Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Today’s Silent Hill live transmission event definitely delivered. Besides the announcement of the Silent Hill 2 remake and the Return to Silent Hill adaptation, the Silent Hill team introduced two new games in the franchise: Silent Hill: Townfall and Silent Hill: Ascension. Both games are unique additions to the franchise and are being handled by respected teams in the video game world. Thankfully, they both look creepy too!
Silent Hill: Townfall
“Why are you here?”
This trailer is a different kind of creepy and starts with some forceful questioning over a radio broadcast. Alternating between waves on the beach and a handheld CRTV pocket television, the trailer gives so much and so little away. We know that whoever is speaking is trapped in a town and being judged by its people, but we don’t know anything about why he suspects our protagonist. The images flickering across the screen were also disturbing in the best way. The trailer departed from the typical fog that accompanies games in this franchise, but we know that the town adapts to the psyche of its visitors.
Silent Hill: Townfall is the new game from No Code Studio and Annapurna Interactive. You may know No Code Studio from their work on BAFTA-winning titles such as Stories Untold and Observation, and Annapurna Interactive is the team behind Stray and Outer Wilds. This combination will be interesting in the Silent Hill context, but we’re excited to find out more!
Jon McKellen, creative director of No Code Studio, is honored to be working on a new game in the franchise. As a fan himself, he’s excited to bring fans a game that stays true to the original concept but of course, adds a little something new. If the trailer is any indication, it does look like the team is already approaching the game in a unique way.
“I think you’re here for some other reason. And I don’t want to be anywhere near you…when you figure that out.” Well, we do! We can’t wait to see what this game has in store for us.
Silent Hill: Ascension
Silent Hill: Ascension is going to be a whole new kind of experience according to Jacob Navok, the CEO of Genvid. The trailer for the game mainly consists of messaging back and forth between dark scenes of a monstrous figure. This new bad guy has a big staff and a weird twitching crown of appendages but no face. And no shirt, but he’s got shoulder pads at least!
Navok said that watching streamers play Silent Hill games while their viewers reacted along with them was a huge inspiration for the new game. He is the second person in the transmission event to talk about “communal fear,” and how different it is to experience a horror movie or game with other people. Christophe Gams, the director of the new movie, mentioned this as well.
Silent Hill: Ascension is a live, real-time interactive series where millions of people will watch as the story unfolds. The games will be interactive enough for fans to change the outcomes of the stories and be a part of the scenes with no reset button. No take-backs is already terrifying. We don’t know what those stories will be yet, but we do know that there is a great team working on the project.
Bad Robot, Behavior, and DJ2 will all be a part of helping Genvid bring this project to life in 2023 and JJ Abrams will be acting as the director. Chris Amaral, the art director at Bad Robot, took a moment to talk about the monsters in the franchise. He homed in on the fact that Silent Hill monsters are influenced by the main character’s deepest fears and desires and so too will the monsters in this new gaming experience. Meanwhile, Behavior’s VP creative Chris Ferriera talked about the team’s role in creating an interactive experience that fans won’t soon forget. Who better to be working on this project that the team behind Dead by Daylight? Check out the trailer below.
Finally, we’ll close with a quote from the director, JJ Abrams: “Genvid’s experience presents a wild, epic, and innovative new way to immerse yourself in the horrors of Silent Hill.” We’re really looking forward to it. You can sign up for updates at ascension.com.
