Silent Hill's last chance

I wouldn't say I'm an expert on horror games or even explain survival horror to you. For myself a survival horror title didn't really take full form I until Silent Hill. Resident Evil 1 to 3 was less a survival horror title to me. Good games but they never resonated the same way.

Silent Hill 1 and 2 are landmark survival horror games. But then Fatal Frame came along and broke me. Nothing is scary to me anymore. Fatal Frame hit every note correctly. The plot made my skin crawl. The ghosts were more than apparitions of evil. They hunted and stalked you or haunted your dreams when the twin sticks weren't in your flop sweat soaked palms. Every single quality was top notch. The voice acting did however ruin some of the mood.  Everything else was so good it just didn't occur how bad the voice acting was in rare spots.

Ever since the fateful night I completed Fatal Frame 2 I just can't get it up for any other horror game since. I enjoy most of them but I don't consider them scary.

So anybody who wants to convince me that Dead Space or it's sequel is scary.. Just stop. I think they are both awesome but seldom if ever did I experience one emotion needed; fear.  If you must know I felt it was creepy at best. I was not afraid at any point in the first because they made it possible to complete the first gun with the equivalent of a pistol. As for the second one. I only wish I had the footage of me "calling out the scares".  However.. The raptor-like monster from the sequel was one of the best and most intuitive enemies I had the pleasure of encountering. But I was not afraid to advance or face anything.

That goes for Silent Hill 4 up to Homecoming.  4 is by far my least favorite game in the series and I have never beaten it again since.  The PSP games were alright. Homecoming was ok. Don't get me started on Saw. I enjoyed the Saw games and wish a real grown up triple A developer would take what was created and run with it. I will go on the record as saying the Saw games aren't terrible. You don't have to like them because their flaws are not hard to spot.

With every iteration of Silent Hill it feels more and more distant from the feeling and emotion of the first two.  The imagery has always been excellent but poorly managed since 3. 

In truth I think half the problem is me. From the moment they announce a new Survival Horror game, I follow it daily. By the time it gets to my hands I already know what will happen within the first 10 minutes of gameplay.

So with Silent Hill Downpour I stayed in the dark. I know nothing about this game. What I do know is that it better be the next standard of horror or I will thrust myself off the highest building and land in acid because I don't want to live in a world where Dead Space is the standard by which everything is judged. Ew.

Street Prophet aka The Jaded Gamer

Twitter @IamFN2K