Here's what you can get in WayForward's horror dungeon crawler

Silent Hill: Book of Memories is to?day getting a patch, making substantial improvements to the way the game plays. Based on player feedback, WayForward is hoping to make its PS Vita dungeon crawler a "kinder" experience by removing some of the less enjoyable elements. 

The studio told Rely on Horror that it has removed the nasty penalty for dying on a stage. Rather than boot you out of a game upon death, BoM now restarts the stage while maintaining character progress, ending the risk of losing up to half an hour of gameplay on any given stage. The excruciatingly annoying poison traps have also been nerfed, no longer able to one-hit kill a pla??yer and inflicting dama??ge for a shorter period of time.

General balancing improvements are also coming, specifically dealing with enemy HP and damage. Overall, the patch looks to address many of the problems I found with it in my review of the game.

The patch paves the way for something else -- downloadable content. The PlayStation Store today will offer a package that doubles the amount of playable charac?ters -- including named heroes like Heather Mason and Ja??mes Sunderland -- and adds a whole bunch of weapons, forsaken rooms, gear, and notes. 

New weapons will include fan-favorite items such as the Princess Heart item from SH3, and t??hrowable television sets. WayForward wants players to pay particular attention to the remote control weapon, but isn't spoiling its functionality just yet.? 

All told, the patch improvements and optional content makes Book of Memories sound like something worth checking out again. The core idea was always fantastic to me, but some questionable design let it down. If much of that design? has been overhauled, there may yet be a great game o??n offer. 

Silent Hill Book of Memories DLC available today [Rely on Horror]

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Survival bother

Silent Hill: Book of Memories has been a controversial release, despised almost from the outset by fans who viewed it as a betrayal of the series, an abandonment of the survival horror trappings that apparently must be reflected in every single Silent Hill game, spin-off or otherwise. 

I've been a staunch defender of the game's right to exist, declaring that no sequential game should be bound to the blueprint laid out in the original, provided the game itself turns out to be enjoyable. Having played small sections of the game, I became more confident in WayForward's ability to craft a great dungeon-crawler with a Silent Hill flavor.

All I can say is ... what did I do, Book of Memories? What did I do to make you hate me this much?

Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PlayStation Vita)
Developer: WayForward
Publisher: Konami
Release: October 16, 2012
MSRP: $39.99

Silent Hill: Book of Memories is not a traditional survival horror experience, that much is quite evident. However, the bold move toward crafting a full-on hack n' slash role-playing game set in the Silent Hill universe is not only intriguing, it's got serious potential, something this title demonstrates time and time again. The potential for the concept is broad indeed. T??he execution, however, is not quite what it needs to be. 

The premise sees your per?sonally created character come into possession of a mysterious book by way of serie??s harbinger Howard the Mailman. It turns out that the book is capable of pulling its user into nightmarish dreams that have the power to alter reality depending on the actions taken within them. Thus it is that players venture forth into a realm of creepy corridors and themed rooms populated by classic creatures from the main series. 

As fan-service, Book of Memories is a well-researched and loving tribute to the series. Familiar monsters are presented rather beautifully, with unnervingly weird new sound effects. A range of weapons are culled from the entire breadth of the franchise, with steel pipes and knives joined by such macabre arms as the Great Knife, Laser Gun, and Sword of Obedience. The sinister Valtiel from Silent Hill 3 acts as quest-giver, providing a speci?al challenge at the beginning of each level with the promise of a unique item. Even the stat-boosting relics that can be found and equipped make reference to the myria??d eccentric items used in puzzles during past escapades. 

Taking the form of an isometric RPG in the same vein as Diablo or Torchlight, each zone of Book of Memories plays out the same. Rooms of various size and shape are connected by maze-like corridors, and each one contains monsters, treasures, or other curiosities. One room is used as a save point, and another is Howard's store, where new items and weapons can be acquired. Some are Karma rooms, which contain vague "puzzles" to be dealt with in one of ??three ways. Between four and six of the rooms will contain challenge orbs th?at must be broken to spawn waves of enemies which, when defeated under specific conditions, will yield a puzzle piece. To clear a zone, the set number of puzzle pieces must be found and a simple size/color matching puzzle needs to be solved at the exit. It is a simple concept, and one that works pretty well at first.

Combat is a fuss-free button mashing affair, with players swinging objects or firing weapons at the nearest targets. Blocking and dodging can be performed with a simple button and stick press, though the animations for doing so are slow and often fail to activate before the swift enemies can get their shots in. In fact, it's close to impossible to attack anything up close without taking damage, a problem that only becomes apparent later, when health kits become harder to find. For the most part though, there's a ton of weapon variety and the basic co?mbat remains quite fulfilling.

One grievance is that weapon durability means your favorite gear will break forever after too much use, unless fixed with a wrench. Th?is is not a bad idea at all, but the limited carrying capacity for wrenches, coupled with the fact that every single weapon is flimsy and becomes heavily damaged after almost any single combat encounter, feels a little too much. Either more wrenches or greater durability would have been fine, but having neither makes fighting more ponderous than it ought to be. 

One thing Book of Memories does that works really well is the use of a Karma system. Enemies come in several different types, the two most common being "Blood" and "Light." As Blood and Light enemies are defeated, they add to the player's Karma meter, strengthening their attack power against monsters of that type. For instance, the more you attack Blood enemies, the greater your Karma meter swings toward ??the Light side, making you stronger. Eventually, players gain access to the Karma Flip power move, which turns all Blood monsters in a room into Light monsters, and vice versa.

By controlling the alignment of monsters, players can keep themselves do?minant, and unlock special Karma abilities that are utilized using?? the rear touchpad to rain damage on enemies -- Blood Karma uses devastatingly damaging spells, while Light can sap small amounts of health to heal the player. The Karma system is, by and large, a fantastic way of making the game more tactical, and it's implemented incredibly well. 

Book of Memories is stuffed with fine ideas and it's hard not to keep coming back to. However, as you may have already guessed, the title suffers from a huge amount of tiny, needling little annoyances that amount to an overall frustrating experience. In essence, Book of Memories is a nasty little game, designed to abuse the player, and not in the fun, Dark Souls kind of way. More in the ambushing, cheap, exhausting way.&nbs??p;

For a start, the level design is grotesque. Corridors connecting rooms usually go one way, and often amount to intricate map layouts with no shortcuts and only one save room per level. A save room that is randomly generated, found by chance, and can only be accessed along one linear path. What's more, these levels can get huge, taking up to th?irty minutes to beat, and if you die without finding the save room, you lose all progress. Keeping the game regularly saved therefore requires immense amounts of backtracking (once you find the room), as does taking divergent paths once one fork in the road has been fully explored. A l??ot of player time is wasted, which is one thing a portable title really ought not do.

Regular saves become crucial as the game expands, because it goes from challenging to simply spiteful a few hours in. Eventually you find monsters that explode for hu??ge health-drains when defeated, numerous invisible traps that, should you not be using a character with a high "Mind" statistic, will detonate to stab you or slow you down. Most infuriating of all are the poison traps, which take you down to one HP for a set amount of time, making the next hit fatal. You can get to a point where almost every room in the zone has a nasty little trap in it, sometimes even two. I reached the penultimate stage of the main game which used a two-hit co??mbo of poison and spikes to kill me after I slaughtered all the monsters. Like I said, it's utterly spiteful. 

