Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro Working on New Silent Hill

Has that even been said anywhere? All I've seen is that this playable teaser is PS4 only.

But hey, the new Fatal Frame is Wii U only.

@john1912: You're not the only one who loved Downpour. I honestly think that most of the haters have never played it. It had some of the best environments and puzzles of any game in the series and the story was easily better than any of them since 2.

We don't even know how involved Kojima is with this project, these days he seems more like a name + producer role guy for other franchises.... maybe for marketing reasons maybe because no one else at Konami can ensure quality. At this point I really doubt he is heading up this project, probably just a producer.

Also don't forget that a number of high profile Silent Hill 1-4 people joined Kojima Productions after Team Silent dissolved including: Kazuhide Nakazawa (director of Silent Hill 3), and Suguru Murakoshi (Drama Director Silent Hill 2, Director and Scenario Writer Silent Hill 4).

I do really hope Akira Yamaoka is involved in some way though.

Really? I always think of 2 as the least scary, most tame entry in the series. I think there's a scene toward the very end of 3 that I couldn't even believe I was seeing. ( Mouth aborting a god in the middle of a church ).

I think 2 was the first entry into the series for a lot of people, and maybe that's why it's held in such high regard. I was completely disappointed by it. It did away with the cult, there was only one area that was scary, and the story felt so boiler plate to me at the time.

Narrative depth doesn't matter a whole lot to me when it comes to horror. The most effective horror I've encountered is the kind where you finish the piece (game, book, movie) and have no idea what just happened. You know there's a logic to it, but it's alien to you.

You seem to have a great idea of why people like 2 the most and why you don't. People love the narrative depth of its story, sets it above normal horror tropes of which stuff like the cult story are full of. You obviously don't. No need to speculate that its peoples first game in the series (i started from 1) or some nostalgia glasses thing, not everyone judges them all based on which was the scariest (probably 3 IMO).

I am a bit confused how you think 2 had a boilerplate story though, it is extremely unique to this day and the most unique in the series.

A lot of Kojima's tweets over the past few months make way more sense now.

Boilerplate story? Jezz... I can't think of another story, game or movie, that's like it. It's a town with no monsters other than the ones you bring with you.I mean the others in the series (after 3) became obsessed with out-doing themselves but I think the symbolism faded away.

Silent Hill 2 is a classic for a number of reasons - graphically at the time is was amazing, the puzzles were for the most part well though out, the world was well realised... I could go on. But it's story is one of the few video game narratives that I still look back on fondly... I should point out I'm 30 now, so don't give me this "It was your first Silent Hill/horror game" nonsense.

Who cares if it's less scary? I mean I'd argue that 3 is the scariest... but 2 gave every character weight and a reason for being. I mean if you understood 100% of the story of 2 by the ending you were ahead of me I'll say that much.

My 0.02c

P.T. was fantastic!!!!

I'm not a Del Toro fan at all and I have no idea if Kojima is capable of horror. I don't think either of them are necessarily good fits for Silent HIll. I guess anything different is better than what the Silent Hill series has become.

At the very least this playable teaser certainly had enough atmosphere to it. Mechanically it seemed arbitrary and uninteresting (people are beating this thing without understanding how or why), but I'd be very surprised if the actual game ends up being a first person staring simulator.

is it me or does "hills" make it sound like a collection of short stories and not one "game"/"story" ?

Ehhh, I kinda know where Patrick is coming from. I'm a longtime fan of Metal Gear Solid, but Peace Walker and IV are peak stupidity. I never liked MGS for the insane bullshit, I liked the gameplay so the way Kojima has doubled down on the stupid kids ticks me off. Ground Zeroes plays very well, but the trailer for Phantom Pain seems to suggest there is a hefty dump of "super dumb shit" to slog through. Hell it's already started with this Kiefer Sutherland...Scenario.

Silent Hill 2 and 3 were great little stories. Which is why, for this to succeed, Kojima needs to stay away from any writing. At best, let him do a crazy 5th ending.

But... if... could... ah hell.

To be fair, this isn't MGS, so there's no reason to expect there'd be any stuff like that. Bit of an aside, but Kojima's touched on the whole Quiet thing hasn't he? I thought he said something about it making sense why she dresses that way when you play the game? I dunno, at the very least I'd be willing to wait until the game comes out before ragging on it, but that creepy photo stuff has always been lame. Even back in MGS1 or VR Missions, wherever it was you could take photos of Mei Ling, it was just ridiculous. I tried it once, immediately realized it was creepy as fuck, and never tried it again.

