Catch the prison bus to Silent Hill: Downpour this fall

by JC Fletcher on Jan 24th 2011 9:52AM

Konami officially unveiled Silent Hill: Downpour this morning (leaving, of course, the veil of fog around the town), announcing a fall European release for Vatra Games' exploration of our favorite psychological punishment destination, and sending out a bunch of new screenshots. We're no longer limited to looking at a guy looking at a truck!

In addition to giving us a good look at Murphy Pendleton, the poor sucker doomed to guide us around the new version of Silent Hill, these screenshots offer a glimpse at a few in-game locations: the diner, always a staple of Silent Hill, and the "Devil's Pit," some kind of mountainous area with a rickety-looking ropeway train between peaks. There's also some unidentifiable subterranean area that appears to be covered in rusty grates, in case you were concerned this wasn't actually a Silent Hill game.

Silent Hill: Downpour (PS3/Xbox 360)

Show full PR text

Silent Hill: Downpour
Downpour details announced.
Silent Hill 8 becomes Silent Hill: Downpour

KONAMI reveals first shots and art of new Silent Hill title, as Dexter composer scores latest return to the terrifying town...

Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has released the first shots of the next iteration of its hugely popular horror series, Silent Hill: Downpour. The asset issue marks the first confirmation of the new game's suffix, while KONAMI has also announced that acclaimed composer, Daniel Licht (Dexter), is producing the game's eerie soundtrack

Silent Hill: Downpour marks the series' return to PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360, and brings a completely original storyline which follows Murphy Pendleton, a convict stranded in the foggy, malevolent world of Silent Hill. Pendleton begins the game lost and alone in the woods on the outskirts of the fabled town, when his prison transport bus crashes...

What happens after this is up to the player, as Silent Hill: Downpour reveals a new, expansive environment that is similarly claustrophobic and where the player is never truly alone. The new assets demonstrate the highly detailed environments the game enjoys, a sneak preview of the town and two new areas: The Diner and The Devil's Pit.

In addition to the screens, KONAMI has also released a 90-second sample of the in-game music to whet the appetite. The music forms part of Daniel Licht's chilling soundtrack, the composer better known for his work on Showtime's acclaimed serial killer drama, Dexter.

Silent Hill: Downpour will be released for PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 in Autumn 2011.

Tags: europe, konami, microsoft, playstation, ps3, q3-2011, release-date, silent-hill, silent-hill-downpour, vatra-games, xbox

Reader Comments (41)

The concept of what is a Silent Hill game has changed so much over the years, it's hard to define. Still, these screens are promising.

...Silent hill is still the only horror franchise that has actually frightened me.

@bigwhiteyeti
I totally agree--I was definitely frightened by the first couple Silent Hills, and I loved turning off all the lights and playing them alone late at night to see how much I could freak myself out. The screenshots for this one look great, and I'm looking forward to trying this out. Not showing everything, leaving a lot to the imagination, and using nuance are very, very effective tools to create fear. These guys know what they're doing with horror.

@bigwhiteyeti

"The concept of what is a Silent Hill game has changed so much over the years"

QFT!

@bigwhiteyeti You should try Condemned.

@bigwhiteyeti
"The concept of what is a Silent Hill game has changed so much over the years, it's hard to define."

- as it should! I think SH2's revelation that everybody's perception or "punishment" in Silent Hill opened up doors for just about anyone who takes a crack at it. While I'm disappointed that Climax was not asked to make another SH game, just as they were getting a good feel for it; a new look at Silent Hill, and hopefully so new ways to interact with it, are exactly what I want.

@Jack Kevorkian

I heard Fear was scary, and so was Amnesia

@bigwhiteyeti

Amnesia. i thought FEAR was scary, and then i watched my friend play Amnesia. you gotta play it with the lights out, though. the game's big on atmosphere.

Here's hoping it's good!

...Or at least, better than the last.

@jaydark123
Please god let it be better than Homecoming. That was atrocious.

This looks awesome :) ....I won't play it cause I don't like scary games and I get all paranoid and jumpy...but still it could be fun to watch someone else play. o_o

@JnRx I envy you. I'd do anything to go back in time and play Amnesia when I was twelve or so... Now I've just played and watched too much horror so it's hard to get the same effect. :(

Looks like Vatra borrowed some ambiance from their Finnish neighbors at Remedy. Let's hope they respect that they're living in a post Alan Wake world and step up their game, so to speak.

@baby sea tuna Alan Wake was a great game. Shame it would of been better, tho, if it had borrowed from Silent Hill...so none of this "Silent Hill needs to be more like Alan Wake." Alan Wake was too action-oriented...more survival horror would of done it good with you fighting to survive rather than mowing down enemies left and right.

@baby sea tuna I have to agree, that looks a bit like Alan Wake

I think this games look promising.

Silent Hill has changed a lot, in the way that the psychological horrer is no longer there, mainly in the last 3 "main" games.

For me, the best games that achieve what Team Silent want to tell to the gaming audience, were Silent Hill 1 and 2.

There after, the games lacks in every single bit, in comparison for those 2 games. Its very hard to developers other than Team Silent to envision something that those Japanese developers wanted to tell.

I still cant get why, Konami, doesn't gathers Team Silent again and do some kind of re-make of the first one. It would sell a lot, or at least, even more than the 3 last games combined.

I just can hope a Silent Hill Collection HD, gathering SH 1, 2 and Origins.

@ObiAlKenobi

"Silent Hill Collection HD, gathering SH 1, 2 and Origins"

as a HUGE Silent Hill fan i hope to God this never happens.

