With Konami revealing very little about its all-new Silent Hill game, we're left to speculate about which direction the psychological horror franchise will go. Will Silent Hill, like XCOM, make the first person shooter switch?
Such was the speculation when Czech developer Vatra was pegged as the latest developer on the Silent Hill franchise, taking over where Climax and Double Helix left off. The source of that rumor-mongering was a profile of Vatra from its video game talent agency Digital Development Management. DDM labeled Vatra's specialties as "FPS and Action," noting that it was working on two projects, one an unnamed "major franchise" and the other Rush'N Attack Ex-Patriot.
That lead some to conclude that the unnamed game—which is likely Vatra's take on Silent Hill—was a first-person shooter. Not hard evidence, and we contacted Konami to see there was any truth to the matter, but here's the slide in question.
The facts that prevent us jumping to conclusions are Vatra's portfolio. While the studio is new, the talent isn't, having worked on titles like gangster action game Mafia and third-person tactical shooter Hidden & Dangerous.
When Kotaku reached out to Konami and Vatra to see if that FPS speculation was correct, both companies told Kotaku pretty much the same thing: "Wait for E3." No confirmation or denial, unfortunately. Konami reps walked us through the teaser shown at Konami's recent Gamers Night, which was apparently not shown from a first-person perspective, and ended with the line "...the silence ends at E3." The publisher had no official statement on the matter, we were told.
If the next Silent Hill for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC does go "FPS," it wouldn't be unheard of for the series, which featured first-person sequences in Silent Hill 4: The Room—sans shooting, though—and first-person light gun shooting action in Silent Hill: The Arcade. The latter, by the way, is actually quite fun.
Clearly, Konami is comfortable experimenting with the series, as shown by the more action heavy Silent Hill: Homecoming and the nearly combat free Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.
But as a first-person shooter? Is it just crazy enough to work? Or is the "FPSing" of beloved franchises a step in the wrong direction?