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Silent Hill 5: Where would you take the series?

Saurus

Member
I'd love to see online co-op added with puzzles designed w/it in mind. For example: One person would have to change the time on a clock in one building to open a door across town for the other. You would have walkie talkies so you could communicate and hear the radio interference as your friend is surrounded by monsters. :lol That would rule. Oh, and maybe add the over shoulder Resident Evil 4/New Ghost Recon camera.
 
Ohhh...inter dimensional online play. I like the idea. You can play together, but you're alone.
That was actually a genius idea. You may hear and speak to each other(if you're close) by as maybe get a foggy glimpse but the dimensions are truly keeping you apart.

As for the core/singlplayer game. It definetly needs to be on PS3 as we need to see how far human drama has come in videogaming. Silent Hill was a game you never played for the gameplay of it(though I guess the emotional play, fear, functioned as the gameplay) but some changes should be made to make it more fun.

Project Assasins technology in that there's no clipping and every animation is totally connected to each other making it all seem totally realistic should be in there.
SH5 should have less monster encounters but much more intense/harder/scarier when met with some heavy realistic action. The game should feel more like a pure adventure game due to this but the nasty encounters should keep you on your toes.
 
Japan. or Hell. or both.

I don't think it would be as scary with multiple players. Yeah it worked with the Resident Evil: Outbreak series, but RE hasn't ever really been about terror as much as survival.
 
FPS on Revolution. swing/aim your weapon with the revmote. switch to flashlight and move it around with the revmote. use the revmote to peek through doors, solve puzzles, interact with the environment.
 
Just make it like SH2. Similar pacing, don't make it action oriented at all, and bring back the personal storytelling instead of it being about the town.
 
I can't see the series entering the multiplayer realm without losing its atmosphere, at least given the community that surrounds almost every other multiplayer online game. I'd like to see them return to making new stories/events/ideas that surround and involve the town opposed to making sequeals.
 
Gameplay-wise, in the direction of every or any game in the series with the glaring exception of SH2. SH2 gameplay is the least stimulating in the whole series, and maybe even survival horror gaming (the only game I think plays worse is RE1, and that's been fixed with Deadly Silence).

In terms of atmosphere, there needs to be a mix of all four games in the series. Silent Hill had a feeling of mystery surrounding it, while Silent Hill 2 focused on personal hell. Silent Hill 3's focus on violence, and revenge was also interesting, as was the psychological take with Silent Hill 4. I think combining these four different directions would make for a very unique experience.
 
SolidSnakex said:
Just make it like SH2. Similar pacing, don't make it action oriented at all, and bring back the personal storytelling instead of it being about the town.
Yeah Silent Hill peaked at #2. Such an amazing game, gg SH 3 and 4.
 
They need to bring the game back to Silent Hill for starters. None of this other city bs.

I still like the one room idea that branches off to other worlds, but I doubt that will be done again.
 
Back to a focus on the story - making it psychological horror and delving into concepts of insanity and altered perception and less on action based horror.
 
Fatghost28 said:
Back to a focus on the story - making it psychological horror and delving into concepts of insanity and altered perception and less on action based horror.
How is this different than what I proposed?
 
Would it really work to go online with a game-series like Silent Hill that's traditionally very focused on story and atmosphere? Would it really be fun having to find a friend who has the game as well and wants to play it with you for like 10 hours? I dunno, and I think the whole concept would be hard to pull off in a clever way. They could always add a sidestory-esque online part though.

What I want to see is good and original gameplay. It can be done without making it action-oriented (see Fatal Frame/Project Zero for example). The actual gameplay/action has always, always been the weakest part of the SH series.

I would also enjoy seeing them do some drastic changes horror-wise, because I'm so used to the Silent Hill "gimmicks" they're not even scary anymore. Drop the radio completely and make enemies more silent (no pun intended), add to the atmosphere through more light/shadow effects. Remove all the pointless locked doors you can't even get through, minimize back-tracking and make important items more visible (sometimes I've actually missed key items because they were so obscured).

