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Silent Hill Discussion


Night10194
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The locked door idea was "alright" for the first two games, but short of making every room enterable (lol word?), the best way to focus the players attention without overwhelming him or her would be to lock most of the doors.

I'm sure with some thought they could think of a better system though.

I'm sorry, I couldn't follow this post at all.

I'm basically saying that by locking most of the doors in an area, you focus the players attention better. If you recall, very few rooms in Silent Hill are empty or without some items for a player to pick up. Locking all other doors keeps the already high amount of "wondering around looking for clues" to a minimum because that'll be one less room to think back on and say "Oh, what if the item was in there..."

And, I dunno, the worst place for pointless rooms in any Silent Hill game was in the hospitals. You could just walk in there, kill a few monsters, and walk back out...

The same idea applies to blocking exits, hallways, stairwells with random crap. It keeps the attention focused on where the players can go and where clues for solving puzzles may be.

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well, in keeping with realism, it's unrealistic that all the doors would be locked. There needs to be a happy medium. It's also unrealistic that every open door should hold a clue.

However, one should note that the Silent Hill World is not a realistic one...so...what I just said doesn't matter.

It's of a little importance to note that in some cases, doors are locked in the normal world, and open in the dark world, and vice versa.

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Since when does the number of doors that are locked or unlocked determine how good a game is? And I mean any game, not just Silent Hill.

Ever since a game appeared which had doors.

It's cruel to have flat textures of doors that can't be opened :(

And of course, if there are too many locked doors, the game is a bit linear, which is getting more and more looked-down upon as technology improves and storage space increases. I would excuse Silent Hill though, since it's on the PSX, but probably not Silent Hill 4

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If I recall correctly, there are almost NO locked doors in SH4 that don't have a key.

Yes, three. A side door near the Second Visit entrance in Subway World, the front door to Hospital World and the front door to Apartment World.

Anyway, what people are arguing about is an aspect of game creation which is typical of all adventure-horror games ("survival-horror" is an outdated term): maze design. Looking at Silent Hill in this aspect, you have to also consider the difference between a locked door and a jammed door. Locked doors are obstacles that act as part of the gameplay (being that overcoming obsticles are part of solving a maze), while jammed doors are a part of the ambience of the game, meant to affect the player psychologically. However, in most survival horror games, there is an additional element to the game design that effects the ambience that the player experiences: the map.

The map is an essential tool needed to navigate the world and to prevent players from becoming lost and frustrated. It helps to guide the players to their destination, to focus their attention on the goal and to help them think through the obsticles that obstruct their path. However, the map is the antithesis to the ambience created by the jammed door. A jammed door frustrates a player because it means that the most direct path to their destination is no feasible and/or because it hinders the experience of navigation. Being able to see a space that should be accessible, yet isn't becomes disappointing to a hasty player.

Yet, in the Silent Hill series, the maze design incorporates the ability to go around jammed doors and can at times allow players to enter a room from a secondary entrance. Also, for players who were truly inquizitive, they were able to discover that these jammed doors didn't always lead nowhere. A few rooms do exist behind the jammed doors in Midwich Elementary. (So, don't blame jammed doors on lazy game designers.)

Maze design is a dying art in the video game industry since most games use fully 3-D level design, but Silent Hill does a fairly good job of it, as I don't feel that any single "level" in Silent Hill is repetative.

In addition, the camera angles were part of the director's decisions on the presentation of the game and for the most part, they are great, although SH4 needed some fine tuning. (It took RE three sequels to add an adjustable camera.) If you are absolutely frustrated with the current set-up, just download the camera hack program and have free reign on the field of view. You can even use it to find out Angela's fate. (Apparently, she decides to take up yoga.)

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In addition, the camera angles were part of the director's decisions on the presentation of the game and for the most part, they are great, although SH4 needed some fine tuning. (It took RE three sequels to add an adjustable camera.) If you are absolutely frustrated with the current set-up, just download the camera hack program and have free reign on the field of view. You can even use it to find out Angela's fate. (Apparently, she decides to take up yoga.)

