The following article is an editorial piece by a contributor and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of #opr or our staff.
With all the talk of Silent Hill HD collection, the reception has been less then stellar, to the point where the original artist of the first three games, Masahiro Ito, has come out saying he was shocked to see such a poor job Konami has done. For him, seeing such poor mistreatment to a product he helped create was an awful sight to behold. As he put it “OMG!”
He was not alone. While some critics were oblivious to the problems the HD port offered, fans were less then pleased accounting things such as, bugs, glitches, audio skip or no audio at all, fog being removed and showing shoddy textures. The game’s brightness enhanced to such a degree it makes it impossible to feel even a wee bit scared anymore, and the new voices for Silent Hill 3 didn’t help the situation either.
Downpour was recently released with mixed feelings from both critics and fans, some saying the game is alright, with others saying it’s nothing special. Most seem to agree though that it’s not a good Silent Hill game. That its underlying story, theme, narrative, gameplay were changed to such a degree that many believe it shouldn’t be called Silent Hill at all. Another issue is the fear factor, even positive on goers claim that while the game is good, it’s lost the elements that made you afraid. Many think the series should be buried, and that Book of Memories is already a huge departure from the formula that made it a big hit in the first place. With the lack of positive interest the HD collection had, including all the pad publicity the game garnered, Konami pushed back the release of Book of Memories to May 31.
As the author of this article, it pains me to see one of my all time favorite series hit rock bottom so hard. With the original members of Team Silent stating back when Silent Hill 3, even 4 was released that they were finished with Silent Hill for good, and with every newer installment taking something away from the original games, maybe it really is time for the brand name of Silent Hill to be laid to rest in an eternal dream.
