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Silent Hill: Downpour information from Game Informer

Silent Hill: Downpour is the official title for the new Vatra/Konami Silent Hill title for PS3 and Xbox 360. Text from the scans was hard to read but here's some info from what I could make out:

-demo takes place in the outskirts of SH
-the town is so large that you can use a subway system to travel between focal points
-sidequests
-avoid fights when possible, better to deliver incapacitating blows and run away (so good!)
-boss fights with quicktime events (not so good)
-water plays a huge part in the game, bizarre water effects like what looks like an upside down river flowing across a ceiling is described
-prominent locations in the older installments like schools and hospitals will not return
-the southeastern part of Silent Hill that you see on the maps in the older games but never go to is the area that will be explored in Downpour
-no weapon inventory, weapons weaken and break
-there will be puzzle difficulty options
 

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
-demo takes place in the outskirts of SH
Interested.

-the town is so large that you can use a subway system to travel between focal points

Hope is not a sandbox...

-avoid fights when possible, better to deliver incapacitating blows and run away
F** yeah!

-boss fights with quicktime events
Not good...

-water plays a huge part in the game, article implies that water will be to "Downpour" as ice/snow was to Shattered Memories
Mmm... I hope you don't get to swim much...
 
You can still obviously use weapons. A shot shows Murphy with an ax. But from what I gather, it might actually take a lot more effort to kill an enemy, making it smarter to flee.
 

WaltJay

Member
All of those points minus the QTE boss fights sound great. I'm glad they realized combat is the weakest part of SH.
 
The shots, from an art direction standpoint, reminds me an awful lot of Alan Wake. It has that mountain resort vibe going on. I don't know if it's because of the washed out and dark trailer that we got last year, but the graphics seem to be much, much better.

There's a shot of Murphy standing in a dark bedroom with sunlight streaking in between the blinds that looks rather great.
 

Amir0x

Banned
brandonh83 said:
Silent Hill: Downpour is the official title for the new Vatra/Konami Silent Hill title for PS3 and Xbox 360. Text from the scans was hard to read but here's some info from what I could make out:

-demo takes place in the outskirts of SH
-the town is so large that you can use a subway system to travel between focal points
-sidequests
-avoid fights when possible, better to deliver incapacitating blows and run away (so good!)
-boss fights with quicktime events (not so good)
-water plays a huge part in the game, article implies that water will be to "Downpour" as ice/snow was to Shattered Memories

mmm can't wait to return to Silent Hill for realz

As always, however, FUCK QTEs. Small price to pay for not having retarded always run gameplay segments though
 
Buildings in the town also seem to be somewhat bigger but that could be because the perspective in the other titles didn't really lend a sense of height. Still, something about the town in the shots certainly makes it look more intimidating.

Also, just now read that maps and other notes and intel that you find not only furthers the story, but helps you discover sidequests.
 

GhaleonQ

Member
brandonh83 said:
-demo takes place in the outskirts of SH
-the town is so large that you can use a subway system to travel between focal points
-sidequests
-avoid fights when possible, better to deliver incapacitating blows and run away (so good!)
-boss fights with quicktime events (not so good)
-water plays a huge part in the game, article implies that water will be to "Downpour" as ice/snow was to Shattered Memories

Even though they have total control over what to tell me and could only reveal things that make them similar to the Konami-made ones, they didn't and I'm already disappointed.

Here's hoping it's well-made. Any writing details?
 
GhaleonQ said:
Here's hoping it's well-made. Any writing details?

Not really. There are some brief scene descriptions with dialogue, but not a whole lot to go on. It honestly sounds a lot like Silent Hill 2 in ways. Before getting into the town he's trying to find a way in, and he runs into the postman (Howard) that you see in the trailer. They talk for a bit, Murphy asks him how to get into town, Howard tells him about the cable car.

Then Murphy sees some kind of a figure in a window looking at him, the postman notices Murphy's look and asks him about it. Kind of reminds me of James and Angela's conversation in the cemetery where James acknowledges that he feels that something is off about the place.
 