But also MGS3 happened. So yeah, maybe give him the benefit of the doubt (and let's be real here, there's a lot we don't know about this).

That's what was great about it! They did away with the whole cult narrative and focused on Silent Hill being a real fucked up place where crazy shit happens. A place people might find themselves trapped in one way or another, and ending up getting their own demons reflected back at them. No god births, occult sacrifice, divided spirits, demon angels and all that hokey nonsense. At the time it seemed like the perfect framework for telling all sorts of psychological horror stories.

That didn't mean they'd all need to have a clear-cut narrative. That sort of unsettling horror where you feel like you've witnessed unnatural logic at work would totally be possible with the premise of "mysterious evil fog town makes weird shit happen". I appreciate that sort of bizarre surreal horror, and I can also appreciate the visually unsettling sort of horror. There's something about the symbolism and revelations in Silent Hill 2 that made it so much more distubing than any goat demon gods though. That all that horribleness came from a person, just a man. One who did a very horrible thing once.

By the end of it the town itself came across as terrifyingly neutral. Not benevolent and not quite evil. Like something operating with that sort of alien logic you can't quite wrap your head around. It's cruel ability to make manifest the things we keep to ourselves is horrifying enough. Makes you wonder what sort of things you might face if you were ever drawn to that place. Creepy ain't it! And also waaaaaay more interesting than the whole Alessa creating it and being an immortal vessel and blah blah blah reincarnation thing. Certainly a lot more open ended.

Of course the next step would've been to tell other interesting stories while constantly building upon and refining gameplay, but, well, here we are.

This sounds like the sort of collaboration that can only deal in hard swings. Either it's going to be an unmitigated disaster, or one of the greatest horror games of recent memory.

Either way I'm just happy to see another Silent Hill(s) game on the horizon. I've enjoyed all but 0rigins to some extent, even Homecoming and Downpour. It's also really disappointing that so few people recognise the brilliance of Shattered Memories. Homecoming and Downpour are easy to see why they got the reception they did, however Shattered Memories is a legitimately great Silent Hill game.

A very good point! I think it'd be awesome if this was designed as an 'anthology' with multiple stories all separate to one another, but are all connected their arrival to the town.

Who me? I can't wait to try it out! Just because I find his stuff to be pretty nuts doesn't mean I hate his work/games.

You have to wait for the bell to ring, go through the "loop door", keep repeating that until the clock reads 0:00, then wait at the phone for a while until the baby laughs and then the phone will ring, R3 on it and the radio will say something, go back through the loop door and you are done.

I think that the fumbling of the HD collection is still sticking in the minds of a lot of people, and that had been kind of the last anyone had seen of the series (unless you count that Action RPG game on the Vita). I imagine that is why people may be a bit excited for this. I still have no idea why the SH HD collection came out the way it did. Konami also published the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection earlier, and that is one of, if not the best, HD collections of the past gen.

It's because they lost the source code.The Metal Gear and Zone of the Enders HD Collections are great though.

Honestly I find this ''Silent Hill has been dead for 10 years'' sentiment to be such bullshit. Shattered Memories probably has one of the better stories in the whole series, and for all of their problems Homecoming and Downpour have exquisite atmosphere, Downpour especially. Downpour's open world format also made for an interesting move and it was great to be able to explore a vast expanse of the town. Some of its side-stories were also really creative, like one that has you walk inside a film, or another where you can rewind and fast-forward a scene of a murder with the use of a gramophone.

I just realized that I skipped this entire past generation of Silent Hill games. I should probably go back and play that stuff, right?

I don't know if anyone has brought this up yet, but Kojima has a fondness for placing a number of hints within his trailers/teasers. So my big question is: will the new Silent Hill game be in first-person perspective? I also wonder if the video corruption moments mean anything in particular.

Man, if there's one thing I hate more than people blindly hating on the recent Silent Hill games despite having never played them, is people defending the recent Silent Hill games by claiming the only people hating on the recent Silent Hill games have never played them.

Shattered Memories was interesting, but it wasn't really Silent Hill. Downpour and Homecoming were both pretty much just super generic horror games that had almost nothing that made Silent Hill actually good.

