New Downpour Details

[Piramit Kafa]

@Monster, I like your quick work. Especially the first picture makes the town look like it should.

[Skele]

yeah, sorry Monster but i prefer Vatra's screens over yours, no offense. with yours, we lose too much detail that some folks in this same thread are complaining about there being a lack of.

im too lazy to post who said it, but i don't see how anyone can say the graphics from theis new vid are better than what we've seen in older ones. it's quite ridiculous simply for the fact that the vid quality is shit.

anyway, just let the complainers whine. it gives them something to do until the game is released.

[Dragonforce1080p]

I agree, sorry but the originals are better. I love the way the blue light barely shines thorugh the cloudy day. I love rain and cloudy days so this game will probably hit the right spot for me. That second screenshot feels so gloomy and beautiful. Makes my imagination go wild.

[an a corpse cant laugh =)]

Bland enviroments.

are a mainstay of the Silent Hill series. Without the bland, mundane environments we have nothing to compare the otherside to. Now if the otherside is also bland then fair enough, but all we see here is a coal mine, it's going to look like a coal mine.

bland enviroments are a mainstay of the series?
in all fairness i dont think making a bland enviroment
was to keep in faith of the old silent hills and if you think the old silent hills have bland enviroments dont you think they should be changing that trend by now? I think they made a bland enviroment
because its bad creative design.It just looks so boring.
They should of made it much darker and creepy.
To be honest i just hate the whole mine area idea.
Its unoriginal and too easy.
BUT i do like the other areas ive seen in the game.Some of it looks great.
So i still cant make up my mind about this game just yet.

[Monster]

I love the way the blue light barely shines thorugh the cloudy day

I would probably love it too, but in a different game. I prefer the dead grey and black environments we saw in SH2. Silent Hill doesnt need to be pretty, it should actually be drab and depressing, removing you from your comfort zone visually. They're just lighting this game like they would any game. I think it would make a huge difference if they would just be bold and sacrifice a little more visibility. SH4 made this mistake as well, and as much as I've come to admire that game, it's not nearly as scary as the others.

[stopped_clock]

Bland enviroments.

are a mainstay of the Silent Hill series. Without the bland, mundane environments we have nothing to compare the otherside to. Now if the otherside is also bland then fair enough, but all we see here is a coal mine, it's going to look like a coal mine.

bland enviroments are a mainstay of the series?
in all fairness i dont think making a bland enviroment
was to keep in faith of the old silent hills and if you think the old silent hills have bland enviroments dont you think they should be changing that trend by now? I think they made a bland enviroment
because its bad creative design.It just looks so boring.
They should of made it much darker and creepy.
To be honest i just hate the whole mine area idea.
Its unoriginal and too easy.

There is nothing overly creepy about the environments of the first game (the one that I tend to compare everything else to) bar the darkness and the abandonment. The foggy world environs are necessarily unremarkable in order to provide stronger juxtaposition with the otherside environs.

It's imperative, to me at least, that the fogworld looks as close to a real world environment as possible - a school is just a school, a hospital is just a hospital, a mine is just a mine - in order for the transition to the nightmarish otherside to be effective.

It's not a trend to be bucked, but rather a strong part of what makes the horror of Silent Hill so effective. If everything is creepy all the time then nothing is creepy.

Although I do agree that the mine itself is a fairly uninspired choice of location in video gaming.

[an a corpse cant laugh =)]

I can see your point like you said the darkness and abandoment
was present in silent hills schools and hospitals but i dont think this mine has that at all.It just looks like an uninventive design choice even the art direction is unoriginal.An that monster? that monster should be a twisted aparation of silent hill an the protagonist.
Instead its just another generic monster ive seen thousands of times.
Ive been playing games for 15 years now and im 23 years old
and i havnt been scared by a silent hill game since silent hill 3.
The whole WTH factor has completley gone and i just wish they would bring it back.I dont want to go down a boring mine with boring monsters and predictable scares.
That video is just terrible. The part with the door breaking down too?
i mean come on ooooooh scary.
An the shining objects telling you where to go (pushing the tram thingy)
I can work it out myself im not stupid it insults my intelligence.

UH rant over haha =) I HATE THE MINE

[stopped_clock]

^Thank god the hole game isn't going to take place in it!

I think most of the games had some level or other that was boring as heck, SH1's sewers, SH3's sewers, SH:H's sewers, hang on a minute, I'm noticing a trend here! If there's one thing I can say about the mine, at least it isn't a bloody sewer!