It takes a long time to level up, there's no ability to re-spec your character, and these factors combined with the weapon durability and Godawful map design make for a game that can easily become an exhausting grind. It's mentally tiring to play Book of Memories, as you desperately search for save rooms to not lose twenty minutes of your life, backtrack through empty rooms, and get kicked up the ass repeatedly by cheaply obscured little traps. Then there are enemies that deal damage-per-second when attacked, or power through your attacks to repeatedly knock you to the ground. Think of a cheap way in which designers artificially bump up a game's difficulty, and you can bet Book of Memories has tried it. 

The fact that I still keep going back to it, however, is high praise indeed for how well the core concept actually works. When the stars align and you get a level that tones down the bullshit, Book of Memories is a pleasant, even exciting, experience. The simple act of saving up money to buy my own Pyramid helmet or a Robbie the Rabbit mask for my character is joyous in its own perverse way, and when you start really dominating monsters, it feels incredibly gratifying. Book of Memories comes across as a game that doesn't want to ?be liked, that actively hates its players and will do anything to fight them when they try to have fun. It doesn't always succeed, however, and every time it fails in its mission to turn gamers away, the results are most entertaining. 

Multiplayer is a big part of the experience, with up to four players able to team up online. This dramatically reduces the amount of problems found in single-player, not least for the? fact that dying is penalized with a drop of recoverable items and a respawn, rather than the total eradication of all progress. Rolling into a zone with other players and laying the smackdown is most rewarding, and one can even hop into a high-level player's game to take on advanced dungeons early and gain a nice XP boost. 

Of course, as seems to be Book of Memories' modus operandi, the online component is not free of multiple small annoyances. For one thing, keys for locked doors are carried by the person who picked it up, and nobody knows who has what if they're not communicating. Dropping keys upon death can also make them tricky to find. Even worse, players can't share loot, or even use the ??item shop at the same time, making players essentially line up and take turns to sell or buy gear. The zones can also be cleared by anybody regardless of everyone being ready. I almost lost my Great Knife pickup from Valtiel because someone was solving the end puzzle and I was trying to book it to the exit to pick up my loot in time. 

Graphically, this is a beautiful looking title. Avoiding the was??hed-out look that many PS Vita games seem to be afflicted by, there's a great sense of color and contras??t, with some terrific lighting effects. Easily one of the most gorgeous looking handheld titles released to date, there naturally has to be one negative caveat -- levels take an excruciatingly long time to load, even upon death. The joy of dying, only to be punished further with a lengthy reload time. Classic. 

Control-wise, WayForward mostly makes judicious use of the PS Vita's input option??s. The touchscreen controls are almost entirely relegated to virtual buttons, conveniently placed at the edge of the screen, while the touchpad Karma powers are sporadic and make sense. My only criticis??m here is that picking up items requires awkwardly touching them in the center of the screen, something that several hybrid-controlled Vita games do, and I still can't work out why any developer thinks it's a good idea. 

Book of Memories presents a fantastic idea and hours of fun content, then surrounds it with bear traps, barbed wire and shotgun-wielding farmers who dare you to take one step towards it. Yet, even as I write this, I'm still in the midst of playing it, and I want to keep playing it. I love it, but I despise it. I'm?? addicted to it, but after every zone, I need ?to switch off and walk away drained. 

Is Silent Hill: Book of Memories good? I'm not sure I even know. It's compelling, it's engrossing, but at the same time its venomous and repellent. Like the town of Silent Hill itself, it draws players in with a promise, before cruelly pun??ishing them on a capricious whim. It commits s??ins that are simply not forgivable, while performing feats that cannot go without praise. 

What I do know is that the game's issues are issues of design, not concept. The core premise of Book of Memories is not only solid, it's openly brilliant. I want there to be more Silent Hill games like this -- I just want them with decent map design, a more balanced approach to combat, and maybe a bit less of a hateful attitude toward anybody trying t?o enjoy them. 

??It's a solid start for a game capable of excellence, but so frequently squanders the credit it earns on frankly confusing design. I can only hope WayForward gets a second chance to truly build on what it's begun. 

The post Review: Silent Hill: Book of Memories appeared first on Destructoid.

Release timing more a factor of convergence than completion

Silent Hill: Book of Memories, the first Silent Hill title for the PlayStation Vita, has seen its fair share of del?ays during the course of its development; first being delayed by a month from February to March, th??en suddenly having its release date pushed all the way back to October.

Many people seem pretty upset with the game from just the trailers, so some were hoping that the delays were due to Konami responding to the negative feedback -- however, it seems to be more about timing than anything else as revealed by Konami's Tomm Hulett in an interview with Siliconera.

...with Book of Memories, [we were] trying to fit it into the same month as Silent Hill: Downpour and Silent Hill HD Collection. The game wasn't quite done at that time, so we thought we’d take the extra time to polish it, and then wait until the movie came out, so gamers can feel like they don’t just have the movie—they also have a new game.

I can understand why many Silent Hill fans are upset over Book of Memories. Konami's approach with this game has me puzzled; what's with the iOS game-style graphics? And what's with the radical change into what seems like a dungeon crawler experience (and how on earth are they going to incorporate the "survival horror?" aspect)?

At any rate, Book of Memories launches in North America on October 16, with European Australian &a??mp; Japanese release dates still unknown.

Why Was Silent Hill: B?ook Of Memories Delayed So Many Ti??mes? [Siliconera]

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Talking about memories ...

Konami has today officially announced that a Silent Hill: Book of Memories demo is available to download from the PlayStation Store for your PS Vita handheld entertainment device. If you were confused at all about what you downloaded two?? days ago, this should clear things up. 

"Today, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. announced a playable demo for Silent Hill: Book of Memories that is now available via download on PlayStation®Network," revealed Konami in a press release today. "Created exclusively for the PlayStation®Vita, this next installment brings all-new gameplay features not normally native to the Silent Hill universe, including Role Playing Game elem?ents and online multiplayer functionality??."

As Konami's newly self-appointed head of PR and marketing, I naturally had the announcement last Tuesday, but of course it's not really real until we get the official notification. Thanks to my bosses at Konami for clearing up any lingering doubts that what we downloaded on Tuesday was, indeed, the BoM demo!

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Here's one last bit of news to come out of this evening's event hosted by Konami. Silent Hill: Book of Memories will have its demo released in North America next week. Europeans received access to the demo, available on PSN, earlier this week. This still leaves two whole weeks for anxious deliberation over whe??ther or not to buy the full game, which arrives Oct??ober 16.

I like me a good action game and I don't usually mind if it's cooperative. This kind of reminds me of Hunter: The Reckoning, which I thought was a delightful romp (and surprisingly faithful to its source?? material). I think I could really dig this.

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Prepare yourselves for the RAAAAAGE

[Update: Thi?s is in Europe only. Apparently there's no word on a U??S demo. Because Konami.]

If you're curious as to what WayForward has done to "ruin" Silent Hill for everybody, you'll be delighted to know that a Book of Memories demo is being made available tomorrow. The full game's out on October 1??6, in case you're wondering. Konami never bothered to announce it, so you might be unaware. 

The?? demo will feature two zones and is single-player only. It'll take you up to the "Fire Boss," which is a boss. Presumably one that's made of fire, or uses fire in some way. It's a Fire Boss ... basically. 

A few weapons and enemies from later areas of the game are being included to give you a feel of the full product. Now let us all brace ourselves for the inevitable swathe of vicious complaints that this demo shall draw from Silent Hill's pack of increasingly insane fans. 

It's going to be brutal.

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Let's be honest: The Silent Hill name was tarnished long ago. Somewhere between that awful Hollywood film and The Room, a game that was never supposed to and never should have been a Silent Hill entry. Things have gotten even worse over the years, from what I hear and read. Within this context, Book of Memories may be the best thing to happen to the series in some ti?me because it is, in the very least, competent.

