Why the Silent Hill Otherworld "Melting" effect doesn't work

Ever since the Silent Hill movie was released several years back, every Silent Hill game has borrowed the "melting" transition effect from the normal world to the Otherworld. The first trailer for the newest game, currently being called "Silent Hill 8" (apparently "Origins" was 6 and "Shattered Memories" was 7, even though Origins was released BEFORE 5), seems to be using this effect as well. And although Silent Hill 8 so far looks like it is going to be better than Homecoming, the continued use of this "Melting" effect is really starting to bother me. While this effect may have looked cool in the movie, and may have been creepy for casual viewers in context of the movie, the effect does NOT translate as well in the games, and is NOT a superior effect (Gameplay or story-telling wise) to the previous effects that were used in the first three Silent Hill games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS7xj78t4dk

In the first Silent Hill game, most of the Otherworld transitions (with the exception of the Alchemillia Hospital and crossing the bridge to the Amusement Park) occurred during a blackout by Harry Mason. The character would hear the Air Raid siren, start to feel a headache, then pass out and wake up in the Otherworld.

In Silent Hill 2 a few of the transitions occurred in a similar method, with James suffering a trauma (falling off the Hospital roof, for example), being knocked unconscious, then waking up in the Otherworld. Some transitions occurred simply by opening a door to another room or hallway (this was the method used during the climactic visit to the Lakeview Hotel )James would open one door in the normal world, and pass through the door into the Otherworld.

Silent Hill 3 continued to mix the two methods and add some interesting effects of its own. In some occasions, poor Heather would be knocked unconscious or injured and wake up in the Otherworld. In other occasions, she would pass through a door to find the Otherworld on the other side. In at least one occasion, an elevator acted as the transition tool (a tip of the hat to the first game, perhaps). In the case of the Elevator, Heather entered it from a normal hallway. The elevator itself was a rather industrial-looking elevator with metal bars and a grated floor and ceiling. Though this did not seem terribly unusual or out of place. But as the elevator descended, the outside world gradually changed, becoming more industrial, warped, and nightmarish in a cutscene very reminiscent of Jacob's Ladder's hospital gurney scene. Silent Hill 3 is also unique in that it includes the only transition (that I can think of) from the "real world" to the "fog world" (the middle ground between the "real" world and the "Otherworld" that is the where most of the games' play takes place). This occurred at the very beginning of the game, when Heather was in a perfectly normal mall, complete with other people. She went into the girl's bathroom to escape Douglas, and from there, exited through the window, where she found herself in the "fog world" which was indistinguishable from the real world until she returned to the interior of the mall to find that it was deserted as if it had been closed for hours (despite it being open and populated less than 2 minutes ago).

In the first three games, an actual physical shift form "Fog" to "Otherworld" can only be observed twice. The first time in Silent Hill 1 when Harry crosses the bridge to the Amusement Park. In this instance, the effect is simply a fade-out of the street surface, revealing metal grating beneath, and a seemingly infinite pit of blackness below the grating. The second time is in the hospital of Silent Hill 3, when Heather sees bloody veins spreading out from a bathtub that eventually encompass the entire hospital. But the effect of the transition is physically painful to Heather (which is unique within the Silent Hill games).

Silent Hill 4 utilizes a "hub and portal" method for movement between different areas of the game, so the transition from "normal" to "fog" to "Otherworld" are very distinct. This game's unique method is not really directly comparable to the other game's because it is uniquely tied into the game's narrative. Therefore, I will not be using Silent Hill4 in this discussion. I will also not focus too much on "Silent Hill: Origins" because that game uses a mirror as a device to transfer from one realm to the other, similar to the Portals of Silent Hill 4. This mechanic is also unique to that game's story, and therefore, not directly comparable.

The first three games use a variety of different methods to transfer from "fog" or "normal" to "Otherworld". Some are direct and jarring. Others are more subtle and almost casual. But in virtually every case, the transition has a disorienting effect on the player. First and foremost, the player usually enters the Otherworld not knowing where they actually are. Even though a map is sometimes accessible, any markings that have been made on the map are erased, and as the player progresses, the map will be rewritten to include new hallways and rooms where none had been before. The new Otherworld map always ends up being radically different than the map of the "normal" or "fog" world's version of the area.

When these transitions occur, the player often times loses any sense of where he or she is and where he or she is supposed to be going. The effect is almost panic-inducing, as the player is forced to explore the area again, only to find that everything they had learned about it previously is no longer applicable. Monsters are more common and more aggressive, and environmental dangers are present as well. The instances of physical pain that are often associated with the transitions also add a degree of discomfort for any player that has a sense of empathy for the character. Sometimes, in instances where the character is unconscious during the transition, you will awaken in an area that appears completely unfamiliar. You have no idea if it's a representation of where you've already been, or if it's an entirely different location altogether. The effect is confusing, disorienting, painful, and frightening.

