New Silent Hill in the hands of Vatra Games

by Justin McElroy on Apr 12th 2010 10:55AM

1UP reports that the recently revealed "next Silent Hill" game will not, in fact, be developed by Climax, which is fresh from the totally awesome Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Instead, the lead has been taken by Vatra Games, a Czech studio whose only other credit is retro relaunch Rush'N Attack: Ex-Patriot, also announced on Friday.

It's not that we think Vatra will do a bad job -- we frankly have no clue what they'll do. But we were so looking forward to seeing where Climax took the franchise after Shattered Memories that it's hard to not be a little deflated and, perhaps, even ... shattered by its absence.

On a slightly more informative note, Vatra's official page says it's working on two games for PS3, 360 and PC, so that likely gives an indication of the platforms on which the new Silent Hill will appear.

Source

Tags: climax, konami, Microsoft, rush-n-attack, rushn-attack, silent-hill, vatra, vatra-games, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (36)

Interesting..

Has Silent Hill appeared on PC, before?

2-4 and Homecoming.

Well, shoot.

Where the heck was I?

Hmm.

Three was on pc aswell.

2-4 means "2 through 4," Richie.

That's what I get for commenting before I wake up haha, sorry about that... not one of my brighter moments.

Let's hope the console versions allow for y axis inverting this time around.

Let's not ;)

Yeah, you're right. Why not alienate half the players with an option that doesn't even effect the other half.

The franchise started a non stop decline after Silent Hill 2

You must mean after 3. SH2 is way overrated. It's not bad, in fact it's great. But it's getting to be FF7-like in how people call it "the best".

Yeah, I tend to think of 2 and 3 as being fairly on par with each other, I was just more fascinated by the issues that SH2 dealt with.

Silent Hill 4 wasn't bad, but it didn't pull me in like the previous games and I never bothered to finish it. Homecoming wasn't bad either, IMO, but it felt like "SH Lite" and I considered it another notch down from 4. I tried Shattered Memories but did not like it at all.

Since Akira Yamaoka has moved on to other things, I sadly don't expect much from future SH titles. I tend to feel like the franchise has entered the "milking" phase now.

I think it's been in milking phase since Homecoming.

Yamaoka rehashing himself in attempt to keep some dignity in the series was just depressing.

@Brunibrun: This. The degree to which people hold SH2 as some untouchable parable of perfection is ridiculous. I'd say the game is very close to being in the camp of "good but not THAT good" games along with FF7 and Halo, but actually, as a GAME, SH2 is terrible, even worse than the first one. The story and audiovisual presentation are what make it great (and the story, while excellent in and of itself, is severely diluted by some strange translations and terrible voice acting).

I thought shattered memories was an embarassment, I think everyone should just let this series die out, play silent hill 2 again if you really want silent hill, but another one is just going to continue the downward slide

Awww... Well here's hopes that Climax hasn't been exiled from the series for good, I wanna see where their spin on the series goes next, either in the form of an SH2 re-imagining or going into new character territory.

Or continuing to be debatable for canonicity, as I LOVE how the first has potentially turned the entire 'universe' upside down and leaves people open to speculation unlike any other series.

I'll give this release the benefit of the doubt for now. I'm excited but can't handle another one if this bombs.

It's like watching something I love keep going around the edges of the toilet bowel to an inevitable fate.

What was once an absolutely original stellar series is now just a mediocre "survival horror" pastiche that wouldn't make it off the shelves if not the name.

hey I learned a new word. Thanks dude.

Knowledge is power.

Seems like Konami has run out of ideas on what to do with the series and are just letting other developers use the name.

I'm getting the sense that all the people ragging on Shattered Memories either A) never played it, or B) decided that they didn't like it before even touching it. I think Shattered Memories - and Climax - really caught on to what was great about Silent Hill at its peak and ran with it: a meticulously-constructed, creepy atmosphere, interesting characters with realistic emotions, and a mind-warping, Lynchian narrative that always kept players uneasy and uncertain as to what was "real". It was the antithesis of oft-bemoaned Homecoming, with its focus on monsters, violence and the occult, and yet the "fans" blasted it for not including these very things. They keep whining about how they want Team Silent back, as if they were gods among men, refusing to realize that A) that's not going to happen, period, and B) the series needs to evolve. Shattered Memories was a much-needed evolution for a series that had been treading water for years. Sure it had growing pains, but Konami should stick with it and work those out rather than run off to the next developer in a misguided attempt to please the unpleasable fans. If nothing else, I sincerely hope that they allow Climax to work on another Silent Hill game in the near future - they were the first developer since the original team that genuinely had a vision for the series, and they deserve the opportunity to realize it.

If Silent Hill was a joke, Shattered Memories would be Tim Buckley.

Thanks for that thorough and meaningful rebuttal of my argument. I'm going to try and say this as politely as I can, but it's hard: You've yet to convince me that you're anything other than a whiny fanboy.

Exactly. I haven't played Shattered Memories yet, so I can't specifically comment, but you hit the nail on the head about the unpleasable fans. They want the series to go back to what it once was, while at the same time they complain that the series stopped growing. Nothing will ever please them.

I just really hope Vatra isn't simply remaking the second game. I want something new, damn it.

I played Shattered Memories and expected to love it, but was rather disappointed.

It was very pretty for a Wii game and I liked some things about it, but running through those mazes as the main form of gameplay was simply obnoxious imo.

