Bloober Team may be working on SILENT HILL & SILENT HILL 3 {RUMOR}

[Droo]

Then SH1 and SH3 should each be longer experiences separately, I think.

[The Adversary]

Honestly, I think SILENT HILL 2: REMAKE was too long. Both SILENT HILL and SILENT HILL 3's stories can be told in the same amount of time.

And, yeah, I get it: They're video games. That's kinda what happens. But dredging through the sewers thrice between the two games would be an awful lot — and neither of them had any real story implications. They were just video game levels.

[Droo]

Bloober could make the sewer more interesting. They certainly made the Prison and Labyrinth better.

[jdnation]

SH1 could definitely be truncated in many areas.

SH3 wasn't bad. But I'd agree that we could shave time here and there, particularly in samey levels like the hospital. But that was because we'd already been there in SH2.

Maybe it'd be ideal to divide the hospital parts between SH1 and 3 so there are two separate facilities for the same place with only a little overlap to establish that it is the same place. Like Harry visits a new ward, after the front entrance, but Heather visits an old one that Harry couldn't access. Or simply that Harry after awhile enters a no-map nowhere layout version of the hospital, while Heather explores the hospital layout properly.

But ideally, other than the hospital, which is story relevant, it's better not to repeat locations, or if you do, not for too long. I did feel the Remake hospital dragged on. And... that might just be because every game has featured hospitals, so it has kinda worn out on me as a location and the nurses have become chocobo series staples that feel the need to be there just because... Next time, for a change, they should put us in an airport with flight attendants

[Droo]

SH3 needs to move the hospital from Brookhaven to Alchemilla. And cut everything from the mall/subway to Harry's apartment and replace it with something more interesting.

I can't think of anything to cut from SH1 except maybe shortening the sewer. Or just making it scarier or more disorienting.

[leftshoe18]

Getting rid of the shopping center building to get us from the mall to Harry's quicker and then expanding the time we spend in Silent Hill would be awesome.

[jdnation]

Whoa, wait, I loved SH3's mall and subway, and the fact we were playing in a new location and moving towards Silent Hill.

Since SH3 has a teen girl's perspective, the mall, and also the subway have thematic relevance. Malls being the typical comfortable hang-out space then turned horrific, and the subways an uncomfortable one in terms of women being alone, stalked, harassed by strangers or other potential dangers like being pushed onto the tracks etc.

Technically we began in the otherworld amusement park as a tutorial dream sequence, only to end up in the same place later.

So they should cut that intro out (Except maybe just as a precognitive cutscene Heather dreams), make the mall the enclosed tutorial area, then open up onto the streets of a new city as a new area (but in otherworld form), then go to the subway, maybe have Heather need to also traverse the tracks to get to a working train. And continue on from there.

I agree that the hospital should be Alchemilla. But that means not staying at Jack's Inn, which has the SH3 Easter egg, and is close to Brookhaven. So they could either ignore that and stay elsewhere and Heather doesn't revisit James' location (I honestly think SH3 recycled SH2 assets more for budgetary reasons, though it does work as a nice callback), or she goes to Brookhaven, but some crazy stuff happens and the otherworld radically transfoms Brookhaven into Alchemilla, or sends Heather on a long otherworld path there not long after that connects the hospitals together, and by the end she plays through and emerges from Alchemilla's front doors in an entirely new part of town.

[Droo]

I think leftshoe meant getting rid of the office building, not the mall.

I like the office building and its environmental storytelling. It's the subway and the sewer that bore me.

[leftshoe18]

Yeah I meant the office building.

[Droo]

I would change it so after the Subway instead of going through the sewer and the office building Heather gets transported to a recreation of Midwich or Balkan Church to explore before she ends up back home.

[Jonipoon]

I don't want complete reimaginings of either SH1 or SH3 - especially not SH1.

I also don't want the stories to me merged into one single game. Although I'm fully aware of SH3's faults as a lackluster drag and for its unoriginality, its faults should not hamper a full remake of SH1. Merging the two games into one story would certaintly benefit SH3, but not the other way around.

[Utherworld]

I don't want complete reimaginings of either SH1 or SH3 - especially not SH1.

I also don't want the stories to me merged into one single game. Although I'm fully aware of SH3's faults as a lackluster drag and for its unoriginality, its faults should not hamper a full remake of SH1. Merging the two games into one story would certaintly benefit SH3, but not the other way around.

My take is here is that a lot of the fanbase would be upset if this were to happen. Many of the fanbase has Silent Hill 3 listed as their favorite installment.

IMO.

Properly remake SH1 and 3. SH1 needs a lot work on narrative, voice acting and story elements whereas SH3 needs the SH2 REmake treatment.

[Arsonist]

I disagree that SH1 needs A LOT of work regarding the narrative. We need a few extra scenes of Cheryl and Cybil so they're not just plot devices, but the story itself was solid. Basically do for them what they did for Maria. Really, SH1 and SH3 both deserve the same respect that's given to SH2. They're deeper than they get the credit for.

[jdnation]

Thing is, that after the acclaim of SH2 Remake, ESPECIALLY by new players to the franchise, expectations for what follows after will be that much higher, so the bar has been raised.

