Itchy//Tasty
Member
Though I've said and written a heck of a lot about P.T and Silent Hills in the last year or so, I wanted to offer up a few final thoughts on how I'm feeling about it all right now before I officially stop writing miserable opinion pieces online and finally learn to leave it up to the goddamn fates. I mean there's plenty more actual games out there to play, some incredible horror titles, and more still to come. I've not even bought Soma yet, for one thing.
Feel free to skip to 'Why It's Not All Bad' if this subject is your bread and butter and you just want to get to the point. See, I'm efficient like that.
As a quick primer for others, 'Silent Hills' was the Holy Grail of horror games, and one with the pedigree to become one of the greatest pieces of horror media ever produced, and that's not even an exaggeration. Its reveal had my imagination soaring with the possibilities. It brought acclaimed horror and fantasy director Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) together with legendary gaming auteur Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid), to revive one of the most revered horror licenses ever, one that's arguably been flailing in mediocrity for numerous years after IP holder Konami disbanded the original team. Not only that, but bringing in known character actor Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) to play the lead, and we've discovered in recent days that legendary Japanese horror artist Junji Ito would also have been involved, obviously from a conceptual point of view for some of the game's macabre imagery.
The sheer strength here of this quartet of talent, for many assured we were in for something very special indeed. It had the visionary, the developer, the lead performance and the artist - some of the best choices in their respective fields you could hope to find, especially for what this project specifically entailed.
The excitement was bolstered by the astonishing way this game was revealed to the world, with 'P.T', a proof-of-concept style teaser demo that was quietly released for free last Summer during Sony's E3 conference. As short as it may be, it's my opinion that P.T is the scariest game - or gamelike experience - ever made; one with a slow-burning, bewildering start that gradually unfolds into a rising chorus of tension and player stress, fraying your weak nerves until they reach breaking point. With the game's minimalist narrative unfolding slowly with every subtle moment, it's a masterclass in terror 101. To say any more would spoil its effect on you, so go play it (if you can) or at least observe a playthrough. The Twitch community fully embraced its enigmatic launch and cracked its mysteries within a few days, the ultimate reveal being that we were playing a teaser for a future Silent Hill game, carefully prepared by titans of various mediums. The final reveal of Norman Reedus looking around behind him remains an iconic visual moment seared into fans' memories. It is to date the greatest example of viral marketing I've personally ever seen.
http://youtu.be/4DlKqbLSXxc
My absolute favourite moment from P.T, and one that feels almost exclusive to me, was gazing down part of the empty, dark corridor, slowly turning around 360 degrees to take in my whole surroundings, but when my POV ends up back where I started there's now a figure standing there, watching me. With slow, unnatural movements it begins to advance. Unfortunately I didn't back up this capture when I upgraded my PS4's HDD, but watching the footage afterwards you could hear me audibly gasp and curse on the mic.
A conceptual trailer followed a few months later at the Tokyo Game Show, giving us another chilling look at what this game could've been capable of:
http://youtu.be/tVylTfkDP5c
Many have wondered if the whole game would've been first-person, but my guess - and this is pure speculation on my part - is that it would've made use of both third and first-person, typical of Kojima, but also with the fourth Silent Hill game having some influence. My theory is we would've been exploring the town in third, but slipping into that bowel-voiding first-person style whenever we got to the game's 'set-pieces' - the interior sections that would play like a massively expanded, deeper P.T. At least this is what I've assumed. Mainly because I would question having Reedus as the actor if he wasn't on-screen a sizeable part of the time, but I think the first-person terror would've been as important to the game's design after P.T's success.
So what happened? I want to tread relatively lightly because frankly, there could be a lot of misinformation out there, but with the lack of any real insight I'm left to only relay what the Internet is saying right now. Everything seemed to indicate a huge falling out between Konami heads and Hideo Kojima over the way the budgets were being used and spent on his games. It seems that the publisher no longer desired to foot the bill for these incredibly expensive productions and felt the burning need to put their foot down mid-development where it inevitably caused the most hurt. Their timing is possibly linked to the wait on the legalisation of gambling in Japan so they can leap fully onto that awaiting gold rush to make a mint, leaving high-end game development in the dust. At least, this is what the rumours are telling us, but it's difficult to clarify much for certain with the way online whispers seem to snowball.
