What happened to Silent Hill?

I can't even remember why I fell in love with Silent Hill, I just know why I love it now. It's strange because I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to scary games, and lord knows I can only barely physically survive spending time with Konami's horror franchise. Or... practically any other to be honest, but few compell me to do so regardless the way Silent Hill does.
 
I could gush on about what's so good about Silent Hill, but I reckon if there's clicking on this topic it's by people who already know that, so let's look at what was always a bit off instead. There's an ever running debate over whether clunky controls amp up anxiety in horror games, and I'll admit I'm partially in the corner of yes that's true, but it's an irrefutable fact that the combat mechanics of Silent Hill have always been the subject of some criticism. Especially, perhaps, looking back on it. That's why, by and large, The Room was considered such a failure in gameplay terms with a bizarre emphasis on the most problematic aspect of the series and moving away from the puzzles - which I at least consider its foremost strength purely from a gameplay standpoint.
 
So in effect there are two games that are generally viewed as the stride of the Silent Hill series; 2 and 3. These hit the graphics marks splendidly, contained great stories (the greatest of which is also an ongoing debate) and hadn't messed with the puzzles/combat ratio. The Room marked the beginning of a decline in the Silent Hill series, chalked up to the mishandling of it by a different team when - aside from playing down the puzzles and up the combat - things essentially remained the same.
 
Origins re-intergrated the puzzles and along with Homecoming reviewed fairly well , and yet they're almost shunned by confessed Silent Hill lovers. I've played neither personally so I'm not fit to talk about them at great length, but I've heard people whisper that hey, Homecoming is pretty neat, and Origins is a cool portable Silent Hill experience.  So what actually happened?
 
Some people cite the handing the series over to other development teams as the reason for them "sucking", but the consequences of this aren't immediately recognizable. Homecoming cleaned up its controls act and in the process became a more reliable experience removing the vulnerability of the player, but going back to Silent Hill 2, dying - or even being in real danger - was rarely even part of that game in the first place and yet you were scared out of your mind. Origins - save for its dimension jumping antics - is more or less identical to a classic Silent Hill experience. Neither of these games, on paper, commit vices big enough to be outright dimissed the way they seem to be.
 
I really don't have any answers here, and I hope the responses will enlighten me. The way I see it, diminishing returns is a factor for any returning series, so couldn't it just be that Silent Hill, by iterating on itself, has played out regardless of developer? Maybe effectively turning nurses into a Goomba like "of course they're in there" element was always going to amount to games where familiarity is absolutely detrimental because the opposite was once its strength?
 
What would a new Silent Hill actually need to do to revitalise the series, and in what ways were Homecoming and Origins off the mark? OR... were they?

I can't even remember why I fell in love with Silent Hill, I just know why I love it now. It's strange because I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to scary games, and lord knows I can only barely physically survive spending time with Konami's horror franchise. Or... practically any other to be honest, but few compell me to do so regardless the way Silent Hill does.
 
I could gush on about what's so good about Silent Hill, but I reckon if there's clicking on this topic it's by people who already know that, so let's look at what was always a bit off instead. There's an ever running debate over whether clunky controls amp up anxiety in horror games, and I'll admit I'm partially in the corner of yes that's true, but it's an irrefutable fact that the combat mechanics of Silent Hill have always been the subject of some criticism. Especially, perhaps, looking back on it. That's why, by and large, The Room was considered such a failure in gameplay terms with a bizarre emphasis on the most problematic aspect of the series and moving away from the puzzles - which I at least consider its foremost strength purely from a gameplay standpoint.
 
So in effect there are two games that are generally viewed as the stride of the Silent Hill series; 2 and 3. These hit the graphics marks splendidly, contained great stories (the greatest of which is also an ongoing debate) and hadn't messed with the puzzles/combat ratio. The Room marked the beginning of a decline in the Silent Hill series, chalked up to the mishandling of it by a different team when - aside from playing down the puzzles and up the combat - things essentially remained the same.
 
Origins re-intergrated the puzzles and along with Homecoming reviewed fairly well , and yet they're almost shunned by confessed Silent Hill lovers. I've played neither personally so I'm not fit to talk about them at great length, but I've heard people whisper that hey, Homecoming is pretty neat, and Origins is a cool portable Silent Hill experience.  So what actually happened?
 
Some people cite the handing the series over to other development teams as the reason for them "sucking", but the consequences of this aren't immediately recognizable. Homecoming cleaned up its controls act and in the process became a more reliable experience removing the vulnerability of the player, but going back to Silent Hill 2, dying - or even being in real danger - was rarely even part of that game in the first place and yet you were scared out of your mind. Origins - save for its dimension jumping antics - is more or less identical to a classic Silent Hill experience. Neither of these games, on paper, commit vices big enough to be outright dimissed the way they seem to be.
 
I really don't have any answers here, and I hope the responses will enlighten me. The way I see it, diminishing returns is a factor for any returning series, so couldn't it just be that Silent Hill, by iterating on itself, has played out regardless of developer? Maybe effectively turning nurses into a Goomba like "of course they're in there" element was always going to amount to games where familiarity is absolutely detrimental because the opposite was once its strength?
 
What would a new Silent Hill actually need to do to revitalise the series, and in what ways were Homecoming and Origins off the mark? OR... were they?

I think it would need to do something like this. Only next time higher budget and more polished. But for now, a leap in the right direction. I will however debate your points about which were the best, and how widely accepted that is, as I still believe the original is :-)

i dont know, but i hope it rebounds fast...

I thought the third one was terrible for many reasons. 
 
