Examining The (Mostly) Mediocre Western Silent Hill Games

yep that's a nice representation of how Konami has treated Silent Hill from that time frame in the late 2000s to early 2010s when Japanese Studios were pushing hard to appeal to the West some studios tried to make their games more Western friendly some shift their IPs off to Western Studios for development what did we end up with a miserable pile of disappointments franchise is losing their way besides Nintendo who sent some of their IPs out west like Metroid I can't think of a Japanese company that found success with this approach long term Konami and the Silent Hill series is one of the more knowable examples of a franchise losing its way during this time unproven Studios were given the keys to a franchise that was tough to handle Konami making all kinds of questionable decisions about the direction of the series there are exceptions in this Western run of Silent Hill titles but the overall output fell well short of what team silent was able to achieve and all these years later Konami is doing it again shipping the IPO to Western developers with one exception and the remake of Silent Hill 2. they dropped the bomb almost a decade back with hideo Kojima was given the chance to take the Series in New Direction something I covered in a previous video if you're interested in this video we'll take a look back on the western Silent Hill titles we'll also take a look at the upcoming titles that Konami announced for the series in October of 2022. note that there will be spoilers not only for the games I'm covering here but also the team silent titles for this video I will cover Origins homecoming shattered Memories and downpour for Origins shared memories and downpour I emulated their PSP Wii and Xbox 360 versions respectively for homecoming I played the PC version this was the only title of the batch that got a PC release it's from that time frame where PC ports were in the doghouse sunbury's Soul patched up to work on Modern operating systems and fix a bunch of bugs even then it still has a number of issues I gotta give credit for doing that for a title That's Not Great by any stretch of the imagination what about book of memories I had every intention of covering it in this video problem is PlayStation via emulation is still in its infancy the game is unable to boot as of riding with vita 3K spending a couple hundred bucks on Evita to play one game with a mediocre repetition station didn't seem worth it I will keep an eye on V damulation and cover it another time to make up for it I will be covering one on the Silent Hill mobile titles the point-and-click Silent Hill orphan I didn't plan on covering a mobile game but some mad lad made a do mod on the first part of Silent Hill orphan as far as I know this is the only point and quick title done in the Doom engine I can't stop thinking about you Travis I want you you're all I think about let's get the hell out run off the two of us could be so good another [Laughter] see I could be a star it's a bit of a miracle how good Silent Hill Origins turned out all things considered with its development yes it has major issues plot issues that clash with the first Silent Hill it's comical how many weapons we could pick up and use before they degrade yet picking up the scraps of trouble development the team was able to make something out of origins in about nine months developer climax Studios took the leftover scraps and put it together of what would become Origins a flawed title but has its moments and could have been far worse the LA team of climax Studios had a first go at Origins how did this studio get konami's blessing climax Studios had experience working with the PSP initial plans were to be a remake of the first Silent Hill this would change to be a prequel with ties to the original in hindsight the team said it was a terrible idea but didn't have any wiggle room with Konami it was going to be an over-the-shoulder perspective play more like Resident Evil 4. the story was going to be dark comedy with the show Scrubs being the inspiration now I've never watched scrubs but I am familiar with it a dark comedy horror title influenced by scrubs doesn't sound like a terrible idea but it does for Silent Hill in under a year with no extra budget UK branch of climax Studios cobbled something together they realized the initial story and idea were bad they didn't want to release the first bad Silent Hill title writer Sam Barlow rewrote the story in a week storyboarding had only a week of work through the scheduling of motion capturing the FMB is at the beginning and the end of the game come from earlier story ideas from the other team and had to be put there per konami's orders right off the bat issues arise with Origins we start with a cut scene of our protagonists truck driver Travis Grady Travis stops a truck in Hayes due to a hooded figure on the road this hooded figure it's Dr Kaufman this was an FMV that was a holdover from the previous iteration in the opening credits we have a certain individual listed who is controversial and Silent Hill fandom yes we'll cover Tom Hewlett in this video but that's for later Alessa makes an appearance Travis leaves his truck to follow her once we start playing things look up and then the game shoots itself right in the foot composer kirayamaoka Returns His musical Landscapes are as fantastic as ever walking into town a fantastic track ort plays okos are from Mary Elizabeth McGlynn [Music] know your name but they didn't Pace it out walk far enough and the game cuts it off and we jump to a cutscene it's jarring to say the least [Music] this ever played Red Dead Redemption if you have I'm sure in the moment when the song far away kicks in when you enter Mexico as a game highlight it's one of the best uses of a song I've come across in the game imagine how jarring it'd be if a cut scene got in the way yes the song stops if you get off your horse or have an unfortunate encounter with Wildlife but for many they were able to enjoy the song in full before moving on I'm not saying the intro and Origins would have been an Old Timer moment this series with a song played out in full but we have softened the blow of what was to come next we come across the house where the ritual takes place with Alessa dolly is standing out there like some prankster she's like Bart Simpson looking as handiwork of setting something on fire this moment and the contradictions of the first game are an absolute mess to sort through so I'm gonna try my best in the first Silent Hill there's a note about the house fire a fire happened in the basement where Alessa was in Origins she's on the second floor and the note from the first game it says the blaze was the result of a malfunctioning boiler it's thought this was a byproduct of the ritual with the events of Origins and other sources the fire is part of the ritual in Silent Hill 3 there's a note from Harry saying Alessa was burned by her mother their Dahlia there's a known Origins with a paragraph crossed out in addition of the boiler causing the fire this is to cover up the Cults doing what makes things even more confusing is that the no of the boiler in the first game doesn't always appear from what I understand it's only in the European and Japanese versions and even then it doesn't always appear to say it's a giant mess is an understatement there's a much fan debate over the years on said topic that said I do find it to be one of the Lesser issues with what we encounter here Alessa and the other world are much larger issues first Alesso is able to project herself here this is something she's not able to do until the beginning of Silent Hill one when Cheryl returns to town are you making this happen are you doing this [Music] wait no don't go same with the other world this came about when Alissa and Cheryl reunited in Silent Hill one so why can we access the other world now as Travis we can move into the other world at will his locked up mother talked about people in mirrors so was there another world before Alessa there was never a suggestion that the other world did exist before her my brain hurts thinking about all this other issues include the characterization of past characters for Elisa here it's okay since who she was in Silent Hill one was how lesser saw her a manifestation of her Kaufman and Dahlia those are much larger issues for Dahlia there's not a huge gap in between the two titles about seven years or so yeah you'd think have been decades due to a change in appearance this is what happens when you make a prequel to a story with many different interpretations and you only have a week to write it out looking back the team said it was a mistake in making a prequel to The First Silent Hill as a main character Travis is okay but nothing special well at least what the game explores about him it's amusing they use Norman Reedus as an inspiration for his face insert Norman's role in the series future there are hints that there's something more about him his mother tried to kill him because the mirrors told him he was the devil child his father took his own life shortly afterwards something is off of the way he acts sure you could say that about everyone's Silent Hill but here there are many hints that he's a serial killer something that the man ending implies when we kill too many [Music] Origins has this awkward focus of setting up the events of Silent Hill 1 and dealing with Travis they should have only focused on one or the other there's something interesting here if they pursued the idea of him being a serial killer something he could come to terms with turn himself in remember this is before the series had run the Silent Hill to approach into the ground that's characters and how they gave me Asylum Hills away to address their demons if they had to remain a prequel they could have picked a different time frame what if Travis came into town when Alexa was growing up before the ritual or before she was even born they could have explored elements of the order there is plenty to explore there save for one conversation Origins doesn't manage to capture that dreamlike Twin Peak style dialogue the conversation where Lisa talks about being a movie star which I started the section with was the only one I really felt that in it reminds me of a couple scenes from David Lynch's Mulholland Drive with its context which doesn't hurt before kill you then they put they put you then I cry cry and then I say with big emotion I hate you I hate us both such a lame scene combat and Origins receive tweaking Origins makes you so breakable weapons yes Silent Hill 4 made use of it here it's taken to comical levels weapon durability is a controversial mechanic in Games main games will receive fan fixes to deal with it I can see what developers are going for all the mechanics that can use to create tension weapon durability is a tough one to pull off