Silent Hill: Downpour was a wash, failing to spark any great response from horror gamers. As a consequence, the studio behind the latest in the survival horror series, Vatra Games, may be facing the axe. Reports are that the studio is under review by its owner, Kuju Entertainment. While no closures have been announced, Vatra doesn’t have much going for it, as its other project, a God of War game, seems to have fallen apart. The vultures are circling. Eurogamer has the story.
Why can’t anyone else get Silent Hill right? It’s not that hard, folks. Creepy environment, creepy ambient sounds, brutal musical scores played by demons on the smashed pipes and wires of an abandoned crematorium, and the contrast between a broken, run down world on one side and an industrial hell devoted to ritual and suffering on the other. It’s about people being people and the spiritual cancer they create that causes Heaven itself to bleed.
It’s not a checklist of “this monster means this!” and combat mechanics.