It goes without saying that there are a lot of people working at Konami, and their studios don't begin and end with Kojima Productions. And I expect a fair few of them are passionate gamers; who knows what some of them have been through in the year gone past. I hope they know that when people give the current commonplace adage of 'Fuck Konami', their sentiments are directed at the recent decisions of those in charge and not the hardworking souls who crunched hard in the final hours of MGSV, or those not involved in key decision-making, the community or social media managers, or PR guys and girls. I've worked for bad management in the past and my heart goes out to those who find themselves right in the firing line for the fuckups of the higher-ups, having to answer to hordes of baying fans as to why the company now thinks sports drinks and pachinko machines are considered more important than Castlevania.
It's also possible some of the blame actually lies with Kojima himself to an extent, a notoriously indulgent auteur (and for good reason as he's made some of the world's greatest games), for how he handled the budget, a mutual disagreement that it seems no-one was able to meet the other halfway on. In defense of Kojima, they surely knew what they'd be getting when they greenlit these games? Whatever truly happened, this caused Kojima and his studio to be effectively fired from the company and now considered to be outside contractors, who's current contract runs out in December. Yes, they cut loose the guy who spent nearly thirty years making them millions.
Within the madness of the split, Silent Hills was canceled and Metal Gear Solid V was left hastily finished with cut-content and dropped features out the wazoo, although it remains a magnificent and acclaimed game despite all that. Massive negative sentiment towards Konami has then followed online for most of this year, as these huge disappointments seem to benefit nobody but themselves. Their status as something that's no longer driven by game consumers or a passion for games, seems pretty clear by all their recent actions. These are the moves of a company with currently one foot in and out of the industry its called home for more than forty years, and its detractors would like to be proven wrong about that but there's way too much evidence to support it.
Further still, it seems emblematic of the struggles within big-name Japanese game development in the last few years, with many similar auteur developers creating spiritual successors on Kickstarter, or in the case of Resident Evil maestro Shinji Mikami, departing to start his own smaller companies with great success.
Here's the part where I link to the rumour/investigative video posted by Super Bunnyhop about the goings-on at Konami, although it comes with the disclaimer of mainly falling under the banner of rumour. He can explain it better than I can:
http://youtu.be/iMK-kajdgMA
Why it's not all bad.
Every conversation I've had about Silent Hills is a melancholic one that ends with someone saying what a massive shame it's all been and hoping that it will all work out, as you'd well imagine. But to me the Silent Hills debacle transcends the word shame. I'd actually call it a tragedy, a disaster to all those who hold the horror genre dear. I've written blog opinions, had huge discussions online and on social media and commiserated over a few beers with like-minded, similarly forlorn fans. I've latched onto every little Steam game that even tried to emulate P.T, and thrown money at Allison Road. I've been griping for six goddamn months, but I think it's finally time to look at things in a new, positive angle. It's time to stop thinking about what we've lost, and instead focus on what we've yet to gain. And I personally think we've got good news ahead. Here's why:
1. Kojima is now truly free to do what he wants
It's not all that speculative to say that Konami was holding back their biggest talent. Numerous games canceled or unfinished; his new Zone of the Enders came to nothing, and with major scenes and missions in The Phantom Pain's ending only watchable on Youtube or a collector's edition disc, and now Silent Hills. As amazing as his produced work has always been, I think it's clear that he wasn't a best fit for the company he's always called home, and that there's a bigger world out there for him. I like to think there are publishers out there that would probably happily foot a Kojima bill with his ability to make some of the most daring and beautifully designed games in the medium. Now he hopefully gets to truly do what he wants, on his own terms.
I can only assume he'll have the biggest names in game publishing and beyond knocking on his door now, and even other industries? For all those who love and support his work, what he does next with the power that freedom affords could be the best part of his career. It's pretty exciting.