"Oh look fancy *gasp* this game is 100x better now" /s

can se seriously stop with this HD remix/Collection bullsh!t. You're re-buying the same exact game but with shinier graphics

@PR0F3TA , Shinier graphics, better audio and trophies support. Not to say, that maybe they could add those extra features like Youtube Upload support, Custom Audio support, and Screenshot feature, which for me are a wonderful additions, and for millions of gamers too, just look at the request in forums and blogs.

I dont care if I'm buying this game twice or more times. I dont have the originals, and I didnt had a PS2 to play SH2 and 3, I just borrowed from a friend just a few days, and that was when I was able to play SH2 just a little.

I WOULD LOVE if they release those collections, I will be buying day one, and I'm sure, I'm not the only one.

You dont want it, dont buy it, and forget they exist. Let us, those wanting to re-experiment those older games with some additions, enjoy.

@ObiAlKenobi

I would love to have a Silent Hill Collection HD. I do not own a PS2 anymore, so I cannot play Silent Hill 2 and I would love to have Silent Hill 1, 2 , and 3 all on one disk, in HD resolution. I don't even care if they do nothing to the textures and graphics. Just upscale the resolution to 1920 X 1080 and make it 16:9 resolution and I'll be a happy camper.

We in Europe probably won't get the game till Spring 2012. We always have to wait JRPG type waits for Silent Hill. :S

I have hope for this game. I mean, they would literally have to screw up the process of "screwing up" for it to turn out worse than the turd that was Homecoming.

i see sunlight, but i thought, because of the game's title, that its gonna be raining 24/7 in this game, but thats what i thought about Heavy Rain too, oh well

Lets hope you can invert the controls this time... Up is down dammit!

@jimbobson

Yeah, if you're an airplane.

@jimbobson
Inverted FTW.

Anyone else catching a Heavy Rain feel from this..?

@tBanzai Nope.

@tBanzai

Not so much, I'm getting some strong Alan Wake vibes though.

I'm not a big fan of horror games, but I'm looking forward to Vatra Games' other game in development, Rush'n Attack: Ex-Patriot. Any news on that?

i donno what to think of this, Homecoming was a bad game in my opinion, and Origins (for the PSP) was good but felt like a watered down game and it wasn't because it was a PSP game, the story didn't draw me in as SH2 and SH4.

i guess a rent would not hurt me in anyway

@PR0F3TA
Have you forgot Shattered memories ? it was pretty good

Will for sure be getting this. Hopefully it has some sort of mugs to collect.

I hope they bring back the radio, that frickin' thing scared me in 1 & 2

@monkeypants The use of sound in the Silent Hill series is more effective than any other game I've played. The radio static or the screech of pyramid head's sword dragging behind him were terrifying.

Lots of Alan Wake influece, which was influenced by older Silent Hill games.

@KungFuChaosNinja that's what I was thinking!

hmmmm... looks interesting for sure. it's definitely giving me an Alan Wake vibe though (which isn't necessarily bad)

I never got a chance to play SH 1 & 2, but I've often wondered why people didn't like The Room much at all.

Perhaps it was just the concept of being in a locked apartment with a hole to godknowswhere in your bathroom which got me but I really enjoyed that game.

@Crayola Q Pants ESQ
I loved The Room too! The plot was very interesting, the villain was scary, and the format was innovative. There were a couple problems... I thought they could have been a bit more forgivable with the curses, and explained them better; especially since they have such an impact on the endings. There were a couple times where I'd place a candle not exactly lined up with the cursed area, and ended up wasting it.

Also there were a couple optional actions that seem innocuous at the time, but end up really screwing you over later in the game. I know this is common in a Japanese horror, but things like "I don't know what this item is really, but I'll hold on to it because I'll probably need it in a bit for a puzzle - oh great, now I'm super-cursed." are frustrating as hell to a gamer.

Despite those, I thought the game was still very cool and worth playing.

It looks like somebody got a little Alan Wake in my Silent Hill. Thats not necessarily a bad thing.

I like how even though the main character's a prisoner or whatever, the developers don't have the nuts to make him ugly. Instead we get some boy-band looking guy.

Your all forgetting a soundtrack to die for. Silent hill 2 has a soundtrack that is unrivaled by any other video game. Period.

Silent Hill: Downpour

Catch the prison bus to Silent Hill: Downpour this fall

Silent Hill: Downpour (PS3/Xbox 360)

Reader Comments (41)

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 9:58AM bigwhiteyeti said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:11AM Chimaera9 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:39AM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 11:45AM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 12:05PM MLS said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 4:18PM Spookimitsu said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 6:49PM maveric101 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:01AM jaydark123 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 4:18PM Spookimitsu said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:07AM JnRx said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 11:42AM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:09AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:40AM handlas said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 11:14AM Danzaiver said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:14AM ObiAlKenobi said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:44AM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 11:20AM ObiAlKenobi said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 11:26AM Dawg605 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:15AM WPstart said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:25AM The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:31AM RedFishFire said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:37AM jimbobson said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:40AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:49AM RedRose said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:38AM tBanzai said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 11:48AM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 4:29PM WiredKnight said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:40AM Teancum said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:41AM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:57AM solidsnake8282 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:48AM Weejo said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 12:27PM monkeypants said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 12:51PM CrumbBum said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 12:32PM KungFuChaosNinja said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 3:16PM shopping bags said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 12:48PM CapitalNewVegas45 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 1:32PM Crayola Q Pants ESQ said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 2:05PM MLS said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 3:56PM thedrvthrubandit said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 4:30PM Tikicobra said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:29PM jrobington said

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