[Wii / PS2 / PSP] Silent Hill: Shattered Dreams announced (reimagining of first game)

elkatas

Silent Hill: Shattered Dreams has been announced in the latest Nintendo Power. Developed by the Climax, it is re-imagining of the first game. Developer says although basic premise is still same, lot of things have been changed, and some characters serve different roles. Furthermore, there will be time related events which determine when you meet someone, what you will see and so on. Here is few scans, courtesy of GoNintendo.

Eteric

Oh thank God, it's not on rails.

Looks interesting, will probably buy it. We need better screenshots, though.

UncleSporky

Sweet, I never got to play the original. Here's hoping it turns out nice.

I like how the Wii is getting a steady stream of horror/zombie/violence games here.

urahonky

The original is the best ever I swear. I will buy this day 1.

Drunk_caterpillar

This better fucking not be an April fool's thing. I'm so psyched.

P.S. They'd better not be taking any notes from the movie, like Homecoming did.

h8b1llg8ts

Wonder if this will finally lower the price for the PSX version? Almost paid quite a bit for it last week ...

Eteric

How much did you pay for it?

I've run across it in pawn shops multiple times. I think I have a copy somewhere.

Gilder

After just playing the first game, I can safely say that the story really does need a bit of fleshing out for the first game. There's not enough because I don't think they planned for it to become what it did. Some stuff is a little bit too hard to piece together with just information from the first game.

What the hell though, Harry looks like a total nerd. He looks like an author or something. Is Lisa going to kidnap him and saw off his legs or something? Cybil looks nice though. Way less pointy-tits action going on. The voice acting must stay the same though! I will not have the greatness of the radio line ruined!

Also this should be a real thing and not April Fool's. This rumor was going around about a month ago so it has a bit of merit in that regard.

Arde

It's going to be released in both Wii and PSP - so don't hold up too much hope for the Wii version, guys.

Malkor

elkatas wrote: »

Furthermore, there will be time related events which determine when you meet someone, what you will see and so on.

There is nothing I hate in the world more than this.

Zealot

Due to it being announced in Nintento Power, I hope that the PSP version is just a port...

Eteric

Arde wrote: »

It's going to be released in both Wii and PSP - so don't hold up too much hope for the Wii version, guys.

Can you confirm this?

And why not? I'm pretty sure they'd build the game on the Wii first and port it down. Other way around would just be silly.

Gilder

I think the PSP version would be the main one because Climax has already designed for it before. They know how it works more than they know the Wii. I don't get the point of SH on a handheld though. The sound is crucial to the experience and you can't get that with crappy PSP speaker sound. I guess you'd need headphones but give me surround sound any day. The d-pad is also horrid on the PSP and that's the only way to walk around. Analog is for heathens.

Drunk_caterpillar

Eteric wrote: »

And why not? I'm pretty sure they'd build the game on the Wii first and port it down. Other way around would just be silly.

Not really. It's way cheaper to build one set of assets and then port it to the more powerful platform than it is to build two sets of assets. I hope they don't do that but it isn't too likely if there is a PSP version coming.

h8b1llg8ts

Eteric wrote: »

How much did you pay for it?

I've run across it in pawn shops multiple times. I think I have a copy somewhere.

Didn't ... around twenty is what I remember ... haven't paid that much for a PSX game in quite a while ...

Rakai

The PSP can't handle what's in those screens, so if those are accurate, they're at least using different assets.

Voth

Developers always port from PSP-to-Wii so I'm not looking forward to it. I'll buy it day one, rest assured, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high.

Xagarath

Nice to see the rumours were true, and that Konami's statement a year ago about never putting this series on the Wii was a load of nonsense.

Cristoval

I was really worried about this innitially, but damn, those screens do look prety nice. I will however also voice my concerns over whether they will reference the movie or not. Really hoping they don't.

Gilder - My favorite part about the first game is that it never actually tells you whats going on. Henry is just sort of there at the wrong time and shit is going down around him. It really added to the sense of isolation in the town when compared to the later games, in which the story actually revolved around the main characters.