The normal exploration areas were pretty neat and atmospheric, but the scripted events with the ghosts or whatever you call that just seemed like cheap cheesy carnival-haunted-house tricks to me.

After playing Shattered Memories I rented Homecoming, and since Homecoming is a lot more faithful to SH's roots, I found myself enjoying it a lot more. (That being said, I never finished Homecoming because the damn monsters started to become a pain to kill haha :p)

Shattered Memories would have been much better if it didn't involve all the scripted running through a maze. I liked that there was no focus on combat and that it was more "runlikeabitch". I liked the atmosphere, the changing scenarios and just about everything the game did... except the damn mazes. It's possible that I'm an idiot, but I ended up running in circles over and over and over again with no idea where I was supposed to go. While not pausing when you look at the map was a nice realistic touch, it made it more or less useless in those scenarios.

It was also fairly easy (even avoiding the monsters wasn't hard, just irritating as I ran around in circles), but that's a different gripe entirely.

I love the idea behind the chase sequences, and in a few parts they were genuinely terrifying, but I agree they could've used some work. A greater focus on stealth, for one, and ideally a way to make the player feel desperate and hopeless without making them feel frustrated as well, which is a lot harder. Still, again, I think the game excellently distilled what was great about the Silent Hill formula, as detailed in my original post. If Silent Hill to you means a guy getting stuck in an occult-infested town and killing weird Lovecraftian monsters, then yes, there's Homecoming. But if, like me, you valued the series for the unique, meticulous atmosphere and powerful, psychological storylines, then Shattered Memories was a huge step in the right direction. Silent Hill has always been a series in which great ideas are met with flawed execution, and while Shattered Memories certainly wasn't perfect, it introduced so many awesome new ideas that are just begging to be expanded upon. Though, to be fair, for all I know Climax might be working on the NEXT next SH right now; even if Konami had selected them to work on the next entry, there's no way they'd have had it ready for E3 of this year. Hopefully we'll see in another year or two.

I don't think it can be any better or any worse then Shattered Memories. It could be scarier which has me a little excited, but the only thing shattered memories had going for it to me was the soundtrack. I enjoyed it and am gonna keep it in my collection cause I enjoyed it, but it's impossible for anyone to give the game as much of a spark as the originals or even come close... Still I am a little exiced for this one.

how was shattered memories totally awesome? I didn't give it much of a chance I suppose but it was just running away from everything with no fighting... and why the heck was there ice everywhere... weird remake...

i played sh 1,2 and partly 3 and 4.
tbh i found sh3 a bit boring and the same for 4.
it needs a new direction if its going to work,because the same old hospitals and schools are getting boring now.

does any one know if some of the history to silent hill was explained, like pyramid head being on the pictures of the wall in one of the buildings?-just curious.

such a shame that the series died out because the foundations laid down were excellent for some backstory...(prequels maybe?)

wtf? shattered memories wasn't totally awesome. i've played through it twice and haven't found the "totally awesome" yet.

I was hoping that Climax would get to helm this one, but I'll give these guys the benefit of the doubt. I wish Silent Hill could just fall into the hands of a single developer and stay there, but I guess that's not going to happen. I'll be okay as long as it's better than Homecoming.

Booo-urns!

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is by far the most fun I have had in the series. SH2 is so overrated and honestly, in the bottom half of the series for overall fun. Shattered Memories is not perfect by any means, it needed to be less predictable (I hated how we ALWAYS knew when something bad would happen because of the ice, there wasn't enough stuff popping out at you randomly), BUT it's not a big deal. The flashlight mechanics were perfect (on the Wii version, the PSP/PS2 versions were boring as crap). I'm sad to hear that the series is back on PS3/360 likely without the Wiimote flashlight style, I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into another Homecoming.... Or SH2 (haha, jk, I know the fanboys would murder me for that).

I wish Silent Hill would of stayed with Climax but from seeing that Shattered Memories didn't do so well being released only on PS2, PSP, and Wii I see why Konami moved to another developer to develop the next game. Might have to get SM when it hits $30.

I've played and completed all the silent hills and am a huge fan of the series. I actually loved SM and H! Any excuse to visit that creepy lakeside town gets the thumbs up from me!:D

New Silent Hill in the hands of Vatra Games

Reader Comments (36)

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:00AM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:02AM Spike Spiegel Humble Bounty Hun said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:08AM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:30AM chorx said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:31AM Acosta02 said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 1:58PM chorx said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:05AM Qsilver7850 said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 3:00PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 3:26PM Qsilver7850 said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:06AM Angel Mass said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:11AM Brunibrun said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:39AM Chief Oddball said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:45AM wcarnation said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 12:10PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:11AM letherclad said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 12:02PM Kyogissun said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:18AM Spike Spiegel Humble Bounty Hun said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 11:42AM wcarnation said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 12:13PM Grey said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 12:22PM aughscreennames said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 12:29PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 12:43PM wcarnation said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 12:48PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 3:06PM Abalistar said

Posted: Apr 13th 2010 3:35AM Naru now in 3D said

Posted: Apr 13th 2010 11:17AM Pharoah4187 said

Posted: Apr 13th 2010 2:02PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 1:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 1:33PM emperorzeroxx said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 1:55PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 2:15PM golobulus said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 2:27PM Funkmaster General said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 2:55PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 3:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 12th 2010 10:58PM Art84 said

Posted: Apr 15th 2010 5:26AM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW