NOT SO SILENT

With a Silent Hill renaissance on the horizon, the Western developers who worked on the most recent four entries - Silent Hill: Origins, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and Silent Hill: Downpour - talk to James Winspear about keeping a light aflame while the fog rolls in

After years of nothing but radio static, Konami has found the Silent Hill frequency once again (flick to p91 for our verdict on the remade Silent Hill 2). Bloober Team's shiny overhaul isn't the only significant attempt to keep the series going - it doesn't take a village, it takes a whole town.

The remake of Silent Hill 2 is just the latest game for which Western talent has been brought in to continue the series. To ensure the developers are not left lost and alone we're stepping back into the mists of time to talk to those who have stewarded the series throughout those years. We're also looking ahead to a future that seems just as kaleidoscopic we know Silent Hill f and Silent Hill: Townfall are in production, though details have yet to be revealed. Perhaps Silent Hill has no essential element, no single defining feature, only ever-shifting aspects that merge and split like restless dreams.

SILENT HILL: ORIGINS

The development of this handheld-first trip to the Hill was as convoluted as the prequel story it tells

Origins was produced by Konami's US office, which would handle all subsequent Western-made Silent Hill games. Initially conceived as a remake of the first game, it was changed to a prequel when it became clear that the scope of a remake meant it would be prohibitively expensive. From there, Origins is a tale of two games: an early build by developer Climax Studios' Los Angeles team; and the final version, completed by Climax's Portsmouth-based outfit in Britain.

The original American version was put bluntly - a mess, featuring a Resident Evil 4-inspired over-the-shoulder perspective, zombie-like enemies, and a hammy, B-movie like approach to its narrative.

"The game was supposed to be silly," recalls Sam Barlow, then lead writer and designer in Climax's Portsmouth office. "It was supposed to be like Evil Dead 2, with the dark humour of the TV show Scrubs."

MEDDLING KIDS