Silent Hill 2 Remake Fans Losing It Over Possible Gameplay Change [Update]

Fans will go searching underneath their couch cushions to find more information about Silent Hill 2, the highly anticipated but, as of now, secretive remake of the beloved survival horror game by Layers of Fear developer Bloober Team. The game does not yet have a release date (though fans have tried divining one) or many publicly available details (though fans have tried making some up), but those question marks only make fans more distraught. So when people noticed some information falling through the cracks—the fact that the Canadian Best Buy listing for Silent Hill 2 at one point mentioned bloodstained executioner Pyramid Head as a playable character—they dove toward it.

The survival horror remake, which will be a PS5 exclusive for at least a year, is described generically elsewhere. Fans of the 2001 Konami game already know it’ll let them play as blond idiot James Sunderland, who’s searching for his dead wife in comfortless Silent Hill after she incomprehensibly sends him a letter, as the game’s PS5 listing says. They know a 2023 remake would bring the horror classic to “the latest hardware with chilling visuals and visceral sounds,” as its sparse Steam description says.

But they’re unfamiliar with the fact that, according to 3a now-removed Best Buy description, “fan favorite character, Pyramid Head, makes a return along with a special origin story for fans to play through.” The original Silent Hill 2 did have an origin story tied to it—the Born From a Wish prequel, which gives more context to spectral character Maria. But since most of Silent Hill 2’s tortured inhabitants are considered imaginary products of James’ guilt, this extended content was already unpopular when it was released.

Publisher Konami told IGN on November 7 that Best Buy “had the incorrect information,” and it struck all references to an origin story from the listing. Though, the spokesperson didn’t elaborate on how any “origin story” might appear in the remake.

But if the original phrasing on SH2’s Best Buy listing is accurate and Bloober is developing a brand new Pyramid Head story, this add-on content will be arriving to an even more reproachful crowd than Born From a Wish. Silent Hill 2 has had two decades to expand its cult following, and its devotees are already stressed about Bloober maintaining the original’s purity. Konami’s official re-entry into the franchise, live event series Silent Hill: Ascension, had such a hopeless launch week, it’s easy to see why fans are biting their nails.

“This remake will be shit,” said one Reddit comment. “Giving pyramid head a fucking origin just because he’s a popular character design is idiocy and painfully missing the point.”

“People haven’t realized this is all a huge cash grab?” said another. “Anyone still holding up hope for anything Silent Hill should turn back NOW.”

But Bloober said in interviews that it would “faithfully stick to [SH2’s] traditional story canon.” I’m assuming that Best Buy’s unedited listing suffers from a missing comma—Pyramid Head makes a return, as does the Born From a Wish origin story. So try to chill out. There’s always hope.

Update 11/7/2023 12:05 p.m. ET: Added statement from Konami and information about it removing references to an “origin story” from Best Buy’s listing.