Fan Remakes Opening of SILENT HILL In First-Person
I’ve recently started sifting through the sediment of the itch.io mine lately. Like every humble indie-horror prospector, I’m hoping to find that nugget of gold amongst all the silt. Except in this case, the silt is all horrible unfinished unity asset flips. And the river is entirely made of them. And the riverbed. And the forest. And the mountain behind me. Yes, the true pioneers of the modern age are not those that agree to be shot into space (how hard can it actually be to be an astronaut? The rocket does all the work, all you do is float around), but those who blaze trails on the “new” tab of content portals. Though you’ll likely come out the other end insane from the knowledge of the darkness that lies within the hearts of man. But when you do find something cool, it makes it all worth it.
When I stumbled upon the Silent Hill Remake, I didn’t pay much attention. Everyone is trying to remake/reimagine Silent Hill, and if Konami is willing to kill their own game I can’t imagine they would let a fan project run wild. Still, the name was enough to get me to click. I’m glad I did.
The Silent Hill Remake isn’t a starry-eyed “fan retelling” with delusions of grandeur. It’s just a faithful recreation of the opening segment of Silent Hill, but in first-person. It’s only about five minutes long, three if you hold the sprint button. There’s no combat, no additional dialogue, no new characters, nothing. In fact, the above video is the whole thing. It’s a loving recreation, even down to the opening screen that warns, “There are violent and disturbing images in this game.” I have to say, I didn’t realize how much that original PlayStation logo sound was planted in the deep pleasure centers of my brain.
The Silent Hill Remake is free on itch.io, so there is no reason not to check it out yourself. Even though the game bills itself as a demo, developer Zero Trace Operative has stated that this is a completed project that he has no intention of building off of. He goes over this decision in his devlog, where he recaps the 5-month process of creating this little proof of concept. It’s a fascinating read, and gives the demo some depth beyond the brief runtime. If you’re a budding creator yourself with dreams of making your own fan projects, I highly recommend you give it a look.
So what do you guys think? Did you try out the Silent Hill Remake demo? What other games would you like to see fans remake? Any segments from the games you’d like to see in first-person? Let me know in the comments!
