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kupomog
08-30-2007, 10:59 PM
EGMness. Found on other board.

It would seem The Collective is very honored to be working on Silent Hill 5 and rightfully so. After Konami announced they were passing on the developer work to an outside company, it was discovered that quite a few developers wanted to work on the IP. In the end, these other developers were "scared" out of doing such an ambitious title.

The Collective, evidently, is not so easily frightened.

Character Debacle

Although Alex may look similar to other protagonist’s in the series, he is an altogether different character. Alex Shepard is 22 years old and with that comes the attitude and thinking’s of a standard young adult.

While SHV will feature an entirely new plot (ala SH2), the developers have said

Along with Alex and his family (more on that later), a new host of characters will be featured in this entry. That doesn't mean however, that settings, situations and settings wont be familiar.

"It's important that the characters fit into the overall style of Silent Hill," says Brian Hourton (SHV Lead Artist).

About that story bit...

(what follows is a recap of the story we know so far)

Alex is in a Military Veteran's hospital, recovering from a near fatal wound he received. (It is not specified how he received the wound). While there, Alex has a premonition that his young brother, Joshua, is in danger.

He leaves the VA for his New England home town of Shepards Glen. Upon returning however, he finds his mother in a catatonic state, his brother and father missing and the entire town shrouded in a bizarre fog.

Gameplay

Alex's military background plays both into the game dynamics and the theme of the story. Knowing this however, the developers aren't attempting to create any sort of political standpoint.

"Alex will be confronted with horrors that reflect his psychological state" Horton adds.

Graphics

To sooth everyone's soul, the grain filter will indeed return for Silent Hill V, however in addition, other filters will be added as well. Filters that give hairline cracks in the screen or are filtered with debris allow the developers to change the mood and atmosphere of the game WHILE it's being played.

Interestingly enough, the game is using the Havok engine in a unique way. The middleware is being used in the same capacity as it was in Saints Row and in the upcoming game Halo 3. Now when you bump into chairs or tables or open doors, the game will register that action in the in-game environment. Bump into a chair? It will in turn bump into a table causing not only a response physically but also audibly. This new "noise", the running on creaking floors etc, can and will alert enemies to your position.
Boss battles will be revived in this entry as well. The Collective is obsessed with delivering cinematic massive, epic boss battles. Interestingly, they are looking for Zelda like encounters...hmmm.

Endings....yes there will be many, though a number has yet to be given. The developers are looking to make the decision on which ending you are given to be much more player induced then before. Missing an item or killing someone wont automatically move you to a predetermined path. The actions you do, the way you speak to the different people you meet. These interactions will have a much more fluid transition into the story upon up intriguing possibilities.

Monsters are now fully motion-captured (ala the Silent Hill movie) and all new beasts are set to make their debut. One such creature, Siam, is a fusion of a male and female body. What’s left is a pulsating, overtly sexual enemy. Monsters will now have visible effects on them. So if an enemy has busting pustules or bleeding mouths, it will be animated, in real time and will be effected by Alex's attacks.

Some of the enemies are humanoid in nature, favorites such as the nurses, will indeed return, however the variety of creatures is said to be quite large.

(Side Note: In the Silent Hill games, the "enemies" are usually physical manifestations of the protagonists mind. It can even be argued that the "monsters" they see aren’t even real or that perhaps what a character see's as a monstrosity might in fact be human after all.)

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Channel Surfer
08-31-2007, 02:01 AM
Alex is in a Military Veteran's hospital, recovering from a near fatal wound he received. (It is not specified how he received the wound).

...

"Alex will be confronted with horrors that reflect his psychological state" Horton adds.

Never has the series Jacob's Ladder roots been more blatant. Not even with the subway in Silent Hill 3. Not that it's a bad thing mind you...

I admit I do have my doubts about this, given my issues I've had with Silent Hill 3's near abandonment of nearly everything I love about the series for piss-poor action and exposition on story elements better left unexplained (and Silent Hill 4 didn't exactly help either). Plus the apparent emphasis on action here isn't entirely encouraging either given that the series has never done it that well to begin with in any of the games. Still, it's hard not to at least get somewhat excited at the potential here given that it's on a next gen console. If the staff behind it can make a game that fixes much of the technical gameplay issues that have hindered the series in the past and construct a scenario that's fully original in the Silent Hill universe that doesn't fall into the story ruts or formula traps that have plagued the series lately (a Silent Hill that IMO understands that wacky cult behavior and arbitrary alternate worlds with spooky imagery is not what made the series great), it will be a must play.

Kiyosuki
08-31-2007, 04:17 AM
When the info about this was given out a couple of months ago a lot of people got really worried that the game was going to take an action horror route, and of course as mentioned that having a military guy means thoughts of Jacob's Ladder. It doesn't necessarilly mean it'll be the same though I think. I mean a war vet is just ripe pickings for this kind of game.

I really can't say much about it since I know so little. I can see why people are afraid of it becoming too much of an action game, but if this is done right it could be a different but still very SH-ish kind of deal depending on just how much they exploit Alex's trauma to coincide with the fact he's a fair bit more potentially badass than the other leads (hell he even looks uncharacteristically "cool" compared to them. lol).

skittlebrau
08-31-2007, 06:19 AM
Haha, first few lines in and we ALL think Jacob's Ladder immediately.

As little information is given here, I am relieved and happy that Silent Hill can still have an impact on gaming after so many years. This could be the serie's Resident Evil 4, so to speak in meaning that a fresh revamp with the original premise retained could be a great thing, Konami or no Konami. Regardless of everything, I'm always excited for a new SH game, heh.

H Thompson
08-31-2007, 07:11 AM
That's generally a pretty encouraging article, they sound like they know what their doing. I think the move to a more sophisticated action thing has to be done though, I mean the combat in SH has evolved little from the ps1 original, and they need to do something to change the formula a bit, and certainly not making it too much about guns is a good move and having to use whatever blunt objects you can find, certainly gives things a grittier approach. Just so long as there's lots of riddles and puzzles that require sheer brainwork, and not just wondering between locations as well.

I hope the developers won't be too simplistic and arbitary with the alternate worlds. SH2 was very toned down with the hellish imagery, i.e the hospital, the foggy version looks like it's been abandonded for a few years, the nightmarish version look like it was condemned 100 years ago, but I found the atmosphere and music for that much spookier than the more overtly hellish imagery in SH3.

Kiyosuki
08-31-2007, 04:28 PM
I hope the developers won't be too simplistic and arbitary with the alternate worlds. SH2 was very toned down with the hellish imagery, i.e the hospital, the foggy version looks like it's been abandonded for a few years, the nightmarish version look like it was condemned 100 years ago, but I found the atmosphere and music for that much spookier than the more overtly hellish imagery in SH3.

Yeah I hope so too. Since this character is a fair bit more badass looking and sounding than the other lead characters (I mean look at him, he's getting in there with a combat knife. lol) I think they're going to have to contrast that better by making the whole thing a mind game even more so. Even if its stuff thats not necessary to the game I bet all sorts of small little details like say for instance....walking into a room and suddenly he's in a foreign country or something looking at a scene from his past, then when you exit the room and reenter it its gone and has just become another room. Not a great example but you get the point. What really will make or break this game I think is whether its straightforward or not.