Since the cancellation ofSilent Hills,the psychological horror franchise has essentially been on hold. But that certainly hasn’t discouraged fan rumors from popping up to offer speculation on what the future of the series might look like.
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While the first four games in the series were developed by Team Silent, an internal development team inKonami, the subsequent games were developed by various game studios to equally varying degrees of success. One of the biggest questions revolving around the series iswhether or not a reboot is in the works, and if so, who would be creating it?
10Frictional Games
Famous as the indie developer geniuses behind modern psychological andsurvival horror classics,Amnesia,Penumbra,andSoma,this company has a knack for crafting unsettling settings with an emphasis on exploration over action. Scenery and ambiance are critical elements of theSilent Hillseries, with many die-hard fans noting the ever-present fog and nightmare environments as the most important elements of the games. It will take a studio with an eye for dream-like atmospheres to impressSilent Hilldevotees.
9Red Barrels
The development studio that created theOutlasthorror series,Red Barrelsis notorious for scaring the pants off players. Rather than giving players an assortment of high-powered guns and weapons to fight back with,Outlastforces players to run and hide, encouraging more of a stealth approach, albeit with high stakes. Considering criticism towards recent horror games targets the overabundance of action sequences, gun shooting, and explosions rather than genuinely scary gameplay,Silent Hillfans may want to consider Red Barrels as a potential studio.
8Capcom
While it is probably unlikely thatCapcomwill pick up theSilent Hillfranchise any time in the foreseeable future, the studio has found a string of successes with their own successful entries forResident Evil.Capcom listened to fans wanting a new style for the survival horror series and absolutely delivered with their recent releases, includingreboots of the second and third games.
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With the hype forResident Evil Villageonly heating up, manySilent Hillfans are wondering when they will get their day in the sun.
7Kojima Productions
Oh, what could have been. Once upon a time,Kojima Productionswas slated to develop the nextSilent Hillgame, titledSilent Hills.The only tangible product of the project was the release ofP.T.The game was more or less a demo ofSilent Hills,featuring aterrifying ghost woman in a haunted house. While just a taste of the larger project, the game is still considered a crown jewel in the realm of psychological horror for many fans. Taking into account the turbulent history between Kojima Productions andSilent Hill,a second shot at the reboot may never come, but stranger things have certainly happened.
6Tango Gameworks
Tango Gameworks is known as the development studio behindTheEvil Withinseries, which is something of a spiritual successor toSilent Hillin its own right considering the dreamy atmosphere, terrifying bosses, and substantial lack of ammo.TheEvil Withingames are excellent at pacing the tension of horror throughout the story, and keeping the shooting fun while still incorporating survival elements into the gameplay. The enemy design is intricately grotesque too,and much likeSilent Hill,based on character traits and beliefs that manifest themselves into creepy monsters.
5Bloober Team
By their name alone,Bloober Teammay not sound like a horror game developing machine, but they have achieved a string of successful psychological thrillers, including recently released horror darlingThe Medium.Bloober Team has a knack for crafting detailed stories with atypical storytelling and gameplay.Puzzles are also a key partof their horror games, something that manySilent Hillgames prioritize. ASilent Hillgame under Bloober Team would certainly be a memorable experience that’s off the beaten path from previous games.
4Supermassive Games
Known for theirinteractive video games,Until DawnandThe Dark Pictures Anthology,Supermassive Gamesis keenly adept at making creepy stories feel real. While it would be a change-up in gameplay,Silent Hillhas dabbled in interactive stories and point-and-click gameplay before in a few of its older spinoff games. Finding a balance between story and gameplay is monumental when it comes to psychological horror games, any potential development studio involved will have to nail the harmony between both.
3Turtle Rock Studios
The minds behind theLeft 4 Deadseries have found much success in the horror genre, thanks in part to their ability to make cooperative online gameplay exceptionally fun.Silent Hillmight be known as a solo venture into the nightmare dreamscape of madness, but cooperative games are huge right now and the combination between story-based horror and online play is largely unchartered territory for major titles.
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Turtle Rock Studioswill be releasingBack 4 Blood,the spiritual successor forLeft 4 Dead,later this year.
24A Games
First-person perspectives have been used more and more frequently for horror games in recent years, typically as a means of engrossing players in the adrenaline rush of fear. Few games understand this better than theMetroseries, which combines survival horror elements with first-person shooter mechanics in a macabre nuclear fallout zone full of mutants. Other horror series such asOutlastandResident Evilhave had much success in the first-person horror category, there is no reasonSilent Hillcan’t as well.
1GSC Game World
Silent Hillis a goliath in the psychological horror field of video games, and any reboots of the series will have to adhere to truly scaring players. Thankfully, that is something the developers atGSC Game Worldexcel at with theirS.T.A.L.K.E.R.series. In terms of terrifying locations and demonic creatures,S.T.A.L.K.E.R.is masterful at building tension and surprising players with horrifying monsters around every corner. The survival aspects of the games cannot be overlooked either, pitting players against overpowered enemies with little to no ammunition or weapons. Whoever is in charge of the nextSilent Hillentry will have a challenge cut out for them, but anxious fans are more than ready to play whatever game comes their way.
