In the short time since a draft of Wizards of the Coast’s new Open Gaming License (called OGL 1.1) leaked, the tabletop gaming landscape has undergone incredible change.After overwhelming backlash online, several creators announced their intent to move away from the D&D ruleset, Fifth Edition (or 5E), in favor of open-source alternatives.
The leaked changes would do away with the game maker’s longstanding policy that empowers third-party Dungeons & Dragons creators to make and sell their own content to support the game, replacing it with a much more strict set of rules that would include a royalty and a controversial clause stating that Wizards has the right to use those creators’ content however it likes.
We believe that the OGL 1.0a cannot be deauthorized. Our resources are unchanged. #OpenRPG However, the new Open RPG Creative License will be built. To join the effort and provide feedback on the drafts of this license, please sign up by using this form. https://t.co/AhkerJBLU1https://t.co/FDWZL6e9Ma
First Kobold Press, which makes products under OGL, announced their intent to “work on a new Core Fantasy tabletop ruleset: available, open, and subscription-free for those who love it – Code Name: Project Black Flag.” Though a move away from OGL and 5E is noteworthy, Kobold coupled this announcement with the news that none of their current OGL projects would be impacted by the new rules and would be proceeding as normal.
Other publishers weren’t so light-handed, as just two days later, Paizo, which makes Pathfinder, announced a similar initiative called Open RPG Creative License (or ORC), alongside some strong words directed at Wizards’ planned deauthorization of the original OGL.
“We believe that any interpretation that the OGL 1.0 or 1.0(a) were intended to be revocable or able to be deauthorized is incorrect, and with good reason. We were there… Paizo owner Lisa Stevens and Paizo president Jim Butler were leaders on the Dungeons & Dragons team at Wizards at the time. Brian Lewis, co-founder of Azora Law, the intellectual property law firm that Paizo uses, was the attorney at Wizards who came up with the legal framework for the OGL itself. Paizo has also worked very closely on OGL-related issues with Ryan Dancey, the visionary who conceived the OGL in the first place.”
The company added, “Paizo does not believe that the OGL 1.0a can be “deauthorized,” ever. While we are prepared to argue that point in a court of law if need be, we don’t want to have to do that, and we know that many of our fellow publishers are not in a position to do so. We have no interest whatsoever in Wizards’ new OGL. Instead, we have a plan that we believe will irrevocably and unquestionably keep alive the spirit of the Open Game License.”
The ORC announcement came alongside the news that fellow OGL publishers Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Rogue Genius Games, and “a growing list of publishers” had already agreed to participate in ORC as an OGL alternative.
Chris Pramas, founder of Green Ronin Publishing told IGN: “The current leadership of WotC talks about the OGL only in terms of D&D but the reality is that many games that have nothing to do with D&D have been released under the OGL. The leaked OGL 1.1 took no account of this whatsoever. A revocation of the original OGL would create chaos in the tabletop gaming industry and put many small companies under existential threat.”
Over the past week we have witnessed an incredible outpour of passion and dedication from our community working together to protect and cultivate the inclusive environment of Dungeons & Dragons.
That sentiment seems to be shared by others, like indie publisher The Rook & The Raven, who tweeted, “In light of recent events, cancelling our @DnDBeyond subscriptions didn’t feel sufficient. We have also formally withdrawn from all licensing negotiations with @Wizards / @Wizards_DnD / @Hasbro.” In reply to a commenter, the publisher also claimed that Wizards “had been issuing not-very-veiled threats us [sic] and our business every few months by video chat, phone, and email since 2019, and that’s a large part of the reason we decided to cut ties.”
Free League Publishing also announced over the weekend their own effort to move away from OGL and create two new open licenses of their own, citing OGL 1.1 directly. “It’s clear that it is high time for Free League to have an OGL that is fully our own,” Free League CEO Tomas Härenstam was quoted as saying in that press release.
Shortly after Paizo announced their OGL alternative, Wizards quietly cancelled their planned livestream to discuss OGL, before releasing an official statement the next day on their blog. In the statement, the publisher laid out their intent to make changes based on the community’s feedback, writing, “It’s clear from the reaction that we rolled a 1.” Notably, Wizards now says that the new version of OGL will not contain any royalty structure, and language that will allow content creators to own the content they create.
