great Horror Games:

From setting the mood to keeping players on their toes to exploring our fears, Kelvin, Jade, and Steve share their eight tips for creating great horror games and how they utilized them in their most recent projects.

      1. Atmosphere: On creating The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Steve said:

If you can create an atmosphere that puts an uneasy feeling in a player, then you’ve got a great starting point. For Texas Chain Saw, everything came to life as soon as we added elements like audio, lighting, and animations into it, and the atmosphere was palpable. If the atmosphere of your game is heavy and hangs over players – the want to survive becomes higher and the stakes are raised.

      2. Everyday Heroes: On creating compelling characters, Jade said:

In some horror media: the protagonists can be stereotypes with no personalities. They’re just there to further the plot. In our upcoming title, Still Wakes the Deep, not only does our main character Caz feel real, but hopefully, our entire cast of characters does. These are not caped-crusaders, they are regular people with families, friends, and lives outside of the rig who come into contact with something so unimaginable they can’t comprehend it. It’s this contrast between very ordinary and realistic people and the unfathomable aspect of the unknown that we wanted to explore in our game.

      3. Near-miss Moments: On ensuring the tension stays high, Kelvin said:

One of the things that keep players coming back to horror games is the feeling of ‘I was this close’. Suppose a player has been in a close encounter or a near-miss moment. In that case, they know they’re able to escape the enemy or danger, but being put in a stressful situation can cloud your judgment and turn a near-miss into a caught-and-killed situation, like taking too long to maneuver around an obstacle, taking a wrong turn or making too much noise.

      4. Pacing: Regarding balancing the gameplay experience in horror games, Steve said:

Some of the most powerful and haunting horror games are the ones that force you to sit in fear. Games like Alien: Isolation wouldn’t be nearly as scary if players were allowed to bolt through every single level at top speed, there has to be a mechanic to slow down the player and give them breathing room in an environment with no air. Similarly, the quiet moments in a horror game can be scarier than the big, bolshy executions: hiding in a shadow in silence while a family member passes you by has all the same breath-holding horror as being chased down the driveway, in my opinion.

      5. Fear of the Unknown: Jade said:

In Still Wakes the Deep, we focused on playing with anticipation, surprises, and dread. A lot of it comes from suggestion and a gradual increase in tension. We also worked very closely with the audio team as a big part of what’s scary is what you can’t see but that you can hear. Especially if it’s coming from behind you. Then maybe it will come from the corner of your eyes but you won’t be able to take a good look at it. We wanted to disorient players and make them question what they’re seeing and hearing, maybe lure them into a false sense of security before finally introducing the threat.

      6. Consequences: Kelvin said:

Part of what makes horror games so exhilarating is that the player is in the driver’s seat and it’s their actions that determine what happens. Games that have little to no consequence don’t have the scare factor required to keep players on their toes. Some games have huge anticipation but when you meet the enemy/monster/foe, nothing really happens. In Texas, we created consequences for the victims that felt very real and brutal: you don’t just die and respawn, you’re killed and out of the game… destined to watch your teammates make or break the bad decisions that led you to your fate.

      7. Gore: The team working on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre wanted it to feel authentic to the movie, and that meant dialing back the gore. Regarding this restriction, Kelvin said:

People think of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre film as extremely gory, but it’s more of a tense, psychological burn. We were committed to keeping that same feeling in the game and used gore as a storytelling device: on our maps, there’s little to no gore outside, and as the player ventures into the depths of each house or location, they uncover the dark secrets that the family keep as the gore levels increase. It makes it all the more shocking when you do come face to face with it.

      8. Phobias: Horror games are excellent at prying into our brains and exploiting our fears. Still Wakes the Deep is set on an offshore drilling platform, offering the development team a plethora of pre-existing fears to exploit, including:

Claustrophobia (fear of small spaces), Submechanaphobia (fear of human-made objects submerged in water), Thanatophobia (fear of death), Autophobia (the fear of isolation), Thalassophobia (fear of large bodies of water), Nyctophobia (fear of the dark) and Acrophobia (fear of heights), and probably lots of others we weren’t even aware of. Players of Still Wakes the Deep will find themselves face-to-face with scenarios that push them to their limits.