In the Silent Hill movie, a new, and (at the time, interesting) method of Otherworld transition was employed. In this iteration, the "fog" world would "melt" or "peel" off, revealing a rusty, metallic, industrial world underneath. But the basic outline of the world (its structure and architecture) would remain virtually unchanged. This effect works in the movie because it is a stimulating visual effect, and a movie is not "immersive" like a video game. In a movie, the directors and writers do not have to worry as much about the continuity of its locations or navigation from one area to another because the viewer doesn't have to navigate the locations. In a movie, the environment can be visually altered without having any effect on the viewer's perception of "where" he or she is, since the location is irrelevant as long as the characters seem to know where they are or where they or going (or not know, as the case may be). In a video game, however, the writers can pretend that the character doesn't know where he or she is, but if the layout of the environment remains unchanged, the player is not going to experience any sense of confusion or disorientation. Everything is exactly where the player left it, and the player can still find his or her way through the environment.

The first 3 Silent Hill games, however, DID change the layout of the environments. A fade-out, load-screen, or camera cut often accompany the transition, so there is no way for the player to know that he or she is in the same place that they just were (regardless of whether the character knows or not). In Silent Hill 5, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (7), and now (apparently from the trailer) Silent Hill 8, the movie-inspired "melting" or "peeling" is the predominant effect for transitions to the Otherworld. In this effect (whether it occurs during Gameplay, or during a scripted, non-interactive cutscene), the player NEVER loses any sense of WHERE they are or WHAT they are supposed to be doing. No confusion or disorientation occurs. The effect is simply a visual element with absolutely NO bearing on Gameplay. In some cases, the Otherworld will take players through the same areas (which will be slightly different), and in other cases, the Otherworld would take the player into previously inaccessible or unknown locations, but the existing locations that have already been visited did NOT change in layout (assuming they are still accessible at all). The player is still able to perfectly navigate the "new" game world with no problems. And in the situations where a new location is visited, the fact that you are in the "Otherworld" has no effect, since any confusion you experience is the result of the fact that you actually ARE in a different area that you are not familiar with. But the bottom line is that you (the player) KNOW whether the area is the same or not.

In the previous games, the majority of transitions involved the player NOT KNOWING for sure whether the current location is a version of a place already visited, or a totally new, unrelated location, and finding familiar landmarks or using the map feature would slowly clue the player into the fact that this Nightmare is the same place you've already explored. The effect is subtle, but present. And it generates a source of primal fear and/or anxiety. In the new game, no such uncertainty exists. You (the player) saw the world change. You experienced it. There is no degree of uncertainty. No confusion. And no fear. The effect is useless, wasted, just a cheap gimmick that has absolutely no influence on the how you approach the game. The world might as well have started that way. Or the change might as well have never happened. It doesn't matter. Because the places you go are either a blatant re-skin of a previous location (you saw the re-skin happen), or it is a totally new location altogether with no relation or similarity to where you just were, the transition adds absolutely no tension or fear to the game. This is especially true in Homecoming, in which monsters seem to appear equally in both "fog" and Otherworld, and attack with the same ferocity.

As a Silent Hill fan, it is my sincere hope that the developers and designers behind the new "Silent Hill 8" take a very critical look on the changes to the game that were made in Homecoming and Shattered Memories, and only adopt the ones that actually added to the game's "horror" gameplay. The primary inspirations for the new game should continue to be the same ones that inspired the first 3 games, since those are the games that were of the best quality in the series (although "Shattered Memories" is a VERY good game, and I applaud Climax for their execution and return to fundamental "horror" gaming). Please take a close look at the methodology that was used by the designers of the first game to create the atmospherically creepy environments and creatures that were made in the first few games.

Just because the movie was "liked" by a lot of people, and brought in some new audiences, do not assume that everything the movie did was the right way to do things. The movie broke a lot of the franchise's rules and established canon. It changed characters. It changes the backstories. It changed the environments. And it changed the creatures. And most of these changes were done to accommodate the fact that the movie is a MOVIE. Not all of these changes can simply be imported to a game structure. If you want proof that taking concepts and "mechanics" from a movie doesn't work, just look at the track record of movie-based and movie-inspired games. Its not a very pretty track record. That is because the techniques and methodologies of movies are fundamentally different than those that need to be used for a successful game. Plus, the Silent Hill movie really is not all that great anyway, so I don't know why the game designers would be suddenly taking their inspirations from a movie that was inferior to the games it is based on in just about every way.