Silent Hill Redux

[Bonaggy]

How do?

I just completed Silent Hill Homecoming [thanks only to the patch from Boris Vorontin] and I wanted to find out from Escapist forumites their views on the intellectual property and the direction they believe it needs to go next. I found the control system for SHH a lot better than in all the previous games and although the story wasn't that original, I didn't feel it made the game "unplayable" or "utter crap" to quote two friends. To be fair, the fact Alex Shepherd is searching for his brother made more sense than Travis Grady going through the wringer simply to find out what happened to the little girl he rescued but shared no stronger link with.

Given the level of graphics and technology we possess today, would you go for remakes of the previous games using the SHH controls and the same level or better of graphics? Is another instalment just watering down everything we fell in love with, or maybe a chance to fix the things that exasperated us? Anyone else feel that with the excision of the timed element gave us time to linger longer on the story? On the flip side, did that dilute the challenge?

Having followed Silent Hill since PS1 I'm very interested to hear other views.

P. S. I just watched the Extras section on the Silent Hill film DVD. Am I the only one who feels that their apparent need to continually reference "the gamers" was condescending rather than genuinely interfacing?

Bon

 

[Gontear]

For me the tank controls, albeit being frustrating at best, serve Silent Hill well, and the movement towards combat-driven gameplay is a misguided turn of the developers.

As Yahtzee once said, it works, 'cause you characters are supposed to be the ordinary dude or dudette without prior combat experience, and the fact that the character stumbles in front of a looming threat adds well to the frightening experience. Making them quite proficient in combat (a nod to Silent Hill Origins where Travis fist-fights the baddies) makes it less horrifying, and more... campy.

It's looking more and more like Resident Evil, to me.

 

[Brainbomb]

For me the tank controls, albeit being frustrating at best, serve Silent Hill well, and the movement towards combat-driven gameplay is a misguided turn of the developers.

As Yahtzee once said, it works, 'cause you characters are supposed to be the ordinary dude or dudette without prior combat experience, and the fact that the character stumbles in front of a looming threat adds well to the frightening experience. Making them quite proficient in combat (a nod to Silent Hill Origins where Travis fist-fights the baddies) makes it less horrifying, and more... campy.

I don't hold this view. I always thought that there are better ways of showing that character is terrified a normal person than making the gameplay poor. If you really think about it, they REALLY should have.