You can watch the full Sumo Group x Game Dev London podcast episode where Sumo Nottingham devs Ross Tregenza and Dexter Prior discuss the scary sound design they created for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre game.

Still Wakes the Deep releases on June 18th for PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox Series X | S.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is available now for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X | S, and Xbox One.

The post Halfway to Halloween: The Psychology of Horror Games appeared first on Rely on Horror.

When we last checked in with the remake of Silent Hill 2, rumors suggested it was aiming for a May release. Obviously, we can’t say for certain whether that’s true or not, as we haven’t had confirmation. However, it surely can’t be far away now, and it’s possible the game could be making an appearance at an upcoming PlayStation event.

According to Jeff Grubb in the latest Giant Bomb episode (and reiterated on Twitter/X), Silent Hill 2 has recently been rated M by the ESRB, noted for its depictions of violence. On top of this, Grubb says there’s a “PlayStation something” happening next month, where the remake could make an appearance. Whether this will be State of Play or some other showcase can’t be said at this stage.

I didn't say we'd be getting a sh2 focused anything. Just that sh2 could show up at the Sony event that is happening in May. https://t.co/DrUjfFdy5S

— Grubb (@JeffGrubb) April 2, 2024

According to the ESRB website, the rating does check out, and we can assume it’s for the remake as it specifically mentions the PlayStation 5 platform. As for the potential showcase, we’ll just have to wait and see what Sony and/or Konami has to say about whether the game itself will be there.

With Layers of Fear and The Medium‘s Bloober Team at the helm, every horror gamer is wondering whether the remake of the iconic Silent Hill game will live up to expectations. Since Konami brought the series back, it’s not been looking too good. The interactive experience Ascension received a pretty poor reception, and Short Message has been met with a general “meh.”

However, with all these speculations and insider knowledge, a release date for SH2 is surely imminent. We’ve waited long enough, but the question is, will it be worth it in the end?

The post Silent Hill 2 is Rated M, Could Appear at PlayStation Event appeared first on Rely on Horror.

Silent Hill games haven’t had the best history with ports. The HD Collection has gone down in video game history as one of the worst ports ever and the franchise hasn’t appeared on PC without being seriously broken in some way. As it stands, you can’t play any of the classic SH titles on PS4 or PS5, which is crazy!

Preservation is a huge problem for the series and it seems like we almost had a solution.

This info comes from an interview about Silent Hill: The Short Message with Rika Miyatani, Level Design Director at HexaDrive. When discussing HexaDrive’s work on The Short Message, Miyatani described how the studio originally became involved with Silent Hill.

Per Miyatani:

A few years ago, Konami had actually reached out to us about potentially porting the Silent Hill series. Eventually, however, the team decided to prioritise a remake of Silent Hill 2 over ports of the games.

The team went on to make a prototype of a Silent Hill 2 remake, though as we now know Konami decided not to move forward with HexaDrive’s vision for such a project.

Miyatani explains:

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out at the time, but about half a year later, we heard from Konami again and this time it was to discuss (The Short Message).

The rest, as they say, is history. However, even though it seems modern Silent Hill ports aren’t currently in the works, it’s interesting that Konami were pursuing such an option.

Hopefully, Konami will release something like the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection (only with tigher ports) and finally give longtime fans a way to play their favorite SH titles on something other than emulators and souped-up PC versions. I know I’d preorder it.

The post Konami May be Porting the Silent Hill Series to Modern Consoles appeared first on Rely on Horror.

According to SteamDB, updates have recently been made to the Silent Hill 2 page. Some of these changes include Steam achievements being added, as well as Brazilian and Portuguese subtitles. While we can’t be certain yet, this could mean we may be getting closer to an actual release date, though it’s still listed as “coming soon.”

Around this time last year, Konami livestreamed the Silent Hill Transmission. The stream announced a multitude of upcoming Silent Hill releases, as well as interviews with musician Akira Yamaoka and artist Masahiro Ito, both of whom have helped shape the series over the years.

