A Better Way to Implement the Concepts Introduced by Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (SM) is an extremely interesting game, Climax took some major risks and packed it full of interesting an innovative ideas but most of the best ones were done in by poor execution. It's to largest features, the psychoanalysis and the lack of combat, both had the potential to push the Horror genre to new heights but failed in the end do to the poor execution, resulting in the games biggest flaw, it's just not that scary. This is really sad because the concepts at play here are easily some of the best ever if they had been implemented in slightly different ways. So looking back on that game I have thought of a better way (with the power of hindsight, ain't knowing what doesn't work awesome) to house the concept which they brought into play.

The concept of playing through the game without being able to harm the creatures attacking you is a truly horrifying idea. It limits the player it makes them tense, if they get caught there is no fighting back, it is a perfect mechanic for a horror game, but it puts heavy limitations on the situations that the developer can put you in. In a traditional horror game if you couldn't defend yourself then your screwed, you may be able to run away but you'll just run into more enemies meaning that you'll just end up trapped. It would basically turn the game into a stealth game which while scary wouldn't be all that fun due to the lack of option in dealing with enemies. SM tried to sidestep that issue by giving you an escape, while this was a perfectly logical move and was the easiest way to fix the problem, it created the equally large problem of robbing the game of its tension. So having the advantage of hindsight (it's always awesome to know what doesn't work)I have come up with a new system I call the Hunters.

The Hunters system is referring to the way enemies are designed and how they are distributed. My system is similar to Shadow of the Colossus in that there are no low level enemies only the bosses. While taking out the low level enemies gets rid of the fear you have of being out numbered their behavior should be enough to replace it. Thats because the Hunters are exactly what it sounds like, their hunters and your the prey. My solution sidesteps the problem of Climax's solution by constantly maintaining the tension of being hunted, you are almost never safe, you have to solve the puzzles while dealing with the Hunter, and because there is only one hunter (at least most of the time) you'll never be overwhelmed. Another key part to the hunter system is that the player should have ways to deal with the hunter, they can set up traps to slow it down or distractions to bring get it away from you, hiding places to escape if it notices you, meaning you can be somewhat prepared, but even then all preparations will only be temporary at best.

The Hunter System has a lot of other benefits to gameplay as well. First of all each hunter track you in it's own way and no two are exactly the same for instance one may be based on sound while another smells for your blood. Secondly it's easy to use this to naturally up the danger of wandering around Silent Hill, see in my concept, each Hunter starts the game in its own domain (one of the buildings or areas in or around Silent Hill (I bet there's a mirror house in the amusement park, yay for cliches)) but as you complete your objective in the hunters area they escape into the greater town and will hunt you through the entirety of Silent Hill, thus you are never safe and the danger is always escalating. Thirdly by giving each Hunter it's own area you can really control the situations and create wonderfully tense situations for the player. Finally the Hunter system fits really well into the type of horror Silent hill tries to do as well as its mythology. Essentially there has already been at least one creature in a Silent Hill game that was a hunter, I'll give you one guess. Thats right it's Pyramid Head essentially were making every enemy in the game a Pyramid Head type creature. Also the very situation of being hunted puts a stress on the player making it really easy to mess with them. The player is on edge, constantly aware of his surroundings as it is necessary for survival. Small stuff like strange noises and small movements at the edges of the screen will be noticed and may quite easily provoke a reaction (if your unlucky it may even cause a fatal mistake). Finally the mythology of Silent Hill is that the creatures are your issues come to life it kind of makes sense that they would hunt you out in particular.

This goes nicely into my next point of the psychoanalysis that SM attempt to do. In SM it never really amounts to much it changes appearances but it doesn't seem to have too much effect on the situations you get put into. In the game I have in my head (damn I wish I could program well, this game seems awesome but it would take way to much talent to make) the psychoanalysis is directed at attempting to figure out what traits of a predefined group most accurately describe the player (e.g. indecisiveness, need for control, curiosity, fear of unknown). Each of these traits would have a hunter and lair designed to prey on them and the n highest rated traits would be used. If this is done right it would be just plain insane Silent Hill would literally be doing to the players what it does to the characters, take their the psychological traits and foibles turn them into enemies that are trying to kill them. The perfection of pulling that off would probably be the ultimate achievement in game design.

I just have so many ideas, as the design space they made apparent with Shattered Memories is utterly insane. Well if your interested in specifics for some for this game concept you can PM me I have TONS of ideas for directions this game concept could go in.