Wizards also seemed to push back against the narrative that they were changing course with OGL 1.1, adding, “You’re going to hear people say that they won, and we lost because making your voices heard forced us to change our plans. Those people will only be half right. They won–and so did we. Our plan was alwaysto solicit the input of our community before any update to the OGL; the drafts you’ve seen were attempting to do just that.”
Advocates for the newly-announced ORC though, don’t seem convinced, as Chris Pramas told IGN after Wizards’ comments that, “People thought the OGL was a safe haven for both D&D compatible material and original games. WotC decided to assert that it was no such thing. Many publishers, content creators, and fans felt this was a betrayal. Something like ORC then became an inevitability.”
Wizards’ decision to upend the 20+ year OGL policy has already made very large waves in the tabletop space in a short period of time. Here’s hoping creators across the board can avoid a full party wipe.
After putting in some major study sessions and passing its tests in 2019’s Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Fire Emblem Engage makes the potentially surprising decision to take a purposeful step away from that focus on time management and teaching. Many base activities and socializing aspects with your team are still here, but Engage makes the smart move to adjust its sights back toward the roots of the series by putting engaging tactical combat first and foremost. There’s a reverence for Fire Emblems past that is clear in every aspect of it, even including the spirits of legendary heroes from previous games that power up your team, which match the strategic depth they bring with an exciting visual flair every time they’re unleashed. Its classic good vs. evil story may not reach those same heights of its predecessor, but the Divine Dragon’s adventure still stands tall among its peers – both on its own merits and as a wonderful tribute to Fire Emblem’s legacy.
When Fire Emblem Engage first introduced the idea that twelve rings housed the spirits of protagonists of Fire Emblem’s past, I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical. (According to the story, they aren’t actually the exact same heroes from other worlds – more like incorporeal manifestations that retain the knowledge and abilities of their hero’s journey… or something). From Marth to Ike, Celica to Byleth, and plenty more, these legends will advise you, spar with you, and become your battle companions as you try to collect all 12 rings and defeat the big bad Fell Dragon who wants to corrupt them for nefarious purposes. While it’s fun to see familiar faces, there were also plenty I didn’t recognize, which had me worried about how much of the backstory of these heroes were going to be lost on me. Three come from games never officially released outside Japan, and several more have only been featured on the GameBoy Advance or similar decades-old Nintendo consoles — unless you count their inclusion in Smash Bros. or the mobile gacha game Fire Emblem Heroes.
And yet, over the course of my 60+ hour adventure, I found my worries to be unfounded. Fire Emblem Engage manages to celebrate its long history of compelling characters without making you feel left out if you’ve never played through their stories firsthand. Your own character (a Divine Dragon whose name defaults to Alear) has a story that is still the driving force behind your journey in Engage, and while the Emblem Rings play an important role, it’s one that does its best to stay within the context of your current adventure. Did I freak out a little when meeting Ike, the hero from Path of Radiance, since it was the Fire Emblem that really got me interested in the series? Yes, very much so. But even Emblems like Sigurd and Leif were a joy to fight alongside despite me knowing next to nothing about their respective stories. Whether it was offering helpful anecdotes to my character about the trials they faced, or granting me their power and skills to inherit in combat, they became the backbone of my army, and each new Emblem Ring I collected gave me new strategies to work with.
Did I freak out a little when meeting Ike? Yes, very much so.
The true talents of these Emblem Rings shine when taken into battle. Just having one equipped provides a host of passive bonuses and skills. Watching both my unit and their spectral Emblem Ring counterpart slice into foes at the same time was always great to see, even if the animations didn’t actually translate to increased damage. Depending on which rings you use, the skills your team inherits abilities that range from the more mundane stat boosts to incredibly useful skills like attacking twice before opponents can respond, repositioning allies, or altering terrain effects to control the battlefield. All of this culminates in the ability to “engage” their true power for a short period, as your unit essentially fuses with the Emblem hero, gleaming with new shining white armor and inheriting that hero’s hair color or style. These fused characters also sport wild neon blue wings and other crazy effects that felt straight out of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Sheikah tech, making them unmissable standouts on the battlefield.