The remake of fan-favorite Silent Hill 2 was also announced in this video. “The fact that Silent Hill remains in everyone’s hearts more than 20 years later makes me very happy,” Yamaoka stated. Ito is also onboard to make minor changes and updates to the creatures. The remake is being developed by Bloober Team, better known for Layers of Fear and The Medium.

Fans have been clamoring for a new Silent Hill for ages now. Later games have become rare, and copies can have pretty hefty price tags on eBay or Amazon. Some simply don’t have the older consoles. Fan projects like the Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Edition are great, but players don’t always have access to the PC version of the game, or they may be unable to get it up and running on modern hardware.

On top of that, the Silent Hill HD Collection for PS3/Xbox 360 disappointed many due to technical issues. As such, a reimagining of SH2 will not only bring it into the modern era, but will tick some nostalgic boxes. However, we don’t know whether Bloober will be able to pull it off yet.

The new interactive series Silent Hill Ascension is also due to start on October 31. This would be a great time for survival horror announcements in general. Hopefully, more definitive updates will be forthcoming, but the updated Steam page gives us hope that progress is being made!

You can wishlist the Silent Hill 2 remake on Steam or on PSN for the PS5 version. Currently, there is no plan to release the game on Xbox.

The post Silent Hill 2 Remake Quietly Updated on Steam appeared first on Rely on Horror.

This year at the PAX West gaming expo, there felt to be a general shift in most of the games being showcased, moving towards games that fall within a few specific categories or genres, and a noticeable decline in horror gaming content.

Maybe it was just an off-year in this regard, or perhaps there’s an ongoing attempt to make the event more family-friendly as some have suggested, but there were still a few nuggets of upcoming horror experiences featured there, including the time we got to spend playing the new re-imagining of Atari’s classic Haunted House and chatting with the producer of the game.

In the more than forty years since the release of the original Haunted House, the series has had three different reboots and re-imaginings already, making this new game in 2023 the fifth entry in the series. The original Haunted House is considered by many (myself included) to be the first survival horror video game of all time, and having personally played all the previous attempts to breathe new life into the franchise, I have to say this new rogue-lite stealth-based approach for 2023 feels like the best one to date.

The game feels like a great combination of a 2D isometric stealth game combined with a little bit of Capcom’s Sweet Home, a touch of Luigi’s Mansion or Grabbed by the Ghoulies, and some fun, lightly randomized mechanics and puzzles/objectives. All this mixes together into a package with a fun hand-drawn art style that aims more towards being spooky or creepy rather than full-on horror aesthetics, and it feels like something unique in the current stealth horror gaming market.

In the time we got to play, the stealth mechanics were tense and lots of fun, and as you progress, you rescue your kidnapped friends, who become playable characters, all with different strengths or abilities, giving some extra variety to the gameplay overall. There are also boss battles at the end of each of the four major areas that will test your skills and allow you to proceed to the next area, giving some extra variety to the gameplay and progression overall.

While making your way through the game, you’ll also be able to obtain some upgrades that are more permanent and will stay with you on all subsequent runs, as well as some upgrades that will only last through the current room you’re in or the end of your current run, as many rogue-lites do. It still maintains some of the core ideas behind the original game while updating it to account for what players will expect from a modern gaming experience, and it’s already feeling like a success on that front.

The items and abilities of your character contain many options to distract or temporarily disable your enemies, with the only permanent way to get rid of your enemies being a true stealth knockout by sneaking right up behind them, which can be much trickier than you might expect. All enemies have visible vision cones attached to them as they move around, which help you navigate around them to plan your best strategy for each room, choosing to avoid or take out enemies while also accomplishing whatever the current room’s objective is.

There’s also no radar to help you see the layout of the rooms or enemies, so all stealth and exploration is done in real-time using various indicators and putting yourself into potentially dangerous situations. The room objectives needed to progress will vary from item collection, activating certain beacons, and several other types of objectives, which will be randomized for each room. This keeps things fresh and challenging, and doesn’t allow you to just simply memorize patterns and layouts on repeat playthroughs.

The rooms will also be full of traps and obstacles along the way, on top of the randomized enemy and objective placement, and you’ll even need to watch how closely you walk around tables, chairs, vases, or other objects that can create noise, as they’ll ruin your stealth and get you spotted by enemies very quickly.