Also, do something different in general. People can whine all they want about SH4, and some of the complaints I can agree about, but the whole concept with being locked into your apartment was excellent IMO. I want to see more original ideas and concepts like that, realized in a good way of course.

They could do another run-of-the-mill Silent Hill and rely entirely on next-gen graphics making a difference...and I'm sure I would like it initially, but probably not after actually completing it. :/
Even so, I fear this is what will happen with Silent Hill 5 but I hope that's not the case.
 
One thought I've had is a more dynamic relationship between the "mist" and "hell" worlds.

Picture the protaganist's state of mind affecting how far they're pulled into the hell side. But to keep it from merely being a Eternal Darkness sanity effect, have it so that gameplay sometimes requires you to kick yourself into hell. Say, you need to get to the "other side" to accomplish a puzzle or findsomeone - you have to screw up your nuts and subject yourself to trauma or something terrible in order to loose your mind enough to cross over.

In terms of story theme, I agree it should get back to the basics. SH4 was interesting concept, bad execution when outside the Room itself. SH3, to me, ended up feeling too much like Resident Evil, where you end up fighting the big bad, super monster, and the evil super villain, trying to save the world.

SH should be much more personal and hopeless feeling than that. Really, in terms of atmosphere, Silent Hill is the Metroid of horror.
 
cvxfreak said:
Gameplay-wise, in the direction of every or any game in the series with the glaring exception of SH2. SH2 gameplay is the least stimulating in the whole series, and maybe even survival horror gaming (the only game I think plays worse is RE1, and that's been fixed with Deadly Silence).

In terms of atmosphere, there needs to be a mix of all four games in the series. Silent Hill had a feeling of mystery surrounding it, while Silent Hill 2 focused on personal hell. Silent Hill 3's focus on violence, and revenge was also interesting, as was the psychological take with Silent Hill 4. I think combining these four different directions would make for a very unique experience.

I agree with everything you just said.

As for the camera, I love RE4's over the shoulder camera. If anything, it can make games like this tons scarier. Take RE4's prison section. That was one of the only areas in the game that made be a little bit scared to progress through. The setting was perfect, and something you would see in a SH game. That being said, NO. Capcom won this round. Konami needs to come up with something totally different.
 
It's gonna be tough. SH has a ton of restraints.

I agree that something new would be great, but it needs to retain a ton of stuff.

For one, atmosphere/being scary. I love RE4 (and like RE in general), but they aren't scary. Go back to SH1-2, get the atmosphere right, and you have a good start.

Second, assuming it gets a new control scheme, and gameplay base altogether, you're giving the player flexibility. Same with a new combat "engine". But, you still need to make the player feel "weak" overall, and not at the cost of having blatant, big monsters.

Yeah, it's gonna be tricky.
 
cvxfreak said:
In terms of atmosphere, there needs to be a mix of all four games in the series. Silent Hill had a feeling of mystery surrounding it, while Silent Hill 2 focused on personal hell. Silent Hill 3's focus on violence, and revenge was also interesting, as was the psychological take with Silent Hill 4. I think combining these four different directions would make for a very unique experience.

It sounds interesting in theory, but I think it would be too complicated to try and incorporate all of this in one single game. It would also probably end up feeling too unfocused, and that they've forced themes into the game just for the sake of it. But then, it all depends on how much emphasis they put on each of these themes of course.

But I still think they should focus on one or perhaps two, otherwise it would probably be too much to handle both for devs and players. Maybe if they did something like 4 different short stories centered around different characters for each story, and each of them representing a certain theme. Have their storylines tie together and eventually make sense in a clever finale. Well, I'm sure it would be an ambitious project at least. :P
 
SnakeXs said:
It's gonna be tough. SH has a ton of restraints.

I agree that something new would be great, but it needs to retain a ton of stuff.

For one, atmosphere/being scary. I love RE4 (and like RE in general), but they aren't scary. Go back to SH1-2, get the atmosphere right, and you have a good start.

Second, assuming it gets a new control scheme, and gameplay base altogether, you're giving the player flexibility. Same with a new combat "engine". But, you still need to make the player feel "weak" overall, and not at the cost of having blatant, big monsters.

