Before someone mentions SH4, I mean completely set in the Otherworld with no breaks in between like SH4 gave you. Think it could work? If so, how would you want it to?

Just thought of the old hoax that was Silent Hill: Otherworld and got me thinking what if the whole game took place entirely in that realm?

In all the games, the Otherworld was a place you'd fear. You knew you were kind of safe in the Fog world, but whenever everything turned dark you knew you were going to be in trouble. If you were constantly without break inside the Otherworld, it would take away the 'now is gonna be horrifying'-feeling and the game would feel kind of stale.
That's a problem I have with a lot of horror games these days. You're constantly on edge and you get used to it; Daylight and Slender for example. There is no more element of surprise except for the jump-scares you can see coming from miles away. But by introducing safe/calmer moment, you can get scared again.

More from a design perspective than a gameplay perspective: By having the otherworld 'zones' apart from each other, you can create distinct otherworlds for each zone. Downpour for example gave each otherworld a very distinctive look and feeling, each with it's own 'theme'. You can give yourself more stylistic playground if you keep them seperate.

Yeah, I don't think it would work. If you let the player get to used to it, then it loses it's effect. Part of the power of the otherworld from past games was that the player was constantly going back to a more normal world. You can't have moments of tension without moments of relief.

What the others said. The Otherworld's power comes from contrast, and from how it gives an alternate-world gameplay element. There wouldn't be any moments like "This door doesn't lead here" because that'd be the norm.

I think if we break our conventional belief about what the Otherworld is, then yes, that could be cool. In my line of thinking, however, isn't every SH set entirely in the Otherworld? I don't really separate the "Fog World" from anything else.

I'm not super-dense though. I know what you're getting at. As I said, Yeah, I think it would be cool if done in a surprising way. Maybe it could be a shorter game... downloadable? $15-$30?

No, I don't think that'd be such a good idea. Like others already pointed out, it would take away the combined feeling of tension and relief. What you're suggesting is bascially just a ordinary horror game relying on jump-scares.

One a sidenote, however, it would be interesting to let the Otherworld and "Foggy world" change places. The actual existence of the foggy world is debatable, though.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. We never see normal-world SH in the games.
But yeah, assuming you mean the dark, nightmarish version (which I still call the "otherside" of the otherworld), I would prefer not to have a game set just in that. One of the things I always thought was coolest about SH games was that it transformed and you saw those different versions of it. And while I love the otherside, I think the atmosphere of the foggy version of the otherworld is just as important to the game.

Yeah, if we're talking about that rusty place from SH1, SH3, SHO, and SHH, then no, I wouldn't want a game set entirely there.

I actually don't think we need to see that place ever again. It's commonplace now. That's not good.

As I said, with a unique approach I think it could work out.

One way I would accept a game completely in the otherworld would be if we get to explore multiple otherworlds from different people. It's a way to keep it refreshing whenever you enter a new area. Perhaps someones otherworld is extra agressive and each time you recognise you enter that otherworld you feel the dread coming back again.
But this principle is perhaps very much like the normal otherworld mechanic and gameplay/design.

^ That makes me think of the upcoming Alice: Otherlands.

Part of me would be interested in it, but I feel like it's an idea that might be too big for any of the current developers. I think if Team Silent had wanted to do it then maybe they could have pulled that off but it would take a lot of planning and discipline of design choices.

Like, what if a game had a character who's been trapped in this "Hell" for awhile now, or something happens to them at the beginning of the story so that they wake up and they find themselves there. I always really liked the end-game of SH2, how it felt like you were descending deeper and deeper into the craziness of it all. Part of me thinks maybe making it eviler when it's "dark" kind of makes it a little more predictable, still effective, but maybe not as much as it could be?

I could see the contrast being pulled more out of "I had a feel for what was going on and had just started getting used to it when the floor vanished from under me" Have things get more feral, more surreal and abstract, etc as you went on with the game. Maybe sometimes have little ways that you can sort of "peak" back into the normal world (or the fog covered streets atleast) maybe you see people who are looking for you while watching a tv in an upside down room? maybe there's a small window? I'm thinking sort of like the peephole in SH4. Give's that sense of, there are people out there, but I'm trapped in here and there's no way out. Make the whole thing like a big messed up fever dream!


maybe pull the "I thought I was out but I was still in the nightmare" trope somewhere along the way, maybe in a small way...wouldn't want to see that trope leaned on too hard else it would be cliche.

Idk, just some ideas!

I feel like if you want to argue that the Otherworld and the Other Side are similar enough to count as the same place (which honestly I've seen a lot of people argue), I personally would say that the concept of a game set exclusively in the Otherworld has already been done, and that game is SH2.

Part of the charm of the alternate side of SH is how it totally distorts the environment that you were exploring; like the mannequin puzzle in SH0 or the instants before fighting the moth in SH1... The fog world makes you used to a map and then the alternate world totally destroys it leving you in the dark (No pun intended) so you have to get used to an almost new location while you fight more aggressive creatures; this creates a distress feeling that you won't get without the shift...

Also... The feeling when you finish an alternate level and return to the foggy world is awesome...

It could work, but I think most of us enjoy the foggy world. Plus, the transitions are something we generally look forward to experiencing.

A big part of SH's charm for me is going back to places you have been and they are totally messed up and just about recognizeable. It's an idea that could work but it wouldn't be easy to pull off.

It couldn't be constant terror or panic or anything like that. The early SH's biggest triumph was evoking emotions much more powerful than fear. It would have to keep that in order to be SH to me.

If you don't know where anywhere is supposed to look then the 'alternate' or 'other' world would lose some of it's impact.

And lastly, the 'otherworld' is not what makes SH what it is. SH2 is widely considered the finest and it has no real 'otherworld' moments. (like SH1&3) Sure it had the 'alternate' versions of certain locations but they weren't the same style as the others, they were more understated which for me gave it something extra.

Sometimes less really is more.

But the scaryness in Outlast didn't come from the atmosphere as much as it just came from its enemies and jumpscares. Of course, limited vision always is scary, but the environment was (almost) never scary, disturbing or off-putting, safe for the last portion, but that's mostly because of the stark contrast with the rest of the game.

SH2's otherworld was more like you when in it and stayed there for a long time. From the hospital to the end of the Labyrinth was the otherworld. The other games have you switch in and out of the otherworld. That's what made SH2 cool, it was supposed to blur the lines of reality and unreality.