WayForward (Contra 4, Aliens: Infestation) are taking the survival horror out of the series and putting a top-down action-RPG in its place. If you are a fan of games like Baulder's Gate: Dark Alliance or Torchlight, you may find this a welcome addition to your Vita library. The co??mbat feels good, smart use of touch controls makes managing inventory a breeze, and the signature sounds of the series give the game some familiarity.

Dual wielding pistols as you gun down evil nurses is pretty stupid, but I don't think it cheapens the series. The problem with Book of Memories comes with its environments which are dull, ugly brown and grey nightmares appropriate for a horror game but boring and repetitive in a game of this type. Considering the Scooby Doo character design, I don't see why WayForward felt a need to stick so closely to the origina??ls when it comes to level des?ign.

Puzzles, collectibles, and customization give the game some legs but nothing about Book of Memories suggests it'?s going to be a memorable series or genre entry. It's merely a competent one, as you may find out when the game comes to PS Vita on October 16.

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Tells the community, 'It really is just you.'

As we've discussed before, Silent Hill's fanbase is currently afflicted by an irrationally emotional hatred of Silent Hill: Book of Memories, the handheld? spin-off developed by WayForward. Series producer Tomm Hulett has become the scapegoat for the community, blamed for everything bad that's ever happened. This week, he bit back. 

Over on his official blog, Hulett posted an image of Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Theatrhythm, and Persona 4 Arena. It was accompanied by the text, "Look around, Silent Hill fans. It really is just you." The message, of course, was that spin-offs happen all the time, and can be radically different from the main series, yet only the Silent Hill fanbase is flying into a tantrum over it. 

Man's got a point. 

Fans being mad at the idea of a spin-off spinning off from something is still spectacular to me. I understand the fanbase feels burned -- I also love Silent Hill and lament the series' fall from grace -- but using this as your sacrificial lamb is just ... kind of pitiful. It's not like it's a main? entry in the series, and it's not like anybody knows how good it is yet. It's just ... differe?nt. 

Tomm's pretty much on the money here.? The fans are being ri?diculous.

[Thanks, NintendoTweet]

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The purists sink lower and lower

Konami uploaded some new Silent Hill: Book of Memories s??creens to its Facebook page, which yet again invited a slew of hatred and animosity from a fanbase enraged at the existence of a spin-off portable game.

So incensed are fans by the fact that a handheld side-game would not look and play exactly like a main console effort, a "Cancel Silent Hill: Book of Memories" Facebook ??group has been started up. It is no longer enough to dislike the game, no??w simply co-habiting the same reality with it has caused emotional trauma. It is, indeed, the worst thing to happen in the world. 

The? thread's a go??od laugh. I've collected some of the best comments below for your amusement.

"Hahaha no, I'll just be getting the game to complete the game collection, as for playing it that's out of the question." - A brave man making a real stand. 

"Way to take true fans and through them in the casm you Konami. You went from millions of fans to next to none for a franchise. Way to butcher a legendary game series." - Somebody who deserves praise for using "Konami" as an insult. 

"Hey guys, don't you just get it!!!
Stop making the game, is horrible!
Nobody will buy it!!!" - A failed haiku writer. 

"Me as a fan.
I got fuckin nightmares already.
Worst game in the entire series." - Another failed haiku writer. 

"Konami just loves isolating their hardcore fans from casual gamers. Take all their classic games and completely change everything up. Silent hill becomes an inpersonal co op adventure, metal gear becomes some futuristic sci fi hack n slash with devil may cry gameplay thrown in there, etc." - Real gamers use "casual" the same way Sarah Palin uses "liberal media."

"As someone who has played the Silent Hill games from the first part up to now I can not express my feelings in any other way than crying... :(" - Mr. Emotions. 

"You know these screenshots do not change the fact that this game is the shittiest game ever." - A time traveler, obviously. 

"ONE MORE OF SHOWING OFF WITH THIS PIECE OF CRAP - and I'll definitely unlike this page along with everything connected to KONAMI... Thank you..." - Someone who knows how to really cut a publisher deep.

"Yeah it just got a little bit more Gayer!!!!" - Because you can't get any gayer than MORE gayer!

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It's the game Silent Hill fans love to hate, and Konami has nine new screenshots for them. Silent Hill: Book of Memories is still my most anticipated PS Vita g?ame of th??e moment, and I'll be maintaining every hope that the full game turns out well. 

When I first saw the game, I was definitely skeptical (especially a?s the first ever screens looked dire) but it's seeming better the more it's shown. 

In any case, here are some new screens for the harsh scrutiny of those who decided long ago to despise it. What do you reckon, oh reasonable and open-minded Destructoid reader? Intrigued, or do you ag?ree that it's not looking so hot?

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Fans are still astoundingly furious at Silent Hill: Book of Memories, shocked as they are that a spin-off game would, y'know, spin off. I love me some righteous consumer outrage, but the presumptuous disgust for this one is truly stunning, especially since I really liked what I played. 

In any case, here are some new screens for the hack n' slash PS Vita adaptation. Some will rage, but I remain hopeful for what is currently my most anticipated handheld title of the near future. I love Silent Hill, I enjoy dungeon ??crawlers, and since this is just a portable spin-off, I ?see no reason to consider it a grotesque violation of the franchise. 

Of course, if the full game sucks, it sucks and there's nothing we can do about it. I choose to remain optimistic right now ... which apparently makes me a terrible Silent Hill fan, but there ya go.

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Purist fans are still furious at the idea of Silent Hill: Book of Memories ex?isting in the same universe as them, and the backlash to this trailer -- released during last week's E3 madness -- is doing nothing but stoke the f?ires of outrage. Still, you know what they say about haters. 

As I said last week, I played the game and had a good time. I have trust in WayForward and expect a good game. I just wish people could understand that a game series spinning off into one genre doesn't automatically destroy the previous games they enjoyed. Silent Hill 2 is still going to be here, and I doubt Book of Memories will become the official future of the franchise. Horror will not ??die with th??is game. 

I certainly get being concerned, and I think Konami did a terrible job communicating with consumers before this game was properly revealed, but damn, the pure venom at this stage h??as become a little crazy.

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In the first part of our massive E3 Silent Hill: Book of Memories interview with WayForward director Adam Tierny and Konami producer Tomm Hulett, we talked about the game's narrative premise, survival horror gameplay, and dungeon-crawling enhancements. We learned how WayForward plans to keep it scary, how players will cooperate, and why they're in Silent Hill in the first place. 

In part two, we'll be delving deeper into the game's character creation, the inclusion of familiar Silent Hill enemies, and plans for fu?ture gameplay support. There's plenty more juicy details about this hitherto unexplored game, so keep reading!

How does the character creation work? Is it just visual appearance, or are there character classes and stat fiddling? Will there be in-depth physical tweaks, or more a mix-and-match of pre-set body parts? 

Tierny: There's a light class syst??em. Basically, characters are broken down into everyday school archetypes: jock, bookworm, rocker, goth, and preppy. Selecting each of these changes your appearance, but it also changes what types of artifact slots you have. You can assign any artifact to any slot, but if you assign an artifact to a slot with the same stat, you get a boost. So the bookworm begins with more mental stats (Mind, Intelligence) while the jock begins with more physical ones (Strength, Agility).