In terms of sales concerns, if SH1 Remake is less well received than SH2 Remake, then that could hurt the sales of SH3 Remake. So SH1 Remake will need to do a lot to raise itself up in the story department, which necessitates new content.

The easy way in my mind to do this is by giving Cybil more character, potentially as a playable character on her own route with her own motivations, and have Harry's loss of his wife reflected in Cheryl/Alessa's memories as the loss of her foster mother, which also helps us explore him, and his more nurturing nature to make up for the loss of his wife.

Even if we don't have a playable Cybil, she and Kaufmann's story and the drug aspect can reflect real world societal concerns about parental drug concerns, medical malpractice, opioid epidemics, or maybe even that Harry might be struggling with depression too for which he tries to be stronger with prescription medication or something. All which also in turn ties in with Alessa's experiences.

There are avenues to take that can make the characters richer for it.

[Droo]

I'm not sure why I'm seeing people underestimating/undervaluing Silent Hill 1. It's dated, yes, but it's still a surprisingly compelling and terrifying game for the time it was made. It just needs some updating.

[Jonipoon]

Amen to that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the story of the first game. When you break it down it's both compelling, mysterious, dark and full of twists and turns. Although modern voice acting would completely destroy the eerie David Lynchian dialogue with its long pauses, I feel it could elevate the story in a new way and make it more accessible to a modern audience.

Like I said before, some minor updates could be made but most of story could and should be kept the same. Characters like Harry Mason for example shouldn't retroactively be changed into a traumatic figure that suffers from depression due to the loss of his wife. Alessa is the tragic character in the story - not Harry.

[jdnation]

SH1's general story is fine. The presentation is dated, and SH2 is revered over it in the story/character department for obvious reasons.

In terms of momentum for the franchise, I think more characterization and subtext helps.

I wouldn't want Harry traumatized or a pill addict, only coping as a single dad trying his best, and the story to depict Cheryl/Alessa's feeling about him and her adoptive mother as a contrast to Dahlia's. In gameplay narrative terms he also uses medication to heal himself while searching for his daughter and understanding her and making his way through the fog of life's uncertainties.

So Harry learns about how his daughter also sees and worries about him, and misses her mother, whom he also does. Harry should remain stoic, but he should sympathize with the revelations as they come. It's Alessa's story we learn through him. In the eyes of a child, worries can be exaggerated... Because mommy was also sick and on medication and died, so if she sees daddy taking pills, she'd worry about losing him too, even though nothing is wrong.

The drug angle could simply be that he himself doesn't like taking them or relying on prescription meds, so he is sympathetic/uncomfortable when it comes up with Lisa and Cybil and documents detailing drugs in SH and Alessa's treatments, which motivates him to help them.

It is also a contemporary topic worldwide when it comes to medication, so it can resonate with audiences through it's story. Nobody like taking medication, so it works as a horror motif.

This imo enriches the story without changing the essentials or characters nor requires any grander rewriting of the scenario.

[Arsonist]

I think more characterization and subtext helps.

I think that SH1 tends to get overlooked due to overabundance of subtext rather than the lack of it. Don't get me wrong, SH2's story is a masterwork, but subtle it is not. Even after 26 years, not many people see the magnitude of Alessa, a deeply tormented girl who spent the entire game trying to destroy herself, choosing instead to entrust "herself" to Harry with all the risks that come with it.

[jdnation]

It's certainly there in terms of Alessa. But hardly anyone else. Only Lisa stands out.

While SH2 is more obvious with it's themes, the main playable character is the main subject and more developed, and the supporting cast's stories arcs directly relate back to the MC.

I think in that regard SH1 can benefit by fleshing out the supporting cast and MC, mainly Cybil and Harry, in ways that also relate back to Alessa narratively. They don't have to be grand, nor intricate or deep, only that their basic motivations for being there and some of the things they uncover and say and do help reinforce and layer upon Alessa's character in the same way that the town and otherworld do.

Basically Harry ought to reflect what the player thinks or feels with each discovery. This can be done without spelling things out in an obvious way. Simply demonstrating emotion in ways the PSOne limitations could not is a start. There are times that Harry can behave more desperate or angry or afraid in line with Alessa's feelings - Fears about bug bosses, enraged or helpless in line with her suffering, hope and respite when she remembers something good or feels alleviated. The otherworld can also reflect these in it's environmental design. While largely it is Alessa suffering, there can be brief beautiful moments of solace when narratively called for. The SH2 remake did these rather well.

[Arsonist]

Just to clarify, jdnation, I don't dislike any of your ideas. I just chimed in to defend SH1 (my beloved) .
Harry in some way struggling and overcoming is a good idea. It ties in with what happens to Alessa and Heather... Heatherlessa. Alessa sees in Harry someone worthy of trust after every person and institution has failed her, a reason to go on living, and a role model for her reincarnation. And Heather, once faced with horrible loss, chooses to heal, live, and make new connections. This also contrasts the Order in general, which has a very defeatist philosophy when it comes to randomness and turbulence of life.