The Game Awards 2021 was a pretty good event for those who loves horror games. Remedy Entertainment finally confirmed that it's making survival-horror title Alan Wake 2, Gun Medai revealed a new game adaptation of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Bokeh Game Studio introduced the world to Slitterhead. Each of these games has potential, but Slitterhead has a unique advantage in that it's tied to Keiichiro Toyama, the creator of Silent Hill. While Toyama may not have written the majority of Silent Hill games, his psychological horror concepts were crucial to establishing Silent Hill's identity, as well as defining the future of horror games in general.
It's great to hear that Toyama is getting back into horror with Slitterhead. He's made a few horror titles in the years since he created Silent Hill, but Slitterhead still looks like a compelling step in a new direction, taking players to a city inspired by Hong Kong that's populated by horrifying monsters that disguise themselves as humans. Slitterhead isn't shy about containing a lot of action, in contrast to how Silent Hill prefers survival horror, but Toyama's latest comments on the game make it clear that Silent Hill fans could still really enjoy Slitterhead.
Slitterhead's Approach to Horror
Although Toyama has made it clear that Slitterhead is far too early in development to speak on a lot of its gameplay details, he did provide some notes on Slitterhead's horror elements in a recent conversation with IGN. For one thing, he established some core themes of Slitterhead: life, death, and decay. Toyama says that Slitterhead will explore these central themes through not just gore and physical horror, but from more immersive and potentially psychological angles. Silent Hill's focus on the fear of the unknown and close examination of the protagonist's own mind could live on through these strong central themes in Slitterhead, which could carry the game into a very specific, unique horror atmosphere.
Toyama has explained one core Slitterhead concept that speaks to the game's unique approach to horror. He mentions that the game's monsters can disguise themselves as humans, meaning the player has to snuff them out while travelling through Slitterhead's dense city. In other words, in Slitterhead, it's possible that any and every unnamed NPC that players pass could be a threat waiting to strike. Silent Hill fans are no stranger to stumbling blindly through the foggy titular town, never knowing for sure when danger might appear next. Slitterhead's concept of disguised enemies could be a great way to refresh that principle of Silent Hill.
Aside from these concrete details on the game, the broader, more nebulous potential within Slitterhead should speak to Silent Hill fans. Slitterhead's elusive monsters are already creative, but Toyama has promised multiple other mechanics that have never been seen before, meaning Slitterhead could be another innovative title in the horror genre. Silent Hill famously helped horror games explore more psychological themes, so with Toyama leading its development, there's hope that Slitterhead can similarly break new ground for action-oriented horror games. One could argue that Slitterhead's biggest draw is simply its potential to be something wholly new.
Hearing about Toyama's new project does introduce some pangs of sadness for Silent Hill, whose fate remains uncertain. Ever since Kojima and Konami parted ways, resulting in Silent Hills' cancellation, there's been no sign of a franchise revival. Still, in a sense, that's all the more reason to be excited about Slitterhead. Even if Silent Hill lies dormant for now, its impact can be felt in the many horror games that have released since then and looked to it for inspiration. Slitterhead differs from Silent Hill in a lot of departments, but odds are that it'll feel at least a little bit like the original Silent Hill with Toyama at the helm.
Slitterhead is in development.