Or Mary like you've never seen her before:Don't click unless you've beaten SH2 http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b16/soulofsilent/Snap34.jpg

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Hey peeps--here're a few more clips:

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/player.jhtml?launchedFrom=/overdrive/

Just click the movies tab- contains a few interviews, behind-the-scenes, and clips from the film.

http://www.silenthill-lefilm.com/site.html

The official French site. Check out the 'photos et vidéos exclusives' link for deux clips (dubbed) from the movie as well as a version of the Starz feature avec des sous-titres français.

http://movies.aol.com/movie/main.adp?tab=trailers&mid=23424&ncid=AOLMOV00050000000025

edited clip from the film

Just less than a week now, folks. :)

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...am I correct in thinking that the movie is going to be in theatres on friday?

You sure are!

I'm not sure I'll go see it Friday, though. :cry:

I have to work the graveyard shift my job and I'll be the only one there working for eight hours. I'm not so sure I want to do that after witnessing the horrors of Silent Hill.

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...am I correct in thinking that the movie is going to be in theatres on friday?

You sure are!

I'm not sure I'll go see it Friday, though. :cry:

I have to work the graveyard shift my job and I'll be the only one there working for eight hours. I'm not so sure I want to do that after witnessing the horrors of Silent Hill.

Not sure if you'll wanna keep your job after that, period.

Anyhoo, I hope it's a good movie. If I wet my pants I'll be satisfied! in one way

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I'm definitely going to a theater with a digital screen, although I'm not particularily happy about driving to the theater in question (let's just say it's close to the city, which I'm not used to driving in, so that means there'll be more traffic there than I'm used to dealing with).

Well, of course I could go to THAT theater but there's also another theater that's pretty awesome too that my friend goes to. It too has digital screens from what I remember, but I'd need him to come along to show me the way.

At any rate, I've also been thinking: Wouldn't it be awesome if somebody made a Silent Hill mod for Half-Life 2? Or even...just a level or two recreating one of the game's locales. Seriously would be an interesting piece of work, especially since HL2 comes with the decrepit buildings already!

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Ehh....about that Half Life 2 mod, I'm not sure. There actually IS a Silent Hill mod for Max Payne 2...but it isn't very good, or playable o.o

The whole Silent Hill formula just doesn't fit into a first person shooter, because then the game ends up becoming too actiony, know what I mean? Like way too fast-paced. Of course that's something that could be fixed, but it would take a LOT of work.

There's so many talented modders out there though...and unfortunately, I'm not one of em ;)

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Honestly, slowing down the speed wouldn't be a problem especially since bullet time mods have been created. This is assuming, of course, that modding the game's speed could be done at a constant rate instead of however long you hold a key down.

Mmm, and ever play Undying? System Shock 2? FEAR? AvP 2? Horror isn't necessarily restricted to 3rd person games, although first person games do change the dimensions a bit...

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My sister is just now screening the movie. She, along with a few other managers have to watch the movie before it comes out just to make sure there are no defects with the rolls of movie film.

She'll hopefully let me know how it was in a few hours or so. But here's the question. Do you want me to tell you what she thought of it or do you want to be suprised? Personaly I don't know if I want her to tell me how it was but I'm leaning towards asking for her opinion of it. BTW...I promise not to post spoilers.

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One thing that bothers me about how some people refer to the reincarnation of the fallen angels as a god and yes i'm aware how it was mentioned in the game.. A fallen angle is a fallen angel (or demon regardless) and no angel can never become a god. Ok yes i am a Christian but i at least people can get their bearings straight.

Most of this stuff i based on the satanic bible which is just backwards version of the bible where there devil tries to imitate God. In it there's an unholy version of the trinity and everything else.

btw- the movie looks frikkin scary and i don't want to watch it by myself and most of my friends will probably be working friday night. Hey anyone live in the s. florida?

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