If someone asked me what game I wanted to be made, I would say 'a new Silent Hill, made with the Fox engine involving Kojima himself and a cool actor to play the main role'.

Thanks for this.

Kojima.

Del Toro.

KOJIMA.

DEL TORO.

KOJIMA.

DEL TORO

@simkas: Wasn't really Silent Hill...? Why? because there's no combat? While it was different, Shattered Memories is just as much a Silent Hill game as an any other. Its story deals with the psychology related to grief and themes of loss and how we deal with it, and it incorporates all of the same sort of exploration and puzzle solving Silent Hill is known for. The way it even tailors itself to your choices in the psychiatrist's questions is incredibly impressive and gives it a sense of attachment from the idea that your playthrough feels at least somewhat unique.

And considering how few third-person survival horror games were released during the last generation, I'd say the likes of Homecoming and Downpour were actually a dime a dozen.

This is one of the best news for video games I have heard in years. Probably since the Sony No DRM bit. This is so amazing holy shit.

Kojima is a god. Del Toro makes creative, creepy shit. I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT.

That being said, I'm going to be ok with Kojima not writing the dialogue. Del Toro can handle the plot part.

I don't think Kojima is gonna be as hands on with it as some people think. I mean, he does have MGS5 to worry about for the time being.

How much will Kojima actually be *doing*? How much did he do on Castlevania Lord of Shadow? Not much, if I remember correctly.

Anyway, I used to love Silent Hill, but I can't say I've enjoyed a single game in that series since 2004. I'll wait for reviews.

I'm pretty sure Kojima himself won't end up being involved in this game's writing or art direction at all. It'll be his studio's engine and a bunch of his employees working on the project. No MGS-silliness. I'm willing to bet on that.

It's not a videogame?

Watching people try to get through the last part of this "trailer" is hilarious. The last part feels so random and janky, like everybody who's getting through it is doing it by mistake.

I hope you're right. I love me MGS/Kojima, but Silent Hill is a different beast from that series. I hope this is good. Loved me 1-3 and The Room was alright, but after that it's been down hill.

This could be really cool, and I find it kind of hilarious to have any other opinion besides that at this point.

Oh man, I hope it's better than Downpour

@shaanyboi:

Agreed. I LOVE Silent Hill, and I love the idea of a big high profile reboot instead of the games going away forever. But the thing that makes those first games so truly intriguing us the nuance. The subtly. The restraint. Not the first things you think of when you think Kojima. I hope he's just a producer, because I don't think he has it in him to make a good Silent Hill game himself.

I still think Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is the 3rd best game in the series and I can't wait to see if the game will have some Kojima hijinks in it.

Most of the Silent Hill games are good, people just are not playing them right.

Hmm I guess I understand what you are saying, but I feel a bit different about it.

(I've got many ideas about it and I'll try to articulate, but this might be one of those conversations that tests my mad english skillz)

So, it is possible that the game that I had most "fun" in the series, in the gamey horror sense is Silent Hill 3. However, like a lot of horror, it falls into the more direct translations of what makes horror work, it is mostly "utilitarian". While this is not bad, to me it lacks that abstract component of transcendent narrative cultural significance.

I know that sounds like a whole lot of pretentious nonsense, but bare with me. What I mean by that is that in it's abstraction of a particular conflict and in the tackling of a more universal theme (grief and guilt), Silent Hill 2 manages a more universal language.

While that scene where -heather vomits god fetus- and a few other sections of SH3 are indeed incredibly uncomfortable and over the top crazy. To me, the inclusion of the cult, and all the "explanation" components that seem to try to tie down the narrative to a more pseudo realistic occult plot. Instead end up making it far less approachable, and sometimes downright ridiculous, breaking the connection to the experience (and I mean no offense, ridiculous can be fantastic).

Sure, if a ghost-demon-sheep-baby jumps out at the screen, or if a hellish scenario is done well, it can be scary, it can be unsettling, but that rarely carries lasting meaning by itself. Most of the time, after the initial impact, on deeper analysis we (at least I) tend to find those situations / monsters kind of ridiculous / gross. It's pretty common that the less you see of the monster, the more effective it is, suggesting rather than showing, forcing you to build it up with your own fear.

