I played 1, 2, 3, 4 and Origins. I loved 1, 2 and 3 and obsessed over them endlessly over the years. The fact that most things aren't spelled out for us in addition to all the details and purposeful coincidences that give so much meaning to the scenario and characters, gave me an immense amount of food for thought and speculation.
With 4 things started going southward. It started as a game for a new IP and in the middle of production Konami decided to cram the Silent Hill mythos into it and rework it as a Silent Hill game. Parts of the game are gimmicky and the plot revolves around an incident that you could have read about in a small note in Silent Hill 2. It didn't feel entirely cohesive as a game, especially as a Silent Hill game. And the stupid ghosts that would not die were aggravating from a gameplay perspective, rather than frightening and imposing. It worked against its purpose.
Then came Origins and it wasn't made by the original team. You can feel the foreign way of handling the plot, characters and setting. And it added unneeded objectivity to what was a cloudy, moody, unexplored and misterious past to the setting in Silent Hill 1. Ruining one of gamings most memorable moments for me simply killed the franchise in my eyes. Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of closed doors in that game. It completely kicked you out of immersion.
Having given up on a series that was being trivialized, I didn't play Shattered Memories and Homecoming. The former retold one of my favourite games ever (a most grave sin) and the latter just felt like Origins 2.0 in terms of production.
I am still in love with the first 3 games (they have an almost sacred status to me) in the series and remember fondly all the time I spent talking and reading about them. They created a richly detailed and textured universe and allowed me to work my imagination in creative ways. But I'm wary of Downpour and for now do not care about it. It pains me to no end to know that Team Silent probably will never make another one, but there are times when I would rather stop playing a series after it has lost its meaning to me. Normally due to not being developed by its original creator and visionary. Shining Force/Holy Ark comes to mind, after SF3 Camelot Software Planning never worked on that series ever again.
Well, that's it. I'll keep an eye on the asylum.
