Like most Silent Hill fans, I’m pretty much in heaven right now. The 13-year wait is over, Silent Hill f is in my hands, and it’s absolutely living up to my absurdly high standards. When I first heard the game was to be set in Japan as opposed to the fictional American town of Silent Hill, I got a little nervous, but within minutes of taking my first steps in the gorgeous, haunting town of Ebisugaoka, I realized Konami had nailed it. It may not be set on the shores of Toluca Lake, but Silent Hill f still feels like a Silent Hill game, and after working my way through the stunning-yet-horrifying environments and strange, unsettling story, I’ve come to a somewhat uncomfortable realization: I am so freaking glad this isn’t a Kojima game.
Before you pull out your pitchfork, let me say that I’m a fan of much of Kojima’s previous work. When P.T. — the “playable teaser” for the infamously cancelled Silent Hills — first became available to play in 2014, I was ecstatic. It had only been two years since the release of 2012’s Silent Hill: Downpour, but it felt like far more time had passed between P.T.‘s release and the launch of a Silent Hill game that was actually good. The first four mainline games in the series were made in Japan, but starting with 2007’s Silent Hill: Origins, the franchise was being developed by Western studios, and the decline in quality was both palpable and immediate. By the time Kojima’s take on the franchise entered the equation, I hadn’t truly enjoyed an entry in the series since Silent Hill 4′s release a decade prior.
I was absolutely salivating over the news that the franchise was back in capable hands, and I was just as heartbroken as the next Silent Hill fan when the game was canceled in 2015. But now — a decade after Kojima and Konami’s dramatic breakup, with Silent Hill f finally in my hands — I don’t look back on P.T. through rose-tinted lenses. It was an excellent demo for a horror game, I’ll absolutely give it that. In fact, it was somewhat ahead of its time, and the gameplay seems to anticipate Resident Evil 7: Biohazard in some ways (a game that wouldn’t launch for another three years). But P.T. lacked the profoundly lonely, subtle beauty of a good Silent Hill title. Although it built plenty of tension, that tension was punctuated with jumpscares so frequent, you weren’t left with much time to think. Silent Hill has always had its jumpscares, of course, but when the series is at its best, as it is in Silent Hill f, that tension builds slowly over the course of hours, and heart-pounding moments often happen organically, rather than via scripted jumpscares. The true horror of Silent Hill is the kind that stays with you long after you put down the game.
As excited as I was about P.T., even back in 2014 I remember thinking, “What the hell is Norman Reedus doing in my Silent Hill game?” Sure, his time on The Walking Dead had proven he could play a compelling horror protagonist, and I could see him playing a great Murphy Pendleton in a Silent Hill film adaptation (since Hollywood is apparently determined to keep making them). But seeing a famous actor walk around in a Silent Hill game just felt wrong. Historically, Silent Hill’s protagonists have always been Average Janes and Joes, and Reedus’ involvement in the project felt more like a “because I can” choice on Kojima’s part rather than a well-thought-out casting choice that would elevate the game.
Kojima himself has admitted that if he likes something, he’ll include it in his game. (Things that players like are apparently a problem, however). Now that he’s in full control of both the development and publishing of his games at Kojima Productions, we’ve seen him do it repeatedly: If he likes an actor (or a VTuber), they’ll end up in Death Stranding, complete with a weird little intro sequence featuring both their character’s name and the actor’s real name, an unnecessary detail that instantly destroys any sense of immersion for me. Unlike previous Silent Hill titles, P.T. was a first-person experience, which also felt off — but with del Toro and Reedus involved, it likely would have featured lots of long cinematic cutscenes with off-the-wall, 2deep4u dialogue to make up for the fact that players wouldn’t be able to see their character during actual gameplay.
P.T. arrived at a time when Silent Hill fans were so desperate for a new game, we lapped up anything we were given, and I am fully willing to admit that what we were given was indeed a treat. I don’t think Silent Hills would have been a bad horror game. I just don’t think it would have been a good Silent Hill game. P.T. was a great demo for a potentially fun game, but that game would not have been as true to the spirit of the franchise as Silent Hill f is, because Kojima’s post-Konami work doesn’t show much of the subtlety and restraint a Silent Hill game requires. Crazy character names, bizarre dialogue, and copious amounts of Monster Energy product placement are fine in the Death Stranding universe, but if Silent Hill f were made by Kojima, I suspect I’d be playing as MetalPipe SmashMan, not Hinako Shimizu.
Of course, P.T. was only a demo, and some might think it unfair to compare it to the finished product that is Silent Hill f. A lot of those same people might try to convince me that Silent Hills would have been nothing like Death Stranding, and respectfully, that’s bullshit. P.T. was a Kojima Productions gig directed by Guillermo del Toro, starring Norman Reedus. Death Stranding also starred Reedus, with del Toro playing the role of a death-obsessed character creatively named Deadman. The first game was made while P.T. and Silent Hills were clearly still on Kojima’s mind, leaning much more on horror than Death Stranding 2, which focused less on the creepy entities known as B.T.s, and introduced some very Metal Gear-esque Ghost Mechs. Hell, even Metal Gear Solid 5 — the last Kojima Productions game to be published by Konami — was full of P.T. references, despite being released after P.T.‘s cancellation.
Kojima’s definitely still got the horror bug, as evidenced by his upcoming Xbox exclusive, OD. Surprisingly, OD will not star Norman Reedus. But just like P.T., OD is a first-person horror game created in partnership with a famous Hollywood director (Jordan Peele), featuring a celebrity cast (Sophia Lillis, Udo Kier, Hunter Schafer), a two-letter title, and even more weird fetus imagery. The trailer shows off a candle-based puzzle that players will have to solve as an unknown entity hunts them through a creepy house. Sound familiar? It’s pretty clear that once Kojima gets fixated on an idea, it bleeds into everything he touches.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. What little we’ve seen of OD looks great so far, and I appreciate the fact that Kojima is willing to experiment and take risks in his projects. I’m just not a big fan of the results of his latest experiments, and I’m glad Silent Hill didn’t become his next test subject. So far, Silent Hill f is a pitch-perfect take on the franchise. Leaning into the series’ Japanese roots instead of letting the guy who is obsessed with making every game into a Hollywood movie (and then trying to make multiple movies about that movie-game) was the right choice. P.T. was fun, but I’ll take the beautiful, horrifying game we got over a full-length version of Jumpscare Hallway Starring Norman Reedus and Weird Sink-Fetus any day.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
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