2. P.T left an indelible mark on modern horror games.
Silent Hills' acclaimed demo tapped into something I've wanted to see from games for a long time, the ability to use the FPS perspective to really mess with the player's head. Previously, few games out there did this sort of thing, although I'd throw the 'Shock' games that started with System Shock out there as good examples. P.T made us question what we were seeing, even see things in the darkness or hear things that caused us discomfort. We let ourselves be manipulated and guided in a way only the best horror films can manage. As pretentious as this sounds, it was a very different experience because it felt psychologically dense, when even a few seconds in its company is enough to feel the stress building.
Its influence can be felt already in a few indie horror games, but I think there's more to come. I wouldn't be surprised to see other genre games like Outlast 2 or future Slenders' take a leaf, no matter how small, out of P.T's book in it's sheer power to disquiet, confuse and alarm its poor, petrified players. Horror games were heading this way anyway, but P.T gave them a serious push forward. I think we'll see P.T-a-likes, some beautiful and unique, some straight up rip-offs, and some big-budget games taking enough of its DNA to inform their own take on horror, within the next few years.
3. There's an enormous and passionate market for Silent Hills going unsatiated. What happens next?
This one's a bit more of a daydream, but I personally think - and I know I'm not alone in this - that when it comes to the sheer desire for Silent Hills and what it represented, something's gotta give. Money rarely gets left on the table in an industry this huge. Every gap in the market gets filled, and this one is baying, begging and posting Fry memes by the dozen. Point-and-clickers came back, and graphic adventure games, and 2D platformers had a renaissance with stuff like Super Meat Boy or Shovel Knight. We're spoiled nowadays, and every whim is catered for. Miss top-down shooters? Here's Binding of Isaac, or Hotline Miami. Don't like modern military COD-style FPS's? Wolfenstein: The New Order or the new Doom. Just plain want FFVII again? You're getting it. We're living in a consumer-driven age, same with movies. Even Shenmue is coming back. I remember telling a Shenmue fanboy on a Sega forum about eight years ago to let it go, son. It's dead. It's an obscure old thing that now resides only in memory. And then a few months back Yu Suzuki strolls out onto the stage at E3 '15. I probably owe that one guy an apology.
Mark my words, the void left by Silent Hills WILL be filled by something, it's just a matter of time. It may take years, but it'll happen. I don't know this, I'm no-one important. I'm not an insider, I don't even have a job right now. Kojima and Del Toro may resume their ideas under a new name and engine (this is where you guys make all your 'Quiet Mountains' jokes), or someone else will do something like it. We could even get rival projects. Sony could, as many people have theorised, offer them the Forbidden Siren IP instead. They could start new and fresh, or license the Fox Engine if they get back on speaking terms with Konami. Or create the FOXHOUND engine instead (little in-joke). Any of this could happen. The creators wanted it, the fans wanted it, the critics wanted it. Konami are the only ones that no longer wanted to play ball, and they're moving further and further out of the gaming picture, so why can't the party continue without them?
4. VR is itching for horror.
It's already in place to a degree. Horror games are coming to headsets, and it will be amazing. I saw Alien Isolation being played on an Oculus at Eurogamer last year. and other games like Slender: The Arrival support it. And then there's Capcom's 'The Kitchen', which I think I'll let the Playstation Access guys summarise for you.
http://youtu.be/EljXG-vNHFo
The potential for VR experiences with horror, as daunting as the concept may be, could be the best thing to ever happen to the genre and I think P.T-a-likes will be a part of that.
I guess what I'm saying is there's a real future for the first-person horror genre that's only really just kicked off the last few years, and it's hard to carry on being sad about Silent Hills' cancellation when you look forward at the legacy it created. And I understand that few of these games will have the giant bottle of lightning that was the Del Toro, Kojima, Reedus and Ito superhero force, or be tied to the rich SH universe, but I believe there's even a chance for that too. I don't think this is the last we'll be hearing of Silent Hills, no matter what form it'll take. It's too good a thing to just slink off and die.
So those are my thoughts. Post in this thread to show your support for Silent Hills, Outlast, Soma, Amnesia, Alien Isolation, System Shock, Five Nights at Freddies, Allison Road and the whole rest of the future of this great genre, and let all browsing game devs, publishers, journalists and industry heads know that the audience is here, ready, and in fierce numbers awaiting the next great terror.