 The main character didn't add to the atmosphere like James and Harry from the first two games. In the first game, when you're stuck in Silent Hill for the first time and seeing all these messed up things happening, it's really shocking. In the second, well, you could tell that there was a lot going on in James head and how it all became corporeal in Silent Hill. It really was just a mindfuck. Heather was just extremely dull for a SH character.  
 
Claudia was just a really bad villain. I hated her the same way I hated Bella from the movie.  
 
And I beat it in a little under 6 hours. 6 hours for a Silent Hill game is unacceptable! 

" NEXT: What happened to resident evil? "

Yeah its the writing definetly, the Double Helix guys had a decent enough story for Homecoming sure, but it didnt have the same layers of disturbing depth as SH2 or 3.  The fact that Pyramid Head shows up in Homecoming purely as nothing more than fanservice is testament to this. He was James monster, noone else's.
Also the fact that they show influence from the movie just doesnt sit right at all also; the raid siren, peeling walls etc.
It's just not the kind of franchise that benefits from Western influence really, Konami should bring it back in-house imo.

I never understood the hate for Homecoming, aside that it was made from a western team. 
 
Some of the critical complaints dealt with how the main character, being a war veteran, was so capable in combat. 
It was odd. Fans had been complaining about Silent Hills awkward combat for years, Homecoming attempted to fix it, and then fans complained that he was too good in combat.
 
I didn't get it.
The argument was that the tension of running, or taking your time with enemies had been lost. I ran from a whole bunch of enemies in the game. Play it on Hard and then try and fight everybody. The concept that the game turned into some full blown action game is pretty poor. If anything negative could be said was that the game, it clearly was trying to be faithful to the series and had reoccurring plot themes from previous games. It even borrowed some stuff from the movie, specifically explanation and context regarding the cult, and then proceeded to show that angle better than the film. 
 
Regardless I easily put Homecoming next to the first and second in terms of quality. I sure as hell liked it more than 4, and while 3 was good I thought Homecoming was superior. 

Ya, Shattered Memories looks great, that might be a 0-day purchase for me.  
 
I think the problem with Homecoming was that, many times, you were forced to fight enemies.  I remember clearly many sequences where you could not progress without everything being dead.  That was a bit unfortunate.  What I did like was that the main character was from the town he was stuck in (not Silent Hill, the other town).  I have always found that when the familiar is messed up in slight ways--is just not quite right--it is MUCH scarier than being, say, dropped into hell.
 
I think that the implementation of the radio in 2 was what made that game for me, and the really short draw distance.  At the time, those two mechanics were revolutionary in the survival horror genre.  Silent Hill never evolved after that, and perhaps we all got tired of the same shit every game.
 
Also, I agree that the writing in 2 was the best.  If only because the world reflected the protagonist's demons.  I think Shattered memories is trying to up the ante on that one, and I really hope they succeed.

I can tell you what happened to the Silent Hill Franchise an American Dev got their hands on it and ruined the whole franchise

That makes me sad you guys all hate Silent Hill Homecoming.  I have owned this game from day one and have been scared to play it because of my love for Silent Hill. I actually am playing through Silent Hill 1 right now for the 1083018 time.

Sorry for not swinging by earlier, I think the response here has been excellent and I see some great points.
 
The consensus I get is that the earlier entries were more thoughtful and had better writing. The actual core gameplay quality of the games hasn't necessarily decreased but in some cases even gotten better, but its narrative framework has let them down in one way or another.
 
It's interesting because there was a recent podcast over at 1up, under the Retronauts banner I think, where they talked to the current producer on the series and he had a very clear view of what the series was about and what made it great to begin with. It's a common sentiment that a western designer just can't fundamentally grasp what makes a great Silent Hill experience, but that doesn't seem to be the case at all, listening to this dude.
 
If you want to, by the way, head over to 1up's Retronauts page and download the 10/08/2009 episode. The Silent Hill segment is kinda far back, but I don't have the exact time.
 
He touches on a lot of subjects and you can tell that he knows his stuff and agrees with a lot of people who dislike the latter entries, so it's even more puzzling why it seems to be misfiring. I mean you do have the people who outright shun the later games because it's a popular thing to do that when games change developer hands, but you also have genuinely passionate fans that want to like them but there is that disconnect in the story and the feel of the games.
 
It could be that the guys that are handling the games now have TOO MUCH of an understanding of what they're supposedly about. How do you craft a strange, alien experience by going "we're gonna craft this strange alien experience with these parts that are staples and cornerstones of the series". It's almost reverse engineered. Perhaps the better way would be to simply head into it, clueless, but with a basic understanding of how to set a mood and create an unnerving environment.

I say make a new SH2 style game that tells an independent "tortured soul" story truly set in Silent Hill.  The player must be stuck in the cursed town, never existing in any other place, and there must be a reason for them being drawn to Silent Hill.  I don't need any more goddamned Silent Hill backstory - I've got a good idea of the town's character already - and the character I play shouldn't be involved in the religious cult or anything.  To me, Silent Hill is just a platform for telling great stories.  I'm not really interested in changes to the basic formula.
 
A little side note, and please pardon my allcaps, THE FILM IS NOT CANON.  For example: it snows in Silent Hill, it doesn't "ash" there thank you very much.

Last Silent Hill was great. And people put SH2 on a pedistal. They go in being told its the best SH game and drink the Koolaid, then complain that SH3 is too samey, then 4 is too different, then Homecoming's controls aren't shitty enough, and Shattered Memories is too unconventional. What happened was SH fans are fucking fickle.

Homecoming was not bad. I had some good time also with Origins, although I found its combat system really frustrating. Shattered Memories was surprisingly good. But they are just good and that's it. Silent Hill 2's position remains untouched. One my top favourite games of all time.

Konami needs to ditch those clowns at Double Helix and Climax and re-hire everyone from Team Silent.