Once you pick a class, you can customize your character's gender, face, hair style, hair color, outfit, skin tone, and accessories. Accessories are purchased from the in-game shops and range from traditional fare, like eyeglasses, to crazier, more fan-service items, like Robbie masks and Princess Hear?t earmuffs. And yes, for the people that have asked online, you can give yourself a "Pyramid Head." You're also able to name your character whatever you want, and that name is then pulled into all story components throughout the game. As Tomm said, you're playing YOU.

Hulett: Silent Hill is all about STORY, right? So the customization does cater further in that direction. This isn’t the difference between Male and Female Shepherd, for example. Every single class has its own unique voice, so you’ll actually feel like yourself in Silent Hill r?ather than just your gender with different clothes. And if you choose a name that’s already used in-game ... then the game? will change and use an alternate name for that NPC. I think I really annoyed WayForward with the length I tried to cater to the player here, but hopefully it pays off after the unforeseen amount of work it took to fit 10 different character voices in and out of every possible scenario.

The different class personalities really shine in multiplayer, though. Similar to the online Metal Gear titles (among others), we have some pre-recorded communication messages that you can trigger to speak to one another (voice chat is supported as well, but some people are shy). Every single class has 40+ messages that communicate the same ideas, but in uniquely flavored ways. I worked at Atlus doing localization before I came to Konami, so it w??as nice to stretch those old muscles again.

Tierny: For the record, WayForward wasn't annoyed, heh. But it was certainly a big undertaking. And this is coming from the studio that wrote 19 different versions of the game script on Aliens: Infestation, and over 300 pages of dialogue on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. But you can't deny how critical story and script is to a series like Silent Hill. Even in a ??more action-focused entry like this one, we knew that it was essential to have that component as dev??eloped (and as organic) as everything else in the game.

Early images and artwork reveal a lot of references to older titles, with monsters like Nurses, Air Screamers, and even Pyramid Head being shown. Is the game going to be one big fan-service ride? Also, will there be any narrative justification for the inclusion of creatures specifically tailored to existing characters (such as the creatures of SH2 being inventions of James' mind) or are we going to just put such questions from our minds and roll with it?

Hulett: The long, canon answer is: yes, there is a plot explanation for why you are encountering creatures from past SH games (though it sho??uldn’t be such a wild concept. Walter Sullivan saw “the red devil” when he committed suicide, ??which is the time he became one with the forces of the town, but I digress).

The short, “go away, kid” answer is: this is YOU in Silent Hill, right? What kind of monsters do you think of when Silent Hill is mentioned? Nurses, Air Scr??eamers, an?d Pyramid Head of course!

Joking aside, though, it’s worth mentioning our bosses are all-new creations that tie in specifically to Book of Memories' unique storyline.  We’re keep??ing the??m under wraps for now, but they are definitely memorable.

Tierny: We decided to pick roughly two creatures from each of the previous SH titles, and those were selected based on a mix of which were memorable and expected (Nurses, Pyramid Head) and which had mechanics that would work well with the other enemies (Air Screamer, Needler). That said, the gameplay in Book of Memories isn't a ca??rbon copy of any of the previous titles, so we evolved and adjusted the behaviors of each enemy, mixing what the fans loved about them with what would work best for the game.

The perfect example of this is the Butcher, from SH: Origins. In that game, he essentially served as a Pyramid Head replacement: slow-moving, powerful, methodical. But we already had Pyramid Head in this game, so we needed to give Butcher a new identity. We decided to turn him into our 'fast heavy.' So our Butcher has the same strength and power as Pyramid Head, but he's far quicker and more aggressive. He has some of his original attacks (like lifting the player up and stabbing them in the stomach) and he's got brand new ones that ?fit this style of game (like cleaver-tossing and a ground-slam).

It's a little more 'gamey' but taking into consideration the camera perspective, speedier world exploration, and multiplayer aspects, that's exactly what was needed. It was fun to find that balance with each enemy between the new and old. The end result is a fun blend of enemy behaviors that all complement each other well. You might be in a room where a Needler is backing yo?u into a corner, while an Air Screamer circles the perimeter, a Ghost materializes from behind you, and a Straight Jacket vomits acid balls at you from across the room.

And our bosses (each brand new to this game, as Tomm mentioned) are pretty awesome. I've worked on a lot of cool boss battles at WayForward (it's one of the things we're known for) and the seven bosses in this game are the ones I've been m??ost proud of. I can't wait to see the fan reactions.

Also, just because I'm a huge fan of him -- any chance of seeing Valtiel? 

Tierny: Definitely! I'm a total Valtiel fanboy as well (someone PLEASE buy me the KonamiStyle statue!) Since his role in SH3 seemed to be caretaker of the Otherworld, we kept that theme going, making Val our 'quest giver' of sorts: assigning players missions at the ?start of each zone, and delivering a reward at the end (don't worry, he still doesn't talk.) Completing Valtiel's missions is the only way to unlock certain weapons and artifacts, and they're typically some of the coolest in the game.

What's the overall tone and theme of Book of Memories? Are you going for psychosexual depression a'la Silent Hill 2, or more of a straight up cultist/mythology vibe like SH1 and 3? 

Hulett: The game has both actually. The core storyline is more psychological, as seen in SH2 and Downpour. But there’s plenty of lore relating to the cult and the town’s history as well. SH fans of any stripe will find a lot to obsess over and debate. I would say the feel of the game trends a bit more youthful (so maybe something like SH3), since our player is aged roughly at “college” age, but that doesn’t mean it’s a lighter game. The SMT series, after all, is plenty dark.

Tierny: My favorite character in the entire series is Heather Mason (Tomm can attest to my unhealthy obsession), and I found the characters in Book of Memories to be pretty reminiscent of Heather in their to??ne and reaction to the Hell around them.

Daniel Licht is providing the main score. Is it going to be similar to his excellent work on Downpour?

Tierny: I LOVE what Dan came up with for our game's soundtrack. This is the first time we (WayForward) worked with him, and the soundtrack he composed really impressed me. There are some similarities between the scores of this game and Downpour, but overall I'd say that Downpour's score was a quieter, more traditional SH sou??ndtrack, while thi??s soundtrack is a little more rocking.

Guitars tend to drive most songs, which works really well as the players are pretty constantly moving around. There are seven different worlds in this game, and Dan essentially created a com??pletely unique musical style for each. My favorite of the bunch are the tracks associated with Blood World, which are absolute??ly haunting and yet very epic at the same time.

Hulett: I’m really psyched about the soundtrack, and I’ve had it playing in my car nonstop for a few weeks. I would actually disagree with Adam and say this is MORE what fans were expecting from the score that Downpour deviated from. While Murphy’s journey trended a bit more cinematic (which fit for that game), Book of Memories is more rough, crunchy, and “gamey”, which places it in a place more familiar to fans of Yamaoka’s work on the? series.  

Since Licht doesn’t really do video games (until Silent Hill obviously) I was a little worried, but he jumped right in and understood the game and the sound it needed. Adam and I were in the same room when Dan delivered his first track, and we were both blown away. (And, for the curious audiophiles out there, it’s available now! To Amazon!)

How long is the game going to run, and are there plans for post-game content such as DLC? 

Tierny: I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's genuinely endless. Every element in the game (missions, enemies, challenges, puzzles, layouts, weapons, items) is programmatically constructed and distributed to ensure endless gameplay possibilities. Here's a perfect example of what that means: there are around 15 standard enemies in the game, each of which has its own checklist entry. But each of those enemies has 3 potential alignments (Blood, Light, and Steel). On top of that, there are rarity attributes that apply to any enemy, such as "combustible" (they explode when dying), "corrosive" (they wear down weapon durability much more quickly), and "dark" (completely silhouet??ted, and they kill your flashlight). There are 8 rare-type attributes. AND any individual enemy can have up to any two of those attributes at once. 8 rare-types, multiplied against the remaining 7 rare-types (plus the possibility of no rare-types) equals 45 rare-type combinations. So doing some quick math, we have 15 x 3 x 45, which gives us around 2,025 differe??nt enemies in this game. Now take that mentality and apply it to everything else in the game and you can see where the endless experience comes from.

