It’s no secret that Bloober games have often been maligned, whether for a perceived lack of actual gameplay or mishandling of horror tropes and representations of mental illness.Bloober itself has explicitly acknowledged its less-than-stellar track record thus far, and it’s now probably fair to say that theSilent Hill 2remake is one of Bloober’s best works to date.
Indeed, theSilent Hill 2remake is an interesting turning point for Bloober, suggesting that it should have been developing third-person survival horror games all along. That may have been a revelation the studio came to as well and it wasted no time in announcingCronos: The New Dawn, an over-the-shoulder horror game that is presumably inspired by its own work onSilent Hill 2. Still, given thatCronos: The New Dawnis an original IP, Bloober will have to demonstrate that it has the chops to deliver a phenomenal survival-horror narrative.
Silent Hill 2’s Remake is a Godsend for Bloober in This Trying Time
Silent Hill 2’s remake had a lot riding on it to be halfway decent and it’s fair to say it exceeded all expectations. Even with its early reception to a gameplay trailer aside,Silent Hill 2being remade was tumultuous as it’s easily one of the most seminal and revered pieces of psychological/survival horror media.Silent Hill 2deals with rich, dark subject matter in incredibly nuanced ways, and while Bloober didn’t necessarily need to rewrite the narrative it was going to have to recontextualize it through a modern perspective of contemporary cinematics and performances.
The larger concern, however, was always how Bloober was going to approach over-the-shoulder gameplay, much less combat. The originalSilent Hill 2’s combat has been both defended and criticized with vigor from both sides of theSilent Hillcommunity, with one side defending it for reinforcing how tense the atmosphere should be and how it doesn’t represent action tropes that aResident Evilwould have, and one side criticizing it for being too elementary with James Sunderland and his foes trading unsatisfying blows.
TheSilent Hill 2remake does lean heavily on action after all, but because combat is kept basic in its mechanics it has been received well—no flashy combos like inSilent Hill: Homecoming, and no superfluous inventory of miscellaneous items and appliances like inSilent Hill: Origins.
That said, Bloober surprised players with a faithful adaptation that explored themes and characters a little differently and almost every change, big or small, seems to be met with positivity.Silent Hill 2’s remake may not have made the nominations list for Game of the Year, and yet it’s tough to dispute how influential it will likely be for horror games going forward.
Bloober’s Silent Hill 2 Remake Puts Even More Pressure on Cronos: The New Dawn to Do Well
Bloober could’ve decided to hop back to its bread and butter with another bare-bones first-person horror game, but it has earned itself a ton of goodwill that will at least carry over intoCronos: The New Dawnwith many more eyes on it than there might have been if theSilent Hill 2remake received a sour reception.Cronos: The New Dawn’s science-fiction atmospherelooks unlike anything Bloober has put out before, to be fair, and its cinematic trailer is cryptic enough to ask enough questions without answering anything.
Gameplay was teased with a tiny snippet and official screenshots revealingCronos: The New Dawnwill be a third-person shooter, and it can only be presumed that this was decided on as a result of everything Bloober has learned working onSilent Hill 2’s remake. That’s not to say thatCronos: The New Dawnis guaranteed to play similarly toSilent Hill 2’s remake, but with both games being developed so closely together it would be alarming if a lot of features or gimmicks weren’t adopted from one to the other.
Regardless,Cronos: The New Dawn’s biggest challenge will be delivering an original narrativeas it didn’t need to do so withSilent Hill 2, and the hope is that it can stick that landing and contribute something refreshing and meaningful to the horror genre. Bloober has shown enormous potential now with what it can achieve with a third-person survival horror game, but how it fares with its own IP will be another question entirely.