Engaging also lets you temporarily equip extremely powerful or unique weapons — often giving units access to attacks they would normally never be able to use. Coupled with special “Engage Skills” that are only available for this brief period, it became a huge game changer for how I approached each mission. By engaging with the Emblem Lyn, my lance-wielding pegasus knight could suddenly become winged Death incarnate; able to launch an extremely powerful ranged salvo of arrows to out-snipe otherwise lethal archers, then fly in close to slice and dice with Lyn’s signature katana, and even create illusory doubles to distract foes and counter with their own attacks. Engaging my units with their Emblem Rings became the highlight of every encounter, and the flashy ultimate attack animations were always worth watching. Since it can often take awhile to recharge this power, finding the perfect time to have one more more units engage to turn the tides always had me trying to plan my moves out in advance, as even the most powerful attacks could still leave my characters in danger if they got surrounded or overwhelmed without backup.
There was no wrong answer for pairing up my teammates with different Emblem Rings — only a wealth of possibilities.
Each Emblem Ring is unique enough that no two ultimate abilities feel the same: Some rely on single target or area-of-effect damage, while others work in support roles like sacrificing health to heal the rest of the team. Many of these abilities also have small but interesting modifiers depending on which unit type has the Emblem Ring equipped, adding even more layers of strategy and customization that I absolutely loved to experiment with. Because of this, there was no wrong answer for pairing up my teammates with different Emblem Rings — only a wealth of possibilities. My thief ended up becoming my natural choice for pairing with Emblem Corrin from Fire Emblem Fates, as her Dragon Vein ability added mist cover to the surrounding terrain when used by covert-type units, and the debilitating effects of Corrin’s draconic aura skill was further bolstered by poisoning daggers.
Rock, Paper, Fist
In addition to the larger changes Emblems introduce, Fire Emblem Engage has refined almost every aspect of its turn-based battles in smaller ways, too. Enhanced visuals have made each mission more pleasing to look at, UI improvements mean the action is easier to follow, and subtle new spins have been introduced to cornerstone combat mechanics. The classic weapon triangle has made its triumphant return after disappearing from Fire Emblem: Three Houses but its not content to simply return to the status quo: this time, using the right weapon like a lance against swords won’t just translate into better accuracy and damage, as the new “break” mechanic can also disarm that opponent for the rest of the turn. Of course, your enemies can do the same to you, making the weapon triangle even more fearsome this time around. Even when certain defensive spaces let units become “unbreakable,” Engage provides an answer with a new heavy weapon type that can shove defenders backwards – of course, the smart trade-off for this powerful effect is that heavy weapons hit dead last regardless of how fast the other opponent is.
These new features are brought to life in a fun way thanks to Engage’s expansive maps, which are quite similar to Three Houses. Battles zoom right down to the action (wonderfully transitioning the music to be more energetic) and look way more dynamic than they have in the past, as mighty attacks can send fighters flying backwards, even breaking apart fences or crates in the process. Watching someone miss an attack no longer feels like a pathetic whiff, as combatants will cleanly translate the numbers game into seamless parries and counter-attacks that feel way more like an active battle than two opponents just rolling the dice one at a time.
My favorite new battlefield addition, by far, is the massive overhaul to the healer class.
My favorite new battlefield addition, by far, is the massive overhaul to the healer class, which has melded them with martial artists to become “Qi Adepts”. Healers in Fire Emblem have historically always been the weakest link, often requiring the most baby-sitting or being shunted to the back of the army – but no longer! While they still might not always be able to face down a knight or axe-wielding berserker, they can break the weapons of archers, mages, and thieves using punches and kicks. They can also guard another unit from the first incoming attack so long as the healer has full health. This became a recurring theme as enemy bosses would often have an entourage of Qi Adepts just waiting to take one for the team, requiring me to strategically wound them first before I could unleash my full force on the enemy leader.