Kastanj

"and some characters serve different roles"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Cristoval

Lisa better not be the bubbly drama student as seen in PSP title.

Gilder

Cristoval wrote: »

I was really worried about this innitially, but damn, those screens do look prety nice. I will however also voice my concerns over whether they will reference the movie or not. Really hoping they don't.

Gilder - My favorite part about the first game is that it never actually tells you whats going on. Henry is just sort of there at the wrong time and shit is going down around him. It really added to the sense of isolation in the town when compared to the later games, in which the story actually revolved around the main characters.

Oh yes, that isolation is what made it great. However there is some story going on that would be nice to know once you're through or piecing together as you go. Like Lisa for example. It's kind of hard to put the clues together because the way they handle the whole drugs thing just seems really stupid. Yes Cybil, the town is weird because of the drugs. Just that part makes you discount drugs entirely because it sounds so stupid.

Cristoval

Also, is this being made by Konami again? If it's another American company I am almost 90% certain they will fuck up the stoOh shit I just read up top that it's Climax.

I guess every monster will be wearing bondage gear and have 5 dicks.

Gilder

Don't forget we'll have a monster that is totally not a complete ripoff of Pyramid Head but a hundred times lamer. CoughButcherCough.

Cristoval

"Hey kids do you like Pyramid Head? Well here he is again!"
"Yaaay!"
*Exit stage right*

earthwormadam

Never played a Silent Hill game, but this looks like my gateway.

Gilder

It could be but as I just finished SH2 yesterday I can safely say that it's a great gateway. There's nothing in it that relies on you having knowledge of SH1 events. At least in the main story anyway. I have to go through again for the other 6 endings I still need so I can't say anything about them. This is coming from someone who's going through the series in order as well due to not ever playing them.

Cristoval

Also the graphics in 2 and 3 still hold up to this day, just in case you were worried about that sort of thing (earthwormadam).

I was pretty disappointed that Silent Hill 3 is still miles ahead of Homecoming, presentation wise (and well, everything wise).

The faces in Homecoming were just.... aaauuugggghh.

Cherrn

I'm actually glad they're not carbon-copying the first game with new graphics. Best case scenario, this could be the Silent Hill equivalent of the REmake, where the changes/additions mostly turn out for the better.

Ultimately, if any game really could benefit from a remake, it's this one. I don't have any qualms about it being on the Wii as long as they do a proper job with it.

Cristoval

Kinda sad Harry no longer looks like Bill Pullman.

Kastanj

Cristoval wrote: »

Kinda sad Harry no longer looks like Bill Pullman.

Kinda sad Harry looks like some boring kid's superiorly boring uncle

Cristoval

Cantido

Kastanj wrote: »

"and some characters serve different roles"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

If they do it right then yay. Remember that guy in the suit? He seemed tacked on to me. Then again I only got the bad ending.

The original all had old characters, so no more stylish haircuts that make me jealous. I'm looking at you vincent, you sexy motherucker :x

Cristoval

Cantido wrote:

If they do it right then yay. Remember that guy in the suit? He seemed tacked on to me. Then again I only got the bad ending.

Once you realize Kaufman's role with the Gillespie family he becomes very

One of the theories from back in the day is that he impregnated the charred husk of Alessa and kept Lisa coked up in order to keep her quiet. Hence their fight during the opening credits

Gilder

Kaufman was the biggest badass. At least in the good ending(s?).

Nobody uses me!

Edit: At least for one part of the spoiler above

Yes, the drug thing with Lisa was a big thing that could've been expanded on. Kaufman got her hooked on White Claudia and once she became obsessed with it Kaufman cut off her supply. Once she got into this phase he gave her the drugs in exchange for watching over Alessa and keeping quiet. Didn't know about the impregnation thing though, that's interesting.

Lunker

So I wasn't interested in this at all, but then I saw this on GAF (and, again, this hasn't been corroborated):

-You steer Harry with the control stick

-The Wii Remote is used to aim the flashlight "This is one of the things we dreamed about when the Wii controller was first unveiled, and it's every bit as effective as we imagined."

