Silent Hill: Downpour

[nCogNeato]

Rain can be a good tension-builder.  I look forward to see more of this game.

[sambo]

Was a time I would have been well hyped for this game (Silent Hill 2 being my fav game of all time) but the franchise has failed to ever recapture the atmosphere and storytelling since. Plus Deadly Premonition has given me my *Silent Hill* fix.

[Failed]

Rain can be a good tension-builder.  I look forward to see more of this game.

Vampire Rain 

[GamerMan316]

Silent Hill Downpour: First screens
New instalment dated for 'autumn'

Konami's released the first Silent Hill: Downpour screenshots and confirmed a release date of 'autumn 2011'.

The first details of the Vatra Games-developed instalment arrived last month, and it sees convict Murphy Pendleton stranded in the foggy world of Silent Hill.

Konami promises an "expansive environment that is similarly claustrophobic and where the player is never truly alone".

Speaking in last month's Edge, Vatra said it wants to get back to the "classic style of Silent Hill" by using both free and static camera angles.

[nCogNeato]

I'm excited.

[Failed]

looks very Alan Wakey

[nCogNeato]

Alan Wake looked very Silent Hilly.

Silent Hill looked very Resident Evilly.

Resident Evil looked very Alone in the Darky.

.....

.......... Pong.   

[Failed]

cave drawings




Tennis for Two, not Pong

[GamerMan316]

Silent Hill: Downpour – can survival horror live again?
Konami has revealed details of the eighth Silent Hill adventure. This time it's... quite reminiscent of the first three...

The king of psychological survival horror is back. Konami has announced a release date for Silent Hill: Downpour, the latest title in the long-running series of supernatural shock-fests. Due out this autumn on PS3 and Xbox 360, the action revolves around Murphy Pendleton, whose prison bus crashes in woodland outside the eponymous resort. Silent Hill, we are reminded, is the place, 'where seedy pasts and uncertain futures unify to create to a terrifying present.' Isn't that Hemel Hempstead's town motto?

Anyway, Pendleton is left seemingly alone to trudge into a Silent Hill that is, apparently, 'expansive, yet claustrophobic'. Konami has released screenshots of two locations – The Diner and The Devil's Pit – and has taken the interesting step of revealing some of the soundtrack, which has been written, not by series regular Akira Yamaoka, but by composer Daniel Licht, who scored serial killer series, Dexter. We can also expect to see the south eastern edge of the town, where no Silent Hill game has ventured before.

The big question, of course, is – can Konami bring its 'franchise' back to the creepy majesty of the first three titles?

Silent Hill 1 thrilled through its deliberatly obtuse setting and that terrifying radio that belched out static whenever monsters stumbled near. Silent Hill 2 expanded on the scenario, adding a tale of psychosexual guilt so dark and twisted, the Eastenders scriptwriters would have thought twice (before making it darker – and more implausible). And Silent Hill 3 put vulnerable teen Heather Morris into the vortex, cranking up the sense of transgressive terror. After this, the plotting started to get more confused as the writer's suffocated on the legacy of the series. The likes of Homecoming, Shattered Memories and Origin were okay, just devoid of the gruesomely imaginative Freudian nightmares that splattered the original trilogy.

There are certainly moves to tie in Downpour with the early titles. Weapons are confined to objects found around the environments – bottles, furniture, axes, etc – and the emphasis seems to be on weird puzzles and bizarre monsters. In Konami's E3 press release, the company mentioned that, "players will also be presented with variable side quests that will change depending on the user's play style, revealing further unknown evils within the town." So there's possibly a moral angle too.

But in the aftermath of Heavy Rain (surely the titular similarities can't be lost on Konami?) and Alan Wake, do we need another unreconstructed Silent Hill adventure? Has Pyramid Head still got it?

[Handshakes]

As an unbiased, outside observer who has never played a Silent Hill game, let me be the one to say: Let this series die. It hasn't been relevent since the second game, and it is time to quit beating the incredibly dead horse.

[GamerMan316]

As an unbiased, outside observer who has never played a Silent Hill game, let me be the one to say: Let this series die. It hasn't been relevent since the second game, and it is time to quit beating the incredibly dead horse.

With Resident Evil following suit, well the movies, maybe not the games!   

[Failed]

As an unbiased, outside observer who has never played a Silent Hill game,

That makes your opinion void, you have to play them, then say ... they are flogging a dead horse. I really enjoyed the 360 version, having never played Silent Hill 2 (I played 1 and 3). My opinion isn't biased by the (supposed - never played it) brilliance of the second iteration.

I will play this new one on the fun i had playing 5.

[nCogNeato]

I've enjoyed every Silent Hill .... even 4 which is probably the worst.


I don't really play it for the scares, though.  I play it for the sleepy surreal atmosphere that tickles my psychological fancy.

[GamerMan316]

I love the series, The Room was decent, not a patch on the previous games in the series though, the 360 game wasn't too bad either, can't wait for the next game.   

[nCogNeato]