Combichristoffersen

Combovers don't work when there is no hair
-demo takes place in the outskirts of SH
OK. Fine with me.

-the town is so large that you can use a subway system to travel between focal points
Sounds neat. I'm intrigued.

-sidequests
That's pretty cool.

-avoid fights when possible, better to deliver incapacitating blows and run away
Fuck that, I want to kill shit

-boss fights with quicktime events
OK with me, I don't mind QTEs

-water plays a huge part in the game, article implies that water will be to "Downpour" as ice/snow was to Shattered Memories

Fuck this shit right to the deepest pits of Satan's asshole. Interest gone.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Jason's Ultimatum said:
Holy shit at the scans. Graphics look INSANE.
It's an eastern european thing imo. every game I've played by an eastern european studio looks like it is running on TURBO CONSOLE
 
Jason's Ultimatum said:
Holy shit at the scans. Graphics look INSANE.

Indeed. The diner looks particularly nice.

I think people will continue to complain about the otherworld, though. There seems to be one look at it and it's reminiscent of Homecoming's industrial take. But, it's just one shot, and it does look really cool and detailed.
 
Combichristoffersen said:
Fuck this shit right to the deepest pits of Satan's asshole. Interest gone.

Do note, that is just kind of what I took out of the article. Don't expect water all over the place, and the otherworld won't be made out of water or anything like that but it does sound like water effects will play a big role in the game. Probably story related, Murphy likely drowned his dog or some shit.

I went and re-worded that point in the OT because it was a rushed assumption on my behalf.
 

Amir0x

Banned
how wow character models don't look like they come from an up res-ed PS2 game now, hurray and goodbye Homecoming models

only model that kinda looks iffy is in the last scan with the shambling monster kiiinda looks like he's covered by blurry low res textures
 

Combichristoffersen

Combovers don't work when there is no hair
brandonh83 said:
Do note, that is just kind of what I took out of the article. Don't expect water all over the place, and the otherworld won't be made out of water or anything like that but it does sound like water effects will play a big role in the game. Probably story related, Murphy likely drowned his dog or some shit.

If there is any resemblance whatsoever to Shattered Memories in Downpour, George is gonna be so upset he might have to throw things at the walls and punch bunnies in their face >:|

Graphics look great though, but after being burned by Homecoming and Shattered Memories, I'm wary of what developers do to the franchise. Not that it matters much though, no one will ever top the first three SH games anyway :p
 
Amir0x said:
only model that kinda looks iffy is in the last scan with the shambling monster kiiinda looks like he's covered by blurry low res textures

Not a fan of it myself. I'm hoping there are some cool creature designs in the game, but that isn't one of them. :lol
 

Diebuster

Member
Lookin' good so far, but I don't know how I feel about the big-big town and sidequests. Could turn out well, I just don't want to run around doing fetchquests.
 

Barakov

Gold Member
The graphics definitely look like a step up. I'm definitely more optimistic about this now after reading the information in the article. As long as the game doesn't have any QTE underwater levels we might have a return to form on our hands.
 
Combichristoffersen said:
If there is any resemblance whatsoever to Shattered Memories in Downpour, George is gonna be so upset he might have to throw things at the walls and punch bunnies in their face >:|

:lol

So far I'm not seeing much resemblance to Shattered Memories at all. The combat seems to be a mix of old and new-- you get weapons and you can attack creatures, but there seems to be an emphasis on merely hurting the creatures and making a run for it.
 

- J - D -

Member
So no one dislikes the title 'Downpour'? Judging by the posts on this page so far, it doesn't seem like anyone has any polar reactions one way or the other.
 

ShogunX

Member
Sounds good so far. I just hope they manage to capture the atmosphere of the originals and bring back the genuine scares.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
I've always found it kind of odd that we're allowed to discuss looking at pictures from the scans threads and we're allowed to discuss the info from the magazine, thus making the actual magazine totally redundant, but we can't post the actual scans here. I mean, I'm not really complaining, but, you know, it seems kind of pointless to make us click a couple of extra times on the Google-Machine rather than just allow them to be posted here if we're going to talk about it anyway.