-The developer wants the game to be as immersive as possible. "When you want to check on something in the environment, for example, you simply fix your view on it rather than press a button, and instead of text appearing on screen, Harry comments vocally." (MARl0 note: This sounds really awesome!)

-Streaming environments that completely eliminate load times

-The static noise comes out of the Wii Remote now. It also acts as your cell phone. "Just as we're starting to feel sufficiently uncomfortable, the Wii Remote rings and nearly scares us out of our seats." "There's no response when we answer this particular call, so we hang up and try the first thing that comes to mind: dial 911. An emergency dispatcher actually picks up, her voice emanating from the Wii Remote speaker, but she can't hear Harry and eventually hangs up. Looks like we're on our own."

-Combat has been completely removed from the game. "Instead, you have no choice but to flee, which proves considerably more terrifying."

-Once the monsters see you, the chase is on. "Holding Z button makes Harry get the lead out, and during the getaway, you can barge through doors, climb over fences, jump through windows, and so on. You can even barricade doors behind you with a bookshelf or whatever else might be handy. The static gets louder as the monsters close in, and while Harry is running, you can look back over his shoulder. Watching these abominations leap over cars and crawl along the rooftops as they relentlessly pursue our hero had us on the edge of our seats." "To be clear, these chase sequences aren't quick-time events; you have full control over Harry and can choose whichever path you see fit to his destination." "The monsters will take alternate routes to try to cut you off, and they'll use their numbers to flank you whenever possible."

- "Shattered Memories is about as far removed from a typical remake as you can imagine. It takes inspiration from the original as the foundation for something that feels like a true evolution of the series."

If true, that's either the best or worst decision ever. It's upgraded me from "ignore" to "mildly interested," though I think a lot of people will hate it.

Cantido

Cristoval wrote: »

Cantido wrote:

If they do it right then yay. Remember that guy in the suit? He seemed tacked on to me. Then again I only got the bad ending.

Once you realize Kaufman's role with the Gillespie family he becomes very

One of the theories from back in the day is that he impregnated the charred husk of Alessa and kept Lisa coked up in order to keep her quiet. Hence their fight during the opening credits

In the documents you find, right? You just reminded me of something.

One of my peeves in story-oriented games is when moments like those are exclusively for "you" the player, because your character has no reaction to them. I would have liked Harry to have read that and go "WTF is wrong with that guy" and maybe even confront him. But that's not scripted so it "never happened."

Other examples:

SH2:

James's letter from Mary turning blank. I wanted a reaction from James but, again, that was for the player. That letter was the whole reason he was there. The fan-novelization Letter From Silent Heaven though silly sometimes, throws in some cool things in these parts.

In contrast, he read's Mary's letter to Laura (a player read document) and he starts to realize something's wrong. How amazing would it be if he realized his letter was blank during that scene?

FF7 (yeah I know it's ff7 but I still get to bitch)

Nibelheim completely rebuilt. Cloud and Tifa give a brief WTF but have no further comments, but the player can piece together Shinra is covering up what happened. Do they comment? Naw, they don't give a shit because being homeless RAWKS!

In contrast, Zidane reads the back cover of a book on how to be rich and he goes "This book sucks." I really didn't expect it

I know I can think of others because I know they're out there and they all suck.

chasehatesbears

So the new old Silent Hill features no fighting and lots of running.

Huh.

DarkWarrior

Err...? How the fuck does that work when there are actual bosses to overcome including the final boss? Light damage?

Cristoval

Holy shit! I can get all kinds of behind the removal of combat.

All this time they have been trying to fix what is essentially an albatross of the series.

I really hope that when fleeing there isn't a graphic on screen telling you to waggle or "Press Z!. I really hated that about Homecoming (Really hated the game, in case you didn't know yet). It was all "Press A to open Door", "Press A to duck under", "Press A to do this", "Press A to do that". Yes Climax, I understand that "A" is the action button now would you please fuck off.

Gilder

Yikes. If this is true then that's quite a design choice they've made. I'm not sure how it would work if they still use tank controls and such. Levels would have to be completely revamped for this system to work as well. Doors would have to actually open and that's quite a tall order for SH. Color me interested though.