Gamer Rage

Within the month of March, three different Silent Hill titles will be released: for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, an HD rerelease of the second and third games titled Silent Hill HD Collection, as well as a brand-new title, Silent Hill: Downpour; for the Playstation Vita, a dungeon-crawling horror-themed spinoff entitled Silent Hill: Book of Memories.

The Silent Hill: Book of Memories cover.
Courtesy of the Silent Hill Wiki.

Book of Memories is a completely different beast from the "traditional" Silent Hill game. Horror does not seem to be an emphasis. The game is built around multiplayer and combat; in fact, Book of Memories is the first time multiplayer has ever been in a Silent Hill title.

Now, this game is a spinoff. It has nothing to do with the main series of games; Silent Hill: Downpour does not have multiplayer elements nor a sudden dearth of story. I'd expect that later games in the series, even if they integrate multiplayer, will still emphasize plot and atmosphere above all else.

However, from the looks of it, one would think that the creative mind behind Book of Memories had kidnapped and murdered all of the general Silent Hill fanbase's children. While I can't say I'm a huge fan of Jim Sterling, he wrote a quite interesting article on Destructoid, quoting some fan reactions from YouTube about the game:

"But..But what about the old silent hill the good one!! We love horror not fucking shit! Please make another game but on something scary, that will make silent hill interesting again! :("

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 "THEY DO NOT LEARN THEY DO NOT LEARN. And the worst part is that I just know this is going to sell somehow. Truly horrifying.

Look, if you're going to desecrate SH's atmosphere then you might as well give me pornographic material with the nurses and "the guy with a gigantic knife" since you love them so much."

I'll quote a user that commented on Sterling's article, "Tristix", as a response:

"If this game turns out badly, it will of course mean that Silent Hill 2 suddenly becomes a terrible game and your fond memories are all lies, because that's how it works."

 Read on for more commentary.