dilent hill needs to be metaphorical again. it was never straight horror so much as it was a psychological thriller. Silent Hill needs depth, and a lot of it, not the trend of putting nurses into every game. Nurses were a reflection of sh2 protagonists feeling about objectification of women.
Start with an interesting main character and go from there. Maybe a grifter who swindled people out of fortunes or a gameshow host who killed his parents. Then come up with a backstory and enemies that fit his twisted views of the world. It's so simple.
RE: re4 was great but you need to stop the over the top bullshit. Isolation is a central part of the mood and it's just been lost. IMO re should function somewhat similarly to super metroid. Be able to rummage through set areas and blow out walls to find caches of money and dog tags or powerups, and keep the feeling as isolated as possible. No overaching villains. A smart villain is not a compelling rival, it is the unstoppable overwhelming sense of dread that accompanies the horde of mindless zombies and animals that makes resident evil feel scary.