up top of my head I can't think of a game that really benefits from weapon durability as a result there's a comical amount of weapons lying around anything that isn't bolted down is fair game this leads to ridiculous moments of tossing typewriters or toasters at enemies Wisconsin it's not like there's an increase in emphasis on combat like prior titles you're better off just running past enemies what makes this weapon system we're amusing is that they don't stack up on one another you cycle through them in the order you pick them up you could do this in real time or in the menu I could see what they're going for here find something anything in your environment to use against enemies that's fine the issue is how easy weapons break and how much is lying around there is one bit where I collected a whole bunch of pool cues it felt like a gag of a sketch show enemy designs are passable better than what's to come with future titles for having such a high bar of what came before they did a good job for the most part some are retreads of past titles some enemies are rather annoying and you could end up in a stun lock with some of their attacks I found the floating harnesses goofier and more frustrating than scary though props the design of the two back that appears at the motel I really like this design and monster there's also the butcher this game's equivalent to Pyramid Head nothing remarkable about this monster you could tell as a mandate by higher-ups for commercial viability remove him from the game when there's no major loss switching between the real world and Otherworld through mirror this is an interesting idea gameplay wise [Applause] I do like how progression changes as a result how you have to Traverse to the other side and then come back to unlock an area navigation wise this was quite satisfying this comes at the expense of the lore and the horror what made the other world such a terrifying place was how we had no control over it here it's only a mirror away we have control over when we want to go or leave the other world giving us control although allowing for more gameplay options decreases the atmosphere in horror it's a trade-off for title where atmosphere and horror Central it's the wrong one although prop to them for trying something different even if it didn't land it's something the series wouldn't try again even with the compromise to the atmosphere it's not huge drop origin still does a good job of keeping it intact much better than their future titles the areas are well laid out and thought out with the mirror switching mechanic as memorable as prior titles no but it's not a huge drop in quality for a short time frame they had for development the M resolve their quality layouts that aren't a chore to get through the puzzles are decent although nazca's past puzzles for the most part they're straightforward some make use of finding the solution elsewhere memorize it or write it down and then use it on the puzzle itself the use of switching back and forth with the mirrors creates more puzzle elements in regards to navigation as I said earlier it's a mechanic that's well done even if it does take away from the horror and atmosphere while has a flimsy setup of going there the sanitarium was a well done section beyond the hospital which I found on Inspire the areas are all enjoyable sanitarium is an obvious location for building dread intention makes good use in the mirror mechanic to progress forward what's lacking are the enemies as those annoying harnesses are around of course these soundscapes of Akira Yamato cars inspired as ever into a lot of heavy lifting the pressing atmosphere is in full swing the fight against Travis's mother at the end is well done as mentioned earlier the decision of juggling setting up the events for Silent Hill 1 and Travis were real advised I'm Not Dead out of mind not bad I asked them to bring my boy to me mama come here boy let Mama take a look at you the theater is another well-structured area I have to note these annoying enemies hanging from the roof evasion can be quite annoying gang lock to the qtes to escape was frustrating more elements of Shakespeare returned here with the Tempest thank God we don't have to do a book sorting puzzle like the one Silent Hill 3 involving Shakespeare hence hang not on my garments sir how pity I'll be your shorty silence one word more shall make me chide me if not hate thee what for an impossible I got a nice chuckle of Alessa kicking the dead boss at the end of this section nice call back to the connection with Heather [Music] Riverside Motel is our last place for exploration before the end stretch the oppressive atmosphere is well done and gets closest to the feelings of the titles of old I love the use of an item that we've had with us since the beginning of the game to help solve a puzzle I enjoyed the build up to unlocking room 500. it's established early on that something significant happened here everything about this section is building up to being able to finally access it not unlike Silent Hill 2 with the hotel room as a child shortly after his mother went sane Travis and his father stayed at this Motel his father hung himself not long afterwards speak up Beach Daddy I'm not sleeping son Patty you knew I wasn't sleeping why did you stand there for so long it wasn't right please Teddy it wasn't healthy son Daddy this is insane time you faced up to what happened it's not meant to be a huge plot twist or a revelation and that's fine the game gave us this information prior too it's more of a oh now Travis is going to come to terms with what happened this would be a good ending point for the game if Origins was only focused on the story of Travis however there are the lingering plot threads of Alessa there is another major issue with the plot of Origins and that being the floros hear its use restore her powers compare that to the first Silent Hill where it's used to capture her come out I've got your your thing thank you [Music] happy you've dug up my parents what now when we get to look inside your sick little mind there says goofy cut scene with her where she's acting more like Alma from fear and then there's another cutscene with hooded figures around her corpse with Dr Kaufman present this is another one of those holdovers and creates a whole further muck of plot issues in the good ending it sets up events for the first Silent Hill with baby Cheryl and luring her back to Silent Hill [Music] thank you [Music] All Things Considered Origins does have several issues yet does an admirable job of capturing the spirit of the previous titles considering this is a team that saw their writings on the wall started from scratch and came up the final product in such a short time as something to commend they could learn from their mistakes and try again this time with more development time they would get a chance but would be a title very different from the norm for the series other Studios would get a crack at Silent Hill how are those attempts well let's take a look spoiler alert not as good foreign [Music] the first thing you do when you gain control of Alex is a qte this sets the standard of what to expect with Silent Hill Homecoming to me it's the worst of the Silent Hill games it has its moments but those are few and far between it's a design by committee kind of game it suffered from a case of higher ups mandating make it like the movie we want that audience downpour is also a lousy game but not to the extent that homecoming is if you want to play homecoming and I'm not sure why you would want to the PC fan patch from unknown project is essential 2008 the year homecoming was released was the Heyday of lackluster PC ports it cleans up a number of issues it removes the qtes making them an automatic success even then the game would crash at points during load screens best solution I found was to reduce the resolution from 1920x1080. hence most my footage has black bars for each loading screen I would wait in anticipation of a crash say points are spread out so there were cases of annoyance when it would crash even with the patch some areas would turn to a crawl fpsy is like the sewers [Music] I have to commend putting the time to patch a game like homecoming this isn't some diamond in the rough like vampire Bloodlines that just need some further patching double helix was the developers of Silent Hill Homecoming this company was a merger of the collective and shiny entertainment the collective worked on a number of licensed games shiny entertainment now that's more like it I love their games Earthworm Jim MDK great stuff they make quirky games that thought outside the box perhaps they could bring some of that thinking to Silent Hill well that wouldn't really be the case double helix landed the gig due to a pitch they sent to Konami for Silent Hill 5 which it was known at the time but the financial success of the 2006 Silent Hill film Konami producers won the game to take elements from it they wanted Monsters from the film The Transition appearance of the other world [Music] thank you foreign of course Pyramid Head they want to grab that movie audience remember safer the first Silent Hill the games have never been huge sellers especially when you compare sales numbers to the Resident Evil series the first appearance of pyramid head and homecoming is comical Whoever thought was a great idea to bring him back was probably creaming themselves over it I'm sure they expected players to react like the guy who creamed himself over the Disney Star Wars trailers [Music] foreign I clapped I clapped when I saw it pyramid shows up less than a handful of times earlier versions had several more appearances the higher-ups pushing for it would leave the project before completion the team decided to cut back on his appearances Pyramid Head adds nothing here for a good reason his appearance makes no sense outside of Silent Hill 2. but hey he more or less become the mascot of Silent Hill and the movie was a hit being the first Silent Hill title on the 7th generation of Hardware budgets were growing at a rapid rate even with more powerful Hardware homecoming is clunky in its appearance the environments and enemies are fine it's the character faces and animations that are off they're lifeless and feel dated for its time compare that to Silent Hill 3 which came out five years prior to homecoming considering how many human characters there are here it sticks out like a sore thumb we saw plenty of games like homecoming during the Seventh Generation the ones that attempted to reach a wider audience only to end up falling flat older fans reacted with disappointment and they weren't able to bring enough new fans to meet sales expectations when you try to please a wider audience there's a greater chance of pleasing nobody homecoming is very much one of those titles in regards to pleasing nobody I don't think you'll find anyone