It’s with a heavy heart that I must report that Silent Hills, the highly anticipated next chapter in the classic horror video game franchise, is dead.
Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth), and actor Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) were all set to collaborate on the game that was first announced last summer at Gamescon. The title’s unveiling was a memorable one: Sony announced a mysterious new horror game from unknown developer 7780s Studio called P.T. Gamers would go on to download the “playable teaser” on PS4 and upon completing the haunting demo they’d discover it was actually a conceptual first-look at Silent Hills, a new installment in the long-running franchise from Kojima Productions, with del Toro producing and Reedus starring.
del Toro first broke the unfortunate news at the San Francisco International Film Festival. “It’s not gonna happen and that breaks my greasy heart,” he told a crowd. Reedus would soon comment on it as well. “Super bummed about this was really looking forward to it. Hopefully it’ll come back around. Sorry everyone,” he tweeted.
Kojima, on the other hand, has not shared public remarks on the matter. That’s likely because he and Silent Hill publisher Konami are no longer on good terms following a certain falling out. It’s been reported that Kojima is parting ways with Konami following the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The publisher has stated that it will continue to make MGS titles without the franchise’s coveted creator; this fact, mind you, does not sit well with me. Though there is no direct evidence connecting the demise of Silent Hills with Kojima’s exit from Konami, it’s easy to lay blame here.
Konami confirmed the sour news with this: “Konami is committed to new Silent Hill titles, however the embryonic ‘Silent Hills’ project developed with Guillermo del Toro and featuring the likeness of Norman Reedus will not be continued. In terms of Kojima and Del Toro being involved, discussions on future Silent Hill projects are currently underway, and please stay tuned for further announcements.”
As of April 29, the Silent Hills demo P.T. is no longer available for download on the PlayStation Network. Konami was forced to pull it since its contract period with actor Reedus had expired. Hope you had the right mind to scoop it up while you had the chance. Though it was billed as a demo, it will go down in history as one of my favorite games. Stunning graphics, intense puzzles, and effective scare tactics make it one to remember. A damn shame that’s all we’re going to get.
Update: I’m back to make your depressive slump a little less, erm, excruciating. After playing through P.T., again, for the fourth time, because it’s bloody awesome, I got stuck (like always) during the final puzzle where you have to get “the second baby laugh” and the telephone to ring. So I took to the ‘Net to see if anyone has, at long last, figured out a solid solution to complete the demo. Lucky me, I stumbled upon TheGrateDebate, a YouTube channel hosted by a couple gamers solely dedicated to Silent Hill lore. Not only do they provide a solution to the final P.T. puzzle (whisper “Jareth” into a connected mic to trigger the second baby laugh)–they also explain in a 10-minute video how they discovered the ingenious ticket to the Silent Hills teaser. Additionally, they intelligently deduce that Silent Hills may have been a virtual reality title headed to Sony’s Project Morpheus. And then there’s the sprawling 40-minute clip “The Story of P.T.” where they piece together all the clues featured in the demo to try and tell the haunting narrative in a compelling way. Perhaps our collective obsession over all things P.T. and Silents Hills might will the game back into existence. If that doesn’t happen, we’ll always have the addicting demo to replay over and over again. Just make sure that you never delete it from your PS4’s HDD; Konami has removed it from the PlayStation Store.
[Via BloodyDisgusting; Eurogamer]