Silent Hill has delivered some of the scariest experiences in all of gaming. Unfortunately, the series has been mostly stagnant for the last decade, only having a few spin-offs trickle out during the tail end of the last console generation alongside the poorly received Silent Hill HD Collection. However, gaming's other great horror series, Resident Evil, has seen an incredible resurgence after a few less than stellar entries, so there's no reason why Silent Hill can't make a comeback.
The Kojima led Silent Hills was unfortunately canned, but that doesn't mean the foundation it laid out can't be transferred to a future Silent Hill title. These are 10 things a Silent Hill reboot needs to do if it wants to bring the series back into the limelight, similar to what Resident Evil 7 did for Resident Evil.
10 Unique Setting
Yes, each Silent Hill game is set in the titular town, but that doesn't mean a reboot can't get a little creative with its setting. P.T. took the world by storm largely due to its unsettling hallway setting, something that hadn't been seen in many video games before.
Silent Hill is a scary setting because it mirrors normal, everyday life so well, so why not take that to the next level and make the game take place in an even more intimate location? A similar idea was attempted in Silent Hill 4: The Room, but that concept could easily be elevated to the next level with a bit of P.T. flair.
9 First-Person Perspective
P.T. changed things up for the Silent Hill series by restricting players to a first-person perspective, and that feature should definitely transfer to a future reboot. Resident Evil 7 did the same thing, and it amplified the scares in that game tenfold.
Silent Hill settings are scary because they're so familiar, and employing a first-person camera would allow players to feel even more immersed in the horror. P.T. is already an excellent proof of concept, and there has yet to be another game that captures the sense of dread of walking down a hallway at night as well as that game did.
8 Have Little Combat
Survival horror games don't rely on combat as their primary mechanic, but a Silent Hill reboot should forgo combat almost entirely. Ideally, players in a survival horror game should feel helpless, and taking away the means to defend themselves is a great way to achieve this.
Recent horror games like Outlast have attempted this to varying success, and Silent Hill should definitely follow suit. There should still be some combat, but weapons and ammunition should be incredibly scarce. Lisa in P.T. cannot be killed, but she also doesn't pose a real threat to the player in the grand scheme of things, creating horror through the atmosphere rather than combat.
7 Livestream Connectivity
Streaming on websites like Twitch and YouTube has blown up this generation, and a Silent Hill reboot should absolutely take advantage of this phenomenon. Twitch extensions and other forms of streaming connectivity have provided new ways for streamers to interact with their audiences while also making the game more enjoyable for both parties, and it would work wonderfully in a Silent Hill game.
The audience being able to mess with streamers by triggering certain sound effects or other in-game things helps keep things tense for the person playing, and it would add another layer of unpredictability to the game.
6 Psychological Horror
Silent Hill has always placed psychological horror at the forefront of the experience, but a Silent Hill reboot needs to double down on what made the series so great in the first place, especially when other horror franchises like Resident Evil have had huge resurgences lately.
Silent Hill offers a very particular type of horror, one that many other video games don't do very well, and a Silent Hill reboot could absolutely know it out of the park. P.T. laid the groundwork for a Silent Hill game that gets inside players' heads like never before, and if that were to be applied to a full game, it would be one of the best in the series.
5 VR Support
If a Silent Hill reboot is going to adopt a first-person camera, then there's no reason why it shouldn't have VR support. Resident Evil 7 had VR functionality on PlayStation 4, and even to this day, it remains one of the best games available on any VR platform.
VR would lend itself wonderfully to Silent Hill's spooky atmosphere, and the small-town setting would feel just as eerily familiar as the Baker estate in Resident Evil 7. Resident Evil 7 already draws heavy inspiration from the canceled Silent Hills, so everything would come full circle if a Silent Hill reboot were to take inspiration from Resident Evil 7.
4 Low Visibility
It's a well-known fact that the fog in the original Silent Hill was born out of technical limitation, but it served as a key part of that game's atmosphere and mood. Even though technology has advanced significantly since the original PlayStation, a Silent Hill reboot should keep the fog, both as an homage to the classic games and as a way to maximize performance and graphics.
Employing fog and limiting the field of view will not only create a more tense experience, but it will also allow the developers to squeeze every possible ounce of graphical power out of the current generation of consoles, resulting in an incredibly realistic looking game.
3 Great Story
The first Silent Hill games were not just praised for the horror aspects, but also their stories. Silent Hill 2 in particular features a story that's just as captivating today as it was when it first released, and a Silent Hill reboot needs to nail the narrative in order to be seen as a true successor to the classic titles.
The town of Silent Hill reflects the thoughts and mental states of those that wander into it, and that concept provides rich opportunities for fantastic storytelling. Video game stories have come a long way over the past few generations, and a modern Silent Hill story has the potential to be something special.
2 Social Elements
Solving the final puzzle in P.T. was a collaborative effort between thousands of people all over the Internet, and a Silent Hill reboot should feature similar social elements. The main game should be playable solo, but there should also be optional elements and hidden puzzles that require collaboration with others.
Having deliberately confusing puzzles could even enhance the horror, adding to the sense of alienation and powerlessness that Silent Hill games do so well. It would also extend the game's life significantly, revealing new narrative elements or secret areas well after the game releases.
1 Spooky Audio Design
Sound is crucial in creating effective horror, and a Silent Hill reboot needs to have great audio design to really scare players. The majority of the scares in P.T. were auditory, and everything from the strange man on the radio to the cries and moans of Lisa excelled at unsettling the player and putting them on edge.
Especially if a Silent Hill reboot adopts some of the other things on this list like VR support or a first-person camera, audio can elevate the experience to the next level, playing tricks on the player and making them question if what they're hearing is real.