#1 - We'll start with the thing that will give this game the most oomph: The Fox Engine. Take a look at Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and you'll understand why this is such a big impact. The lighting and weather effects that the engine can create are phenomenal. In an action game, they make it all the more intense. In a horror game? Same deal, maybe even more so. And we haven't yet seen the full breadth that Kojima will execute for this. The city, though we only catch a glimpse of it at the end, looks beautiful. The ending for this demo makes Downpour's iteration of Silent Hill look like garbage. I can't say for certain, however, if I will enjoy the brightness depicted here. It might just be for showcase sake to have it as well-lit as it was, but if the town flips over to a darker "flashlight only" setting for points, then the Fox Engine will go "Your flashlight will be as effective as a normal one. Have fun wandering the foggy darkness." And that will be GLORIOUS.
#2 - Ambiance is king in a horror game, but so is subtlety. This demo did that extremely well as well. Noises unsettle you, the repetition is done marvelously, and it gives you that proper psychological feel that the protagonist is going deeper into his own psyche...and he won't like what he finds there. The baby? Creepy. The wife? Awesome, though I kinda mind it being a little too human, I'll give it a pass for effective use OUTSIDE the window. Subtle little things like hiding a piece of the puzzle in an inventory screen? Kojima's mark, done in Metal Gear games, but...perhaps not too far out of place here. So long as he doesn't abuse that or "screen-size error messages" (we're not making Eternal Darkness here), he'll do just fine. The full-size visual glitch, however, of the vision breaking up? The right kind of disorienting and paranoid-inducing shenanigans. Subtle additions and subtractions when you're not looking? Fantastic. General lack of jump scares? Perfect. You know a horror game is doing it right when you're perfectly safe...but you don't want to look any harder than you should. There's a second level in an alcove above the entrance area, and it's pitch black. Do YOU want to look up there and check to see if anything is there at any time?
#3 - He used the first game's music. Brownie points. He probably will keep to the theme no doubt, of music and ambient tracks being unsettling noise for the most part.
So overall...I'm happy. Kojima isn't 100% perfect at making a Silent Hill game, and I nitpicked a couple things. A few more people could probably find faults with it as well. But if I'm speaking purely from a "will he do it right" standpoint? This is Kojima. He's done insane things while playing with a story about walking nuclear tanks and cyborg ninjas that can stop a warship the size of five skyscrapers dead in it's tracks. Can you imagine what kind of fucked up shenanigans he'll get into when he has Silent Hill to work with? AND HE PLAYED THE DEMO SUBTLE.
He's got this.