Ringbearers
Where Fire Emblem: Three Houses thrust you into dramatic conflict between rival nations and eventually forced you to fight against the very friends you’d bonded with, Fire Emblem Engage dials things back a bit, for better and for worse. Its story is a classic tale of ancient evils re-awakening, amnesiac protagonists, and various nations uniting under a common banner for good. I’ll admit, I wasn’t quite sold on Alear and their Aquafresh toothpaste hair design, but I got over that fairly quickly – perhaps when you’re stacked against the various blue-haired guys and gals of Fire Emblems past, you gotta stand out any way you can. In truth, what really turned me around was finally having a fully voiced Fire Emblem protagonist (and allowing the past heroes to be voiced as well). The three-pronged story of the last Fire Emblem is a tough act to follow, but having a main character who does more than stare blankly at people during cutscenes and conversations went a long way. It helps sell many of Engage’s plot points, from the growing bonds between Alear and their friends to some insidious plans enacted by the Fell Dragon and his minions. While not every twist or reveal hit its mark, I was generally surprised by some very late game developments that affected more than just the immediate story.
I wasn’t quite sold on Alear and their Aquafresh toothpaste hair design, but I got over that fairly quickly.
You’ll gain a host of quirky allies at a reasonable pace along your journey to collect all the Dragon Ba… I mean Emblem Rings. Normally I’d be a bit skeptical at how almost everyone is all too eager to pledge their service to Alear’s quest, but I guess when you’ve been worshiped as divinity during your centuries-long slumber, people are just happy to see you awake and slaying evil at last. I also found myself impressed at how Engage handled padding out the acquisition of the rings. Some clever ideas kept me from getting too overpowered too fast, while giving me just enough Emblem Rings to respect the power they added to my army. Even more humbling was learning what could happen when the enemy used the power of Emblem Rings against me. Boss fights in Fire Emblem have usually been tense standoffs where a wrong move could lead to one of your favorite characters getting demolished – but even in that context Engage had me double and triple-checking the skills and abilities of my adversaries before putting one foot into their lair. Using an Emblem’s power to teleport across the map and explode some poor sucker with the Ragnarok tome is a ton of fun — but when it happened to me it was downright terrifying.
The various missions and maps in Engage tested my strategic knowledge in different ways, and it was fairly common for battles to last more than half an hour as I carefully considered my path forward (or sometimes rewound time by a turn or two if I realized my path was leading to certain death for a few characters). Most chapters usually end with defeating a boss, and the way these bosses are handled has left me feeling a bit conflicted. Not far into your journey you’ll meet the main executors of the big bad’s will: The Four Hounds. They all have different personalities and reasons for being on Team Evil, and made for some challenging opponents, but problems arose when I found that they kept coming back for more. I can’t even count the number of times I’d have to fight these lackeys, beating them to a pulp only to have them laugh it off in the ensuing cutscene, swearing revenge for next time like a cartoon villain. And my army would just… watch them saunter off. Again, and again. I don’t even think they were bad characters, as some late game developments did a great job to make me understand them more – I just really wish Engage had at least tried to offer a passable excuse for why I let them get away so many times. I’d even be okay with an overly convenient teleportation spell!
Even when facing the otherwise decently varied enemy commanders, I still found myself waiting for developer Intelligent Systems to get bold enough to stop relying on “defeat the enemy boss” as the main objective for the bulk of its 26 chapters. Thankfully, this isn’t too big of an issue, as the maps themselves would often involve some inventive hazards or features that I couldn’t just charge through – like changing tides on the beach limiting movement, or obstructions that I could have an easier time dealing with if I had the right Emblem Ring equipped on a unit nearby. When the missions did occasionally change their objectives, things would often get a little harrowing, and one tense chapter in particular that had me on the run did a superb job of making escape feel like it was truly my only option instead of recklessly standing my ground.
Some of my favorite missions didn’t even come from the main chapters.
