Game News Finally the return of the cult horror license! Why is the Silent Hill live an event?
Vain hope for years, the possibility of a Silent Hill sequel seems more likely than ever with the Silent Hill Transmission approaching. Before discovering what Konami has in store for us, we explain why players expect so much news from Silent Hill.
All it took was a tweet to rekindle the hope that had almost died out of one day seeing the Silent Hill series return to center stage. Since the abandonment of Silent Hills, horror game fans have been in mourning. And as they began to come to their senses, tired of hoping in vain for a resurrection, the rumors grew more insistent and serious. Leaked “Silent Hill Playable Concept: Sakura”, the appearance of a Silent Hill: The Short Message on the official website of the classification body of South Koreathe revelations of director Christophe Gans… The rumors of the corridors intensified until Konami finally drew an official announcement: the future of the Silent Hill license will be presented during a dedicated conference on Wednesday October 19 at 11 p.m. (French time). For fans of the horror license and the video game world in general, this is a real event. But if you missed this phenomenon, perhaps you don’t understand why this big comeback is causing so much talk. It is therefore time to return to the aura of the Silent Hill license and answer this question that you may be asking yourself: why is a sequel so awaited?
Summary
- A new kind of horror game
- The PT / Silent Hills Phenomenon
- Remake, return of the historic team…
A new kind of horror game
Let’s go back in time to the 90s. The horror games sector has already experienced an intense revolution with the first Resident Evil. The title not only offered a new vision of horror and shaped survival horror as we know it, but also enjoyed significant commercial success. Unsurprisingly, many Resident Evil-Likes are in development all over the world. Even Konami, then known for Metal Gear and Castlevania in particular, got into it. But the Japanese box does not want to content itself with reproducing Capcom’s formula. The studio also wants to change the face of horror games with a new approach: psychological horror.
If today a plethora of horror titles have decided to make the human psyche their playground, that’s good Silent Hill who was the first to do it… And to do it well, what’s more. By playing on the technical limits of the time, Team Silent knew how to create an agonizing and disturbing atmosphere from start to finish. Add to that a scenario combining the search for a father to find his daughter with an occult intrigue and you have a horrifying experience that has screwed up the hairs of many players. But it is with Silent Hill 2released in 2001, that Konami will truly make history.
For this new opus, Team Silent decides to put aside the strange cult of the first episode to focus on the story of James Sunderland. From the beginning, the scenario puts us in the bath of questions that will form the trunk of this Silent Hill 2: James received a letter from his wife inviting him to join her in the town of Silent Hill. But there is a catch! His wife is indeed dead. How can this letter exist? What is James waiting for in Silent Hill? Why does he find an erotic clone of his wife there? The more we advance in the game, the more questions arise until the final revelation which reveals to us that it is his own demons (including the famous Pyramid Head) that James faces in Silent Hill. City not only played with James’ brains, but ours as well, delivering a memorable and unparalleled gaming experience. Even today, and despite many very good games exploiting psychological horror, Silent Hill 2 is considered the benchmark of the genre… before a certain Silent Hills arrives.
The PT / Silent Hills Phenomenon
After the Silent Hill 2 monument, the license struggles to bounce back. The following opuses struggle to hold the comparison until they unfortunately sink into banality, or even worse, mediocrity. So much so that the name Silent Hill is gradually losing its splendor. Some games even go so far as to abandon the initial gameplay of the license, to the great displeasure of fans who are still hoping for a final, outstanding Silent Hill horror game. In 2014, their prayers are finally heard with PT
It is then a strange demo that appears on the PS4. It offers a first-person adventure in a haunted house in which you have to solve puzzles to move forward. Once the end of the corridor is reached, we learn that what has just been presented to us is a demo of the next game Silent Hill, Silent Hills, directed by the famous Hideo Kojima, but also the master of horror Junji Ito and the director Guillermo del Toro. It is not the only name borrowed from the cinema since Norman Reedus then lends his face to the protagonist of the game.
On paper, the cast is pretty good. But it’s controller in hand that PT really manages to tick all the boxes. The atmosphere of the game coupled with its unique gameplay make this short experience a pure moment of anguish and horror. So that for many, this simple demo is the best horror game ever, just that. Plunged into a nightmare from which you cannot escape, you have no choice: you must face your fears. Add to that a scary sound design as possible, a ghost that follows us continuously without us being able to see it and a gameplay that looks simplistic but yet so effective and you get the PT legend, which only bodes well for the future.
In P.T., it’s common to hear noises as if Lisa is right behind you, or see weird shadows moving around in front of you, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there. I hacked the game to allow the player to see behind them without actually turning around and… pic.twitter.com/bj1P0ymIZ6
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) September 9, 2019
Yes but now, PT will stop there. Following the disputes between Konami and Kojima, the so promising Silent Hills will never see the light of day. And that gave PT an even greater aura. Left on their end, fans of Silent Hill and horror games clung to PT, the game it should have been, hoping one day that this almost cursed title (given the adventures it has known) see the day. Following this phenomenon, the enthusiasm around the license has continued to swell. Having gotten a glimpse of what a new Silent Hill could be, fans are looking forward to it all the more. That’s why the gaming world is so eager to learn more about Silent Hill’s future: he hopes to find the game that was promised to them and then taken away. So you understand the enthusiasm that was felt following Konami’s announcement. Especially since the little that can be guessed makes you want to.
Remake, return of the historic team…
First there are the rumours. She’s been talking for a while now of an episodic game by Annapurna Interactive (What Remains of Edith Finch, Stray) while Bloober Team (Blair Witch, The Medium) would have been recarded on a remake of the famous Silent Hill 2 et a brand new title would be in the boxes at a Japanese studio. A busy program which, if it were to be verified, could delight the fans. Especially since who says conference, normally says several announcements. The theory that several Silent Hill games are in development therefore holds true. But Konami could also take the opportunity to talk about the film in preparation that Christophe Gans revealed exclusively at JV.
If we go back to the games side, the retweets of certain players in the field also give us some interesting leads. Composer Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2) shared the announcement on his Instagram, while Masahiro Ito, historic artistic director of Silent Hill, retweeted it on Twitter. It does not take more fans to say that the two men will be at work on at least one of the titles announced. And then there’s Elijah Wood. The actor of Lord of the Rings reposted the announcement on his Twitter account with a little emoji suggesting he knows what he’s up to. Either the guy lent his face to a new game, or his production company, behind the interesting Transferenceis preparing a little surprise for us. A possible Silent Hill game in VR could therefore appear. Between the aura, the expectation and all the possibilities available to the license, the enthusiasm around the next Silent Hill Transmission is therefore largely understandable.