Die Website vg247.com konnte ein paar mehr Infos zum neuen Silent Hill-Spiel ergattern.
Die Website vg247.com hatte die Chance dem Entwickler von Silent Hill: Downpour ein paar Fragen zu stellen. Vatra Games ist für das neue Silent Hill-Spiel verantwortlich, dass für PS3 und Xbox 360 erscheinen wird.
“Let me start by pointing out something which a lot of fans haven’t grasped yet: there was no homogenous ‘Team Silent’ that worked on all the Silent Hills,” says der Producer Devin Shatsky. “Team Silent will make a SH game when Sasquatch returns to Bluff Creek, or Plesiosaurs once again inhabit Loch Ness,” fügt Shatsky hinzu. “It’s important for skeptical fans to remember that despite the games being developed “outside Konami,” every title has been conceived and managed internally,” sagt Tomm Hulett, ein weiterer Entwickler bei Vatra Games. “Konami takes a very active role in the creation of games that it publishes – we don’t simply hand the franchise off with a blank cheque and then watch the schedule. Franchises like Silent Hill are important to Konami’s success, so we make sure to have a hand in their creation.”
Shatsky erklärt, dass Downpour eine Balance zwischen den beiden Gameplay-Elementen Kämpfen und Flüchten besitzen wird. “With Shattered Memories, we really wanted to create a sense of fear and helplessness by introducing creatures that you couldn’t kill, so players were forced to run away. While a lot of people really enjoyed that gameplay mechanic, we know there were still quite a few purists that wanted the combat experience as well. So with Downpour we’re aiming for the best of both worlds. Granted, it’s not an easy task.”
Der Soundtrack wird nicht mehr von Akira Yamaoka stammen, sondern von Daniel Licht. “A few of us here at Konami, myself included, were big fans of Dexter and really enjoyed the music from that series, so needless to say Dan was at the top of our short list,” sagte Shatsky. “I’m just glad we got him, because the music he’s composed thus far has been phenomenal. Working with Dan has been a real pleasure, and his style is a natural fit for the series. I think the fans will be pleased as well, and that’s saying a lot.”
In Silent Hill: Downpour geht es um zwei Aspekte: Atmosphäre und Vertiefung. Hulett sagt, dass es im Spiel mehr darum geht Spannung aufzubauen als gegen Gegner zu kämpfen. “In more action-based horror titles, there are zombies or whatever everywhere. You’re constantly fighting them, and the fear comes from knowing the odds are stacked against you and watching that ammo meter drop. In Silent Hill, however, there’s a lot more walking around spooky environments wondering what could be around the corner. While we do have plenty of monsters and scare moments in Silent Hill, the player’s mind does a lot of our work for us.”
Hulett fährt fort: “A lot of the tension comes from you scaring yourself. If you’re constantly blasting zombies you never have a chance to calm down, look around, and let that dread grow again – you’re constantly on the go. Silent Hill games have a very methodical ebb and flow to their scares.”
Shatsky versichert, dass die Horror-Elemente des kommenden Spiels denen aus Silent Hill 2 ähneln, aber natürlich keine Kopie sind, sondern anders mit der Geschichte zusammenhängen. “It was the only previous SH that had a completely stand-alone storyline, with no plot elements tied to previous installments. When we conceived the story for Downpour, that was our one and only pre-requisite,” erklärt Shatsky. “We’ve said that it most closely resembles Silent Hill 2 in feel, and we’ve also noticed some fans being suspicious of this because, ‘It’s what they always say – does it really mean anything?’ That’s fair enough. However, Downpour is no Homecoming – we won’t be imitating SH2 by copying its key plot twist,” sagt Hulett. “In this case it’s because SH2 was about the town of Silent Hill and a man who found himself there, rather than the cult or Alessa. The old Silent Hill team mentioned several times that the series was about “the town,” and that it wasn’t about a narrative that continued from game to game, but stories about people who ended up there. So this is the approach we’re taking.”
Shatsky sagte, dass action-basierte Horror-Konkurrenz-Spiele wie Resident Evil und Dead Space mehr für eine Mainstream-Zielgruppe entwickelt werden. Das Horror-Genre hat sich also weiterentwickelt. “We’re fighting a bit of an uphill battle with Silent Hill, which leans more toward psychological exploration and atmosphere to create it’s tension. It will be interesting to see how things go in the next few years, but it’s obvious the trend has been continuing toward more action, more combat.” Hulett: “I don’t think any genre can be irreversibly locked in any direction; it’s natural for diversity to expand as time goes on. Every shooter isn’t an FPS, and every RPG isn’t linear and turn-based. If anything the continued existence of survival horror allows more experimental approaches to horror. Now have developers explored horror as much as they could have? Maybe not. But we’re certainly trying to show it can go places beyond shotguns and zombies.”
Downpour wird zudem “unique evolutions in gameplay” haben und dabei intuitiv und natürlich sein. “The franchise has been content to stick with a very old-fashioned control scheme for a while now. Though it was more combat focused, Homecoming even stuck to these conventions in a lot of ways. The non-Wii versions of Shattered Memories dialed back to the comfortable standard, too,” sagt Hulett. “Hopefully with Downpour everything can feel natural and intuitive again, instead of forcing in old concepts for the sake of tradition. But we’re always sensitive to retaining that horror atmosphere. We aren’t abandoning things that work, such as fixed cameras; we’re just finding ways to use them naturally in a contemporary way.”
Downpour spielt sich außerdem wie gewohnt in der Third Person-Ansicht, wie Vatra Games jetzt entgegen allen First Person-Gerüchten bestätigt. “Shortly after the game was announced, detail-hungry gamers noticed Vatra’s developer profile listed them as a ‘first-person shooter’ developer,” erklärt Hulett. “They jumped to the conclusion that this meant Silent Hill would become an FPS. I can assure everyone there is not, nor was there ever, a plan to make an FPS Silent Hill.”
Es ist außerdem möglich, dass der Entwickler Support für PlayStation Move und Kinect integriert. “Shattered Memories did a lot of really cool things,” so Hulett. “I’d definitely like to incorporate motion control into future titles. The catch with things like Move, though, is making sure the experience is just as compelling with the motion control as without. But naturally you can’t use motion control unless there’s a compelling reason to do so – it’s a delicate balance and takes a lot of thought to pull off correctly.”
Dead Space und Resident Evil haben beide das Online-Spielen in irgendeiner Form integriert, wie z.B. Coop oder Mehrspieler-Modi. Erst vor kurzem hatte Capcom das Multiplayer-Spiel Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City angekündigt. Ob dies auch in der Silent Hill-Reihe bzw. in Downpour klappt?“In the early planning stages of Downpour we’d talked about what could be done with multiplayer. However, that isn’t something we’d want to tack on just to have another bullet point. If we were to make a multiplayer Silent Hill, it would have to be something compelling and new. So we decided to focus on creating a great solo experience with Downpour. I certainly think it’s possible to make a co-op horror title, but it’s something that needs to be carefully crafted to succeed.”
Hier findet ihr noch eine Zeitleiste zur beliebten Spiele-Reihe vom Publisher Konami.
Silent Hill – 1999
Silent Hill 2 – 2001
Silent Hill 3 – 2003
Silent Hill 4: The Room – 2004
Silent Hill: Origins – 2007
Silent Hill: Homecoming – 2008
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories – 2009
Silent Hill: Downpour – 2011
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Game: Silent Hill: Downpour | Genre: Horror | System(e): PS3, Xbox 360 | Release: Herbst 2011
Hersteller: Konami | Entwickler: Vatra Games | USK: -
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■ Jensen6