It may be a very particular situation, but I don't believe in anything supernatural, if any, I attribute ghosts and demons and possessions to the mysterious wiring of our central nervous systems. So in that sense, what I find the scariest is that my mind is capable of conjuring up really fucked up stuff. And by extension, the minds of others are potentially unthinkably terrifying. I think you have the right idea there, to me, horror is at its best when it mirrors a fever dream. Where there is a suspected meaning behind every stubbornly cryptic aspect of the experience.

(in this sense, beyond it's many flaws, I find Silent Hill 4 to be very interesting, and also an intriguing parallel to the P.T. demo)

in general, with any experience more it defines, the less it evokes, and finally the less effectively it transmits, Because it is less happening to "me" and more happening to an external fictional fantasy character. Eroding the significance of the universe.

And this leads me to my second point. Which will probably cause much anger.

While I indeed play/watch a lot of horror, and I enjoy it, I also think most of it, even when great horror, is pretty terrible by any other standard.

In fact that terribleness has become somewhat of a guilty pleasure to many of us, but to me it meanders into the realm of comedy more than real horror.

I love the concept of horror as one of the most visceral connections between the content and the audience. It taps directly into the emotions and even some physical aspects of the viewer/player/reader.

However, most horror fails to use this connection for anything meaningful beyond the operative function of scaring / freaking out / grossing out, and I keep waiting for that object (for lack of a better term) that can truly horrify me.

That is why I like SH2 so much. Sure, it may not be as gross or creepy as others, but it shows an unusual and surprisingly one of the best takes on horror as a reflection of inner turmoil ( I kind of wish it could have gone even further actually). In it's lack of grounding and explanation it becomes larger and more universal.

(And this is why I don't particularly trust this team to deliver in that department, since I can't imagine them refraining from explaining and painting very broadly...

but hey, I don't lose hope)

Sorry..I think that was too long.

I think Norman Reedus is a pretty awesome choice.

I think Norman Reedus is a pretty awesome choice.

Oh god this was just so amazing.

Since Homecoming the series has been shit ,Well this will shed some light to the series.

Maybe someone's already said this, but who the fuck cares about del Toro? Whether or not a movie he's involved in is good is a crap shoot. Pan's Labyrinth? Great. Orphanage? Kinda shit. Hellboy? OK. Mama? Pretty garbage. Don't be Afraid of the Dark?!?!? It's not like the guy *can't* make a good film, he clearly has the chops, but he's often involved in pretty lacklustre affairs. And, honestly, video games are just a completely different medium.

And let's not forget that people have kind of stopped giving a shit about Silent Hill. Shattered Memories was a legitimately great game, and it sold less than half a million copies (and only broke even because of the PS2 port), on a system, the Wii, that had a *huge* install base. Given that, what's the market these days for a great Silent Hill game?

Not knowing anything about it, I am curious to see what some people with an eye for genre might have to say with a setting like Silent Hill.

Del Toro might not always produce greatness, but he sure as hell is at the top of his game whenever creature design is concerned. THAT's where I hope his expertise will come to fruition on this the most.
And about the series in particular: Yes, you are spot on about it having drifted kind of into obscurity since it's glory days. But that's precisely why it is such a good thing that big names like Kojima, Del Toro and even Reedus are now involved with its "reboot" or whatever this will end up being. A huge chance for the franchise to be revitalized.

Del Toro's level of involvement is unknown. Given the history of how these things go, he probably won't have a full creative commitment to it. Say what you want about Del Toro's films as a whole package; he does have a distinctive style and flair when it comes to visual design. Among many other things, poor/bland creature and environment design has been a huge problem in Silent Hill games dating all the way back to 3. If all Del Toro contributes is a design facelift, it would go a long way to make Silent Hill something worth paying attention to again.

Hearing that Kojima, and more so, Kojima Productions is involved makes me really happy. Ever since Kojimas twitter i've been waiting and hoping for this to happen.

I'm not so sure about having Reedus' in it though. I have nothing against the man but it just feels off to have a "real" actor as the main character in a game and is kind of a turn-off. It's kind of the same problem that i have with cosplaying but in reverse.

I haven't seen much from Guillermo Del Toro though, other than Pacific Rim which i didn't really care for. Can anyone recommend any good horror movie he's made?

I just hope they don't turn it into some kind of Outlast or Amnesia-esque game.