saying the gameplay changes were an improvement combat is an awkward Affair and homecoming and the vertical slice pitch Konami told double helix to cut back on combat elements it leaned more towards Resident Evil 4 in its earlier stages the end result is a system that's somewhere in between the classic style and something action-heavy and when you try to take elements of both you end up with heavy compromises more often than not a decision doesn't work that's exactly the case here homecoming shifts to the over-the-shoulder camera perspective this is something that was planned in the earlier version of Silent Hill Origins at least there are no breakable weapons here for melee attacks we can use a light attacker combos a heavy attack dodging and counter-attacks one-on-one the system works okay attacks are well telegraphed with sound cues from enemies yet enemies take too long to go down there is Merit to giving enemies more life in survival horror titles I found the enemies here just had a bit too much of course you can shoot them but you really want to save your bullets dealing with more than one enemy it's a nightmare with walking onto enemies you have to enter into combat mode which I found awkward I found switching from a gun to another weapon no messy Affair and took damage several times the result which should have been easy Dodges dodging can be well dodgy at points where it seemed like I would Dodge instead would get hit it's easy to get caught in a stun lock from an enemy as a result of course you can run away from enemies but it's more difficult than prior titles enemies move with greater speed it's easy to get stuck with a few surrounding you Gango requires killing them or rolling your way by on the survival horror side it loses the horror elements doesn't have that haphazard feel Runner fight on the action side it's a clunky system and not in a good way even up until the end of the game I was fighting with the clunky control system there'd be times of ambiguity of whether my Dodge is would or would not succeed it's a combat system that feels like it went through many iterations that could not be selled upon how are the enemies they're a mixed bag some are pulled directly from the 2006 film some feel more of a case of hey wouldn't it be cool if instead of filling in with the story human enemies show up something that should never happen in a silent hill title although this did lead to my only real scare I had in my time with homecoming as they're human they don't set off the radio go I was in a room with loud Machinery reading something on the wall when they snuck up on me do you know what also takes away from the horror of combat telling us during loading screens what we could do to take them down specific enemies let the player figure that out on their own I'm fine if you give tips about counter-attacks or getting up when knocked down but giving hints on specific enemies those weren't needed now there are a few moments of greatness within homecoming the boss fights are well done and one stanzo is the game highlight that being the fight with Scarlet the doll design is unique yet effective her animations are fluid the environment of the combat is great there's a nice Rhythm and pattern to her attacks what makes it such a marital encounter is the music Akira Yama mocha turns once again as the composer I don't find it as strong overall as his other works but it's still excellent granted it's also a game I consider the worst in the series but this track during the Scarlet fight is a standout not just for the game but the series itself it starts with a minimal haunting Vocal Track as we progress further into the fight more layers start to kick in and gets more intense [Laughter] thank you [Music] it's an excellent case of music making experience that much better exploration receives some tweaking in navigating the town of Shepherd's Glen we do have sections of backtracking I did appreciate the game opening up shortcuts and rewarding you for paying attention during these such as having the ax to now cut a barrier of what was once inaccessible for a weapon upgrade otherwise there are linear fares with nothing really of note indoor locations are more linear than past titles even switching to the other world there's little addition to areas of what we just explored the section prior to the Scarlet doll boss fight has a quality atmosphere but ends up being a single linear path instead of branching off at one point development Pyramid Head would chase us through this section thank goodness he was cut in regards to puzzles there's nothing to write home about Beyond a couple there are some wire Crossing puzzles survival horror classic sliding Beast puzzle the single puzzle to stand out to me was the final puzzle prior to the final boss of laying up the symbols with the correct family felt something more of a point-and-click game without the wonky point-and-click game logic let's shift to the story of homecoming we are playing as Alex Shepard a soldier returning home to Shepard's glad in a town near by Silent Hill he's getting a ride in from Travis Grady in what feels like an unneeded nod to Origins things have gone awry in his time away it's now engulfed in fog many people have disappeared he goes off to search for his younger brother Josh Alex's personality boils down to where is Josh where's where's Josh yeah well I'm not here for long I'm looking for my brother you seen him look what I really need is some information have you seen my brother Joshua I'm just trying to find my brother okay sure James and Silent Hill too how they focus on Mary but there's more to him than just that do you know what would help me empathize with Alex more if he wasn't a doppelganger of nickel Ashley a man who was once married to Jessica Simpson in her prime in the earlier versions Noel North was going to be the voice of Alex now the voice of Alex says nothing special but thank goodness Noel North didn't get the role he's talented as craft especially when he plays a guns character but he would be other place here with his normal voice Josh is that you this must be a little girl's room looks like something was taken from here too fast you have to get the speed just right I'm doing it wrong I've got a bad feeling down here it'd be like putting Troy Baker in Silent Hill oh wait that did happen how do you know about that aren't you Maria speaking of doppelgangers Alex's dad looks exactly like John Locke from Lost he dresses the same as well there's clear influence in the concept art being a fan of lost I now wonder how John Locke would handle being in Silent Hill the appearances of wheelchairs would be fitting for him you know those channels like petronax and Eli handle B the ones that superimpose a TV or movie character into a game here's an idea for them put one of John Locke and Silent Hill or how about Paulie from The Sopranos in Silent Hill one my favorite green texts is Paulie and Silent Hill oh yeah back to homecoming this mediocre game anyways I appreciate that for Alex speaking in game is a rarity the game uses text prompts there are stretches where Alex will accompany another character it's weird to play a game that's somewhat modern and not have constant banter between the two where the other tells you what to do in combat or how to solve a puzzle this is prior to when it really started to become an annoying design Trend it's something that spiral delve control over the last few years something that is now getting a lot of pushed back and attention as of writing thank goodness to get a better angle on the torch no bro can you oh my God can I experiment a bit hello interesting fact about one of these characters that being L early plans were for her to end up being a grown-up Laura from Silent Hill too thank God that was scrapped there's also wheeler the cop who gives us a hand while the game's writing is nothing to write home or homecoming about this one line from him got a chuckle of me there are too many human characters in homecoming it takes away from the isolated atmosphere seems like every other minute we are stumbling into someone else homecoming introduces a dialogue Choice system talk about unnecessary this isn't an RPG it ruins the flow of conversations you know when prior titles conversations would be a nice reward to look forward to for progression quality writing the Intrigue monsters [Music] oh don't worry it's just a joke that's non-existent here origin suffers from this as well but it's far more egregious here it never gets close to that Silent Hill feeling case in point the scene where we must decide if Alex will kill his mother giving the choice for the player to kill their own mother this should be a huge moment with great impact homecoming's writing didn't put the legwork in to make this moment work to make it worse this is done as a dialogue Choice why not make this Choice through gameplay either the player will shoot her or walk away another frustration the story for homecoming is the direction it takes having our protagonists a soldier returning home is a great idea to run with think of the possibilities Alex could be dealing with PTSD and have the town Silent Hill incorporate his time in war into how it projects itself to him early ideas include a cut war zone section of Alex in the other world I would love to see how that would have looked so where does the story go it turns out Alex never went to war the hospital he was in at the beginning it was a mental hospital [Music] wounded in battle a mental hospital Josh is dead died by ox's hand in an accident it reeks of being a plot twist for the sake of one an attempt in recreating the one from Silent Hill 2. the Revelation lands with a wet fart which should be a massive Revelation flops around like a fish out of water speaking of water Josh's death on the boat with Alex's borderline comedic and how it plays out okay what a piece of crap it's worth more than a million dollars that's why dad gave it to me Josh another issue with the plot of homecoming involves the call to in Shepherd's Glen I don't know why they didn't just set the entire game in Silent Hill Shepard's Glen is more or less the same in its appearance why not just have it all in one location the four foundings of Shepherd's Glen left Silent Hill to get away from the order every 50 years they have to sacrifice one of their children for protection Alex being part of that lineage and the choice for a sacrifice as he was not killed the town has no protection hence the fog and the Monsters what doesn't sit right with me here is how they turned Silent Hill into a weapon it clashes with the idea of the other world in the town from prior games which makes setting part of the game in Shepherds claim a puzzling Choice why not just have them live in Silent Hill left the order and made a pact years ago the idea of having to sacrifice one of your children to the order is a