Some of my favorite missions didn’t even come from the main chapters, as Fire Emblem Engage offers some very interesting takes on paralogue side missions. These challenging encounters revolved around trials to defeat the heroic Emblems in combat, and within these trials are some of the best homages to Fire Emblem’s history. Each trial takes place on a map that’s almost directly lifted from a previous game in the series, and often includes hazards, ambushes, or mechanics from that exact mission. I still believe you won’t feel left out if you haven’t experienced the stories of past Fire Emblems, but those who have will be treated to some very faithfully adapted pivotal moments in time. Moments like Ike taking command of his father’s mercenary company, or Byleth defending the Throne of Knowledge from the theft of its relics. Missions like these, coupled with the care that went into creating skills and abilities for each Emblem Ring that are both fun to use and provide great callbacks, ring with the same reverent tone as when Nintendo expertly adapts fighters into the Super Smash Bros series. Even the music for these side missions are uniquely arranged medleys from previous soundtracks, providing new energetic or dramatic twists on some of my favorite Fire Emblem music. I’m doubly glad I was then able to set these music tracks to play during other side skirmishes, because honestly, even after spending more than 60 hours clearing the story and paralogue missions — I can’t get enough of them.
Up On Cloud Nine
Between fights, you can move around the world map at will, opening up new locations for main missions as you progress, while randomly backfilling previously completed maps with random encounters to gain more experience, money, and materials. This system is much more satisfying to navigate than simply looking at a list to pick my next task, and the option to fast travel directly to a map point or back to my base made things quick and easy. You can even explore the maps you beat in a neat post-battle exploration. It doesn’t really bring anything huge to the table as you have limited actions, but I appreciated being able to enjoy the scope and scale of certain locations I’d fought in – like vibrant palace throne rooms or viewing impossibly-sized statues guarding expansive bridges strewn with barricades. Plus, this activity gives you time to check in with your team for some quick chats, even letting some of the units you didn’t take with you into battle have their chance to add their thoughts, which made me feel like my entire army was still tagging along and not just stuck at home bored to tears.
Speaking of home, Engage has kept the concept of having a large, explorable hub base like in Three Houses, but has wisely dialed back the scope from the mammoth size of Garreg Mach Monastery. A special floating island called The Somniel instead focuses on both managing your team and keeping up with socializing and bonding, but in ways that aren’t as drawn out and time-consuming as those featured in Three Houses (though I am a bit surprised having tea with your friends didn’t make the cut here). You can still partake in fishing, cooking meals to enjoy with friends, and sparing for a bit of extra experience – plus a few new hit-or-miss activities like strength training exercises or petting this weird dopey cat thing that I immediately put sunglasses on, though all are completely optional.
I do wish there were a few more direct ways to bond with another teammate.
Having my character go to sleep also became super optional once I realized random allies would just wander into my bedroom to wake me up in really weird sequences – it’d be cool if we could establish some boundaries on The Somniel! Still, it was nice to see my team enjoy their downtime, whether working out, swimming, dining, or just generally relaxing, rather than having everyone awkwardly stand around until we left for the next mission. Although, I do wish there were a few more direct ways to bond with another teammate besides eating a meal or getting the same old gifts to give en masse. When I found some horse manure on the ground to give away as a joke gift, I thought it was a little funny. Finding more and more poop that was added to my inventory each time I came back to explore my base… not as much.
The Somniel is also where you can manage the Emblem Rings you’ve collected, and there’s a surprising amount to do with them – perhaps even too much. In addition to utilizing skills from an active Emblem Ring, you can also spend points to inherit skills from other rings. This encourages lots of customization and passing rings around so everyone can make use of them, and I had a lot of fun planning out the perfect set of skills for everyone to eventually inherit, though the sheer number of skills and point values can sometimes become a bit of a headache. You can also create smaller stat-boosting rings for your units who don’t have their own Emblem Ring yet through a system that strongly resembles the Fire Emblem Heroes gacha game, with an assortment of tiers for each ring and the ability to meld duplicates into better versions. Certain rings may even have a really useful skill at their highest tier – but only if you get really lucky creating a bunch of rings, or you’re prepared to shell out a lot of in-game currency. (Never fear, though, as there is no option for real-money microtransactions or anything like that here.)
