Silent Hill 5 looks like it will be shit

There. We've said it.

Without question, the Silent Hill series is one of the most atmospheric, gripping and downright terrifying video games of all time. The impact of the now legendary final revelation of James Sunderland's quest in Silent Hill 2 remains unequalled in video game history.

But the PS3 version of the game looks likely to let fans down in ways they haven't been since, say, Silent Hill 4.

While change, chances and risks can only be commended as games reach their fourth and fifth sequels, Silent Hill 4 was without any sustained sense of tension. While the first person elements of gameplay eventually yielded some degree of supernatural nastiness, the third person action elements missed the disgust and exhilaration gained guiding James, Heather and Harry Mason to their eventual saviour or demise.

So hearing about the pursuit and focus of the uninspiring action elements of Silent Hill 4 by American developers The Collective worries us more than the fear of bumping into Pyramid Head in the stairwell of an abandoned apartment building.

Here is an outline of what has been keeping us awake of late:

- Silent Hill has never been about the combat.
We don't want varied attacks and dodges. If we want skilled combat we will spend some time with 'Devil May Cry'.

- Silent Hill has never been about brute force.
We don't want the protagonist to be a well trained soldier. Where is the sense of helplessness when our 'hero' is a professionally trained, battle weary war veteran? We're a long way from a teenage girl sucked into hell on a trip to the mall…

- Silent Hill has never been about repeating old success.
Playing with Silent Hill history has only ever been attempted with tentative steps – such as the relationship between Harry and Heather Mason in the first and third games. Consider us suspicious with reports that the storyline of Silent Hill 5 will recall the glory of the game's second iteration. Plot outlines of new protagonist Alex Shepherd's search for missing brother Joshua in the fog shrouded streets of Silent Hill seem an almost carbon copy of James' search for his long lost wife Mary.

- Silent Hill has never been about speed.
Released game footage sees typically doom laden locations but also sees Alex belting up stairs and through wonderfully grim corridors without a care in the world – this world or any other. Silent Hill is not just about the player's terror, it is about our character's terror. The thrill of earlier games was exploration, its themes, its storyline and the sense of a horrific world lying beneath what we consider the everyday.

- Silent Hill should never be about the movie.
Silent Hill's move to cinema screen's was teeth grindingly close to being brilliant, but stopped short at every turn. Christopher Gans made the mistake of prizing visuals over storyline and atmosphere, succeeding in creating a visually successful movie but failing in transferring Silent Hill out of the hands of gamers and into the conscious of movie goers. The decision to have Silent Hill's trademark nurses bouncing around their ghoulish hospital with their unnaturally enhanced chests on display might be our biggest concern over this entire project.

While the reinvention of Resident Evil succeeded so well in it's complete overhaul, the half-hearted reinvention of Silent Hill has instead taken its inspiration from some of the series' least revered moments (the fourth game and the movie) and rests on dangerous ground of failing in both pleasing fans of the series and appealing to a hardened and action orientated gaming market.

However, we don't want to sound like the average, everyday whingers complaining that their favourite license has been spoiled by alterations and necessary progression. Silent Hill is one of our favourite games and the only to succeed in genuine scares but we are well aware that the finished version of its fifth console and first next generation iteration is potentially still years away. This is not a grumble, this is merely airing a few concerns and we are more than happy to be proven wrong on every count. In fact we would be thrilled to be proven wrong.

On the obvious plus side, Silent Hill 5 looks amazing and the torchlight effects – an integral part of all Silent hill games - are astounding…

See for yourself: