Silent Hillis currently riding a high that its most die-hard and long-time devotees could only dream of even a year or so ago. That’s all thanks to the astounding reception that Bloober’sSilent Hill 2remake has received, which was hard-earned and nowhere near anticipated until the last little while before it launched.Silent Hill 2’s remake isn’t particularly earth-shattering as a modern AAA survival-horror game, but it’s a win forSilent Hillin general regardless of how low the bar was set by games likeHomecoming,Downpour, andThe Short Message. Now,fandTownfallhave a huge responsibility to carry that torch as the only two upcomingSilent Hillgames announced at the moment.
Silent Hill f’s announcement teasermakes it remarkably clear what imagery to expect from its decidedly Japanese-inspired setting and aesthetic (quite beyond the rural American norm for the franchise) andSilent Hill: Townfall’s announcement teaser left everything to the imagination with only a CRTV Pocket Television depicted on a desk among other miscellaneous items. These two games have probably been in development for some time now and won’t necessarily take theSilent Hill 2remake’s success into consideration for their own design or development, andfandTownfallpossibly being polar opposites of one another may work greatly in their favor.
Silent Hill Games Should Take the Whole Line Back to Formula
Silent Hill’s newfound success is a slippery slopeand howfandTownfallare designed will determine how long that success is sustained. What kind of gameplay they may have is anyone’s guess at the moment, but an ideal scenario might see each of them pursuing two opposing paths: one could be linear, claustrophobic, and short like classicSilent Hillgames of old, while the other could be nonlinear, encouraging exploration, and lengthy like Bloober’sSilent Hill 2remake.Silent Hill 2’s remake obviously needed to faithfully maintain what made the original terrific and that included the classic’s nostalgic survival horror atmosphere in a third-person perspective.
It’s unlikely thatSilent Hillwill ever revert back to fixed camera angles and tank controls as big-budget franchises likeResident Evilhave decidedly declared that style outdated in the contemporary era, but keeping its story tight-knit and truncated likeTeam Silent’sSilent Hillgamescould provide an experience that’s more familiar and true to how the original installments are designed. If eitherforTownfallleaned in that direction, it would have nostalgia on its side.
Future Silent Hill Games Can Have Their Cake and Eat It Too
Silent Hill 2’s remake is exceedingly longand by far the longestSilent Hillgame ever. That’s not to say that the remake necessarily overstays its welcome or is full of bloated content, but most of that runtime involves mandatory content that must be completed on repeat playthroughs unless players remember associable puzzle solutions, in which case they can skip entire sections of the game.
The remake’s opening sequence sees James Sunderland exploring Silent Hill differently than players do in the original, and the puzzle players piece together in this journey navigating foggy streets and shops is compulsory regardless of whether players knew they needed to search certain locations for key items or not.
If exploration is a fixture of eitherforTownfall, another lengthy title could satisfy that indulgence and hopefully pepper in as many engaging environmental puzzles. Only time will tell how either game will turn out, such as whether or not they’llindulge in otherSilent Hillinspirationsas a design framework, and indeed a new bar has been set that they both can hopefully strive to surpass.