Yeah, it's gonna be tricky.

I don't think it's that hard to make an interesting battle system (well, a better system than in the SH games at least) that still retains the "weakness" of the main character, ie you don't need a clunky and repetitive battle system to visualize the main character as vulnerable. As I said before, look at Fatal Frame...a great solution IMO. You are slow, weak and vulnerable, but you still battle enemies. Not with actual weapons, but a camera. Not saying SH5 should have you carrying around a camera, but still. And as I recall, wasn't there a system in Alone in the Dark 4 where light played a big part...how you had to shine your flashlight at certain enemies to scare them off? I think there are numerous ways and it all depends on how interested the SH team actually are in doing something about it.
 
Kiriku said:
Would it really work to go online with a game-series like Silent Hill that's traditionally very focused on story and atmosphere?

After playing Doom co-op I think it would. Nothing like sitting and arguing with your bud on who's going to go in first. A single player campaign as well as multiplayer missions would be great. Kinda like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.
 
I've thought about Silent Hill going online MMO style and I had an idea for it. This would actually be an impossible dream game, so don't think I'm hoping for this to happen. This is just some random shit I thought up when I was bored.

In my idea, you can traverse the entire town. Every building is open to exploration. Every house, every small shop, everything. And you'll meet a lot of people along the way, all lost in the purgatory world of Silent Hill. While you think that'd detract from the atmosphere, I think if you add a certain aspect to this idea it makes having a lot of people around really worthwhile: every player has control of their character's moral. This means, you can have players that are good, some that are gray, and some that are evil. Somebody might tag along, but decide to kill you when you and him are exploring a dungeon (be it a hospital or whatever). The more you do evil acts, the more your character transforms into a Silent Hill monster... a permanent denizen, where you get some weird demonic powers or something but you lose the ability to speak with human players, and you can't utilize human tools effectively anymore. On the other hand, if you become a goody two shoes... well I'm not sure, didn't think it through.

Also I think online dungeons could work like... you enter a hospital lets say with another person (this would work like an instance, and it would just be you and him when you get inside). Immediately after entering, you both black out... and you awake on the third floor, and the other person awakes on the first floor. You can communicate via radio, but for the most part you're alone. Certain puzzles will have to be done together but while on opposite ends of the dungeon. Lets say you find a key on the 3rd floor, and he needs it to open a locked box on the first floor. There's a dumb waiter you can use to give it to them. Eventually you meet up and face the boss, but yeah that's how it would work.

Now what do I want to see in a REAL future Silent Hill? I have to agree with solidsnakex, more personal stories. The town mythology is fleshed out as it is. I would also like a game set in the 1800s, or early 1900s.
 
Kiriku said:
It sounds interesting in theory, but I think it would be too complicated to try and incorporate all of this in one single game. It would also probably end up feeling too unfocused, and that they've forced themes into the game just for the sake of it. But then, it all depends on how much emphasis they put on each of these themes of course.

But I still think they should focus on one or perhaps two, otherwise it would probably be too much to handle both for devs and players. Maybe if they did something like 4 different short stories centered around different characters for each story, and each of them representing a certain theme. Have their storylines tie together and eventually make sense in a clever finale. Well, I'm sure it would be an ambitious project at least. :P

I think the sense of mystery and personal hell will be the easiest to do, while revenge, pure violence and psychological take would be harder to implement, although the latter would work as well. I guess SH3 is a glaring exception since we knew the story already.
 
Location should be back in the main part of Silent Hill, what we saw in the original game. Also, absolutely create bigger, better environments. I loved how much exploring you could do in SH1, and looked forward to all that with better graphics in SH2. Instead, SH2 had far few buildings you could enter, far fewer non-essential places to check out. Make nearly every building in Silent Hill explorable.

Focus the game much more on the emotional aspects. Get back to more of the psycholigical scares, more on being afraid of the situation and surrounding rather then the monsters roaming around. Force the player to make tough decisions throughout the game that have consequences. Really focus on the characters and their trials, like in SH2.

Bring the strong puzzle element back. Make them puzzles where you really have to figure it out, and not just your typical fetch quest.

