Blame it on the rain: Silent Hill 8 officially 'Silent Hill: Downpour'

by Richard Mitchell on Jan 10th 2011 10:30AM

The next installment of Silent Hill, currently in development at Vatra Games, has been titled Silent Hill: Downpour, Game Informer reports. Water is expected to play a heavy role in the game, which Game Informer notes will visit "some new places in Silent Hill." More details will be revealed in the February issue of the magazine.

The excellent Silent Hill: Shattered Memories re-imagined the series' traditional rusty metal "Otherworld" as one of snow and ice; so perhaps Downpour's Otherworld will be a bit warmer and flooded with Speedo monsters. We just pray the next lost soul to stumble into Silent Hill's would-be paradise isn't hydrophobic.

Source: Game Informer

Tags: microsoft, playstation, ps3, silent-hill-downpour, xbox

Reader Comments (52)

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head.

@My Prerogative

I always think of Peter Parker when that song is mentioned.

Following in the footsteps of Heavy Rain?

@Aerothorn
I think that was the not-so-subtle message of this post, yes

if you touch any water you instantly drown and die. thats what i think is gonna happen

@RedFishFire Well, if you put it that way, at least the game will be easier than the Turbo Tunnel from Battletoads.

Looks good to me I am definately ready for another installment.

@Jack Kevorkian
You definitely need to learn how to spell.

@Jack Kevorkian
I am a huuuuuuge fan of silent hill. I still believe that the original is the scariest game of ALL TIME. This will be another day one purchase for me.

A survival-horror game in which water plays a chief role? How can it NOT be great!!

Press x to pyramid head?

@Finito it'll be fishtank head now!

They still make these?

Isn't the horse dead enough?

@Rocketboy
Seriously, the last one I had any interest in was 2, I'm surprised they've made 6 more. Who the hell is still buying these (and Tomb Raider) games?

@Rocketboy I still buy them every time and probably always will.

@Jack Kevorkian Same here, I love the Silent Hill series, and sure none of the new ones have reached the level of 2 or 3. But I still find them fun in their own way. Even if it sort of feels like playing a developers fan-fic at times.

I am also the guy who buys the new Tomb Raiders as well.

@Rocketboy
Make what, survival horror games? Why not. It's an underused genre, and when you innovate with them, you make incredibly unique titles. Check out Amnesia: The Dark Decent. It's one of the best games of 2010.

Or do you mean the Silent Hill series? Why not make more? Shattered Memories broke the mold and proved you can make a good SH game without Team Silent. I'm not saying the game won't suck, but it's attempt is justified.

@MLS After the mess that was "The Room", it would take me a HUGE leap of faith to be into the series again...

(And yes, I do love survival horror...)

@Rocketboy
I think you should give Shattered Memories on the Wii a look. Or at least read into it for interest.

It's made by a different team than The Room, has all the cool psychological stuff like in 2 (if not more), and a completely new gameplay format / combat system (i.e. No combat! Monsters only appear at certain designated times, and you can only run from them.)

@MLS I did (check it out online) and it just didn't gell for me at all.

I've seen some screenshots where you can vaguely see the image of Tay Zonday.

Not just rain, chocolate rain.

@Shadowbender

Sounds delicious!

anyone know if these guys made homecoming or shattered memories? or is it an entirely new developer?

@shabby329
It's someone else entirely (and each of those games had a different developer, as well).

@gatotsu911 gotcha thanks, well can't fault them if they haven't made anything yet, hopefully this one harkens back to 1,2,3

Aka, "Silent Hill: We Loved the Mood of Heavy Rain so Much that We're going to Use it Too"

@The Albatross Contrary to popular belief, Heavy rain was not the first thing to use rain to set mood. Noah and the Ark came a few years before.

I - JUST - CAN'T - WAIT - FOR - IT.
I hope this will be better than Homecoming... Why I'm pretty sure this game is gonna totally suck again? Why Konami stopped to make games by themselves or at least with Climax? I loved SH1 and SH2... I know they won't be back again...

@Daeran Angelfire

Why do none of your questions make sense? :-(

@Daeran Angelfire As it turns out, the word 'climax' is now irreversibly tied to Bayonetta for me.

Unless Konami brings us our beloved Team Silent back, there's no way I'm gonna buy this SH games. I was disappointed from Homecoming and Origins.
Plus, this is a new studio who havent made any noticeable games so, I'll have few expectations!

@Meghterb1985
It looks like you skipped the one western-developed Silent Hill game that was actually good.

I missed the "rusty metal otherworld"... The ice world was a total let down, but my brother bought the game anyway and it actually seems cool - apart from the parts where I'm running around the Artic instead of a twisted, nightmarish setting.

I'll give it a try some day, but I have a huge stack of games that have higher priority.

I really liked Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I thought they finally brought back the psychological shenanigans that made the earlier games so engrossing. But my big big problem with it was that the monsters were so horribly generic and they all looked exactly the same. The monsters need to be a reflection of the victim's inner turmoil. Also, the fact that they only showed up when the world froze made the rest of the game significantly less threatening. You knew that as long as things weren't frozen, you would be just fine. Still, I thought the story was great, I was actually immersed in it, and it showed that the American team actually has the potential to make Silent Hill good again.