dark and twisted idea to run with there are brief moments where the game explores Alex being a neglected child of the family compared to Josh this is a Direction they could have leaned more into imagine if Alex was called back from the war having to deal with what the Town Projects to him and being chosen as the sacrifice or what if he played as his father Adam with a game building up to choosing which of the sons of sacrifice or trying to find a way out of it there are interesting foundations that homecoming has in regards to its stories yet the story built upon it takes the lamest route possible it feels like higher ups won another twists like Silent Hill 2 because players loved it the end result is an eye roller that misses the mark what makes things even worse is the lack of subtlety in the story the scene with judge Holloway explaining the order and the sacrifice in a matter of fact way is one of the worst in the series A Series has always kept things up to interpretation or kept things vague here it's right on the nose there is some unintentional hilarity during the scene where items are highlighted in the background all now Origins have a number of issues due to being tied into Silent Hill 1. Homecoming suffers from being a design by committee title where they want to capitalize on the popularity of the movie as a result homecoming ends up being the most removed from what Silent Hill is as a series there is foundation for a good game here when steveling it stand on its own you have to stand these shoulders of the movie and Silent Hill too to me it's the worst in the series this would be double helix's sole contribution to Silent Hill a large budget Next Generation Silent Hill title that missed the mark the same thing would happen to downpour but that's getting ahead of ourselves let's take a look at a unique entry in the Silent Hill catalog and the best of the western titles and don't worry head wounds always bleed a lot lots of blood vessels close to the surface it's nothing serious I can clean up back at my place Lisa I'm Harry Harry Houdini sorry I'm always saying goofy things that come into my head not only shatter memory is a unique Silent Hill title but it's also a unique title in the overall landscape of gaming there's nothing quite like it even till this day some elements from shattered Memories have appeared elsewhere but not the complete package built for the Nintendo Wii it's one of those games I Only Could came out in the way it did with the we in mind sure that does include some of the emotion control trappings that we came to expect for the Wii say what you will about the Wii positive or negative but got developers to think outside the box shattered Memories is one of the best examples of it it's one of the first mainstream horror titles with no combat instead we can only run from the enemy amnesia the Dark Descent which took the gaming World by storm was still a year away there are elements of the walking simulator and shared memories a few years prior to the rise of that genre it'd also be press X to Jason with press a to Cheryl by a few months Cheryl Cheryl Cheryl Cheryl Jason Jason [Music] who's also ahead of the curve of the constant barrage remakes we got these days selling the Silent Hill series is partaking it at the moment while a remake isn't the right term a reimagining of the first Silent Hill it works as a standalone title if you've never played the first title if you have played Silent Hill it takes your knowledge of it and twists it around it toys with you and it builds up to one of the more emotional moving narratives in the game climax Studios the studio that worked on silent hill Origins developed shattered Memories Sam Barlow would return as the writer that name does sound familiar he has found success in the Indie realm with titles like her story it went through a few iterations eventually turned into a reimagining of the first Silent Hill this helped climax set the green light from Konami and allow for experimentation with an idea they had a feature that Still Remains unique in the landscape of gaming one that I'd love to see other titles take a crack at I want you to know this will be different we take this at your pace no notes no drugs no theories we go back to the start understand what happened that standout feature of shared memories of the psych profile throughout our playthrough we will partake in therapy sessions oh no this guy seems like a bit of a loose cannon drinking during sessions getting angry seems a bit unprofessional scraps of a happy life that never was scraps of a father who never existed wake up we'll answer questions during our sessions that will shape our psych profile this will change the number of factors in our journey through Silent Hill as Harry Mason the way characters dress the way they interact with us text messages we receive voice messages we can listen to another element that impacts your psych profile is what Harry looks at in our journey focus on something notable for time and Harry will make a comment back in the Great Outdoors I learned something new every day nice mine's Switched Off a million years ago hey the game plays you as much as you play it the major beats of the plot remain the same it's the in-between sections that change depending on your psych profile for a series known for replayability shattered Memories takes a different approach to it there's nothing quite like the psych profile in other games how a game plays out depending on decisions of the player is tough to pull off look within Western Silent Hill titles and you can see where this idea goes wrong key moments in Silent Hill Homecoming and downpour that impact the ending come down to Binary choices Press A or B other games give the illusion of choice that when you look through the curtain turn out to be disappointing Telltale struck goal with The Walking Dead But found a mission returns where they didn't tweak their formula of decision making the number of small variations in shattered Memories adds up most games tend to make a big decision in a couple of key points this was a common marketing bullet point at the time of shattered Memories release I wish more games would take the approach done here make small tweaks to add up to a unique experience depending on how you play the destination May mostly be the same but the journey will be different smaller Forks in the road with more frequency instead of larger forks with less frequency of course first this is a difficult development task Shadow memories has a short run time even for a silent hill title as a result this Focus other elements of shared memories didn't receive as much attention [Music] this is another unique feature shared memories were the chase sequences the game excuse combat for Chase sequences there are no ways to kill the enemies pursuing us we can only toss them off they catch us the fact that you can't fight enemies but only run was a stick and coin development this is still a year before amnesia the Dark Descent came out before this really start to become a thing we shift to another world that's different from the cold industrial other world of old instead it is called in the literal sense of world of ice this is where the monsters will chase us their appearance differs depending on her psych profile they are the only enemies we encounter in shattered Memories and their design is nothing to write home about the studio did a decent job with the monster design Origins it's a step back here in shattered Memories granted it's not the focus of the game the chases work well at first although they lose their luster before the game ends which is disappointing as it's not a long title we don't have much time to investigate these areas in the other world in peace something that's a bit of a missed opportunity later chases will split off into multiple paths we may find ourselves revisiting past hallways now try a different door this time it becomes a trial and error Affair and can become tedious you could also hide but the game does nothing to incentivize it you're better off just making a run for and shaking enemies off if need be it's too bad the game didn't structure chases to make use of hiding as the chases lose their luster prior to the game's end they would have been a welcome addition it would have been a way to introduce new enemies into the fold perhaps a different type of enemy that would outrun us but would give up if they couldn't find us there's not a lot going on in these Chase scenes in the sense that they're easy to fall follow I discussed this in my video on Call of Cthulhu dark corners of the earth there's a you knowable chase scene in that game even those who haven't played dark Corners may know of it there are no major explosions or collapsing buildings as we hold forward you have to have precise design to guide the player in Chase scenes we're navigating through these rooms at great speed you want tension but you don't want frustration shattered Memories achieves this for the most part enemies are easy to toss off you can knock over objects to serve as barriers to buy time you could use a flare to keep enemies at Bay for a time if you die it's a short trip back to where you were prior there is no major penalty for death many horror titles now offer the option to hide and run from enemies as a core gameplay mechanic the Chase and the Hyde mechango Shadow memories is okay but it falls short of what the game is able to achieve the psych profile mechanic it's one of those mechanics that I'm guessing came about due to having to think outside the box with the Wii speaking of the Wii shattered Memories has many of those wheat trappings and how you interact with the environment Novelties that turned into eye rollers over time [Music] ha [Music] ieri's cell phone is a key component of gameplay I had some Chuckles calling various phone numbers you could find in the environment foreign incidents of drivers sleeping at the wheel to wrestling Behavior please State the high static Trails lead to messages and conversations these change depending on your psych profile events that happen elsewhere at a different time puzzles are clever and shattered Memories on the sense of how they're thought oh but how we make use of our phone or the environment around us one great example is the puzzle where you place the objects in the correct position to obtain a phone number to open a door what involves us searching through an environment to discover a password it's not a matter of finding that information and replicating it another includes deciphering the right number to call for a song requests on e-radio they're less about the Eureka moments that the team Silent Hill titles would have in their puzzles instead their palette cleansers in between Chase sequences shattered Memories has a different take to its atmosphere it lacks the oppressive atmosphere like the titles of old this is not due to them missing the mark instead it's with the approach they took as a reimagining of the first Silent Hill it removes a great number of elements the order Alessa shared memories does not incorporate them you would think this would be a red flag but it's not shatter memories leans heavily into that David Lynch Twin Peaks feel something that's been present throughout the series in shattered Memories the atmosphere is more dreamlike there's an uneasy feeling in the air that something is off about what's going on the horror is more or less Stripped Away to focus on these elements and the game Nails it the best example of this is with Michelle a young woman attending her High School reunion with no one present due to the snow when we walk into the gym she sings A rendition of Always On My Mind Of course depending on your psych profile her appearance and personality will change they even went the extra mile with having a different rendition of always on my mind depending on your psych profile I [Music] time you're always on my mind [Music] it feels straight out of Twin Peaks and always on my mind is a great song choice although I'm more of a Willie Nelson fan myself for versions of the song on the note of Music shattered Memories would serve as Akira yamaoka's last work on these series until the recent announcement of his return for the Silent Hill 2 remake it's a more subdued approach and fits with the tone of shattered Memories it does a great job of evoking that Twin Peaks vibe [Music] foreign [Music] with the Dolphin Emulator shared memories as one of the better looking titles on the Wii facial animations are fantastic and still hold up team silent were absolute Wizards in regards to getting the most out of the hardware they were working with climax Studios themselves did a great job of getting as much out of the Wii as possible shatter memories uses the first Silent Hills of foundation for its story but from there builds a very different narrative this version Harry and Cheryl live in Silent Hill his journey for seeking out Cheryl a number of inconsistencies add up why is there a family living in Harry's house has the car accident messed up his mind his memories no Lucy this man here is just a little confused this is my house and see how that can be we've been here nearly 14 years sure you got the right address who was that that was our daughter Katie Katie you're in a bad way son all worked up we'll come across familiar faces like Sybil while still a cop she's older here in a cop of Silent Hill not Brahms depending on your psych profile her appearance and attitude will change she can be a kind caring officer or Co-op of provocative attire Harry Mason it's the right address you know what this doesn't add up I'm going to need you to come down to the station with me we can sort it out there that Road's not in my jurisdiction why do you want State Police you're kidding my daughter is out there you have to find her a lot of people need help tonight look around the whole town is a mess Michelle is a new character introduced to this world and some of the game's best moments are between her and Harry catch [Music] thanks a gang of kids in my class used to hack it to change their grades and you hey I didn't need to cheat good thing we're closed how so not sure they'd let you in with that outfit I'm the best dressed writer I know that's why I'm dating a lawyer she's kind likable in helping Harry find Cheryl yet she know what Cheryl Mason that went to her High School how many Cheryl Masons could there be in a small town like this she even looks like you yet you could tell that she's in a relationship that's on choppy Waters this results in the awkward car ride between her and her boyfriend with Harry in the back seat [Music] if not now when where Christ Michelle I've been trying to do this for months but you don't want to hear it now we have a witness maybe you'll listen thinking right it's been too long since while she doesn't get a ton of screen time the stretch with Lee says a lot of fun with her upbeat goofy attitude there's an amusing situation that could play out in your apartment if Harry decides to take a peek during the heat wave [Music] wave flies where things get out there is with Dahlia and thus reimagining she's an ex-wife of Harry with a very different appearance and personality which again varies depending on her psych profile she's voiced by Laura Bailey who I can listen to Talk Dirty all day are you on something I'm Dahlia hottest Pizza as you'll ever see in this town you are hearing Mason generally a fun guy to be with you really don't know who I am no said Nancy oh who are Sid and Nancy and my tits you name them all these inconsistencies and odd situations keep building upon one another our end goal is to reach the lighthouse in the distance there's no file boss or anything like that along the way it uses the monsters as a narrative element as we get closer and closer to the truth the revelation of what's Happening here now I have played chattering memories in the past but never beat it although I was aware of the ending even with that knowledge it still hits like a ton of bricks the lighthouse it's a clinic what's been [Music] you've been with me for so long I always will be [Music] foreign clicks into place it's Cheryl not hearing these sessions Harry died 18 years ago in a car crash all those mementos we could find those phone messages and text messages we receive they're all related back to Cheryl some direct some Nas direct from her past years and dealing with her trauma she made her father into a hero-like figure as a child something she still holds on to but at the end of the day he's only a human being he's not perfect depending on how you play there are variations to the end she comes to accept her pass resent her father or still hold on to the hero fantasy of them on top of that there are four variations afterwards of Cheryl's memories of her father during the credits we'll receive notes from her therapist who is Dr Kaufman about our personality you can't see elements of Silent Hill 2 here with the ending while Dan draw attention to it the endings of Silent Hill 2 can vary depending on how you play how much time you spend around Maria looking at certain objects to keep yourself healed up or factors that determine which endings you got the ending where Shale chooses to hold on to her father as his hero Bears resemblance to the ending where James holds on to Maria and yet it doesn't feel like it's copying these silent Hill 2 twist influence sure but just an influence he uses that foundation and goes in a different direction what results is one of the most satisfying moving narratives in the game while the pieces fall into place it doesn't reach the level that Silent Hill 2 does and granted what's going to top Mary's letter at the end but if this ending doesn't make you feel anything check your pulse because I'm sure you have no heart the end result is a title that stands out not only amongst the Silent Hill series but games overall over a decade later I haven't played another game like shattered Memories some elements have popped up here and there but nothing that ties all these elements together it's by far the Best Western Silent Hill title while it skews various elements that the series is known for it still shows an understanding of what the series is a team that understands and respects the world of Silent Hill with their own unique stamp on it which makes the shame that this would be climax Studios final crack of the series well it had Noble issues and a quick turnaround time to save it from disaster Origins did show they had an idea of how to work with the IP shattered Memory is built upon this I would have loved to see climax get a chance at a larger budget title or Origins was a PSP title shattered Memories was a weed title with PS2 and PSP ports well if they got the chance to work on title with focus on the PS3 and 360. of course that would not be the case next title in the series Silent Hill downpour came from another studio with moving into talking about downpour let's take a short detour let's talk about someone who had a large role in this development one I mentioned earlier one Tom Hewlett how do you stick by your guns and sign up the convinced this is right stick with us and you'll see well I go in a room by myself and cry and then I come out um I couldn't do this video and not talk about Tom Hewlett a man who received much blame for the drop and quality of the series during this time frame Time Heals all wounds over time the blame shifted more towards Konami as opposed to Tom Tom was the face you would see most interviews and the one engaging with the community putting a face to name made him an easy target a scapegoat looking back all these years later is Tom blameless or not it's a bit of calaman column B most of the issues during this hair of Silent Hill line decisions made by the higher-ups at Konami farming up the franchises to Western Studios mostly unproven ones pushing to grow Their audience to the detriment of what made the series what it was of course when you do that it never works out well yet there is some blood on Tom's hands his position gave him Noble input into the games however that lies more in the later titles of the western output so let's take a look at his role in the series he first started on Silent Hill Homecoming as a producer he was not happy with the decision of including pyramid head and pushed back against it he said he was moved over to work on Origins as a result as an associate producer yeah had a minimal role in Origins development as he came in later in the project he came back near the end of homecoming's development when the previous producer left zimput was more on cleaning up some of the messes that were left behind again not a ton of involvement for shattered Memories he stepped in as producer when another Lefty project as he was a fan of its approach his role was protecting the vision that climax had from others and letting them make the game they wanted to make then there was the Silent Hill HD Collection saying this project was a mess as the understatement of the century someone at [ __ ] hijink Studios thought it was necessary to change the [ __ ] font to Comic Sans in the HD version because there are many videos on YouTube covering this catastrophe a team working within complete source code and legal issues with using the original voiceovers nothing seemed to go right Tom was in charge of the new voiceovers and brought Mary Elizabeth McGlynn to be the voice director on paper that doesn't sound like the worst Choice she was a vocal presence in the series literally she has experience in being a voice director with games and Anime dubs she was the voice director for showering memories but the M result missed what made the original voice overs work it doesn't matter who I am I'm here for