Gaming's biggest night is just around the corner, with the 2024 Game Awards taking place on December 12 from Los Angeles' Peacock Theatre. To nobody's surprise, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth , the second installment of the infamous RPG adventure game, is currently leading the way with seven nominations, but one of the year's biggest horror games isn't too far behind.
Konami and Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 remake is currently sitting pretty with five nominations, clocking nods for Best Narrative, Best Score and Music, Best Audio Design, Best Performance and, oddly enough, Best Action/Adventure Game.
Against all odds, Bloober managed to remake the 2001 psychological horror classic in a way both faithful for those loyal to the original and accessible for newcomers, leading to it selling one million copies in its first three days of release. With both fans and critics eating their words, the team has expressed interest in tackling other entries in the Silent Hill series.
While the odds are stacked against Silent Hill 2 (especially competing against the likes of the behemoth of Final Fantasy VII and Call of Duty), there are a couple of categories in which the game stands a stronger chance of winning. Best Audio Design and Best Score and Music should, in a just world, be a no-brainer.
Longtime series composer Akira Yamaoka's work on the Silent Hill 2 remake is tantamount to genius, somehow managing to improve on the perfection that was the original game's stacked OST. Anyone who's played the Silent Hill 2 remake will tell you that the audio design is truly nightmare-inducing, incorporating a ton of terrifying ambience to ratchet up the tension, combined with an industrial soundscape that hints towards the game's deeper meanings.
Silent Hill 2 also deserves to take home the crown of Best Performance, with Luke Roberts' performance as protagonist James Sunderland adding an entirely new layer of vulnerability and relatability to a character who is, let's be honest, kind of tough to align yourself with.
Best Action/Adventure game probably isn't going to go to Silent Hill 2, and it's pretty baffling that the Game Awards doesn't have a dedicated Best Horror Game category, given how huge the genre is within the medium.
Silent Hill 2 wasn't the only horror/genre game to rack up some Game Award nominations though – Diablo IV nabbed two nominations for Innovation in Accessibility and Best Ongoing Game, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II has four nominations under its belt; Best Narrative, Best Audio Design, Best Performance and Games for Impact.
One pretty big upset is that Silent Hill 2 isn't nominated in the Game of the Year category, arguably the biggest award of the entire night. It's not as if horror games haven't taken home the prestigious title before, as The Last of Us Part II won in 2020, and both Alan Wake 2 and Resident Evil 2 have been nominated in the past.
Fans can participate in voting from now through December 11 via The Game Awards’ website and Discord server. Winners will be revealed December 12 at the Peacock Theater and be streamed live via The Game Awards website and across more than 30 social platforms and video networks.
