The following is part of my weekly Friday HORROR / ZOMBIE reviews for the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE DEFENSE FORCE - check it out!
Attractive, isn't she? She's gotta little dribble coming down her chin, but that's nothing a handkerchief can't handle. And just look at that smile. She may have some lockjaw issues, but boy is she happy to see you.
That is, until she kills you by snapping your neck.
This isn't technically a review, considering that this is just a "playable trailer" for SILENT HILLS, the newest in the famed horror series by the brilliant Japanese mastermind of gaming- creator, director, writer, all-around-gaming-guru, Hideo Kojima. If you don't know who Hideo Kojima is, you must have been living under a anti-gaming rock for the last decade or so. Do yourself a favor, and drop everything you are doing and look up some of his creations. Then come back to his article...please..
Not only do we have Hideo Kojima working on this fright fest, but we also have Guillermo Del Toro, a director known for bringing the most absurdly disturbing creatures to the big screen. I still cannot get the image of that beast with the eyes in its hands from Pan's Labrynth. I have goosebumps right now. Can't you see?
Two geniuses, put in charge of reinventing a video game series. This can't possibly go wrong, right? And to think of it, they seemed to have taken out an insurance policy by casting our WALKING DEAD main man, NORMAN REEDUS in the starring role. I'm sorry, but this game is going to have a hard time of failing. And I can already tell you, buy the hour or so of gameplay you get from PT, it's already proving to be a perfect continuation to the series.
You may have played horror games before, but if you have never played a Silent Hill game, you are missing out. These games were beyond anything that you could ever conjure in your wildest nightmares. Creatures pulled from the very depths of hell were being sent at you to rip the flesh from your bones, and leave your body rotting in the middle of a seemingly empty town. Next week, I'll actually be revisiting the original Silent Hill game as part of my weekly reviews, because after playing PT the urge has been intesnfying. Trust me, you don't want to miss it. I've got two words for you - PYRAMID HEAD.
Back to the game at hand though - PT was released as a teaser last month by a fake developer. However, once you downloaded it and started playing, you pretty much knew exactly what you were getting yourself into. This was the newest Silent Hill game.
As the game begins, you awaken in a dark room with only the roaches as company. There's nowhere to go except to leave through the one door that offers itself as an exit. You automatically stand up, and you instinctively head to the door, and it opens up to a well lit hallway of what seems to be residential home.
At first, everything appears normal, besides a clock that wont move past 11:59, and a disturbing message playing on the radio about a murder / suicide. Just your average, run of the mill nighttime home encounter. That is, until you reach the door at the end of the hallway, and discover that it leads right back where you started this haunted trip.
You'll quickly discover that your character is pretty much incapable of performing actions besides zooming in. There's no "pop ups" or "action" buttons that tell you what to do such as opening doors. The teaser is purely a visual stimulation, and with the sheer amount of detail put into the game, its a rewarding one at that.
The trailer does a phenomenal job of building suspense. It's eerily filled with atmospheric sounds that will send chills down your spine and cause you to hesitate as you turn each corner. And you very well should hesitate, because you never know what you are going to encounter next. From floating spirits of decrepit women, to freakish children slamming the door on you, or hell...even a swirling refrigerator with blood spilling out from the door hinges.
Yes, that's a fridge tied up from the ceiling in that picture. Don't you just love it?
PT is actually one long puzzle that requires you to complete certain actions before the game allows you to move on through variations of the same hallway. I swear, I would have never thought that seeing the same hallway over and over again would intrigue me so much, but I was drawn in from the start. Then again, Silent Hill games have done this in the past, but this is by far the most effective. Thanks next gen hardware!
I'm not going to tell you how to solve it, and even I had to cheat in order to figure it out (it's confusing, and I'm not even sure how people were ABLE to solve it), but the ending is completely worth it. After all, we are introduced to our main man, Norman Reedus as the main character of the Silent Hills game.
Now, there is no telling what this game is going to be about yet, but rest assured with Kojima and Del Toro at the helm, it is going to be one heck of a thrill ride. And one that is GUARANTEED to give you nightmares.
Don't believe me? Just check out this last image....
Yup......exactly. Sweet Dreams!
Until next time, remember: Aim for the head!
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