However, I don't think it's fair to bring up Shattered Memories when discussing Downpour. These are completely new developers and frankly, I don't think they have the kind of experience necessary to do this series justice. Maybe they'll prove me wrong, but I'm guessing that Konami wants an inexperienced studio so they can save money on the budget and have complete creative control, and that says that they'll probably turn this into a fan-service cash-grab. If I see Pyramid Head in any of the trailers, I'm passing on this one.

@ddrussianinja
Actually...the monsters WERE a reflection of the victim's inner turmoil! Their formed changed depending on your actions. Go ahead and youtube some gameplay of the game...the monsters will very likely look different from the ones you probably saw yourself.

@Pandaman The changes are so subtle that they might as well not bother. They were still faceless, bipedal, pink guys/girls who always do the same thing no matter what. None of their appearances really seem to effectively play on any fear. I like what they TRIED to do, but I think by trying to make enemies that could connect with anyone, they ended up with enemies that connected with nobody. Or at least, they didn't connect with me or my friends who also played the game.

@(Unverified) I agree that the changes could be subtle, but I have seen some iterations of the monsters that looked drastically different from the ones I fought, pink and weird nonetheless.

I think considering how hard they pushed the Wii hardware on this game, it makes sense their decision to keep the monsters uniform. I still REALLY liked the game...more than I ever imagined I would - for sure. If more people would play it, they'd likely agree.

@ddrussianinja
See, the thing about Shattered Memories is that it wasn't really a "survival horror" game anymore, it was now an "adventure" game. (Similar to how Resident Evil 4 became an action game rather than a survival horror game.) The resource management and constant tension of survival horror games were exchanged for an "ebb and flow" gameplay design that switched off between exploration and action segments. That's hardly a criticism - I think it worked superbly. During the exploration segments you can take your time to soak in the beautifully-crafted environment, and the game is clearly more focused on making you uncomfortable and disturbed than getting you to jump out of your seat. During the action segments, you feel tension (far more tension than I ever felt playing one of the old SH games) and get "jump" scares. I thought it was great, overall.

Also, one slight correction: Shattered Memories' developers were British, not American (though you'd never guess it from how dead-on convincingly they portrayed a Midwestern American small town).

Am I the only one that got the Milli-Vanilli reference in the title?

@Nexum That must be why when I read it aloud, the words didn't match up to my lips.

@Nexum
I think pretty much everyone born before the 90's did.

The only Silent Hill game that I can honestly say that I liked almost nothing about was Homecoming. Some of the bosses were great, but otherwise the game did little for me. I hope this game builds upon what Shattered Memories did in some way and doesn't take several step backwards instead.

A.K.A The Silent Hill cult is silly and the less screen time it has, the better.

JAAAASSSOOOOONNNNN

This made me think that Deadly Premonition needs a sequel annoucement. That game was the best of 2010.

Nay, ever.

They should just call it Silent Hill: Heavy Rain edition then...

Sorry, Silent Hill, Amnesia already wins the award for scariest enemy involving water.

This causes hypothermia.

Have the controls been fixed? I remember earlier silent hill games feeling like classic tomb raider or resident evil 1 so I write them off as garbage.

Any game with 8 sequels has to be worth a second chance tho right?

How many broken locks will be in this game?

"...isn't hydrophobic"? Is that a reference to that Hydrophobia game? =P

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Silent Hill: Downpour

Blame it on the rain: Silent Hill 8 officially 'Silent Hill: Downpour'

Reader Comments (52)

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:35AM My Prerogative said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:49AM Shadowbender said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:36AM Aerothorn said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 2:00PM BlueRajasmyk said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:37AM RedFishFire said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 12:10PM thisredengine said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:38AM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:12AM mywhitenoise said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:01PM Streeks1984 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:38AM lSpam said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:42AM Finito said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 6:11PM Cafecito said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:44AM Rocketboy said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:15AM mywhitenoise said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:20AM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:57AM Zolroy said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 12:10PM MLS said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 3:09PM Rocketboy said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 4:16PM MLS said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:19PM Rocketboy said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:46AM Shadowbender said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:10AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:53AM shabby329 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 12:35PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 1:48PM shabby329 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:01AM The Albatross said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:23AM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:05AM Daeran Angelfire said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:09AM den69 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 4:09PM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:17AM Meghterb1985 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 12:36PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:36AM TheShaper said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:37AM ddrussianinja said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:58AM Pandaman said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 12:37PM ddrussianinja said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 12:43PM Pandaman said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 12:44PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:42AM Nexum said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 11:57AM Voshempa said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 12:02PM mywhitenoise said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 12:48PM Funkmaster General said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 12:53PM andrewpoe said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 1:18PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 1:24PM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 2:00PM EliminatorZigma said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 3:01PM isotrex said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 3:31PM jimmer411 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:37PM Seroth said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 6:12PM Cafecito said

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