you James there's a misconception that stems from the interviews with Mary that Tom rewrote the script of the games the context was he wrote out the timings for the new voiceovers while the early bosses on downpour said nobody plays Silent Hill for the story and suggested setting the game in Alaska that boss would not be involved with the project for very long for downpour Tom was a senior associate producer and one of the three writers on downpour so here he had more input than past titles for Book of memories he was the producer and soul writer the Mandate for Book of memories to be a Dungeon Crawler came from higher-ups other producers he worked with on these projects include Devin chatsky and Jeremy Erie save for Book of memories Devin shotsky outrank Tom Jeremy Airy was higher up on the food chain and as an executive producer on all titles save for Origins yet they never got the same amount pushback they're not the main face in interviews or on fan forums then there were the twin perfect Silent Hill videos however you feel about them they did give a lot of damning evidence of things Tom said in interviews or on Forum posts although to be fair some of the quotes were taken out of context there are no cases while working on the series where he seem to suggest that he had control over things and would flip-flop after he's gone after leaving Konami would boil down to well I wasn't in control blame Konami for that when discussing his past working there although hearing about other people's experiences with Konami that does make sense perhaps he didn't want to piss off his bosses at Konami while working there perhaps Konami were more unhappy to let him become a scapegoat he didn't do himself any favors with the things he would say in interviews remember this was before game developers were shooting themselves in the foot on irregular it seems like every other week someone will tweet something stupid better remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt you flank [ __ ] down the internet expect some toss back your way in the end I feel he got more flacked than he deserved yet he wasn't blameless about how these titles turned out especially with the later titles like downpour which we'll dive into now LMN FM where the tracks are tight and the sweet Melodies flow on and on it's always a perfect day with DJ Ricks your on-air friend to the end downpour is the definition of a mediocre late 7th generation title it's a meh kind of game giant shoulder shrug forgettable in every way dress further away from the gameplay Foundation of old and pulls more from trends at the time the game is bad there's some Fascination in dissecting it or something that's middling it's harder to pick apart not as enjoyable for the first couple of hours I felt like I was sleepwalking my way through I was thinking of other things I'd rather be doing it did get better upon arriving in Silent Hill but not a lot but hey I'll give it a fair Shake I had no prior experience with the title myself besides knowing about the plot playing as a convict there are interesting directions you could go with that premise however it's similar to homecoming and that takes a lackluster Direction this time that your games were given the keys to the franchise they were a new studio based out of the Czech Republic they went under a few months after downpour's release in March 2012. there isn't a ton of information on the studio compared to the other ones covered in this video they had staff joined from 2K check a studio that put out the mafia titles looking through staff and lead or director positions on Moby games for downpour there wasn't much Crossover with staff from the mafia titles downplay does some course correction with gameplay mechanics that missed the mark in past titles it's unfortunate that they would correct one aspect but add another problem a step forward along with a step back the weapon system receives some tweaks weapons can break but not the rate that they would in Origins you can't carry a comical number of weapons you could carry two guns one gun and one melee or one melee weapon you're never far away from a weapon you could pick up in the environment they dialed back on these silly weapons no typewriters or TV sets here it was a step in the right direction a limited choice of weapons we can hold leads more into survival horror elements it's hampered by a sloppy execution picking up or switching to a gun while holding a melee weapon will drop it this can lead to awkward situations where you toss down a melee weapon when you didn't mean to and speaking of tossing I started off this video by tossing a fire ax into the void hmm [Music] if you're a fan of super Best Friends Play or at the time of the incident Two Best Friends Play you know this moment a legendary moment from their many playthroughs back when Matt and Pat tolerated the presence of one another so yeah keep going there's a movie theater on your right [ __ ] are you fine honestly I didn't mean to do that what button did you hit RT so I guess you better go get that brick no of course I had to pay tribute in the same spot however when I arrived at the spot there was not a fire ax in sight I spent a good 20 minutes wandering the town to find a fire ax hey it got me to explore the town at least I stumbled into some side quests along the way once I found one I made my way back and I screwed up the toss I didn't aim high enough it's a visual representation of my time with downpour I did find a smaller ax nearby though and got the toss right although it didn't have the same impact combat moves more towards the survival horror territory after the action-heavy approach with homecoming a stripped down system with basic strikes blocks and Dodges running past monsters is an easy or Fair well there is one exception to that that being the screamer the scream which stops you down your tracks for a few seconds this attack has a wide range [Applause] they could also latch onto you when you turn your back to them when running away they run the more annoying enemies I've come across in the game what makes it worse is that downpour throws a ton your way on top of that the monster designs are uninspired and generic and doing research for this video I came across a rabbit post from someone claiming to be the animation director at vatra when asked about the development he said that Devon chatsky and Tom Hewlett were strict about the monster design the art team had constant opposition against the typical Silent Hill monster design the animation director said concept artists left the project due to hundreds of refused pieces a concept art by the producers of course this post cannot be verified so take it with a grain of salt if it's true it's perplexing that they would end up going with such generic designs this is what they decided on it gets worse with the game's main monster but hold that thought for now it's nice to see the option of choosing puzzle difficulties as back there are a few of these safe combination puzzles throughout downpour that can prove to be a stumper for several minutes they are optional and the more enjoyable puzzles in the game the ones on the critical path are nothing to write home about speaking of optional there are side quests and downpour while exploring Silent Hill the town here has more of an open-ended approach some of the game's better moments happen during side quests that isn't saying much however I find its inclusion to be misguided if you're making a game that doesn't have a long run time focus on the critical path this isn't some 40 plus hour RPG there is some well done environmental storytelling in these side quests and the game doesn't spell it out to you to how to find them or complete them refreshing to see a game do that especially from this time frame of 2012. this is the area where games really start to hold your hand every step of the way with minimaps or objective markers there was one side quest in particular that stood out as a good representation of downpour some decent moments are ruined by some puzzling design choices one side quest has us rewinding the events of a murder this had me intrigued and invested [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] to say this took me out of the moment as an understatement what should have been catharsis became comedic it made me think of Starcraft and how I'd rather be playing that than downpour the Howie scream is a common you scream used in all sorts of media I best associated with the Taran Academy scream in Starcraft [Music] poor has a rain mechanic when it rains enemies come out in greater numbers and they're more aggressive on paper it's not a bad idea the execution is lacking it's all too easy to dip inside a building and re-emerge with the rain now gone downpour has a number of gameplay cliches that popped up during the 7th generation like crossing a narrow board and agonizing Pace what were the point of these were they hiding loading screens the other world in downpour takes a prison-like appearance which makes sense considering our protagonist Murphy is a convict to step up from the other world in homecoming but it's not a slam dunk by any stretch like shattered Memories there are chases within the other world some glowing red light is chasing us ooh spooky these chases are nothing special not as enjoyable or well designed as the chases were in shattered Memories they suffer from the issue of too much going on spectacle over the chase itself they also includes sliding sections something that was common in games at the time [Applause] you still have to see the Callisto protocol which is being released shortly as of writing is making use of them chases are a large part of the other world but not the only park there are some brief points of exploration but they're mostly linear Affairs navigating through these spike traps I didn't know I was playing a platformer game here they feel Goofy and out of place like the design of the creatures it lacks bite in the overbearing nature of the titles of old downpours the first Silent Hill without a kirayamaoka at the helm for the soundtrack that would be Daniel Licht who had passed away at the age of 16 2017. he worked on TV and movie soundtracks for years he's best known for his work on the show Dexter there are bits in the soundtrack whereas like this sounds like something straight out of Dishonored turns out he was the composer there as well the soundtrack for downpour is fine but there's nothing memorable about it to be fair I not want to be in a position of trying to follow up a curious work that's a herculin task he did an admirable job all factors considered I all know his work on the Dishonored series was fantastic much better fit there who did they get for the opening track well that would be corn because who doesn't think of corn when they think of silent Hill this was a misguided Choice it doesn't help that I'm