In September of 2001 one of the greatest games ever produced was released. Excellent story, interesting characters, brilliant score, multiple endings, and some of the hands down best atmosphere to be put in a video game ever. With the exception of some of the old school tank controls common of that genre, Silent Hill 2 as far as I am concerned set the the standard for what a great survival horror game should be.
On my first play through of this game, it took me around 8 or so hours to get through. At my best, I had every map and puzzle memorized, and could play through the game in just over 2 hours. Played it through enough to get all five endings and still continued to play it afterwards. Hands down one of the best games ever.
So why do I bring up a playstation 2 game that is almost 10 years old? Because for every Silent Hill game to come out since its release, I hear from almost every development team that works on each respective project say: "We are trying to get back to what made Silent hill 2 great." Despite this every adaptation to follow this one has never quite lived up to the expectations of the one before it. 3 had some alright moments in it but it didn't have that same feel of 2. The Room had some interesting concepts but it had some of the worst controls in the franchise. Homecoming improved the combat greatly but that inversely affected the horror level of the game, never causing that sense of fear and panic some of the others had. That's not to say any of them were bad, I thoroughly enjoyed every one of them and played them multiple times. Its just that they don't feel like they've lived up to the standard that's has been set.
The reason I take this little trip down memory lane is because I am staring to hear this same promise again in the form of the upcoming Silent Hill: Downpour set to be released this winter. When I saw the initial release trailer, it looked very rough and unclean. It was clearly nothing more than a concept video to present at a show to and at least get some buzz going for it. Well a year has gone by now and they have got the a more cleaned up trailer that shows a little more of the story and some of the game play elements.
In this 8th installment of the SH franchise, you play as Murphy Pendelton. A prisoner in transit who escapes as his transport when it crashes and flips off the side of the road. Murphy is stranded in the southern map of Silent Hill, an area that has been yet to be explored in the franchise at this point so while there might be some visits to a familiar location or two, the setting should feel original and different again despite being back in a town we've visited so many times before.
One of the first things I noticed as I was looking at how good the character's looked this time around, is how brightly lit and super saturated all the characters and locations were. To me, this feels like a detriment to the game. That may sound like I am contradicting myself but I'm really not. Here's the thing, while the character models look great, the first three SH games had this fantastic way of increasing the tension from the location alone. The game was either pitch black making you barely able to see past the minimal distance of the flashlight you carried, or in daylight the entire landscape was covered in a thick foreboding mist that reduced your visibility and filled you with this crushing feel of loneliness. While adding some color and life to the setting, it somewhat reduces that empty void feeling, that sense as if you are trapped by the town itself.
Which brings me to my next point of critique. Loneliness is a big factor in raising the tension in these games. Monsters are more scary the less you see of them, and panic sets in deeper when you are fending them off alone. This installment of the game seems to have a pretty big cast of characters in it and I think that by including so many people it gives too many opportunities to break the tension and let the player come down and break from the immersion to sit back and watch a scene. Granted, this is commenting on a trailer that's only about 3 minutes long so this may not be the case, but it is something to think about. The female sidekick in Homecoming did nothing to aid in the playable portions of the game, and when a game like SH gets as cutscene heavy as that one did it really kills any fear it was building.
Looking at how some of the combat played in the trailer, it appears like its going to maintain that over the shoulder 3rd person style of gameplay that it used in Homecoming. It somewhat worked in the last installment but it will need some tweaks to be really effective, (fix the fucking dodge roll this time). Guns again are said to be limited and melee makes a return, but it appears that this time around they are bringing back breakable weapons. This can be good or bad. On one hand, having a weapon break mid fight is a good way to raise the panic and desperation of the situation. On the other hand, this was tried in Silent Hill: Origins and it was clunky, inefficient, and only ended up causing more cheap deaths and reloads that cause frustration instead of raise tension. Melee has never been something that is easily masted in the SH franchise so I don't feel weapons that break were needed. I promise no matter how good you are at SH, when combat goes to melee you are going to take hits. Having your weapon constantly breaking is just another kick in the junk.
The last thing I want to touch on is the music. Akira Yamaoka has been the composer for the SH franchise for most of the major releases, and he has been brilliant at the job. The SH franchise contains some of the best scoring in video games to date, (the first video in this blog is a fantastic sampling of this). So for what reason is he not being included in the project? In addition to that, if you've kept up with the franchise you probably are familiar with the music of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. She has been the vocalist to appear on the soundtracks and in the SH franchise since SH3, and while met with mixed reviews, she too has provided a number of memorable tunes to this great franchise. She had originally announced in June of 2010 that she was not going to be a part of this project, but a year later it had been confirmed that she would be doing music for the game. The problem is she is not doing the theme as she usually has. This time around the theme to Downpour will be written and performed by Korn. Yes, I said that. Korn. This would make me excited maybe back in 96 or 97. But now? I do not see how they can add ANYTHING that will fit this franchise and make it better. I'm willing to give them a chance but they have a very narrow margin to impress me. This to me has been the most disappointing news.