*shrug*
 
WonkersTHEWatilla said:
So no one dislikes the title 'Downpour'? Judging by the posts on this page so far, it doesn't seem like anyone has any polar reactions one way or the other.
It's just a title. I only care about how the game turns out.
 
WonkersTHEWatilla said:
So no one dislikes the title 'Downpour'? Judging by the posts on this page so far, it doesn't seem like anyone has any polar reactions one way or the other.

It's not a great name, but it doesn't really bother me. At this point I really don't care what they call it as long as it can live up to the SH name. And right now this at least looks like Silent Hill. That's more than you can say about some of the recent games.
 
WonkersTHEWatilla said:
So no one dislikes the title 'Downpour'? Judging by the posts on this page so far, it doesn't seem like anyone has any polar reactions one way or the other.

To me it beats out typical shit like "Revenge" or "Retribution"

And it sounds like water/rain whatever is going to tie into the story somehow. Sounds like a fitting title.
 
WonkersTHEWatilla said:
So no one dislikes the title 'Downpour'? Judging by the posts on this page so far, it doesn't seem like anyone has any polar reactions one way or the other.
I literally don't care what they name it, so long as its good.
 
WonkersTHEWatilla said:
So no one dislikes the title 'Downpour'? Judging by the posts on this page so far, it doesn't seem like anyone has any polar reactions one way or the other.
I quite like it.

I saw the scans, looks nice

Water/ deep water and general water levels in games tend to scare the shit out of me so there's potential for some genuine scary stuff if the game is based around water
 
WonkersTHEWatilla said:
So no one dislikes the title 'Downpour'? Judging by the posts on this page so far, it doesn't seem like anyone has any polar reactions one way or the other.

Added QTEs? So a "Downpour" is synonymous with a "Heavy Rain?"
 

- J - D -

Member
I dunno I think the title is a bit lazy. I mean, naming a game based on its significant gameplay feature/mechanic. That's like if Konami called a previous title 'Silent Hill: Low Visibility' or 'Silent Hill: Frostbite'.

Actually, I quite like the former. :D
 

Amir0x

Banned
Rez said:
I've always found it kind of odd that we're allowed to discuss looking at pictures from the scans threads and we're allowed to discuss the info from the magazine, thus making the actual magazine totally redundant, but we can't post the actual scans here. I mean, I'm not really complaining, but, you know, it seems kind of pointless to make us click a couple of extra times on the Google-Machine rather than just allow them to be posted here if we're going to talk about it anyway.

*shrug*

There's actually tons of information in the articles that is not in the opening post. And of course the #1 lure is actually seeing the pictures.

You cannot replicate the experience of seeing the pictures by talking about them second hand. Additionally, summarizing information in an article in bits and pieces is not the same experience or value as reading the whole thing.

If I summarized the movie Avatar, it's obviously not the same as seeing it.
 
someguyinahat said:
Added QTEs? So a "Downpour" is basically a "Heavy Rain?"

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WonkersTHEWatilla said:
I dunno I think the title is a bit lazy. I mean, naming a game based on its significant gameplay feature/mechanic. That's like if Konami called a previous title 'Silent Hill: Low Visibility' or 'Silent Hill: Frostbite'.

It seems to be actually related to the plot though, not because of it being a gameplay feature. We don't even really know if it's a gameplay mechanic at all.
 

D2M15

DAFFY DEUS EGGS
I had totally forgotten about this, and now I'm totally psyched again! Does the article mention release in 2011 or 2012?

If SH had to continue, Eastern Europe was the best place for its development to go.

MEDIA BLACKOUT TIME. Oh man.
 

D2M15

DAFFY DEUS EGGS
OH MY GOD

I'm also really looking forward to NeverDead, for my sins. And more CASTILLOVANIA. I, for one, welcome our new KONAMI x EUROPE overlords.
 
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