not a fan of corn save for a couple songs and this wasn't the only time corn did a song for a game they did one for the game Haze a few years prior this led to one of Jeff gerstman's funnier moments yeah they all look really confused looking at this dude from Hayes and then and then there's this quote I just say it again okay I'll say it gaming for me is a religion and Hayes is the sh said Jonathan Davis I had to come up with a track that can hit up that kind of rush I get from the game and I think we really rocked they put that word in a pressure incensored in the press release radios will play songs from titles of old ones from the team silent era doesn't feel like it's throwing a bone at longtime fans it only makes me wish I was playing those games instead there are licensed tracks that play on the radio like Louis Armstrong The Highwaymen Andy Williams Chris Christopherson ought to hear licensed music in the Silent Hill title but hey I dig those musicians DJ Ricks has some quality taste in music another bone thrown our way is the fixed camera angle sections a nice nod to fans of old in the older games but maybe want to go and play those ones instead Graphics Wise It's very much the later years of unreal three engine look dull and uninspired a strong art Direction can bypass this trapping see Alice madness Returns as a great example the downpour's art Direction isn't up to Snuff that's why making objects highlightable is was a good idea here in the old game strong art Direction camera angles made it clear what we could and couldn't pick up there were times of uncertainty and downpour if I was able to pick up an object or not the fog in town feels off it's there for the sake of being there it does nothing to enhance the atmosphere it only makes things feel dreary and dull speaking of dragon doll let's look at the story and how dampor plays out a decent premise with all execution our protagonist is Murphy Pendleton the convict what has he done we aren't told to begin with exploring a character with a criminal background well at least one we know of right off the bat there are interesting directions you could go with it of course you have to generate empathy and make us care for them having someone who's a convict makes that trickier to pull off and they're not able to do so here even with his tragic background of what happened to his son I didn't care for Murphy there was one scene where I perked up where you started to talk about cars but that's about it when it comes to showing his personality wow look at that an old 52. flathead V8 no doubt about it overall the characters are miserable gets with littledes captivating memorable or endearing about them and who I had to look up as I forgot her name was Anne or Anna is angry the entire time at Murphy she's a one note character you think this is all an accident just a big coincidence down it knows me it showed me things it wants me to finish this don't you understand it'll never let us go until we finish what we started what you started Howard is intriguing at least at first a mailman delivering the mail to those who step into Silent Hill although the first encounter ends with the most obvious eye rolling moment of him pulling a Batman well this male ain't gonna deliver itself good luck Murphy hope you find whatever it is you're looking for hey what's the name of this place I yeah Bobby Ricks the DJ on the radio and the radio DJ Trope dedicate songs to us throughout our time at the beginning he's a good character then you meet out with him and get these weird implications it's like there's rules you gotta you gotta follow you you know what I mean Bobby Ricks uh-huh yeah sure who's it going out to but I uh that's that's nice of you to think of me yeah real nice thank you they're coming did the town just call up Bobby like that afterwards he disappears from the story without any resolution or further mention except in the comic books one nefarious individual's corrections officer Sewell corrupt to the core he loves to call Murphy a cupcake come on Rise and Shine cupcake you know the drill saying a certain word or phrase with frequency can be a way of building rapport with a character a quirk to be known by bringing up lost again Desmond has fondness for the word brother is a great example now the Butler Brother and if you've come to drink let's drink all right let's try with Sewell it did nothing for me it's will who gives Murphy some one-on-one time with Napier another inmate in exchange for future favor Murphy murders Napier while he does so we don't know at this point turns out Napier was a kid diddler and Murphy's son Charlie was a victim of his whom he also killed Murphy commanded the crime of stealing a cop car and leading them on a 10-hour Chase that's what we're going with well if that's what you want Riders this leads him to be incarcerated in the same prison what's amusing about all this is Murphy loves to talk in downpour the talk to himself to guide the player that's become a cliche over the last decade hmm powers out I wonder where the breaker is something I demonstrated earlier in this video with a recent example yet there are notes we find about Napier and Silent Hill and he doesn't make any comment about them why while they're keeping that Revelation hidden until later don't you think you've got a few Choice words to say about this man the one who did unforgivable actions to his son it sticks out like a sore thumb as he comments on so many other things I'm prompted once we reach the moment we learn the truth it falls flat a parent discovering the loss of their child that should be heartbreaking to the utmost degree but the writing didn't put the legwork in to make us care let one of my officers drive you back to the command center and we'll call you where's my boy is he out there there Charlie Charlie [Music] what's up it's like the scene in homecoming where Alex has to decide if we'll shoot his mom something that should be a major moment Falls flat because the writing just wasn't there with prison being a major element in the story of downpour I'm surprised they didn't make more use of it exploring a location full of criminals with a variety of heinous crimes you could go in some dark directions with that or perhaps members of the order ended up in the prison and their influence is spreading within the Prison Walls it's like homecoming they had a solid setup but decide to take it in a lame Direction being transferred to another prison the bus crashes and Murphy is free and standing up right in Silent Hill we have an unnecessary stretch prior to arriving in town you could have cut this whole section and there would be next to no loss we've given them more time to flesh out the town there are a couple of knowable moments during the stretch but for all the wrong reasons we have a couple of Press A or B to make a decision moments they feel out of place and immersion breaking there is no reason they couldn't have been done through gameplay with Anne hanging onto the ledge because either approach her or walk away the same goes for JP when he's on the edge either go over to talk to him or leave can be it's funny because the game does something with it later but most of it done through gameplay we'll return to that later when we arrive in the town of Silent Hill it's not this Grand moment it's more like oh we're here now finally now the game begins foreign why didn't we just start here right after the bus crashed on the more puzzling design choices was having these cop cars patrolling the streets if you're spotted you have to deal with a group of the most annoying enemies in the game running away from these buggers becomes that much more frustrating as a result that scream has a long range and can stun you for some time one side quest allows you to get rid of the cars the game does get better by a noticeable degree once we reach the Centennial Building by no means great but plays more to this series strengths better than these sections from homecoming although that isn't High Praise next section on the critical path St Maria's Monastery is even better some of the game's better moments happened here along with some moments that don't land in their execution the section will reset the Hansel and Gretel play and the end result is well done it's a moment on the critical path that comes closest to capturing that classic Silent Hill vibe [Applause] [Music] please there is a tense bit of finding a key it's in one of these three corpses stomachs Wheeling them over to the X-ray there is some sense of dread if one of them would pop up but hey it got me invested intense about what was going to happen something that was a rarity in downpour throughout the most Dairy we're collecting pieces to the boogeyman rhyme the scene with the appearance of the Boogeyman and said rhyme is a great example of the story missing the mark first the design of the boogeyman the signature monster of downpour this is what they picked for the design it gives more Credence to that story earlier about the elite animators saying the producers rejected Design After design some concept art that was released wasn't outstanding but far better than the end result the second aspect is the Boogeyman rhyme itself do you know what made this part a lot more interesting if the game checked if you were paying attention to the rhyme instead of Murphy automatically citing the rhyme well if we had to choose what the next line was amongst the list of choices this scene could have been far more engaging it was one of the most important scenes of the game loses its luster as a result [Music] uh in the open leave them alone damn it I do like the nun we come across here she has that aura of mystery about her but the same time lacks the field mystery from past titles feels more like they're trying to confuse you for the sake of it so often the answers are before us Murphy if only we allow ourselves to see them there were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death prisoners in misery and chains because they had rebelled against the word of God last stretch on the critical path is the prison in some aspects it's a Well Done section the atmosphere and design are decent file boss is an all right fight and one of the better the enemy designs of the game granted again not saying much there's a revelation of ants seeing us as the Boogeyman and we got to control him as we hunt her down see here they gave us gameplay control and we have to catch her much better than making a choice with a button press we could catch her or let us die by her gun and the Monsters leading to one possible ending however if we do catch her it turns into a press A or B Choice kill or spare her why couldn't this have been done through gameplay either attack her to finish her off or walk away and then there is the mess about the endings we learn about why Ann is so upset with us Frank Coleridge her