
Silent Hill 2 remake developer Bloober Team is currently riding high, enjoying critical acclaim and over a million sales, pulling off the contentious project seemingly against all odds. Best known for such bangers as Blair Witch, The Medium, and Layers of Fear, the Krakow-based studio says its days of making "sh*tty" games are officially done; don't expect the newly-announced Cronos: The New Dawn to stink.
Speaking to GameSpot (thanks, VGC), Bloober co-director Jacek Zieba acknowledged its chequered past and pledges that players can expect future releases to maintain the work ethic and best practices established while remaking Silent Hill 2: "We want to find our niche, and we think we found our niche, so now we just–let’s evolve with it. And how that happens is more complex, but it also happens organically in a way, like with [2016’s] Layers of Fear, people in the studio were like, ‘Okay, we made some sh*tty games before, but we [can] evolve."
But while the quality bar has certainly been raised, don't expect it's new-found success to cause a sudden genre switch; Bloober Team is equipped to create spooky-as-hell survival horror games, a state of affairs set to persist. Co-director Wojciech Piejko added: "We gathered a team that loves horror. So I think, for us, it would not be easy to switch [to other genres], and we don’t want to."
Were you a fan of Bloober Team's earlier efforts? Were any "sh*tty", in your estimation? Rank Bloober's back catalogue in the comments section below.
[source gamespot.com, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 39
From an indie/AA perspective their games were decent and on par or better with what other current horror/walking simulators are offering (definitely better then let's say five nights and the schlocky streamer games), so nothing to talk badly about.
Strong words there. Lets see how they do when they build a completely new IP from the ground up. After all they already had the blueprint for a decent game with silent hill 2
That seems a bit harsh. I've only played The Medium by them and while that game disappointed me after its promising start, it was definitely not *****. Average at worst I would say. They're clearly ambitious though, so good on them, let's hope they can build on their new-found success.
Edit: it's a little ridiculous that the swear filter doesn't let me repeat a word that appears in the article's title.
The Medium fits that bill, really good art but awful story and execution.
Well, first of all, they need to improve at handling lots of things: From (lack of) gameplay to optimization, etc.. but my biggest issue with Bloober is not so much that they write "problematic" stories - it's that they write uninteresting stories in their "original" games. Personally, I have issues with their mishandling of trauma which often overshadows just how boring the characters and plot are. Even people who like the their games don't seem interested in discussing the plot.
Silent Hill 2 Remake was an easier task as the story and characters are already fleshed out. For me, that does not prove Blooper are capable of making their own game with good storytelling and announcing "*****" games are over after a remake is bold.
No sheety games, no complaining from me. Conclusion: no buy
I enjoyed my time with The Medium. Wouldn't call it *****.
@Arthur_Morgan Yeah that's what I was gonna say, they remade a game and improved upon existing gameplay mechanics. I don't think that shows anything other than they know how to keep a game faithful.
He is talking about back in 2016, not that their recent games were sh1tty.
Observer is a bloody fantastic game and a solid 9/10 imo.
Also I’d like to stage a protest on how PushSquare headlines can swear but we the commenters are censored!
Personally I think it’s a ***** ***** pissing ***** absolutely ***** ***** ***** disgrace.
Personally have enjoyed all Thier games I have played ...even thought Blair witch was decent..
Haven't found any of there games I've played bad
@Nepp67
In a time where all these shameless crazies crap on the originals without any respect, staying faithful is an immense feat lol
I mean if you read the article, their not referring to their recent stuff (e.g. The Medium), more their pre-Layers of Fear stuff, which was non-horror work for hire jobs. All the headlines are making it seem they are dissing their recent output which ain't the case.
It's more like 'sheety' tone-deaf PR proclamations like this they need to stop making.
Pushsquare comments section going mental as per usual. Maybe some of you should have a mental health check? Talk to somebody other than this vacuum.
@StylesT
This studio seems to get so much s--t for no justified reason. Yeah none of their games are 10/10s but they are FAR from the worst games I have ever played. Some of them are even quite ambitious for their developer size.
@PegasusActual93 There is no reasoning with these 'gamers'. They revel in negativity.
I don't think any of their games were terrible. But (with the exception of Observer) they were all aggressively average.
Layers of Fear was their first game and while rough, it was decent. Problem was, they could never manage much better than "decent". Until Silent Hill 2.
SH2 is an absolute masterpiece. Got me to put down Astrobot, which is very telling bc that game is FUN. Bloober has leveled up and deserves all the praise. Excited for Cronos next year!
I dunno, I think sometimes it takes a small studio time to find its specialty. I mean, I collect From Software games. You should see the utter crap they put out the first ten years of their existence.
From Adventures of Cookies and Cream to Elden Ring. Wow
@UnlimitedSevens
Naughty Dogs first game was Way of the Warrior on 3DO. We all start somewhere.
Am I the only one who liked Layers of fear, when it first came out?
@PegasusActual93
Awesome example.
Another company I'd add to the list: SquareSoft. They were releasing straight garbage for years, dud after dud. Uninspired clones of better games.
Then, under threat of the studio being shuttered, they released a little game called Final Fantasy. The title was actually meant to denote it might very well have been their final game. The rest is history.
You just never know. Maybe it's time for Bloober's hot streak.
@Oram77
It was alright. Just alright. I liked it well enough. Some cool perspective tricks. Sort of like an off-brand Amnesia game, and I don't mean that necessarily as a bad thing.
The part where the ghost baby repeatedly runs into the wall in the looping corridor had me laughing out loud. They took that part out for the Layers of Fear remake unfortunately :/
Looks like I'm the only one who liked The Medium. I guess the studio is learning from their mistakes and keeps evolving but I don't think they should've said they created S****y games!!
@Khwarezm89
Nah, The Medium has around a 70% aggregate review score, plenty of people liked it well enough. It probably had the most actual gameplay of any of their games, which were all straight up walking simulators up to that point.
Removed - inappropriate
This is like when by far the best song in a band's set is a cover.
Their games weren't even "sh*tty" to be fair. I mean, if you go back to the stuff they were making for PS Vita, maybe. But from Layers of Fear I think their games were fine, some of them even pretty good.
Sold a million copies. Not bad considering it was just on one platform. I liked the game, but did not think it was a GOTY contender.
Haven’t play the SH2 remake yet as most physical copy is out of stock at the moment. But Cronos look so promising and nice.
Bloober deserve to be confident, the SH2 Remake is fantastic.
Ooh had a comment removed for using too obvious of an example. I'll use a less obvious one this time. Just saying that you are your own worst critic or you blow your own trumpet way too much. I prefer people of the former. We had a lad at school who my mate called "dogs b******s" because he thought he was all that and more.
Back to Bloober's games and I think their games are not bad prior to Silent Hill 2 myself.
I think the headline of the article is rather misleading and a few comments show that they did not really read what the dev was really saying here (meaning the times before layers of fear) ...
please do silent hill 3 next .
@DonJorginho Interesting to see 'pissing' slip through the net there.
Noted for future use.
Cronos trailer was interesting, the last part in third person was great. Is it unreal engine 5?
I played through Layers of Fear and it's DLC on Switch. Certainly wasn't anything to write home about, but wasn't terrible. I have the Blair Witch VR version, but never played it. I heard it was alright, though.
Author doesn't know what "bangers" means. lol
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