There’s a number of easter eggs that reference the history of Atari and its games, as well as the narrative story being related to the story of the previous Haunted House games, just for a few extra touches to tie it to the franchise as a whole. From our conversation at the show, the publisher is aiming for a release on all modern platforms (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC) as well as Atari’s own VCS console later this year if all goes well, and we’re definitely anticipating more news from this title as soon as we can get it.

You can watch the Haunted House reveal trailer below if you haven’t seen it yet.

Stay tuned for more info and impressions on the game as we near the release later this year and we can get our hands on the full version.

The post Hands-on Preview from PAX West: Atari’s Haunted House 2023 appeared first on Rely on Horror.

The Keeper’s Diary: A Biohazard Story, a Resident Evil fan film adapting the famous log from both the original 1996 release and its 2002 remake, has begun its crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. The short film stars Charlie Kraslavsky, the actor who originally portrayed Chris Redfield in RE1‘s live-action scenes. Here, he plays the unfortunate Umbrella employee tasked with caring for the t-Virus-infected mutants at the Spencer Mansion.

The campaign will run until early September and is seeking $40,000 in funding. There are various tiers with a range of backer awards, from a special thanks in the credits to character posters to a one-on-one video call with Kravslasky himself. At the time of writing, 21% of the intended budget has been raised so far.

The funds will be split between location/set design, wardrobe/props, cast/transportation, catering/lodging, and post-production expenses. The crew involved with the project includes director Andrew Saullo, perhaps best known for organising last year’s Resident Evil cast reunion, producer Andy Cox of Biohazard Declassified, D.O.P. Luke De La Nougerede and A.P. J.J. Trulock, whose YouTube channel Residence of Evil will host the final film.

Perhaps most informatively, the page also links to last year’s teaser, which was filmed as an effective proof-of-concept, as well as a full-length animatic for the entire film. This should hopefully give prospective backers an idea of the finished product’s length and content.

Another exciting detail for fans is that Ward E. Sexton, the voice behind the iconic “Resident Evil” title growl, will be performing that same duty for this short film. With this, Kraslavsky’s return, and the overall reverence the team seem to have for the material, The Keeper’s Diary is shaping up to be a Resi fan’s dream. If successfully funded, the movie aims to go into production in October, and release between Q4 2023 and Q1 2024.

The post Resident Evil Fan Film ‘The Keeper’s Diary’ Begins Crowdfunding appeared first on Rely on Horror.

Few video game franchises can claim to have a sonic identity as singular as Silent Hill. Every mainline game in the franchise (bar 2012’s Downpour) featured soundtracks composed by the one and only Akira Yamaoka – and what scores they are!

Even the titles that faced mixed reviews found praise for their soundtracks, and the original four entries, considered by many to be the series’ golden children, have some of the most acclaimed video game scores of all time.

Fans of those four, rejoice! Vinyl records of the soundtracks to Silent Hills 1, 2, 3, and 4 are back at Mondo Shop. Though these are re-releases, the records have been reprinted in new colourways: a matte red for SH1, a slightly-foggy silver for SH2, a royal purple for SH3, and a flame orange for SH4. Each is a 2XLP set that features the vast majority of their game’s soundtrack.

However, you may find there are one or two disappointing omissions. For example, Silent Hill 2‘s incredible Peace and Serenity isn’t there, but these vinyls do contain the same soundtracks you’d find on most audio streaming services.

They aren’t exactly definitive, but cover a lot of the bases and provide an absolutely delightful listening experience (as this writer can attest to after many hours listening to The Room’s score and getting all emotional).

The vinyls will cost you $35 each (bar Silent Hill, which for some reason is only $30), not including shipping or tax, and, at the time of writing, have enough stock in.

Certainly there are more copies available than previous re-releases of these vinyls, which have tended to go in a flash, resulting in second-hand prices skyrocketing. So, if you’re looking to spin some Yamaoka goodness, be sure to get on these now.

The post Silent Hill Vinyl Soundtracks Back in Stock At Mondo appeared first on Rely on Horror.