"Life isn't all about loss, y'know?" - Hal Emmerich, Metal Gear Solid.
Feel free to skip to 'Why It's Not All Bad' if this subject is your bread and butter and you just want to get to the point. See, I'm efficient like that.
As a quick primer for others, 'Silent Hills' was the Holy Grail of horror games, and one with the pedigree to become one of the greatest pieces of horror media ever produced, and that's not even an exaggeration. Its reveal had my imagination soaring with the possibilities. It brought acclaimed horror and fantasy director Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) together with legendary gaming auteur Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid), to revive one of the most revered horror licenses ever, one that's arguably been flailing in mediocrity for numerous years after IP holder Konami disbanded the original team. Not only that, but bringing in known character actor Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) to play the lead, and we've discovered in recent days that legendary Japanese horror artist Junji Ito would also have been involved, obviously from a conceptual point of view for some of the game's macabre imagery.
The sheer strength here of this quartet of talent, for many assured we were in for something very special indeed. It had the visionary, the developer, the lead performance and the artist - some of the best choices in their respective fields you could hope to find, especially for what this project specifically entailed.
The excitement was bolstered by the astonishing way this game was revealed to the world, with 'P.T', a proof-of-concept style teaser demo that was quietly released for free last Summer during Sony's E3 conference. As short as it may be, it's my opinion that P.T is the scariest game - or gamelike experience - ever made; one with a slow-burning, bewildering start that gradually unfolds into a rising chorus of tension and player stress, fraying your weak nerves until they reach breaking point. With the game's minimalist narrative unfolding slowly with every subtle moment, it's a masterclass in terror 101. To say any more would spoil its effect on you, so go play it (if you can) or at least observe a playthrough. The Twitch community fully embraced its enigmatic launch and cracked its mysteries within a few days, the ultimate reveal being that we were playing a teaser for a future Silent Hill game, carefully prepared by titans of various mediums. The final reveal of Norman Reedus looking around behind him remains an iconic visual moment seared into fans' memories. It is to date the greatest example of viral marketing I've personally ever seen.
http://youtu.be/4DlKqbLSXxc
My absolute favourite moment from P.T, and one that feels almost exclusive to me, was gazing down part of the empty, dark corridor, slowly turning around 360 degrees to take in my whole surroundings, but when my POV ends up back where I started there's now a figure standing there, watching me. With slow, unnatural movements it begins to advance. Unfortunately I didn't back up this capture when I upgraded my PS4's HDD, but watching the footage afterwards you could hear me audibly gasp and curse on the mic.
A conceptual trailer followed a few months later at the Tokyo Game Show, giving us another chilling look at what this game could've been capable of:
http://youtu.be/tVylTfkDP5c
Many have wondered if the whole game would've been first-person, but my guess - and this is pure speculation on my part - is that it would've made use of both third and first-person, typical of Kojima, but also with the fourth Silent Hill game having some influence. My theory is we would've been exploring the town in third, but slipping into that bowel-voiding first-person style whenever we got to the game's 'set-pieces' - the interior sections that would play like a massively expanded, deeper P.T. At least this is what I've assumed. Mainly because I would question having Reedus as the actor if he wasn't on-screen a sizeable part of the time, but I think the first-person terror would've been as important to the game's design after P.T's success.
So what happened? I want to tread relatively lightly because frankly, there could be a lot of misinformation out there, but with the lack of any real insight I'm left to only relay what the Internet is saying right now. Everything seemed to indicate a huge falling out between Konami heads and Hideo Kojima over the way the budgets were being used and spent on his games. It seems that the publisher no longer desired to foot the bill for these incredibly expensive productions and felt the burning need to put their foot down mid-development where it inevitably caused the most hurt. Their timing is possibly linked to the wait on the legalisation of gambling in Japan so they can leap fully onto that awaiting gold rush to make a mint, leaving high-end game development in the dust. At least, this is what the rumours are telling us, but it's difficult to clarify much for certain with the way online whispers seem to snowball.
