I strongly disagree with you Jim.
The reason for that is, that I think making a spin-off does not give give you carte blanche to do anything you want to. Even if it is a spin-off, all that it means is, that it is not a part of the main series and possibly non canon, but still a part of the setting and some settings simply do not support certain genres.
For example, you could never convince me that an Street Fighter rts could work, because the setting simply doesn't have what an rts needs, that being some kind of different factions in conflict with one another on a big scale.
As a positive example where a spin-off works is Halo as an rts (Halo: Wars). The reason why it fits is that from the fps titles in the series, we know of this huge galactic conflict between these two civilisations, so a game taking place on a bigger scale like an rts makes sense.
On Silent Hill:
The reason why this spin-off doesn't work is that Silent Hill has always been about suspense and horror and the monsters you encounter were representations of the protagonists psychological issues. What makes them work as a horror game is their atmosphere and the gameplay reinforcing that atmosphere, such as managing limited resources and fighting monsters being more of a liability than advantageous. But in a dungeon crawler, to advance in the game you have to deliberately get into fights with many monsters and doing so rewards you with loot and experience. These two things, avoiding fights because they are dangerous and drain your resources and fighting monsters to get stronger, are diametrically opposed.
This undermines a fundamental aspect of what defines Silent Hill. If they had made a point and click adventure game instead, I would be more open to it, because the psychological and horror aspects are compatible with the core game mechanics.
This is same principle also applies to Syndicate.
The core of Syndicate was controlling a group of faceless and nameless agents to ensure the dominance of one of the many faceless megacorporations in the world. The setting itself is just generic cyberpunk.
Turning it into an fps simply doesn't work because it was defined by it's gameplay. If you take that away and turn it into a shooter, you just get generic cyberpunk shooter and not 'Syndicate', because Syndicate doesn't have anything else that makes it what it is.
The reason for that is, that I think making a spin-off does not give give you carte blanche to do anything you want to. Even if it is a spin-off, all that it means is, that it is not a part of the main series and possibly non canon, but still a part of the setting and some settings simply do not support certain genres.
For example, you could never convince me that an Street Fighter rts could work, because the setting simply doesn't have what an rts needs, that being some kind of different factions in conflict with one another on a big scale.
As a positive example where a spin-off works is Halo as an rts (Halo: Wars). The reason why it fits is that from the fps titles in the series, we know of this huge galactic conflict between these two civilisations, so a game taking place on a bigger scale like an rts makes sense.
On Silent Hill:
The reason why this spin-off doesn't work is that Silent Hill has always been about suspense and horror and the monsters you encounter were representations of the protagonists psychological issues. What makes them work as a horror game is their atmosphere and the gameplay reinforcing that atmosphere, such as managing limited resources and fighting monsters being more of a liability than advantageous. But in a dungeon crawler, to advance in the game you have to deliberately get into fights with many monsters and doing so rewards you with loot and experience. These two things, avoiding fights because they are dangerous and drain your resources and fighting monsters to get stronger, are diametrically opposed.
This undermines a fundamental aspect of what defines Silent Hill. If they had made a point and click adventure game instead, I would be more open to it, because the psychological and horror aspects are compatible with the core game mechanics.
This is same principle also applies to Syndicate.
The core of Syndicate was controlling a group of faceless and nameless agents to ensure the dominance of one of the many faceless megacorporations in the world. The setting itself is just generic cyberpunk.
Turning it into an fps simply doesn't work because it was defined by it's gameplay. If you take that away and turn it into a shooter, you just get generic cyberpunk shooter and not 'Syndicate', because Syndicate doesn't have anything else that makes it what it is.