Less combat. Less creatures, but make the creatures far harder to defeat. My idea for a survival horror game, combat wise, centered around finding a lot of various items around, and figuring out which ones could be combined together to create traps or whatnot. Maybe one create can only be killed by light, while another is hurt if it touches water. Have every creature be meaning, not just another weird thing to bash with a board.

I think if it had some sort of online element, make it like a few different people just happened to be stuck in SH at the same time. For each person, the experience would be different, depending on how they play the game. We might be playing at the same time, but because I let a certain character die earlier in the game, my experience changes to reflect that, while yours doesn't. Also, come up with a way to make it so players don't know who the real humans are and which characters are computer controlled. For example, almost create artificial lag or something, so that the movements of the other players don't always make sense. Make it so that each player doesn't know who they can trust.
 
bumpkin said:
This thread reminds me... Is Silent Hill 4 worth $10?

If you don't expect a story or gameplay as good as 2/3, then yes, if only for The Room alone.
 
Forget the online idea, that is for resident evil or siren, but not for silent hill. this game is so rich, that we cant make change of it, we have to enjoy this piece of art fear and think ideas according the series. I took to places very controversials, like illness like aids, cancer, children with down, transsexuals, traumas like obesity, to remain bald,depressed things like to be treated like a kid when you are a big guy, and thousands of things like that. that things make fear because there are common things, i know that people think its crazyness but this is silent hill, pure locura y dolor. but i love it.



vale 10 palos verdes se llama braca modelo, q hay q estar estricto para salir primero....
y cuando va a dotto, la hinchada le agradece y cristian se quiere matar se lo merece...
 
more personal horror, less gore. more inferred types of mental instability (SH2).

I'd really like to see less of a focus on the occult, don't beat us over the head with it. No unikillable monsters, and no long term escort stupidity.

also, i'd like the puzzles to have more of a reference to the main character, and have personal meaning, instead of feeling somewhat arbitrary.

bigger, more explorable environments as stated earlier, most definitely.
 
The Take Out Bandit said:
To the franchise graveyard!

I love Silent Hill to death, and the sequels can all go to hell.

Wow, you're a horrible person.

1, 2, and 3 were all great games, and between them the series was always tops and n ever fealt stale.

4, ok, but that took some turns and wasn't even supposed to be a SH.

Please, stop it.
 
There are some things we know about it, well atleast what Team Silent has hinted

- They thinking of having it based on a sunny day gone wrong
- Less action sequences than previous games
- It'll return to the psychological style of Silent Hill 2
 
2 was really just the best, it was gold, perfection even. everything was just so right with that game. Totally more than enough reason to buy a PS2. I don't know how 5 can even catch my interest.
 
Fallout-NL said:
Definitely, I dont think we can ever expect something that great ever again from a survival horror game.


No that was pretty much once, just once. I can't see something dominate a story/enviorment/characters like those in SH2. So Brilliant.
 
Reilly said:
This and bloom lighting need to go away.

Caratula+Silent+Hill+2+%5BGreatest+Hits%5D.jpg
 
Back to SH1/SH2 but with alot better controls, combat, more exploration with less limiting areas by taking it outside alot. Better designs and variety not just another apartment complex. Basicly as far away for SH3 and SH4 at possible.
 
SolidSnakex said:
There are some things we know about it, well atleast what Team Silent has hinted

- They thinking of having it based on a sunny day gone wrong
- Less action sequences than previous games
- It'll return to the psychological style of Silent Hill 2
Sounds pretty much perfect... Bring it on!
 
I'd like to see a come back to Silent Hill 1&2 psycho horror and a modern control system.
No 1st person shit and of course amazing graphics.
 
SolidSnakex said:
There are some things we know about it, well atleast what Team Silent has hinted

- They thinking of having it based on a sunny day gone wrong
- Less action sequences than previous games
- It'll return to the psychological style of Silent Hill 2

If you can't improve it, remove it. :lol

But yeah, I like the part about a sunny day gone wrong, not particularly because of the idea per se, but rather because they're trying something different.
 
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