It goes without saying that there are a lot of people working at Konami, and their studios don't begin and end with Kojima Productions. And I expect a fair few of them are passionate gamers; who knows what some of them have been through in the year gone past. I hope they know that when people give the current commonplace adage of 'Fuck Konami', their sentiments are directed at the recent decisions of those in charge and not the hardworking souls who crunched hard in the final hours of MGSV, or those not involved in key decision-making, the community or social media managers, or PR guys and girls. I've worked for bad management in the past and my heart goes out to those who find themselves right in the firing line for the fuckups of the higher-ups, having to answer to hordes of baying fans as to why the company now thinks sports drinks and pachinko machines are considered more important than Castlevania.
It's also possible some of the blame actually lies with Kojima himself to an extent, a notoriously indulgent auteur (and for good reason as he's made some of the world's greatest games), for how he handled the budget, a mutual disagreement that it seems no-one was able to meet the other halfway on. In defense of Kojima, they surely knew what they'd be getting when they greenlit these games? Whatever truly happened, this caused Kojima and his studio to be effectively fired from the company and now considered to be outside contractors, who's current contract runs out in December. Yes, they cut loose the guy who spent nearly thirty years making them millions.
Within the madness of the split, Silent Hills was canceled and Metal Gear Solid V was left hastily finished with cut-content and dropped features out the wazoo, although it remains a magnificent and acclaimed game despite all that. Massive negative sentiment towards Konami has then followed online for most of this year, as these huge disappointments seem to benefit nobody but themselves. Their status as something that's no longer driven by game consumers or a passion for games, seems pretty clear by all their recent actions. These are the moves of a company with currently one foot in and out of the industry its called home for more than forty years, and its detractors would like to be proven wrong about that but there's way too much evidence to support it.
Further still, it seems emblematic of the struggles within big-name Japanese game development in the last few years, with many similar auteur developers creating spiritual successors on Kickstarter, or in the case of Resident Evil maestro Shinji Mikami, departing to start his own smaller companies with great success.
Here's the part where I link to the rumour/investigative video posted by Super Bunnyhop about the goings-on at Konami, although it comes with the disclaimer of mainly falling under the banner of rumour. He can explain it better than I can:
http://youtu.be/iMK-kajdgMA
Why it's not all bad.
Every conversation I've had about Silent Hills is a melancholic one that ends with someone saying what a massive shame it's all been and hoping that it will all work out, as you'd well imagine. But to me the Silent Hills debacle transcends the word shame. I'd actually call it a tragedy, a disaster to all those who hold the horror genre dear. I've written blog opinions, had huge discussions online and on social media and commiserated over a few beers with like-minded, similarly forlorn fans. I've latched onto every little Steam game that even tried to emulate P.T, and thrown money at Allison Road. I've been griping for six goddamn months, but I think it's finally time to look at things in a new, positive angle. It's time to stop thinking about what we've lost, and instead focus on what we've yet to gain. And I personally think we've got good news ahead. Here's why:
1. Kojima is now truly free to do what he wants
It's not all that speculative to say that Konami was holding back their biggest talent. Numerous games canceled or unfinished; his new Zone of the Enders came to nothing, and with major scenes and missions in The Phantom Pain's ending only watchable on Youtube or a collector's edition disc, and now Silent Hills. As amazing as his produced work has always been, I think it's clear that he wasn't a best fit for the company he's always called home, and that there's a bigger world out there for him. I like to think there are publishers out there that would probably happily foot a Kojima bill with his ability to make some of the most daring and beautifully designed games in the medium. Now he hopefully gets to truly do what he wants, on his own terms.
I can only assume he'll have the biggest names in game publishing and beyond knocking on his door now, and even other industries? For all those who love and support his work, what he does next with the power that freedom affords could be the best part of his career. It's pretty exciting.
2. P.T left an indelible mark on modern horror games.
Silent Hills' acclaimed demo tapped into something I've wanted to see from games for a long time, the ability to use the FPS perspective to really mess with the player's head. Previously, few games out there did this sort of thing, although I'd throw the 'Shock' games that started with System Shock out there as good examples. P.T made us question what we were seeing, even see things in the darkness or hear things that caused us discomfort. We let ourselves be manipulated and guided in a way only the best horror films can manage. As pretentious as this sounds, it was a very different experience because it felt psychologically dense, when even a few seconds in its company is enough to feel the stress building.