[an a corpse cant laugh =)]

^Thank god the hole game isn't going to take place in it!

I think most of the games had some level or other that was boring as heck, SH1's sewers, SH3's sewers, SH:H's sewers, hang on a minute, I'm noticing a trend here! If there's one thing I can say about the mine, at least it isn't a bloody sewer!

Hahaha! that is so true i never thought of that
uve just made the mine that bit more bearable for me!

[Piramit Kafa]

Oh yes those sewers. Boy they are boring. The one in the first game was scary as hell though. But I agree that all previous games had at least one boring level. Homecoming on the other hand had lots of them. Downpour will probably have them as well. Hopefully not many.

[EmilietheStrange]

^ I agree. The sewers in 1,3, Homecoming, the apartments in 2, the first half of the sanitarium in Origins, and the subway in 3 and 4 are all environments that I find boring, so I try to blow through them as quickly as possible.

As for that gameplay video, its okay. Though I think that white monster looks extremely generic and I didn't like the fact that there were two jump scares.

[Doctor Eggnog]

^ I thought SH1 sewers, SH2 Apartments, and Origins Sanitarium were awesome!

For me the boring parts in the first two games are the outdoor areas in the beginning. I agree with the Sewers in 3, and maybe also the Subway. About half the levels in 4 were boring. Agree with the sewers in Homecoming, and really found the Hotel boring until the end. In Origins I thought the Hospital was boring. I guess it's cause a lot of these indoor levels didn't have much exploration. The SH2 Apartments and Origins Sanituarium had plenty, and I thought the SH1 sewers were intense.

[stopped_clock]

^The outdoor sections in the beginnings of the first two games are probably my favourite parts of any SH games. It's the only time in the series where I really feel like I'm exploring the mysterious empty town. And I mean actually exploring not just going from a to b.

I'm hoping that Downpour can deliver that feeling again.

[thy_butcher]

^ I agree. I loved running around the streets in the first two; particularly when the 3 keys must be found to open the door in the Levin St. House in SH1. Hopefully Downpour won't feel like "go here, then here" all the time. I want to feel like I'm exploring, even if there isn't too much to see. Just like in SH1 & 2.
I really think Downpour looks great. I agree that the visibility (From What we've seen anyways) is much clearer than previous games. But from the gameplay videos, to the official screenshots, I have to say, things are still pretty dreary & dark. You can see things, but barely. I like it. I think they've balanced it well between being blind & being able to see the other side of town.
Won't Downpour have Day-Night cycles? Hmmm. Night during the rain will be neat.

[Doctor Eggnog]

^ I loved exploring the town in the first game when I was little and thought the game was about exploring places and seeing the effect on the map way more than story and scarieness (I still kinda do), but on replays the early parts of the first two games just kinda bore me. That doesn't mean I wouldn't like to see parts like that in Dounpour. Once again, I'd love an outdoor boss fight where you can use the entire town to fight it in!

[thy_butcher]

^ That's a great idea! I don't think a SH has done that. I've only beaten 0, 1, 2, & 3, so I'm not sure.
I'm picturing using various hiding spots throughout the town to get the upperhand on said boss. It could be so lethal that you MUST use the town & the space(s) it provides just so you can get some distance between it & you.

[PoemOfTheLastMoment]

I'm hoping for completely new environments that don't refer to previous games in the series except maybe through easter eggs that give some sort of reference to the first 4 games...

[thy_butcher]

^ I'm pretty sure that is exactly how it's going to be. Vatra has said that no old areas will be visited. The game is taking place in a part of Silent Hill (South-Eastern I think) that we've yet to see.
Downpour will be its own standalone story. Supposedly no cult, or reoccuring characters.

[Pleasant Sinner]

Here's how those pics should look:

For some reason I love how dark and foreboding this is, though it's an edited pic.

And ya, the areas in that 6 min vid were a little too bright. As for that monster thing, I'm liking how it just shoots up onto the ceiling when you walk around it. However, I'm not liking how freakin' big he actually is, how albino he looks and how he puts up a fight. I also love how those creepy miner figures kinda seem as if they're staring at you.

But I can tell this is old footage (I lol'd at the glitch) and that things might get tuned and tweaked for release.

[Doctor Eggnog]

People seem to think that revisiting the same areas of the town would make the game boring. We've explored like, what 5% of the buildings in those areas, not to mention how different the SH1 area would look with today's graphics. Still, if I like the new area and find it memorable then I guess it's okay.