[UPDATE] Rumor: Multiplayer Creeping Into Silent Hill

[Someone Depressing]

A Cop-Op or Versus mode?
What made SH So scary (For me, then again I'm a Pansy Growing Pansy who get's thrilled by paint drying) was that the monsters weren't humanoid (With the exception of a few) and didn't have persoanlities, they were parts of the character's flaws and past, having the monsters player controlled or having a partner kind off defeats the whole porpuse of the concept.
Oh well, if it's well executed, it's gonna be great, if it's terrible, I'm going to throw all my SH games in the trash since in the current state that the series is in, It's hanging by a thread.

EDIT : Look at what Happened to RE5. A partner/Companion defeats the whole porpuse of Silent Hill, Silent Hill is basically like being locked in a small room with something that hates your guts. Intriguing, Interesting, and Scary. Being Locked in a small room with something that "Likes" you kind of defeats the whole point.
And since there's 2 players, there's gonna have to be more weapons around, defeating the whole pointof the "Frantic-Hard To get Resources-Scary" Nature that Surival Horror introduced to Action games.
SH + Multiplayer = Big flaily mess that defeats the Whole point of the entire Franchise.

 

[Someone Depressing]

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

Ooh, now that's an interesting idea. One person in regular SH, one in the alternate version helping or helping eachother, leaving messages and clues, etc.

It worked in Demon's Souls, so I don't see why it won't work here!

 

[gundamrx101]

It could work like StriderShinryu pointed out but personally, I think they should just focus on getting Silent Hill back on track and making a strong single player experiance before even thinking about a MP for the series.

 

[Dogstile]

I'm going to look at all of you people complaining and i'm going to point you to Resident evil outbreak. It's gotten highly recommended by all of my friends and if they do the same with this game it could be awesome.

And for the people complaining about how it won't be scary, maybe, just maybe, they won't be trying to scare you so much in that game. Might be a thought there, maybe they actually want you to not be as scared as before, just tense.

 

[Dogstile]

I'm going to look at all of you people complaining and i'm going to point you to Resident evil outbreak. It's gotten highly recommended by all of my friends and if they do the same with this game it could be awesome.

And for the people complaining about how it won't be scary, maybe, just maybe, they won't be trying to scare you so much in that game. Might be a thought there, maybe they actually want you to not be as scared as before, just tense.

You do know that Silent Hill is built on horror, right? That it's probably the defining scary game series? Trying to take the scares out of Silent Hill is like trying to take guns out of Halo. You do that, and you have nothing left.

Odd, I thought that was what people considered resident evil was until outbreak and the newer ones game out.

I must be mistaken. I mean damn, hang a developer for trying something new why don't cha?

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

No, no, no, no, no, and hell no!

Never once did I ever think that my experience would be better if it had multiplayer or co-op, never. I don't want to play it with a friend, that would make the game less scary, in my opinion.

If they do add it in, consider it, the multiplayer, ignored.

 

[Creator002]

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

Ha ha. It's like your avatar is screaming those words too.


I think multiplayer Silent Hill could work, especially as an XBLA title, but things become less scary when you're not alone.

EDIT:

*snip*

This is a REALLY good idea.

 

[Uber Evil]

Silent Hill multiplayer is like giving James Cameron production rights to make a film adaptation of "At the Mountains of Madness".
Wait a minute...
*snip*

[HEADING=1]THAT ALREADY HAPPENED.[/HEADING]

And then it got cancelled.

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

Now that is scary

 

[coolerthanice21]

Multiplayer Silent Hill sounds even worse when you compare it to Resident Evil: Outbreak. Those games sucked, so anything like them would be a terrible mess.

 

[conzan]

no, no no oh god not this was my first thought but if done right (and i mean it has to be perfect) could be anything
"If you die, YOU ARE DEAD. No rescuing from a closet, no reviving after a set amount of time. Dead. Done. Finished. And your death has to hurt the team so badly that they will try to save you instead of just running for their lives.

