Fandom can be a scary thing. While a shared love of a certain story or collection of characters is usually the best outcome for a franchise, legions of fans who obsessively poke holes into every new expansion of their favorite fictional world can end up destroying the very thing that they hold so dear. That’s not to say that we should blindly consume whatever slop giant media conglomerates throw our way, but gratuitous hate and unrealistic expectations don’t really help anyone.
And with all the controversy surrounding the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, I’ve been thinking a lot about how silly it is for fans to automatically assume that a game will be bad based on a few short teasers.
I mean, I saw the same promotional footage as everyone else and I honestly don’t see anything wrong with it. Sure, it doesn’t look like the best game ever made, but even if Bloober Team misses the mark (which I think is unlikely), their take on Silent Hill 2 is still following the blueprint of an amazing experience that does not cease to exist just because there’s a new retelling.
Despite this, legions of fans tore into nearly every frame of the recent Silent Hill Transmissions, making fun of character models and early combat animations because, at this point, it’s taken for granted that a western-made Silent Hill will always be terrible. And as a hardcore fan who’s played every game in the series (even the forgotten spin-offs that no one talks about), today I’d like to look back on two examples that I think prove that the future of Silent Hill is brighter than you think.
After Silent Hill 4: The Room ended up selling less than its predecessors, the higher-ups at Konami decided to disband the legendary Team Silent. Wanting to capitalize on the tremendous success of Christophe Gans’ 2006 film adaptation of the series, the company decided to hand the franchise to a series of new developers who could modernize what was seen as a dying genre (these were the dark ages of survival horror, after all). And while this willingness to experiment led to quite a few missteps, there were a couple of projects that stood out from the rest.
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A re-imagining done right.
I’d argue that the first of these underrated games is 2009’s Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Originally developed for the Nintendo Wii, Climax Studio’s pseudo-remake repurposes the first game’s narrative backbone (a father and his daughter get into a car accident in Silent Hill and the father must then look for her in a warped version of the town) but then proceeds to deconstruct the protagonist’s journey in a highly personalized trip into the coldest regions of hell.
Having already developed the excessively nostalgic SH: Origins, the Climax team wanted to try their hand at some more innovative for their next project. Ironically, they found an opportunity to do this by pitching Konami a remake, arguing that familiar events and characters would make their new ideas (like the psychological profiling and complete lack of combat) more accessible for existing fans.
While the finished title couldn’t quite deliver on all of the developers’ promises of a highly customizable and infinitely replayable game world – with much of that having to do with the Wii’s limited hardware – it’s still one hell of a thrilling ride featuring one of the all-time best Silent Hill stories. Plus, the experience is boosted by an incredible soundtrack once again composed by series veteran Akira Yamaoka (Hell Frozen Rain is a total banger).
Despite garnering mostly positive reviews and even becoming one of the Wii’s best-selling M-rated offerings, a sizable number of hardcore fans despised Shattered Memories for thinking outside the series box despite complaining about the exact opposite when SH: Homecoming came out a few years earlier. Sure, Shattered Memories has its fair share of problems (the chase sequences get old pretty fast and it sometimes veers to close to Walking Simulator territory), but these issues pale in comparison to the tear-jerker endings and atmospheric presentation – both of which are miles better than the PlayStation original in my humble opinion.
If only they had the time/budget to make these things even more customizable.
The next mainline Silent Hill game would actually have a lot in common with Shattered Memories, with Czech studio Vatra Games sharing Climax’s desire to turn the established series formula on its head and make something truly original. The finished product also divided fans for many of the same reasons, which is precisely why I think it’s worth reevaluating as an important part of the franchise history.
Titled Silent Hill: Downpour in reference to the rainstorm that replaces the town’s iconic fog, this 2012 release had a lot going for it. For starters, it appeared that Konami listened to criticism directed at Homecoming and allowed for a standalone story this time around, with the new game following escaped convict Murphy Pendleton as he becomes trapped in our favorite cursed resort town and is forced to deal with his violent past. Additionally, the Czech studio behind the game was allowed to add some local flavor to the title’s oppressive atmosphere, incorporating European influences into the experience and making it stand out even more from its predecessors.
Mechanically, this is a much jankier game than Shattered Memories, suffering from poor performance, wonky animations and an oddly paced story, but it’s also one of the most ambitious entries in the whole series – and the only one to really nail a standalone story since the original SH2. From M.C. Escher inspired level designs to the compelling main character, there’s a lot to love here if you can stomach the glaring technical issues (though many of have since been mitigated by a patch).
Of course, what I really appreciate about Downpour is how its developers felt confident enough in their original ideas to stray even further from the established formula than Shattered Memories. Hell, the game features no recognizable characters or monsters and completely overhauls the otherworld segments. And yet, it remains faithful to the core principles of atmospheric exploration, puzzle solving and nerve-wracking combat that made these games so iconic.
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Plenty of great moments.
It’s still an uneven experience, with the title featuring some of the worst monster designs in the franchise, but I think it’s the perfect evolution of what was always meant to be an anthology series held together by the same cursed town. I mean, Downpour would still be enjoyable if it was removed from the context of Silent Hill, which is why I think it’s a shame that critics dismissed it as an unplayable mess.
Admittedly, neither of these games can live up to the brilliance behind Team Silent’s original quadrilogy (yes, I also consider SH4 a masterpiece), but when taken on their own merits, I think that both of these titles deserve to be revisited as highlights of the franchise. These days, I even appreciate Shattered Memories’ controversial use of ghosts, as well as Daniel Licht’s soundtrack for Downpour (the Nu-Metal theme song performed by Korn has grown on me over the years).
In all honesty, it appears that the main issue with fans thinking that no new Silent Hill games can be good is the fact that no one really knows what Silent Hill is supposed to be – and I believe that’s the whole point! These games can be anything from metaphors for psychological trauma to Stephen King-inspired deep dives into murder cults hidden in sleepy New England towns – and none of these interpretations are wrong.
To me, Silent Hill is at its best when it’s trying new things, and I prefer the anthology approach to the endless expansion of ridiculous lore that occurs within the Resident Evil games. That’s why I don’t automatically dismiss new SH games just because they’re made by new people, especially when we have examples like Downpour and Shattered Memories to prove that Team Silent aren’t the only ones who can get things right.
That being said, I’d appreciate it if Konami made it easier to acquire the older Silent Hill games…