While Silent Hills history has been a rocky one, it has always remained a personal favorite of mine. No matter what direction the game goes in, it has never deviated very far from it's core focus. Each game has emphasized psychological terror and slow paced exploration above fast paced monster killing. Story has and always will be the game's greatest strength. Even when the game made a dramatic change with last year's "Shattered Memories" on the Wii, the gameplay moved even further in the direction of exploration gameplay rather than becoming more focused on action and combat. Now it seems, the game is shifting gears again and my hype for E3 2010 just shot through the roof.

At a Konami press event last week, a teaser trailer was shown for a new Silent Hill game and the big reveal is supposedly scheduled for E3 in June. What is even more curious is that several sources claim that the IP has been handed off to another studio (Team Silent > Climax > Double Helix), a studio known as "Vatra Games", located in the Czech Republic. While this has yet to be confirmed, the evidence is rather strong. So far, all attempts by Western studios have been relatively successful and the series has yet to be driven into the ground.

Shattered Memories was a refreshing take on the old formula and I am personally surprised by the decision to hand the game to someone new. I would have been interested to see if Climax had continued to "remake" previous entries with new twists to gameplay and storytelling. Interestingly enough, the trailer looked an awful lot like Silent Hill 2 which suggests that this new game may be taking a similar approach. Whatever the case may be, I am excited for the big reveal in June.

Two things caught my eye while exploring Vatra Games website:


  • Vatra means Bringing light to darkness.  Could this have any effect on the approach that they take to this dark series?

  • They are currently working on two projects for a major publisher (Konami??) on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.


You will be hearing from me in June...

-Nick

Comments

  • Avatar
    bobstarz
    13 years, 11 months ago

    its a good thing that the trailer looked like silent hill 2. in my opinion, silent hill 2 was the best one in the silent hill serie.

  • Avatar
    Hi Lightz408
    13 years, 11 months ago

    thank you so much for posting this nick! i'm having a really shitty day in class right now but i can have something to be thinking about now. how is the game going to control? is the gameplay going to be like silent hill 4 or silent hill homecoming? i hope it's going to be like silent hill 2 even though 3 was my favorite.

  • Avatar
    vredesbyrd67
    13 years, 11 months ago

    Good God...why does every good game have to be remade? Are graphics that important to players these days? Are developers really running this low on ideas for new games? I recognize that the games industry is being run more and more like a business instead of an art medium, and businesses are less likely to take risks with new IP's than by just milking old franchises, but this is just ridiculous. Okay, Capcom did it with Resident Evil 1, and they did it extremely well. But RE 1 was, by today's standards, kind of a shitty game. The remake not only touched up the graphics and made the game fare more effectively atmospheric, but added tons of new content. Silent Hill 2 doesn't need to be remade; it's just as scary and effective today as it was ten years ago. Not only that, but Western developers have a knack for substituting subtlety and depth in horror games for shocking violence and jump-out scares. I haven't played Shattered Memories yet, but I am really, really not impressed by what I've seen so far. I have played both SH5 and SH: Origins. Between the two, I'm now convinced that Team Silent is/was the only development studio that understood the series, and is/was therefore able to handle it correctly.

  • Avatar
    Tarantula
    13 years, 11 months ago

    SH2 Remake ? I better hope so, imo SH2 is the best and will always be the best SH in the series. Story is just perfect..

    Oh man i REALLY REALLY hope this is a SH2 remake

    James Sunderland in HD ! :D

  • Avatar
    Tarantula
    13 years, 11 months ago

    Also i wanted to add that (sorry for double posting) i hope these guys can pull it off since akira yamaoka left konami and this is their first attempt ever at developing a silent hill game... :/ My first thought is they're gonna screw up though..

  • Avatar
    NekTM
    13 years, 11 months ago

    And hopefully we'll be hearing your screams of terror.

    Peoples fears seem to feed my appetite.

  • Avatar
    exmachina
    13 years, 11 months ago

    I don't mind if it's a remake, but people who remake horror games need to keep in mind we buy them to be SCARED. I hope they add in new (innovative) scares. >:(

  • Avatar
    Meeks
    13 years, 11 months ago

    Im hoping it's a original game. I played every SH and love them all for different reasons..but I don't want any more remakes. (I don't consider Shattered memories a re-imaging. it felt like it's own game) I just want a story that is completely different ^_^ then I'm good!

  • Avatar
    Amy
    13 years, 11 months ago

    SH2 Remake ? I better hope so, imo SH2 is the best and will always be the best SH in the series. Story is just perfect..

    Oh man i REALLY REALLY hope this is a SH2 remake

    James Sunderland in HD ! :D