[UPDATE] Rumor: Multiplayer Creeping Into Silent Hill

[Tom Goldman]

[UPDATE] Rumor: Multiplayer Creeping Into Silent Hill

Konami could be hoping to freak out multiple players at the same time in a future version of Silent Hill.

In a recent issue of Xbox 360 Magazine Italy, Vatra Games' Art Director for Silent Hill: Downpour [http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Hill-8-Xbox-360/dp/B003O6G47U/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1300542704&sr=1-2] Radek Marek has reportedly revealed a new direction the series may take in the future. According to a translation of an article posted in the Hell Descent forums, Konami is looking to create a multiplayer version of the traditionally single-player Silent Hill.

Marek said that there definitely won't be a multiplayer component in Downpour, the 8th game in the Silent Hill series that will use water to horrify a prison inmate on the loose [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106785-Silent-Hill-Downpour-Poisons-Water-With-Horror]. However, he didn't rule it out when it comes to the series in general.

"At the moment there will be no multiplayer modes in Silent Hill: Downpour, but Konami are investigating a separate chapter devoted entirely to the multiplayer," Marek said. "We do not know the details but it should be an XBLA title where players have to survive in the town of Silent Hill."

The language used isn't clear, so this could be a multiplayer DLC chapter, or a separate XBLA game. Silent Hill has typically been about running around terrifying environments solo while getting the bejeezus scared out of you by monsters with Resident Evil: Outbreak [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Head], though Silent Hill's version could be more successful now that the current generation of consoles feature built-in online connectivity. Konami could also be turning it into a top-down twin stick shooter for all we know, or might not be working on anything at all.

Update: Silent Hill: Downpour producer Devin Shatsky responded to the rumor on the HellDescent forums, saying that Radek's comment was either taken out of context or lost in translation. According to Shatsky, there is no Silent Hill multiplayer XBLA game or DLC currently in development. It was under investigation, but scrapped due to cost concerns.

Source: HellDescent [http://helldescent.com/2011/03/18/rumor-konami-bringing-multiplayer-silent-hill-to-xbla/]

Permalink

 

[StriderShinryu]

Interesting, and it could work well. Think SH mixed with the sanity effects of Eternal Darkness where you didn't always know if the people you were playing with were real or were monsters.. or if they just appeared as monsters based on flaws in your own characters psyche.

Glad to hear if they do it they aren't going to be doing it in a mainline series entry though, just in case it doesn't work out.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Multiplayer Silent hill?

.....I dunno. A game gets a lot less scary when you have another player helping you. Not to mention I don't want another Dead Space 2 Multiplayer. >_>

 

[TilMorrow]

If done well this could be quite a fun experience but they would have to careful. Increasing the number of players tends to tone down the scariness of a game a lot. Especially if people play local co-op or know each other. I could see it working if players happened to pop out of the wood work from time to time freaking people out and also havig some of the players go mad as you play. Though voice chat would have to be an option that isn't included.

 

[ScourgeOfHell]

Oh Please God no. insubstantial and redundant multiplayers have consumed so many otherwise good singleplayer games, not Silent hill

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Well, isn't the combat the best thing about Silent Hill - it'd only make sense to make it multiplayer.

Oh wait.

 

[Shirokurou]

Co-op campaign.
You did do Maria escort missions in SH2 and SH4 had Eileen even equip weapons.
I say it might work. Though a big part of Silent Hill is about being alone... And any form of multiplayer makes it less psychological horror and more Resident Evil 5.
So only as mini add-on to the solo-campaign. Like in the new Splinter Cell.

 

[alfawx]

I had high hopes for Downpour. I kept telling myself that it might be a return to the good old actually scary Silent Hill games with pacing and atmosphere and scarce ammo. I do believe I'm going to cry now.

 

[Shirokurou]

Oh Please God no. insubstantial and redundant multiplayers have consumed so many otherwise good singleplayer games, not Silent hill

But on the other end we have Assassin's Creed, who made a terrific multiplayer without butchering their concept.

Thinking again, maybe a Silent Hill stand-alone game with say a team of 10 people who have to fight off monsters and complete objectives with some team members actually being ghosts or monsters in disguise tasked with making a let's split up end badly. But again all this sounds like Resident Evil.

Silent Hill = solo.

P.S.: Actually, the only system that would kind of fit in would be the Demon's Souls system. Ghostly afterimages, rare help summons, player invasions...

 

[InfiniteJacuzzi]

Unless they do something unique, like Demon's Souls, this will trash the game.

 

[Shirokurou]

I had high hopes for Downpour. I kept telling myself that it might be a return to the good old actually scary Silent Hill games with pacing and atmosphere and scarce ammo. I do believe I'm going to cry now.

Dude...
"Marek said that there definitely won't be a multiplayer component in Downpour, the 8th game in the Silent Hill series that will use water to horrify a prison inmate on the loose. However, he didn't rule it out when it comes to the series in general."
Don't Cry.

 

[zHellas]

Multiplayer Silent hill?

.....I dunno. A game gets a lot less scary when you have another player helping you. Not to mention I don't want another Dead Space 2 Multiplayer. >_>

It could be like a co-op thing, and at points you and your friend get split up and encounter monsters that'd be great to fight or face with a friend, or your character starts hallucenating.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Well...If they followed Yahtzee's suggestion and made it so you could play the monsters in other people's games, this might work. But considering all the other backwards decisions they've made recently, I doubt that's what they're planning.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Perhaps if you never actually saw the other player, though I don't know how that would work. Parallel worlds maybe?

 

[ScourgeOfHell]

MULTI PLAYER MUST DIE. Except in games like black ops of course, but I feel there are so many games, like dead space 2, or bionic commando, which sacrifice, a good 5-6 hours of the main campaign, to add a completely useless multiplayer feature, that no one will ever play. It makes sense in Call of Duty or Halo , because these have such a head crushingly deep pool of players, that hosting or joining a game is fun, and it actually feels meaningful to win matches. But absolutely no game can master both a multiplayer, and a single player. PERIOD

 

[VincentX3]

Betting 10$ this is going to be DLC that comes included already in the disk.

 

[binvjoh]

Sounds pretty weird, but it's definitely intriguing.

And for any purists who'll undoubtably say something like "don't mess with the core concept, man", I'm pretty sure that boat sailed with Origins.

 

[Yopaz]

I don't think this would work, but if they made the multiplayer soemthing completely seaparate from the single player. Oh and it should be one person going to get through a stage while AI controlled monsters among player controlled monsters were creeping up on the human player it could be pretty fun. Still, I would say I really enjoyed Resident Evil 5, though only with a friend to play with me.