That said, we framed the first 21 zones a little more traditionally, with an ending when you complete them. Even though each zone's layout and contents are randomized, you're progressing through 3 zones in each world type, followed by a boss battle. Playin?g through the first 21 zones of the game the first time through will probably take players around 15-20 hours, depending on skill and grinding. Then fr?om zone 22 on, the game is completely randomized, and continues getting harder and harder the deeper you travel.

We also put great emphasis on providing players with both long-term and short-term secondary goals. The titular Book of Memories can be accessed anytime by pressing the Start button, and inside players will find a Pokédex-like catalog of every enemy (complete with rare-type checklists), every weapon, every artifact, and every story element they've encountered or acquired in the game. 100%ing each of these checklists earns the player a Trophy, and beyond that we have over 50 Trophies that offer players a wide variety of fun and challenging gameplay objectives (aka 'the Dead Rising achievements model').

Hulett: We do have some DLC planned for shortly after release. If the game sells well enough there of course can be more, and we have a huge wish-list of things to include, from really awesome series nods to crazier fanservice. But we need YOUR support!  Do you want to figh?t Fukuro as Kid Dr??acula? Only YOU can make it happen!

Tierny: SEXY BEAM SHUPPATSU!

Book of Memories is a controversial game, and fans have already reacted quite venomously to it since it was announced. Was that daunting for you, to create a game for such a protective fanbase? Do you fear many fans writing the game off, and did you feel you had to be incredibly careful with the universe when contributing to it? 

Tierny: Haha, I think Tomm's used to it by now.

Hulett: It’s practically a running theme in my career. When I localized SMT games fans were CONVINCED they would be censored. When we announced Contra 4 fans were CONVINCED it would be some kind of disaster. When I revived Rocket Knight fans were CONVINCED it would be terrible. And here we are, my fifth original Silent Hill -- we know how that goes. It’s like I feed off the hate. I of course went down my list of Silent Hill dos and don’ts during our initial kickoff meetings, and tried to impress on the development team what Silent Hill “meant”, and what made it tick.  I’m the living breathing series bible -- it’s what? I’m paid to do.

At the end of the day, I’m obsessed with lore. I was the kid on the playground discussing Mega Man backstory, the guy fitting the “Celda” debate into his college papers, and the nerdy friend who wouldn’t shut up until you spent an hour with him on MGS conjecture. I get the fanbase (any fan?base, really) and the last thing I want to do is betr?ay what they love about whatever series it is.  

At the same time, I’m slowly adjusting to the fact that these games HAVE to evolve or they will die, and as a hopeless fanboy -- I don’t want my favorite games to die. For the fans just outraged at the very thought of Book of Memories I want to remind them: the original SH ended with a blooper reel where Dahlia’s “actress” ran up and kissed the camera. That’s right there, at the origin of the entire franchise. I know Silent Hill ?is serious business,? but that doesn’t mean it has to be SRS BSNS all the time.

Tierny: As for WayForward, this is our first Silent Hill title (obviously), although we've been dying to work on this franchise for some time. We actually came pretty close to developing a Silent Hill game on Nintendo DS that, sadly, was not meant to be (although a demo exists). Silent Hill is my favorite gaming franchise of all time, and Silent Hill 2 is one of my top personal games. So we were very excited (and honored) to be given the chance to work on this series by Konami. At the same time, we were well aware early on of the fire we would be stepping into with some of the more hardcore fans. I r??emember in one of our earliest meetings, Tomm told me, "Prepare to be hated." But you can't really argue with fanatics that say, "I love this series so much, I hope they never make another one." What can you say to someone like that? They've already made up their minds before they even saw the game.

I think what we came up with is going to please the majority of SH fans. No, it's not the same experience as Silent Hill 2, but then again what is? What we made is the most engaging Silent Hill game we could imagine. This is exactly the kind of portable, multiplayer Silent Hill experience that I (as a hardcore SH fan) would want to play. And accomplishing that required thinking very carefully about what a game like this needed, and not remaining beholden to what the earlier SH games did or didn't do. Everything that's in this game is here because it works well for this gameplay experience, and I personally feel that Book of Memories features some of the tightest, most enjoyable gameplay in the series so far (something that WayForward fans have come to expect). It's not your typical Silent Hill game, but it's not trying to be, and it's not replacing more traditional SH experiences like Downpour. Book of Memories is Konami and WayForward trying something new in the Silent Hill universe, and ?we're extremely pleased with the end result.

Finally, I heard something about the Konami code. Any clues on that?

Tierny: Well, it IS a Konami game.

Hulett: Let’s just leave that as a dangling carrot for r??abid fans.

The post E3: Silent Hill: Book of Memories ?blo??wn open (part 2) appeared first on Destructoid.

Silent Hill: Book of Memories certainly turned heads when it was first revealed, but the attention was not entirely welcome. The idea of a top-down dungeon-crawler set in the Silent Hill universe drew more than?? a little r??age from purists, and ostensibly puzzled everybody else. 

Konami, unfortunately, did not help matters. Very little has been seen of the game was due to launch last mon??th, with many gamers not knowing a damn thing about it. We've seen a few brief clips and a couple of pictures, but no meaningful information. 

Until now, that is. 

Destructoid hit the E3 showfloor and sought out WayForward director Adam Tierney, as well as Silent Hill series producer Tomm Hullett, to get the full story on Silent Hill: Book of Memories. The wheres, the whys, and the hows, we've got the full scoop. It's everything you need to know about one of the strangest -- and most promising -- directions ever taken for Silent Hill, and it's right here. 

The most pressing question would probably be ... why, exactly? It's a bold concept, potentially even alienating since it's a far cry from the survival horror people are used to. What prompted the decision to produce a dungeon crawling Silent Hill game? 

Hulett: Well, to speak to the Insane Cancer in the room we didn’t start with "Hey, let’s do a dungeon crawler, what property can we stick on there?" It came from a much more organic place, with us brainstorming what a "Silent Hill on PS Vita" would mean. What features should we take advantage of? What fits?  What is the PS Vita about, and how can we build off of that? So Multiplayer was the immediate no-brainer, and it gave us somewhere new to take things. And to keep the experience fresh as long as possible, we wanted multiple Otherworlds, so then the question is ... how do we accomplish?? that in the universe? That put us in this idea of the game taking pla??ce in your Dreams/Nightmares.  How do you portray dreams? Well they’re random ... and on down the road.

Throughout that process, I was the hardcore SH guy screaming about how off the rails we were, and "oh think of the fans!" However, the themes we were uncovering (both from a gameplay and story perspective) were very compelling. Fun is what games are about (perhaps “enjoyment” is a better word with SH) and in the end that&rsq??uo;s all t??hat matters. So I ate my share of crow and here we are, with a dungeon crawler.

... but really, name a good dungeon crawler that ISN’T kind of scary. NetHack? Etrian Odyssey? Nope -- I can’t think of one either.

Tierny: I've been chasing after the opportunity to work on a Silent Hill game since I got into the industry. When WayForward?? finally got the chance to work on one, I have to admit I was a little surprised at the concept. "Wait, you're asking us to make a Silent Hill RPG Dungeon Crawler? What? Okay seriously,? where are the hidden cameras?"

But the more WayForward discussed the idea with Konami, the more excited I got about the project. Metal Gear Acid works. Final Fantasy Tactics works. So why NOT an RPG dungeon crawler Silent Hill game? And this is a game that would play to WayForward's stre??ngths, because what Konami ??wanted was very solid gameplay fundamentals, which are always at the heart of our games.

What is the narrative premise of Book of Memories, and how does it fit into the series' universe? Will players have their own storylines, perhaps even their own unique reasons for coming to the town? Is it a pure non-canon spin-off or will there be elements tied to the existing fiction?

Hulett: To your second question, this is a spinoff as far as gameplay is concerned, but it very much takes place in the canonical universe. We operate under the same rules as Silent Hill proper (rather than the SH:SM approach), and you’ll find notes that relate to the history of the town and its inhabitants. Fans don’t like to hear this because they worry it means future SH games will adopt BoM’s gameplay -- but hopefully Downpour has now proven that isn’t our intent.

That said, our core concept from the very start, was this is YOU in Silent Hill. Your PS Vita is somehow a portal into the SH world and this is YOUR experience. The plot hook is, Howard Blackwood shows up on your birthday with a package return addressed from Silent Hill. There’s a ?weird book inside, and when you open it you realize? your entire life is written in its pages.  Every memory you have, from birth to Howard showing up at your doorstep, is there in black and white (or sepia). You take the next logical step: you erase a line about work that morning and write in your own version.

Waking up the next day, you realize that your change has actually affected reality.?? Crazy! What el??se can you change, and will there be consequences?

Tierny: In addition to producing the game, Tomm was our writer and he did a really fantastic job with the story. The entire thing's dynamic, so what you name yourself, how you create your character, even your actions in-game all dynamically alter and rewrite the story continuously. We have the SH-standard multiple endings (including the joke ending, whi??ch takes some clever thinking to trigger), but this time t??hose are being determined by a myriad of story systems that are in turn determined by your moment-to-moment gameplay. I think fans are going to really enjoy playing with the storytelling systems we've put together.

Are any gameplay elements from traditional Silent Hill games going to appear? Weapon durability, radios, environmental puzzles. What has been preserved from the main entries, gameplay-wise?

Tierny: Absolutely. WayForward made a tremendous effort to ensure that in spite of the different camera perspective and multiplayer focus, this would still be a very deep, faithful Silent Hill experience. Puzzling is done by collecting odd little trinkets thr?oughout each zone, then organizing them in a particular way to open the exit door. All weapons have durability and/or ammo counts, and you can even swing firearms as melee objects when they run out of bullets.

At the same time, we didn't just keep everything from the previous SH titles out of reverence. This is a multiplayer horror action title, so we made content choices based on what would work best for a game in this genre. However, I do think fans will be very happy when they see just how many classic Silent Hill elements are in this game. Whatever your favorite previous SH weapon was (Hyper Spray, Great Knife, Sword of Obedience) it's mostly likely in here. The best enemies from the previous games, the best artifacts -- this game is a celebration of all things Silent Hill.

Hulett: To keep the game from being just a complete mess, we really approached the “SH factor” from two directions.  One, what elements of Silent Hill can we bring over? Things like Scare Rooms, environments, sound philosophy, etc.  What works in our game world?  The other is, of course, here are good ideas that work well in a dungeon crawler ... how do we make them fit into Silent Hill? So it’s not baseless nostalgia and it’s not painting “Silent Hill” over unrelated gameplay. It’s firmly Silent Hill, but it’s DIFFERENT Silent Hill.

It’s kind of interesting as Adam and I have different approaches to Silent Hill. I’m very much the plot-centric, canon minutiae, let’s not screw this up cause the fans will KNOW guy. Adam is the “experience” guy -- he loves Silent Hill because of the times he’s had there, and he just wants to provide more experiences like that.  I think both approaches are very evident in Book of Memories.  We’re both Silent Hill nerds, but our di?fferent approaches balanced and enhanced one ??another.

As for the new gameplay, what can it be compared to? Is it Diablo with perverse sexual symbolism? Is it open-world, with main quests and sidequests? How far do the RPG elements run with things like leveling and loot?

Tierny: Oh man, where to begin ... I guess I would characterize the game as saying it's traditional Silent Hill gameplay, mixed with the dungeon-crawling of Diablo, the traditional RPG stats of something like a Final Fantasy (STR, DEX, AGI, etc.), and the weapon management of Dead Rising. But these different elements weren't all just tossed in a box labeled "Silent Hill." Everything was carefully filtered through the SH aesthetic and lore. So you don't wear armor, you collect 'artifacts' which are little trinkets and talismans you stuff in your pockets to boost your player stats. These objects were an opportunity to bring in even more SH lore, so some of the artifacts you collect include Mira's? Dog Tag, a vial of White Chrism, and the Channeling Stone. It was fun to think about what sort of effect items like these would have on your character, based on their uses in the previous games.

Each zone in the game has its layout auto-generated, ensuring a c??ompletely unique gameplay experience each time. As you move through zones, you stumble across challenges, which are essentially single-room enemy gauntlets (some?times with specific goals or rules). Completing these earns players puzzle pieces, which are then used in a very SH-traditional puzzle system (complete with obscure, poetic clue) to open the exit and move onto the next zone. In addition to this, however, there are plenty of additional goals such as completing a zone-wide mission, locating notes and TV broadcasts, finding loot (Memory Residue) which can then be spent in shops on items and weapons, hunting down particular creatures, experiencing strange special rooms, and more. All of these elements are also auto-generated (including the puzzles and their clues), so that the game remains fresh for players, even after potentially months of gameplay.

Hulett: My friends ask me what the game is like and I find myself namedropping their favorite RPGs, but it’s actually true. If you really searched you’d find similarities to Shiren, Vagrant Story, Persona 3, Phantasy Star Online, Diablo, and more ... but we didn’t arrive at this place by saying “Hey, let’s emulate X, Y, and Z cause those games are rad.” (At least not from the Konami end -- it’s possible WayForward did in their secret meetings but what do I know?) We designed a cool new Silent Hill experience and just ended up with all thes??e mechanics that remind me of some of my favorite games.

?Here’s an example, in creating our elemental system we found there are two colors that form an undercurrent throughout the franchise: white and red. Every single game, intentional or not, plays very heavily on these themes. So the two opposing forces at the core of our game universe are Blood and Light, indicated by your on-screen Karma Meter. And yes, it factors into the story like a morality meter but it goes much further than that.

As you move through the game the creatures you encounter will be aligned with either Blood or Light (and Steel, but those are a completely different beast altogether). Killing them spills out pools of the opposing element -- the messier the kill, the more Karma spills out -- and these will push your Meter toward one side. Once you’re firmly in the Blood camp, you’ll unlock very destructive abilities which allow you to decimate your foes. If you trend Light instead, you’ll unlock special abilities to heal or protect yourself and y?our friends. So while solo players will be more focused on how Karma affects the storyline, in multiplayer it creates a fluid class system, so players can kind of decide who will be the DPS guy and who will take a more supportive, healer role.

Tierny: In fact, most of our gameplay systems feed back into this "karma alignment" in some way. For example, you can un??lock special skills in the game, which are used to manage enemies. One of the first skills you learn is the "Karma Flip" which allows players to turn every blood enemy into a light one, and vice versa.?? This skill proves essential in keeping your K-Meter filled up in one direction.