Take this preview for what it is, its just me commenting on what I know from the game as of now. I still have it pre-orded, I will still probably play it from start to finish, and i will still probably love the hell out of the game. But if the SH development teams are going to keep making these games, they need to adhere to this little nugget of advice: Stop promising us Silent Hill 2. It might never be that good again.
One of the first things I noticed as I was looking at how good the character's looked this time around, is how brightly lit and super saturated all the characters and locations were. To me, this feels like a detriment to the game. That may sound like I am contradicting myself but I'm really not. Here's the thing, while the character models look great, the first three SH games had this fantastic way of increasing the tension from the location alone. The game was either pitch black making you barely able to see past the minimal distance of the flashlight you carried, or in daylight the entire landscape was covered in a thick foreboding mist that reduced your visibility and filled you with this crushing feel of loneliness. While adding some color and life to the setting, it somewhat reduces that empty void feeling, that sense as if you are trapped by the town itself.
Which brings me to my next point of critique. Loneliness is a big factor in raising the tension in these games. Monsters are more scary the less you see of them, and panic sets in deeper when you are fending them off alone. This installment of the game seems to have a pretty big cast of characters in it and I think that by including so many people it gives too many opportunities to break the tension and let the player come down and break from the immersion to sit back and watch a scene. Granted, this is commenting on a trailer that's only about 3 minutes long so this may not be the case, but it is something to think about. The female sidekick in Homecoming did nothing to aid in the playable portions of the game, and when a game like SH gets as cutscene heavy as that one did it really kills any fear it was building.
Looking at how some of the combat played in the trailer, it appears like its going to maintain that over the shoulder 3rd person style of gameplay that it used in Homecoming. It somewhat worked in the last installment but it will need some tweaks to be really effective, (fix the fucking dodge roll this time). Guns again are said to be limited and melee makes a return, but it appears that this time around they are bringing back breakable weapons. This can be good or bad. On one hand, having a weapon break mid fight is a good way to raise the panic and desperation of the situation. On the other hand, this was tried in Silent Hill: Origins and it was clunky, inefficient, and only ended up causing more cheap deaths and reloads that cause frustration instead of raise tension. Melee has never been something that is easily masted in the SH franchise so I don't feel weapons that break were needed. I promise no matter how good you are at SH, when combat goes to melee you are going to take hits. Having your weapon constantly breaking is just another kick in the junk.
The last thing I want to touch on is the music. Akira Yamaoka has been the composer for the SH franchise for most of the major releases, and he has been brilliant at the job. The SH franchise contains some of the best scoring in video games to date, (the first video in this blog is a fantastic sampling of this). So for what reason is he not being included in the project? In addition to that, if you've kept up with the franchise you probably are familiar with the music of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. She has been the vocalist to appear on the soundtracks and in the SH franchise since SH3, and while met with mixed reviews, she too has provided a number of memorable tunes to this great franchise. She had originally announced in June of 2010 that she was not going to be a part of this project, but a year later it had been confirmed that she would be doing music for the game. The problem is she is not doing the theme as she usually has. This time around the theme to Downpour will be written and performed by Korn. Yes, I said that. Korn. This would make me excited maybe back in 96 or 97. But now? I do not see how they can add ANYTHING that will fit this franchise and make it better. I'm willing to give them a chance but they have a very narrow margin to impress me. This to me has been the most disappointing news.
Take this preview for what it is, its just me commenting on what I know from the game as of now. I still have it pre-orded, I will still probably play it from start to finish, and i will still probably love the hell out of the game. But if the SH development teams are going to keep making these games, they need to adhere to this little nugget of advice: Stop promising us Silent Hill 2. It might never be that good again.
I still have no idea what he's doing in this scene.
How do you know those mannequins aren't consenting?!
ReplyDeleteI Don't. That's why I said I still have no idea.
ReplyDeleteChris this is a great gaming blog, but I'd stray away from the white text on a dark background. It kills the eyes.
ReplyDeleteI'll play around with it. I never seemed to bother me with maddox's site but I'll see if i can find a template that fits.
ReplyDelete