Together We Ride
Perhaps the most surprising addition to The Somniel is a combat tower that lets you take on a variety of challenge missions – two of which feature neat asynchronous multiplayer options. Given how long people can take to move their units in a single turn, this might be the most well-realized multiplayer Fire Emblem can have, but it’s not without a few hiccups. One mode allows you to fully customize one half of a map to either challenge another player’s computer controlled team on their half of the map, or have your AI team defend against other opponents with the base you’ve built. You can place everything from ballistas to breakable walls and healing tiles, and even give units a variety of orders to follow, though if you want to hit the upper limit for tiles to customize, you’ll end up with a mish-mash of random objects that don’t really let you set a theme for your base.
This might be the most well-realized multiplayer Fire Emblem can have.
The second mode is a clever attempt at Fire Emblem co-op: Relay Trials. One player starts a trial that must be completed in 10 turns, picking a small group of units to go up against a horde of enemies. The twist is that the initial player only has two turns to move their team before their time is up, at which point the data is uploaded and another player can then download that trial and pick up where the first player left off, potentially adding a few reinforcements of their own. Players who join get a fun and quick recap of the battle so far, then need to do their best to forge ahead and put a plan in motion to clear the map, even if they won’t be around to finish it. I really love the idea of having to adapt to someone else’s strategy mid-battle, pick the right reinforcements to help bolster any lacking defenses, and decide whether to utilize as many Emblem Rings as possible or hold off in engaging in case the next player may need them to get out of a bad situation. Players who have beaten the story can unlock a sort of “post game” trial map which is a great way to keep the fun going — but it’s the earlier players I worry about, thanks to some very vague matchmaking. Unlike offline trials, you can’t really set a specific difficulty level, nor can you see one when Engage picks a random relay trial for you to join (aside from maps being listed simply as Normal or Hard). Whoever starts the trial seems to set the bar for the level of the enemies within, which means you may find your reinforcements either under or over-leveled for the task at hand. I would have loved for a way to at least get an idea of how challenging the multiplayer battles were going to be so I could decide whether it was worth my time, instead of being thrown into the first result without an easy way to back out. Worse yet, it’s possible to join a trial and find characters you haven’t yet encountered on the team, which may spoil you to later reveals.
No card game has captured the interest of players and collectors alike more than Ravensburger’s upcoming Disney card game, Disney Lorcana. Now, Ravensburger announced that the card game will be released this year starting in August 2023.
IGN has learned exclusively that Disney Lorcana will be released in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and Germany starting this August with Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter.
On August 18th in the United States, Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter will be released in local game stores followed by a mass retail launch on September 1. Attendees at this year’s Gen Con 2023 will also have an opportunity to purchase select Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter products.
“Players and the community is absolutely the most important component of a TCG,” says Disney Lorcana co-designer Ryan Miller. “We are partnering with hobby and game stores to host our organized play programs as they bring people together to learn, play and trade and help welcome new players to the game.”
“We also want to make sure that hobby stores know how much we value them. As someone who has worked at a retail hobby store and run 100s of tournaments, I know firsthand how much effort, time and care goes into running in-store events,” Miller adds.
At launch, over 200 game cards will be available in various products including starter decks, booster packs, a gift set, and the “Illumineer’s Trove.”
There will be three different Starter decks available at launch, each with a specific list of 60 cards in two of the six “inks” which include Amber and Amethyst, Emerald and Ruby, or Steel and Sapphire. Think of them as different colors in games like Magic: The Gathering. Starter decks will also include one booster pack with 12 randomized cards, with one foil card and two cars with rare, super rare, or legendary rarity.
The Illumneer’s Trove is set to be the biggest collectible set at launch, which will include eight booster packs, two deck boxes, a player’s guide, and a themed storage box. The gift set will feature Mulan and Hades, two oversized foil cards, two foil game cards, four booster packs, and game tokens.