father and a corrections officer that was friendly terms with Murphy is put in the vegetative state during a prison riot depending on your choices it was either Sewell who did this or Murphy but also turns out it was Sewell who killed Napier in the end and not Murphy what did they trick us at the beginning of the game where it looks like Murphy did kill him in that case it's possible that Murphy has no blood on his hands well sure his actions had a role in what happened to Coleridge but he didn't go through within depending on your actions it gets worse when the game's Bad Endings has Murphy set for execution he's being executed for the murder of his son following a divorce from his wife which makes everything about Napier and what happened completely pointless it contradicts the events of what we went through but were they trying to go with here this is it Pendleton any last words yeah I'll see you in hell cupcake the game is all over the place in regards to trying to guess the care about characters and failing to do so it fails to make them compelling and what happens in the endings just makes it worse like homecoming as an interesting premise but that's all it is you have to execute on that premise and dampower Falls well short and overall a mediocre title doesn't hit the lows of homecoming but still a forgettable title and Unforgettable series it made some course Corrections from gameplay but has a number of other issues that rose in its place a shoulder shrug is the best way of describing how I feel about this game or tossing a fire ax into the void hmm [Music] when I did my video on PT I came across a Doom wad for it you could play PT in the Doom engine looking for other Silent Hill do mods I came across one for Silent Hill orphan released in late 2007 Silent Hill orphan was a first person point-and-click title for mobile phones have you ever played those first person horror point and collect flash titles on sites like new grounds you'll feel right at home here I dug those back in the day if done right they could build an eerie atmosphere with mostly static screens for whatever reason some mad lad decided to remake Silent Hill orphaned in the Doom engine so I had to check it out I've never seen anyone make a point-and-click title for a doomlod there were three parts to Orphan only the first part was done for the Doom engine non-essential play by any stretch but for mobile title orphan does a great job of maintaining that Silent Hill atmosphere the puzzles are well thought out and there's an intriguing story here jumping between three characters of Ben Moon and Karen however it is puzzling that they introduce a character named Alessa and no not that little lesser it's a different one why couldn't they choose a different name if you're a fan of doomods and want to see one that outside the box Silent Hill orphan is an intriguing short experience check the video description for a link to it before we wrap up this video let's take a look at the future of the Silent Hill franchise in October 2022 Konami revealed its plans for the future of the series through the Silent Hill transmission a number of long-running rumors received confirmation of what was shown once again Konami was shipping the IP off to outside developers to work on looking at the like to dislike ratios on YouTube I'm surprised at how well the announcements were received most top comments mentioned please don't mess up this time Konami did people forget what happened the last time they sent the series out west or the Fallout with Kojima in Silent Hills with what was shown as of writing I'm keeping expectations low so let's go over what was shown starting with the long rumored Silent Hill 2 remake and yes the rumors were true Bluebird are in charge of development now I haven't played any Blooper games but I am familiar with their output I'm in the camp of Silent Hill 2 does not mean a remake granted I feel that way about pretty much all remakes from what I've seen with Bluebird is that their talented with visuals and atmosphere but gameplay and storytelling are lacking their titles are walking simulators sure the Silent Hill Series has a noble influence on that style of game but survival horror titles are a different beasts bloopers output lacks subtlety this is apparent in the trailer look at how different James acts at the beginning how he falls to his knees and cries out [Music] foreign [Music] waiting for me the voice for Marion James I need to hear more this is going to be a sticking point no matter what since the originals were such iconic voices I don't hate them from what I've heard so far of course no gameplay was shown because that's how game trailers are these days or if they do Show gameplay they'll show five seconds of a character walking and call it a quote-unquote Gameplay trailer the rumors about Masahiro Ito and akiriyamaoka returning turned out to be true as well edosan pulls off the Silver Fox look with Grace I'm sure he got all those gray hairs from arguing with numbnuts on Twitter now what is their involvement in it is it heavy involvement a Consulting role something akin to a Kickstarter backing goal where they bring in a newable name only for them to write some item descriptions I guess we'll have to wait and see now no matter what happens we'll always have the original but also remember this is going to be the first experience of Silent Hill 2 for many players perhaps Silent Hill itself although it's nice to see the enhanced Edition of Silent Hill 2 received a large Spike of downloads afterwards crashing their servers after the announcement I wish the team the best of luck because they are going to need it Silent Hill 2 is one of those games with a fabled reputation a title that's been dissected and picked apart for 20 years it's a Monumental challenge that I don't think any Studio could be able to rise up to next showing was Silent Hill Town fall I hate that name no code in Annapurna are working on it like most trailers we get these days we get next to nothing about what to expect on the notes of the developers no code based out Scotland have done a couple of narrative heavy titles with little gameplay the founder of no code and creative director Town fall worked on alien isolation and a printer's output is publishing a number of Indie titles again in the realm of narrative heavy titles with little gameplay most outright walking simulators now this isn't a bad choice in regards to getting the atmosphere right but I feel they'll be lacking in the gameplay Department I hope they give us something Beyond a glorified walking simulator from what was shown about Silent Hill Ascension I got how do you do fellow kids vibes from it putting the story to the hands of the audience does not feel like a fit for Silent Hill it's being worked on by the developers of dead by daylight and Bad Robot Games watching the trans Mission live I was wondering if Mr Mystery Box himself would show up and I had a hearty choco and a blurb from him popped up a streamer friendly horror game to play with your audience could be interesting but not under the Silent Hill moniker by far the most intriguing reveal was Silent Hill F Silent Hill title set in Japan in the 1960s how is that going to work foreign [Music] [Applause] he's done a number of well-received visual novels like higuroshi when they cry I'm not familiar with his work but I will check it out and like the other titles announced the developers are based out of the East new Bard's entertainment has its headquarters in Hong Kong in the studio in Taiwan they've done outsourcingware for Capcom in the past they've helped the ports and developed Resident Evil resistance and Resident Evil reavers I did check out reverse when it came bundled with the Resident Evil Village DLC I want to see what they could do I don't think we should expect Silent Hill F to be a third person multiplayer shooter but I also don't expect it to be a visual novel considering how reverse was pushed to the side in a site by Capcom for over a year I wasn't expecting much of our reverse but it ended up exceeding my low expectations I did have fun with a couple of hours I put into it nothing I'll be returning to only regular but wasn't the dumpster fire I was expecting again like the other title shown we have no idea what gameplay will be like so it's another case of wait and see but this is the title that I have the most interest in seeing how it plays out and overall how do I feel about Silent Hill returning and to be honest that ship sailed for me after Konami dropped the ball with Silent Hills it's hard to say how that tail would have turned out as PT was just a playable teaser but they had the gaming world's attention with Kojima running the ship they were headed the curve in regards to getting the series back on track now they're far behind they're trying to capitalize on the success of the Resident Evil remakes with their own remake of Silent Hill 2. again they're shipping the series off out west something that ended up being a failure long term when they tried it last time they had their moments but they were more misses than hits this has made the reception of the transmission puzzling to me looking at you like to dislike ratios on the videos they're trying to capture past glories but that Talent is long gone Nami that we know is long gone I wish these developers the best because they have no easy fee to have them but that's why I'm also keeping expectations low in that case I'll make two recommendations in the meantime if you want a recent survival horror title that does a great job of capturing that Silent Hill Vibe give signalus a try it's one of the best games I played in the last few years and has an amazing approach to psychological horror and a compelling story if you want upcoming core title to look forward to keep slitherhead in mind it's being developed by Boca game Studios owned by the director of the first Silent Hill on the siren series it's a new IP in a kirayama Oka will be composing the soundtrack there's not much information about it at the moment but keep an eye on it that or you could also buy yourself a silent hill skateboard and do some sick kick flips thanks for watching maybe I didn't treat you [Music] [Music] [Music] I just never always on my mind [Music]

Channel: Boulder Punch

Views: 325,209

Keywords: silent hill, western silent hill games, silent hill downpour, silent hill homecoming, silent hill shattered memories, silent hill western, silent hill origins, silent hill transmission, silent hill future, silent hill 2 remake, silent hill townfall, silent hill f, silent hill 2, silent hill origins review, silent hill review, silent hill shattered memories review, silent hill downpour review, silent hill homecoming review, shattered memories, silent hill analysis

Id: OhFFLwjkgM8

Length: 84min 20sec (5060 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 23 2022