Silent Hill: Book of Memories is set to hit U.S. Vitas on Oct. 16, which means it’ll be just in time for gamers to go trick-or-treating in a brand new (albeit a spin-off) adventure through the foggy streets of the scariest town on the planet. In case the dungeon-crawling gameplay in a survival-horror setting doesn’t have you convinced yet, then you’ll be happy to know that Konami has announced a demo will hit PSN during the next regular weekly update.
Book of Memories is an odd creature. As stated, it’s more of a dungeon crawling title set within the world of Silent Hill rather than a third-person action horror title like the rest of the games in the series. This dramatic shift has caused quite a bit of negativity to be thrown at the game from the get-go which, in my humble opinion, is unjustified.
First of all, Wayforward is handling Book of Memories, a studio well versed in reimagining existing franchises and doing a bang-up job of it along the way with such titles as Bloodrayne: Betrayal and the recent Double Dragon Neon.
Secondly, the vast majority of naysayers seem to be spewing their vitriol under the guise of being “die-hard Silent Hill fans.” A spinoff is a spinoff. Nobody set out to make this a “true Silent Hill experience.” It’s simply a new type of game wrapped in the world of the storied franchise. True fans would be willing to give it a shot before immediately writing the game off.
And you’ll be able to do exactly that come Oct. 2, as that’s when the Vita demo will be made available on the U.S. PSN. All I’m saying is, at least give it a chance to entertain you. Don’t go in expecting survival horror as you’ve come to know it and you might just walk away feeling like change can be a good thing.
