Silent Hill V developer The Collective is borrowing a few Christopher Gans film devices for its upcoming game sequel, according to an article in the latest EGM. Inspired by the Silent Hill movie, SHV will feature real-time shifts between reality and the 'Otherworld,' forcing helpless players to suffer through the ghastly transformations of their immediate environments. Enhancing this horror, The Collective will use motion-capture techniques to model the game's monsters, just as the film crew did, creating vivid movement, like the sexually charged lure of the Siam, a perverse fusion of genders.
SHV's central character is Alex Shepard, a 22-year-old wounded war vet, who abandons the care of a VA hospital after he experiences a premonition that his little bro is in danger. When he arrives home to a small New England town he finds brother and father missing, mom in a catatonic state, and ... a lot of darn fog. Though Alex's experiences in combat (not specified, but we've got a hunch...) will play into the game's psychological manifestations, The Collective apparently isn't out to make a political statement. Nope, the priority is still to frighten, and with this goal in mind, the dev team is bringing back the atmospheric screen grain filter, as well as incorporating some new effects like hairline cracks.
Taking advantage of Alex's military background, boss battles will also make an epic return. (The Collective is researching Zelda titles for inspiration.) And, of course, endings will be plentiful, determined less by singular actions and more so by gradual character choices (e.g., how the player treats NPCs). From the article, the right concepts are in place, now we're certain Konami is anxious to watch The Collective deliver.
