We got a chance to interview Tomm Hulett, a producer over at Konami about the upcoming Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.
Check out the 1st part of the interview past the break! Stay hanging around for the 2nd part sometime in the very near future!
How will Silent Hill play on the wii as compared to the PSP and PS2?
TH - The Wii version has a special control scheme where the Wii Remote is constantly being used to increase immersion. At all times it reflects Harry's ingame flashlight, so by moving the Remote in any direction, the player shines the flashlight. They also control the ingame cell phone with the Control pad and A Button, so it feels like you're holding an actual phone. The PSP and PS2 versions will control more like traditional Silent Hill games.
The pysch profile in the game is supposed to alter the game to how you
play...is this just in the beginning of the game or is it throughout the
game? Could you give some examples.
TH - The Psych Profile is constantly evolving the game based on who you are. The game is constantly gathering data from your actions and learning more about you. This effect lasts the entire game. This isn't something you've seen in other games where you can take the good or evil path; the psych profile is based on actual psychological principles, so it can judge how outgoing you are, whether you're an introvert, etc etc.
For fans of the series, will there be any nods or easter eggs in the
game for loyal players?
TH - Of course, though a lot of them are very subtle. Fans will have to be very observant.
Are the rumors true? No combat?
TH - If by "combat" you mean "physically attacking monsters until they die" then yes, there is no combat in Shattered Memories. However, there are plenty of action sequences where you have to frantically cope with hideous creatures dogging your every step through a Nightmare landscape.
Will there be a completely new score for the games music? Or just the
original?
TH - Akira Yamaoka (who has created the music for every Silent Hill) has created an all new score for Shattered Memories. People who pre-order the game at participating retailers will receive a full Soundtrack CD, in fact.
Was there any particular reason this game wasn't being made for the 360
or Playstation 3?
TH - Making Silent Hill on the Wii made perfect sense. The two key features of the franchise: a flashlight and radio static, are right there in the Wii Remote. With such immersive controls, it's natural to create a horror game that takes advantage of that deep immersion (just look at the amount coming to Wii this fall!). PSP and PS2 are both systems that we know Silent Hill fans own, so we wanted to deliver for them as well. But the goal of this game was to make it as scary as possible, and HD graphics don't make things more scary necessarily. The original Silent Hill still ranks as a lot of people's scariest game of all time... and its graphics are fairly archaic nowadays.
It wasn't made for the 360 & PS3 because of the budget I bet. No one tries to make a masterpiece with mediocre tools. This is a filler game (much like that shitty Castlevania Wii fighter). Just a minor mis-step in the series that will soon be forgotten.. Shame on Konami for allowing this!
I'm with blood-sicles on this one. I really dislike these ideas. In Silent Hill, you should be able to kill the creatures, but have to expend a lot of ammunition to do so, which deters you from fighting. Making the conscious decision to evade gives you a true feeling of survival because you are trying to remember, and budget, your ammunition. When you are told you can't kill, then you don't need to worry about combat. The entire "fight or flight" mentality is taken away from you. Think back to the original SH game, when those shadow babies were around. Once you heard them, you immediately drew your gun and looked around. Most of them time, in any of the SH games, you kill out of necessity, and not because you wanted to. You needed to defend yourself. Now, if I hear something, I know that I have to run, which is stupid.
SH in the hands of Helix has negatively impacted the series. What is with the ice now? SH: Shattered memories should've followed the EXACT same policy as the remake of Resident Evil 1: update the graphics, add some rooms, vary the zombie types (adding runners), and leave the rest of it alone. Look at the screenshots... Cybil has her tits popping out of her shirt. SH is NOT that type of series. Team Silent needs to reclaim this from Helix.
I understand and somewhat agree with the aforementioned gripes, except that I just got done with Homecoming, which is basically a fighting based action game, and realizing that I felt like I just got done with Resident Evil 4 again. Having a combat system made it not feel like Silent Hill. I like that in the previous 5 releases, you're a normal person who doesn't know how to fight well and wield weaponry, as most of us actually don't. These games are about the feeling of fear, and not being able to just whip out a hunting rifle from my back pocket is a step closer to reality. Thats a very long winded way of saying I hope its good!!
On a side note, I'm terrified that having everything as an ice world is gonna ruin the feel. I got the impression from the other games that the Otherworld is a hot, sweaty, stinking steamy place of awful, not just, ya know, cold.
Silent Hill 1-3 combat wasn’t anything special, but it was comfortable. SH4 wasn’t even originally a silent hill game so I won’t count it. SH Origins was a Post-RE4 game, so they decided combat was important, and thankfully they changed their original RE4 inspired control scheme before it hit shelves, and ended up with more of a Dead Rising combat setup. SH Homecoming went way too far with the combat, and Double Helix (Homecoming Developers) decided to add dodges and timing your hits while you fight other humans. The movie put everything from the games into one package, but the Silent Hill feeling was missing. Climax (Origins Developers) is back in the driver’s seat and it looks like they know what they are doing. The series went from Survival Horror to Action Horror, and the action takes away from the horror experience. Being completely helpless is a truly frightening feeling, so I am excited to hear that Horror is the main focus of this game. Silent Hill isn’t always a hot, steamy, stinky place; it is whatever the protagonist feels deep down (their own personal hell). This is also why Pyramid Head belongs only in James’ hell, because James made him. Budget does not make a game; it is up to the developers to truly believe in the material to make the best game they can, and the publishers to supply them with the proper funding. The Wii is not mediocre, and is in some ways superior to the 360 or PS3. This game was made with the Wii controls in mind, and I would like to see a third party company take some advantage of the Wii’s capabilities for a change. As for the tits hanging out, that all depends on what type of person you are. Another great thing about this game is that you get to help design your own personal hell by taking the personalized test. Climax seems to know the heart of Silent Hill, and I can only hope people can be more open minded.
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