And I know the reaction of everyone reading this right now. "How is this Silent Hill?" Well, it is and it isn't. It's not exactly the same genre as the previous games, but it is 1000% at its core a Silent Hill experience. For example, we have 'Forsaken Rooms' which are bizarre little rooms in which the camera changes to a traditional SH view, and the player has to deal with whatever's occurring in there, in whatever way they choose. In the first Forsaken room, you find yourself in a child's bedroom. There's a little girl across the ?room, crying into her hands. You walk over to her, and she screams, vanishes, and reappears elsewhere in the room. So now what do you do? Do you leave her alone? Do you try to attack her? Do you chase her around making her vanish over and over?

Each Forsaken room has 3 different outcomes, based on the player's actions. Those rooms act like kind of a psych test for the player, as well as a sort of puzzle, requiring the player to experiment in order to accomplish all three outcomes. And that's fairly indicative of our approach with the game at large. Forsaken Rooms aren't lifted from any previous SH ti?tles, but they're completely in t??he spirit of those games.

Hulett: Remember in Silent Hill 3, you’d walk into a room and there was a doll in a wheelchair, or a guy hanging upside down bleeding into a ?pail, or the infamous mirror room? Our Forsaken Rooms are reminiscent of those, but with much greater depth and gameplay to them.

What does the multiplayer entail, and are you attempting to still create an atmospheric, scary game despite the online features? Will co-op be drop in/drop out? 

Hulett: Multiplayer and Silent Hill is an equation we’ve been thinking over for a long time. Early design docs for Downpour actually had a rough approach that would meld “playing with friends” into the traditional Silent Hill mold. What we realized is that it would take an immense development effort to pull off such a thing properly -- and we didn’t w?ant to half-ass it just to have a bullet point on the back of the package.

Since BoM is on the PS Vita and has mo?re of a gameplay-focused experience, it allows us to create a much more traditional multiplayer game. Think of it as sharing each other’s Nightmares. After all, the story doesn’t necessarily dictate you are the ONLY person to receive this weird book, and it’s all about exploring what effect such a ‘gift’ would have on the people around you. Multiplayer is just an??other extension of that theme.

Co-op isn’t drop in/out, you set up hosted sessions, however players should take note that you can switch between single and multi as much as you want. You aren’t locked into solo play just because nobody was online, and you don’t have to round up your friends every time you want to progress either. Silent Hill has never been more friendly ... ?

Tierny: In regard to making the game scary, that's definitely been one of the major challenges on this title. How do you make a multiplayer game, especially one with a zoomed-out camera, genuinely frightening? Unsettling? Atmospheric? How do you give players a God's eye view and still make them afraid? Early in development we tried more traditional SH camera perspectives, but they just didn't work for the type of game this was becoming. So once we settled on a Diablo-esque camera, we started to look into what we could do to make players feel as vulnerable as they do in any other SH game. This game does occur in a dream, and people are often empowered in their dreams (a theme we play with), but in order to succeed as a SH ga??me we knew it was critical to make players feel a little overwhelmed and never too confident. And that generally came down to three things: atmosphere,? dread, and threat.

Atmosphere was the easiest to nail of the three; just create creepy, subtle, detailed environments with plenty of implied story in them. Have creatures emerge in unsettling ways that catch players off-guard and make players unsure about where they can safely step (traps play a big part in that as well). Silent Hill games have always featured the most atmospheric, creepiest locations in gaming, so we really just looked to the previous titles for what worked and what didn't. We also vary the light values substantially from room to room, making your pocket flashlight pre?tty critical to advancing safely (just like the previous games).

Next was dread, which is absolutely key to the SH franchise. In SH2 when James drops deeper and deeper into the open graves, you get this overwhelming sense of "I don't want to do this, but I know I need to." You force players into situations where they're required to press on, in spite of their own insecurities and fears. You never let them get comfortable. In this game, the only way for players to survive the nightmare (or dream, depending on your interpretation) is to search for those challenges and puzzle pieces. A player might be down to 10% HP, have no remaining health packs, holding a weapon that's about to shatter. They hear their character's heartbeat racing (literally) and they know that breaking the challenge orb could unleash four Needlers that will very likely slaughter them. But they have to do it. There's a lot of those deep-breathing, "Okay, I can do this. I can do this," sort of moments in the game. Forcing players to push on in spite of their fears, uncertainties, and lack of preparedness is very true to the original SH games, and s??o this was very important to this product as well.

Finally, there's threat. How do you make Pyramid Head scary when he's seen from a topdown perspective? You do it by having him SHRED through your HP with every swipe. In this game, we start players off slowly at first and baby-step them through the first few zones as we teach the basic me?chanics. The bubblehead nurses and double-head dogs they encounter cause damage, but not too much, and they're easy enough to put down. But eventually, you begin running into the "Heavies" -- Pyramid Head, the Butcher, the Bogeyman -- and these guys mean business. Just when players start to get confident in their abilities, we throw a brutal encounter with one of these guys their way to make players truly start to fear death. That's where the fear comes from in this game. Not just creepy fear (although there is plenty of that), but also the fear of running into one of these enemies, because every time players do, they know they're risking their life (and any progress they've made since their last save point). You're always one bad encounter away from losing 20 or 30 minutes of progress, and that's genuinely frightening. And of course, just when players start to learn the patterns of each enemy, and how to survive encounters with them, that's when we throw something even more brutal their way.

Hulett: I want to stress, the dungeon crawler is probably the single scariest genre without “Surviv??al” or “Horror” in its description. That’s really the thrill of them, to be 20 minutes from your last save, down on resources, at a threshold where you must decide whether to turn back or keep exploring. After all, another sav??e or rare loot could be behind that next door ... Of course, so could three Ghosts and a Bogeyman.

[Even more to come in part two of this interview! Stay tuned.]

The post E3: Silent Hill: Book? of Memories blown open (part 1) appeared first on Destructoid.

Silent Hill: Book of Memories was originally due to release in March, but Konami delayed it to May without telling anybody. Well, we're halfway through May and guess what! It appears to be postponed at the eleventh hour with no formal?? announcement. Yep ??... again. 

Destructoid reader Dan noticed the new date through Amazon. The online retailer has listed Book of Memories for October 31, which is a significant push back. Checking online, it seems the delay was? discovered by various other folk over the past few days, with people all having to find out on th??eir own.

At this point, I've absolutely given up on Konami. I've had my rants about the publisher's clueless behavior, but between its past shenanigans, its mute PR department, and this ridiculous shit, I have to wonder whether the publisher actually wants to say in business, or has some magnificent investment scam planned, a'la The Producers. At this point, a heist-??level? con job could only return my faith in the company.

The post Silent ?Hill: Book of Memories seems quietly delayed again appeared first on Destructoid.

Release dates for this year's trio of Silent Hill games have been all over the place, but Konami sent along a note that clears everything up and seals the dates in stone ... unless they change again. If you're confused over which games are arriving on what days, worry not and check out ??these dates. 

• Silent Hill Downpour: March 13
• Silent Hill HD Collection: March 20
• Silent Hill: Book of Memories: March 27

Konami is calling this the "month of madness," but I don't think it quite understands the irony of such a catchy phrase. After all, releasing three games in a series within the span of an already-packed month certainly is madnes??s, and not in the creepy, guilt-ridden, that-monster-represents-my-sexual-repression sense. It's just common garden insanity. 

I sometimes think Konami doesn't realize there a??re other videogame pu??blishers in the world and that this is an actual industry, not just one company's personal hobby.

The post Final launch dates for Silent H??ill HD, Downpour, Memories appeared first on Destructoid.

