When Bloober Team first took on the monumental task of remaking Silent Hill 2, the Polish studio faced a mountain of skepticism from both fans and critics. Known for its previous titles in the horror genre, Bloober was an unlikely candidate to tackle one of the most beloved games in history.
The studio’s past works, including Layers of Fear and The Medium, had earned their share of praise, but the stakes were much higher with Silent Hill 2, a game that originally set the bar for psychological horror.
In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Cronos: The New Dawn game director Jacek Zięba opened up about the intense pressure the team faced during development.
The Silent Hill era wasn’t so easy in the eyes of the public. There were a lot of voices: ‘Oh no, Bloober is doing this. They will destroy that.’ It was very tough for the whole company to stick to our guns.
Despite the doubts, the team at Bloober poured everything into the remake, and when Silent Hill 2 launched, it exceeded expectations, earning critical acclaim and a newfound respect in the gaming industry.
Zięba’s reflection on the success of Silent Hill 2 marks a shift in the studio’s trajectory. “We proved people wrong,” he said, expressing the sense of vindication that came with the game’s success. Silent Hill 2‘s positive reception has not only raised the studio’s profile but also paved the way for future projects. Now, with Cronos: The New Dawn, a sci-fi survival horror inspired by Resident Evil and Dead Space, Bloober is no longer the underdog.
“We’re in a different moment,” Zięba explained. The team is now operating from a place of confidence, knowing that fans are eager to see what the studio does next.
Set in the team’s home city of Kraków, Cronos: The New Dawn blends sci-fi disaster with 1980s Soviet aesthetics, offering a new flavor of horror while retaining the atmospheric storytelling Bloober is known for. Despite heightened expectations, the team remains grounded, with Zięba and lead writer Grzegorz Like emphasizing that they will continue to evolve as developers.
“Every time you publish a game, you learn, and then you change, you evolve. You try to be better,” Like said, acknowledging that even after the success of Silent Hill 2, the team wants to grow.
Cronos: The New Dawn is scheduled for release later this year, and with the momentum from Silent Hill 2, Bloober Team is poised to prove that it has more to offer than a one-off piece of perfection. As Zięba put it, “Even if we created one perfect one, maybe now we can show you a different one.”
