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SILENT HILL 5....


It would seem The Collective is very honored to be working on Silent Hill 5 and rightfully so. After Konami announced they were passing on the developer work to an outside company, it was discovered that quite a few developers wanted to work on the IP. In the end, these other developers were "scared" out of doing such an ambitious title.

The Collective, evidently, is not so easily frightened.

Character Debacle

Although Alex may look similar to other protagonist’s in the series, he is an altogether different character. Alex Shepard is 22 years old and with that comes the attitude and thinking’s of a standard young adult.

While SHV will feature an entirely new plot (ala SH2), the developers have said

Along with Alex and his family (more on that later), a new host of characters will be featured in this entry. That doesn't mean however, that settings, situations and settings wont be familiar.

"It's important that the characters fit into the overall style of Silent Hill," says Brian Hourton (SHV Lead Artist).

About that story bit...

(what follows is a recap of the story we know so far)

Alex is in a Military Veteran's hospital, recovering from a near fatal wound he received. (It is not specified how he received the wound). While there, Alex has a premonition that his young brother, Joshua, is in danger.

He leaves the VA for his New England home town of Shepards Glen. Upon returning however, he finds his mother in a catatonic state, his brother and father missing and the entire town shrouded in a bizarre fog.

Gameplay

Alex's military background plays both into the game dynamics and the theme of the story. Knowing this however, the developers aren't attempting to create any sort of political standpoint.

"Alex will be confronted with horrors that reflect his psychological state" Horton adds.

Graphics

To sooth everyone's soul, the grain filter will indeed return for Silent Hill V, however in addition, other filters will be added as well. Filters that give hairline cracks in the screen or are filtered with debris allow the developers to change the mood and atmosphere of the game WHILE it's being played.

Interestingly enough, the game is using the Havok engine in a unique way. The middleware is being used in the same capacity as it was in Saints Row and in the upcoming game Halo 3. Now when you bump into chairs or tables or open doors, the game will register that action in the in-game environment. Bump into a chair? It will in turn bump into a table causing not only a response physically but also audibly. This new "noise", the running on creaking floors etc, can and will alert enemies to your position.

"The camera is now controlled using the left analog stick and allows the player to view the horrors much better then earlier iterations. Inspired by Christopher Gan's movie adaptation, the worlds in SHV, or rather the transition between the two, will all be done in real time. Like in the movie, the setting will peal and melt away or suddenly burst into flesh painted walls.

Boss battles will be revived in this entry as well. The Collective is obsessed with delivering cinematic massive, epic boss battles. Interestingly, they are looking for Zelda like encounters...hmmm.

Endings....yes there will be many, though a number has yet to be given. The developers are looking to make the decision on which ending you are given to be much more player induced then before. Missing an item or killing someone wont automatically move you to a predetermined path. The actions you do, the way you speak to the different people you meet. These interactions will have a much more fluid transition into the story upon up intriguing possibilities.

Monsters are now fully motion-captured (ala the Silent Hill movie) and all new beasts are set to make their debut. One such creature, Siam, is a fusion of a male and female body. What’s left is a pulsating, overtly sexual enemy. Monsters will now have visible effects on them. So if an enemy has busting pustules or bleeding mouths, it will be animated, in real time and will be effected by Alex's attacks.

Some of the enemies are humanoid in nature, favorites such as the nurses, will indeed return, however the variety of creatures is said to be quite large.

Screenshots:

Blood...

More Blood...

Hello Nurse

They're back...!

I hate creepy hallways...

Silent Hill V got a new name, it is now Silent Hill: Homecoming. And is tentatively set to be released in the US in September of this year. I am glad they went with a word rather than a number, it makes it sound better thought out. I am really trying not to see too many screenshots or read too much about the game in progress, I ruined Silent Hill 4's monsters that way for myself (not that they were that great anyway.)

I am slightly disappointed that the nurses look pretty much like the ones from the movie.

I really hope there's no rag dolls. They're cool at first, but they get annoying afterwards. I hope that at least when you kill an enemy, they don't turn into one.
That's another thing about physics, I think they should use Metal Gear's method of interacting with corpses. And by that I mean, there's a dead monster on the ground, you walk by it, you shouldn't just kick it over and have it do its rag doll thing. Instead, the character should have a different animation, where it looks like he either steps over the corpse, or reluctantly steps on it as he walks by. The corpse remains on the ground as it was.

I just think games go too overboard with physics these days. It's like, "Everything you bump into absolutely must move out of the way."
I think heavier objects like bookshelves, desks, tables, and bigger objects like that shouldn't move at all.
Let's say they want the character to bump into a table, have that table move, and alert the enemy. So, use a sound effect. They could make a kind of a bump into the desk sound, but still keep the desk still.