Silent Hill: Book of Memories is to be the series' first foray into the PlayStation Vita, and its dramatic departure from traditional survival horror is proving to be quite controversial. You see, Book of Memories is a top-down dungeon crawler, and fans are not very happy about?? it. 

While trawling Youtube for footage of the game, I began to notice just how much hate there is for it. Check out any uploaded trailer for Book of Memories, and you'll find it buried under an avalanche of "dislikes," with months of furious comments backing them up. People are still?? raging at these trailers to this ??very day, despite them being around since August of last year. 

Something tells me Silent Hill: Book of Memories isn't very popular. 

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! :(

Konami hasn't fostered much love for the Silent Hill series over the years. Opinions are divided over the quality of recent efforts such as Homecoming and Shattered Memories, but the general consensus among fans is that everything went downhill after Team Silent disbanded. This upcoming PS Vita game appears to have been a very grave misstep in the eyes of fans who just want the serie??s to go back t?o its roots. 

THEY DO NOT LEARN THEY DO NOT LEARN. And the worst part is that I just know th??is is goin?g 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.

Fans aren't just angry at Book of Memories. They're thoroughly confused. 

This actually doesnt make any sense. It looks like a title that would end up on IOS not the vita!

While others simply?? see this as a slap in the face, and the latest bit of proof that Konami does not give a ??damn anymore. Even those who aren't very angry still don't understand why the game is so vastly different.

I love silent hill and cant wait for downpour,really think it looks great,but this! this is wrong! its like them announcing the next cod to be a platform with no guns in it,or the next fifa to be an fps where u gun down all the divas that take a fall for being tapped lightly,actualy that sounds quite good,but this looks awful!

Of course, every devil has an ?advocate, and while many fans are furious, some are holding out hope.

It dosent look like that bad of a game! i think if they made it a diffrent title it would be better. im not a diehard silent hill fan but i love the games. You need to face it its not a consol game so stop bitching. its for the vita which only like 15% of americans bought. i think its going to be a great game and i support it. im gonna prob hatted on but idk i respect there wishes making this game! im going to buy first day and play it through!

While others are simply enjoying the show.

The amount of raging fans here makes me laugh. It looks alright, but It doesn't interest me.

Survival Horror games, more than any other genre, struggle with the pressures of modernization. Many will argue that old fashioned game mechanics and outdated design ideas are what made horror games so scary. They limited the player, made things more awkward and thus more frantic. Of course, we're in an age where games aren't supposed to be inconvenient anymore, so some element of refinement is necessary. Finding the delicate balance between scaring a player and providing a satisfactory user experience is incredibly difficu??lt. 

This, however, seems to be something totally out of left field, and not what anybody could have expected. I love Silent Hill, and while I am prepared to give this game a chance, I really have to wonder who Konami thought it would appeal to. Even in Book of Memories' gameplay video above, the producer introducing the footage is noticeably awkward as he addresses fans. Just watch him when he ??tries to persuade us not to worry about the game's survival horror elements. That's a man with fear in his eyes. A man who knew he'd be the face of resentmen??t. 

If you know people are going to hate something ... why are?? you making it?

Silent Hill: Origins on the PSP may not have been the best Silent Hill game, but I still maintain it was one of the creepiest releases in a long time, and surprisingly effective at providing some portable scares. It shocks me that Konami would not want to replicate that on the Vita, instead going for something that looks like it could have easily been on a less advanced system. As the comment above says, it looks like an iOS game. It's like Dungeon Hunter. Why isn't it takin?g advantage of what the Vita can do?

Konami is a confusing company that makes many bizarre decisions. This latest is one that the fans have m?ost certainly noticed, and the message they've taken away is that Konami does not understand why its customers ever supported it. 

Th??at's not a message I think K??onami wants out there.

The post Silent Hell: the rage-fuel?ed tale of B?ook of Memories appeared first on Destructoid.

Konami has announced release dates for all three Silent Hill games due out this year. The Silent Hill HD Collection is due March 6, Silent Hill: Downpour is slated for March 13 and Silent Hill: Book of Memories is coming March 27. Looks like March is?? going to be the scariest month of the year! Ooooh!

I'm still holding out hope for Downpour. I didn't like what I played at E3, but I am willing to chalk it up to a bad demo. Book of Memories hasn't impressed anybody so far, with its weird focus on top-down multiplayer. For me, the most promising title is the HD Collection, only because I already know the games are good. 

That's kind of sad. All I want is for this series to be brilliant agai?n. 

In any case, Konami released new screens for this game but its press site is a mess. I just up??loaded a bunch of images and you can look at them if you want.

The post Silent Hill HD, Downpour, Book of? Memories all da??ted appeared first on Destructoid.

Here are some screenshots of Silent Hill: Book of Memories, showing some pictures of people doing things in the dark. The usually tight and claustrophobic Silent Hill looks very odd with such a withdrawn camera perspective, but variety is the spice of life I suppose.&?nbsp;

I must say, the graphics aren't impressing me. Looks like it could easily run on the 3DS or original PSP. Hardly shows off th?e graphical might of the PS Vita.

What do you think? Might this be an interesting new take on the franchise, or should Konami have kept it more traditional on the Vita? Personally??, I don't think they can screw the?? series up anymore than they have done, so they might as well do what they like now.

The post Silent Hill: Book of Memories gets top-do??w?n screens appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm usually against the guy that's resistant to change, but I don't love where Konami is letting the Silent Hill franchise go to. 

Here's what Tomm Hulett, Senior Associate Producer for upcoming PS Vita game Silent Hill: Book of Memories, says in this new trailer for the game:

Book of Memories is a big departure for the series, focusing on cooperative mult?iplayer action rather than traditional psychological horror.

That sentence alone is scarier than any horror moment in any of the franchise games. I was already concerned when I heard the game would be a top-down multiplayer affair, but now that I've seen this early game footage I feel dirty.

Hulett says that "fans needn't worry." How could we not worry? Seeing area attacks, hit points flying up and the re-usage of old character assets (again!) has me really worried. You think cashing in on another?? Pyramid Head appearance is a selling point? 

Maybe this game would be good if it was something els?e that wasn't all up in the Silent Hill world, abusing its history.

The post Silent Hill: Book of Memories trailer concerns me appeared first on Destructoid.

Top-down. Top-down multiplayer. Fine for convertibles or strippers, but for the Silent?? Hill franchise?

At their gamescom press conference, Konami showed off their newest Silent Hill game, Book of Memories, made by WayForward for the PS Vita??. It was revealed to be a top-down, isometric perspective view game, and not the typical third-person, over-the-shoulder view.

The crazy doesn't stop there! Joystiq says that Harry, Maria and James are in the same game. Mind blown. And so is the Silent Hill storyline, apparently. You'll a?lso be able?? to create your own protagonist in this game that features melee combat, guns and some RPG elements. 

What in the what?

The post Silent Hill: Book of Memories is ??top-down multi??player appeared first on Destructoid.

It seems as if only PlayStation 3 gamers are getting the high-definition Silent Hill collection, even though Konami's similar HD bundles for Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders are headed to both PS3 and Xbox 360. How cur?ious. We did get a rough release window for this package, though: fall 2011.

GameSpot has also gotten a few details on Silent Hill: Book of Memories, a PlayStation Vita title. It'll have the series' first multiplayer (?co-op, to be exact), an all-new story, and the soundtrack is being composed by Daniel Licht. Interesting.

E3 2011: Silent Hill HD collection? spooking PS3 th?is fall [GameSpot]

The post E3: Silent Hill HD collection appearing on PS3 this f??all appeared first on Destructoid.