When you die, no more talking. You mic gets cut off and you can't chat with the other players. No giving hints, no making jokes to ease the tension."
this sort of thing

oh and no co-op, for the love of god its not scary to go through with a buddy

 

[TheCrownlessKing]

Oh great, if we get a Co-Op mode me and my friend can break 2 controllers at the same time. -_-

 

[luckycharms8282]

Sweet, now make it first person view and I will buy it.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Whether its bad or good, since its on XBLA it means I can officially ignore its existence, much as Konami likes to ignore PS3 users existence with their increasing catalogue of XBLA games of franchises that are multiplatform.

 

[Callate]

My reflexive response is that this is a bad idea. Silent Hill, when it works, is about atmosphere, character, and story. Good multiplayer tends to have more to do with things we associate with so-called "emergent gameplay"- the unexpected events and ways of doing things that come up when different people are thrown together in a situation.

It's hard to have meaningful characters in a multiplayer game because almost by definition each character has to be expendable- you can have one player "die" and go on, you can play with two players or four, and so on. It's even harder to have the sense of isolation and uncertainty SH thrives on when you have to account for the actions of multiple players. And it's very difficult to carry on a story by the typical means when you have several players clamouring to get on with it whenever anything resembling exposition is occurring.

Left 4 Dead comes as close to this as I've seen, and it's still got a ways to go despite championing a number of innovations. With the increasingly slipshod and desperately experimental directions SH has been going, I'm sorry to say I don't expect them to pull it off.

 

[mooncalf]

Always with the demands for multiplayer versions of single player games... I really don't know if it's ever a good idea

 

[Traun]

Yes, me and my Tekken buddy will be playing SH multi.

Guess how that'll end.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Silent Hill multiplayer is like giving James Cameron production rights to make a film adaptation of "At the Mountains of Madness".
Wait a minute...
*snip*

[HEADING=1]THAT ALREADY HAPPENED.[/HEADING]

And then it got cancelled.

Dear Lord, Uber Evil, I wish it was. I honestly do.
But nay my friend, production begins this year, and we can expect a release in 2012.
There were rumors of it being cancelled, and it almost was a few times, but then production got given to James Cameron, who calls it "The best movie since Aliens" or something like that.
Meanwhile, Lovecraft rolls in his grave.

 

[nyttyn]

As other have said, this really boils down to how they impliment this. Here's hoping that they change game mechanics to make loosing other people actually scary (i.e. as sniper team 4 has put it, no rescues, perma death)

 

[RSGstyle]

As long as it doesn't interfere with Downpours Singleplayer experience, I'd like to see Konami give it a crack.

Konami obviously understands that Silent Hill is an effective horror game that revolves around the solitude of the primary characters in order to deliver its strong, lonely atmosphere. The company makes its point clear tat if there is to be a multiplayer, it will be released as DLC or an entirely different chapter. No need to bawl about it ruining everything.

I can't imagine Silent Hill as a competitive multiplayer experience where one team or individual attempts to best another group in the town of Silent Hill. The true horror was never an actual entity as Yahtzee always points out from his favorite of the series, the town itself projected the fears and regrets of the main character. That being said, Konami might not be thinking about releasing some sort of VS. multiplayer.

If you were to ask me "Well, how can Konami release an engaging and fun multiplayer experience that doesn't stray too far from their formula?" I couldn't come up with a decent answer, only ideas I came up with from playing Silent Hill and thinking 'this could work with an extra player or two."

Let my imagination run rampant for a bit...try picturing what it would be like.

Wow. As a fan of the Silent Hill series, or most of it anyways, I can't imagine a multiplayer experience that can be both fun and suspenseful. The creepiest segments from my favorites always came from the little bits of information of death or murder that you tie together while playing the game and the cutscene/scripted sections that make you cringe. These factor into an engaging single player experience, but it seems to be that if multiplayer is to exist alongside Silent Hills singleplayer, they're going to need one heck of a director to pull it off. The game won't work as some sort of shoot-em-up or "this group vs. the other group" since its combat system was always so lovingly clunky. Any kind of co-op experience will run stagnant after completing it with others and trying to have some sort of script involved or story might not be found so appealing by gamers because if they wanted to solve mysteries with others, I am sure there are other titles who do just that.

Also, post your ideas.