- Ominous fog is ubiquitous with Silent Hill - Dan
Silent Hill 8 is the upcoming installment in Konami's successful "Silent Hill" series of survival-horror games. With a new developer at the helm, Konami appears to be taking the series in a new direction while staying true to its roots. The trailer shown at E3 presents a dark, decaying vision of the town that could set the stage for an intriguing psychological experience, which has always been the series biggest draw.
Previous Games
At a time when the survival-horror market of video games was saturated with Resident Evil and its numerous clones, Konami's "Silent Hill" series arrived on the scene with its boldly psychological approach to horror. The first three games in the series became best-sellers and won widespread critical acclaim. Unfortunately the fourth game, titled Silent Hill 4: The Room, began a decline for the series, both in sales and reception due to its frustrating level design and uninspired gameplay. Subsequent entries in the series were met with similarly mixed reception, although occasionally favorable.
E3 Announcement
At E3, Konami unveiled the first video of the new entry in the franchise, under the working title Silent Hill 8. The video shows the game's protagonist, a young convict named Murphy Pendleton, on the run from police after the prison bus he was riding crashed. His escape has led him to the dark, fog-shrouded town of Silent Hill. "Game Informer" reports that Vatra Games, a fledgling Czech company, will be developing it as their first Silent Hill game.
Setting
The Silent Hill that Murphy stumbles across appears more dilapidated than in previous games, indicating that the player may be exploring a new section of the town. The transition to Silent Hill's dark, decaying otherworld was briefly shown, with the the otherworld 'burning' away the old one, making a marked change from the paint-peeling effect seen in Homecoming. The only monster clearly shown was a knife-wielding humanoid figure with stringy hair.
New Gameplay Elements
Konami has stated in their E3 press release that the game will allow players to choose whether to fight enemies or run, marking a return to the series' combat-aversive roots. Furthermore, the game will allow players to take up different 'side-quests', which will be made available depending on what actions the player takes throughout the game. This sounds like an expansion of the "psychological profiling" in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, the most recent Silent Hill game which accommodated the player's fears by changing monsters in-game via an ongoing psychological test that the player would fill out.
Fresh Start?
Although details of the game remain scant, the short video preview shown at E3 looks promising. After losing its way with a fit of mediocre games, the as-of-yet untitled Silent Hill 8 appears poised to bring the series back to its roots with character-centered, psychological terror. If Vatra can learn from their predecessors mistakes (and successes), this may signal a rebirth for the series. However, details remain scarce, and time will tell if this can overcome the franchise's drop in prestige. Silent Hill 8 is scheduled for release in 2011 on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
John Roesch - John Roesch has been writing professionally since the beginning of 2010. He has written for the web sites eHow and Answerbag. As an ...