Its influence can be felt already in a few indie horror games, but I think there's more to come. I wouldn't be surprised to see other genre games like Outlast 2 or future Slenders' take a leaf, no matter how small, out of P.T's book in it's sheer power to disquiet, confuse and alarm its poor, petrified players. Horror games were heading this way anyway, but P.T gave them a serious push forward. I think we'll see P.T-a-likes, some beautiful and unique, some straight up rip-offs, and some big-budget games taking enough of its DNA to inform their own take on horror, within the next few years.
3. There's an enormous and passionate market for Silent Hills going unsatiated. What happens next?
This one's a bit more of a daydream, but I personally think - and I know I'm not alone in this - that when it comes to the sheer desire for Silent Hills and what it represented, something's gotta give. Money rarely gets left on the table in an industry this huge. Every gap in the market gets filled, and this one is baying, begging and posting Fry memes by the dozen. Point-and-clickers came back, and graphic adventure games, and 2D platformers had a renaissance with stuff like Super Meat Boy or Shovel Knight. We're spoiled nowadays, and every whim is catered for. Miss top-down shooters? Here's Binding of Isaac, or Hotline Miami. Don't like modern military COD-style FPS's? Wolfenstein: The New Order or the new Doom. Just plain want FFVII again? You're getting it. We're living in a consumer-driven age, same with movies. Even Shenmue is coming back. I remember telling a Shenmue fanboy on a Sega forum about eight years ago to let it go, son. It's dead. It's an obscure old thing that now resides only in memory. And then a few months back Yu Suzuki strolls out onto the stage at E3 '15. I probably owe that one guy an apology.
Mark my words, the void left by Silent Hills WILL be filled by something, it's just a matter of time. It may take years, but it'll happen. I don't know this, I'm no-one important. I'm not an insider, I don't even have a job right now. Kojima and Del Toro may resume their ideas under a new name and engine (this is where you guys make all your 'Quiet Mountains' jokes), or someone else will do something like it. We could even get rival projects. Sony could, as many people have theorised, offer them the Forbidden Siren IP instead. They could start new and fresh, or license the Fox Engine if they get back on speaking terms with Konami. Or create the FOXHOUND engine instead (little in-joke). Any of this could happen. The creators wanted it, the fans wanted it, the critics wanted it. Konami are the only ones that no longer wanted to play ball, and they're moving further and further out of the gaming picture, so why can't the party continue without them?
4. VR is itching for horror.
It's already in place to a degree. Horror games are coming to headsets, and it will be amazing. I saw Alien Isolation being played on an Oculus at Eurogamer last year. and other games like Slender: The Arrival support it. And then there's Capcom's 'The Kitchen', which I think I'll let the Playstation Access guys summarise for you.
http://youtu.be/EljXG-vNHFo
The potential for VR experiences with horror, as daunting as the concept may be, could be the best thing to ever happen to the genre and I think P.T-a-likes will be a part of that.
I guess what I'm saying is there's a real future for the first-person horror genre that's only really just kicked off the last few years, and it's hard to carry on being sad about Silent Hills' cancellation when you look forward at the legacy it created. And I understand that few of these games will have the giant bottle of lightning that was the Del Toro, Kojima, Reedus and Ito superhero force, or be tied to the rich SH universe, but I believe there's even a chance for that too. I don't think this is the last we'll be hearing of Silent Hills, no matter what form it'll take. It's too good a thing to just slink off and die.
So those are my thoughts. Post in this thread to show your support for Silent Hills, Outlast, Soma, Amnesia, Alien Isolation, System Shock, Five Nights at Freddies, Allison Road and the whole rest of the future of this great genre, and let all browsing game devs, publishers, journalists and industry heads know that the audience is here, ready, and in fierce numbers awaiting the next great terror.
"Life isn't all about loss, y'know?" - Hal Emmerich, Metal Gear Solid.
