There's a good roundup of all the weirdness so far on the aforementioned subreddit, some of the connections are… loose, but interesting nonetheless.Īll of this could be Blue Box trying to capitalise on Silent Hill excitement, which honestly, I think that's about as deep as this goes. Plus, the Blue Box YouTube channel banner is literally a picture of some hills. The devs also mention that their game will feature "snowflakes of blood", which was also said in PT teasers. Blue Box kicked off the whole thing by posting, "Abandoned = (First letter S, Last letter L)", in a Tweet that's now been deleted. If Bokeh Game Studio delivers on a blend of exciting combat and psychological horror, then Slitterhead might be the spiritual successor that Silent Hill fans need.And I have to say, the evidence isn't too bad. In the meantime, Slitterhead looks like it could inspire the same type of fear that Silent Hill built its brand on. It's entirely possible that Silent Hill will return someday, but Konami hasn't given fans much hope lately. After Silent Hills fell apart, Konami promised that Silent Hill would carry on as usual, but there hasn't been any sign of a new Silent Hill project since Kojima Productions created PT. It's a shame that Silent Hill has fallen by the wayside when it was once such a horror icon. Even if Slitterhead is more high octane than Silent Hill, though, it could still create a tense, ominous atmosphere in many of its environments that'll give Silent Hill fans the kind of experience that they're looking for. In contrast, Bokeh Game Studio has indicated that Slitterhead will blend action with horror, giving the protagonist their own supernatural powers, which will let them slice and dice monsters. While Harry and many of his successors could kill monsters, Silent Hill builds fear in the player partially due to their limited options in fighting off supernatural forces. There are certainly things about Slitterhead that differ from Silent Hill, which didn't emphasize combat. RELATED: Slitterhead May Take Inspiration From a Real Japanese Urban Legend In other words, Silent Hill's design philosophy could lie at the heart of Slitterhead. Slitterhead could use its urban setting to create the same permanent unease that Silent Hill could create even when players were outdoors, rather than trapped indoors. The juxtaposition of the dark, claustrophobic, but fairly normal alley with an unexpected monstrous creature certainly rings of Silent Hill's sense of dread, with danger lurking on every street corner. Early on in the trailer, a man meets a woman in an alleyway, only to watch her transform into a hulking, skeletal monster. Lots of games use similar elements now, but Silent Hill showed their potential, inspiring generations of titles.Įven with only one trailer out so far, Slitterhead looks like it could conjure some similarly unsettling environments.
The town of Silent Hill itself was crucial to the game, unsettling fans with its uncannily desolate cityscape, supernatural Otherworld, and low visibility. Toyama's original Silent Hill certainly still had iconic monsters that Harry Mason had to confront, but combat wasn't everything. In its time, Silent Hill was a major step forward for horror, introducing atmospheric and psychological horror elements to a genre that largely preferred slasher-style horror. RELATED: Slitterhead Looks Like Silent Hill Meets Devil May Cry Although Slitterhead might be a little more explosive than Silent Hill fans are used to, it could still have a lot of horror elements that Toyama built into the first Silent Hill. What's more, he's coming back to horror with the bizarre and gruesome Slitterhead. Since then, Toyama has continued working on horror games with the Siren series, as well as exploring action-adventure in Gravity Rush, but in 2020 Toyama left Japan Studio to form his own company: Bokeh Game Studio. Slitterhead comes from the mind of Keiichiro Toyama, who directed the very first Silent Hill game with Konami in 1999 before joining Japan Studio in the same year. If its appearance wasn't enough, it just so happens that Slitterhead is being developed by the creator of the Silent Hill franchise.
Unfortunate as that may be, The Game Awards 2021 also announced another game that has some major Silent Hill vibes: Slitterhead. The long-dormant horror franchise from Konami is an important facet of the genre, but ever since Hideo Kojima and Konami parted ways in the middle of Silent Hills' development, the franchise's future has been in doubt. Horror fans watching The Game Awards 2021 probably noticed that, shortly before presenting the award for Best Art Direction, Guillermo del Toro mentioned Silent Hill.