“We have put together a robust line of fun and exciting products for the first set of Disney Lorcana. Having a variety of products let’s players engage at whatever level they would like to – be it pick up a starter set to get a taste of each ink color’s gameplay and style or snag an Illumineer’s Trove to experience as much of the game as possible,” says Miller. “Also, we also want to show that we are serious and that we are here to stay.”
At launch, Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter will be available in English, French, and or German, with plans to release four sets a year.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft publisher Activision Blizzard has claimed NetEase declined an offer to extend its publishing deal in China.
As reported by Reuters, Blizzard China published a statement to Weibo claiming it contacted NetEase earlier in January with an offer to extend their deal by six months, allowing gamers in the country to continue playing the likes of Overwatch 2, Hearthstone, and other Blizzard titles.
NetEase declined the offer according to Blizzard China, however, meaning the discontinuing of these game services will go ahead as planned on January 23.
“It is a pity that NetEase is not willing to extend services of our game for another six months on the basis of existing terms as we look for a new partner,” Blizzard China said
World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch 2, the StarCraft series, Diablo III, and Heroes of the Storm will therefore all be unplayable as of January 23. Diablo: Immortal, Blizzard’s controversial mobile game, is published under a separate agreement and is therefore unaffected at the moment.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
After nearly five years since its stunning announcement trailer, we’re now just one month away from the launch of Atomic Heart, the strictly single-player first-person shooter that thrusts you into an alternate history Soviet setting and tasks you with taking on an army of angry androids. The good news is that after going hands-on with the first couple of hours of a near final build of the game, this bolshevik BioShock seems as though it could well be worth the wait – its superpowered combat, fascinating story and spectacular setting all appear to be clicking seamlessly into place to form a cohesive whole, blinking into vibrant life like one of its many deadly assembly line creations.
The opening moments of Atomic Heart’s reportedly 25-hour campaign takes you from the sun-kissed streets of Chelomey City floating high among the clouds, all the way down to the shadowy subterranean depths of the ruined Vavilov facility, where a violent robot uprising has wiped out almost all human workers. Weapons and skills are doled out fairly slowly in this initial stretch, and with only a fireman’s axe and limited shells for my shotgun I found myself favouring stealth wherever possible – so it’s just as well that the earliest upgrades you unlock are the abilities to track enemies through walls and shock the Dandelion surveillance cameras in order to avoid alarm-raising detection.
On the occasion that I did alert a guard to my presence, the stiff challenge presented by Atomic Heart’s early enemy types came as a bit of a shock to my system (or indeed, a system shock if you’d prefer). These resilient terminator types ignore cover in favour of making a beeline to deliver you a beatdown, and even if you manage to circle-strafe and dash in order to create some distance they’re still liable to open up their animatronic maws and blast hot laser death in your direction. I must admit to perishing a few times early on as I got to grips with the rhythms of the weighty melee combat system, but that struggle grew into a sense of satisfaction as I unlocked alternate attacks and gradually became more capable of turning these robot Russkis into sparking shards of Soviet scrap.
I gradually became more capable of turning these robot Russkis into sparking shards of Soviet scrap.
As I explored deeper into the darkened corners of Atomic Heart’s first facility I was pleasantly surprised by numerous examples of intelligent design. Rummaging through corpses and cabinets for ammo and crafting materials is a cumbersome yet necessary evil in most other first-person shooters, so being able to swiftly vacuum up a room’s worth of items with a wave of your AI-enhanced glove like you’re sucking up gold coins from a level in Luigi’s Mansion is a welcome timesaver. That’s not to say you aren’t still rewarded for taking your time to pore over every inch of your surroundings, and I enjoyed the occasional optional diversions like pausing to watch Soviet spins on Looney Tunes cartoons on the in-game televisions or making prank calls in a public phone booth.
Robot Rock
Of course if you’re going to fill your game with mechanical maniacs then you’re going to need a soundtrack that’s equally heavy with metal, and as a big Doom fan I was delighted when composer Mick Gordon’s signature detuned guitars and double-kicked drums surged through the speakers to accompany a boss fight against a hulking robot wrecking ball that pinballed around the arena like an over caffeinated Chain Chomp. Gordon’s ability to masterfully pair headbanging riffs with headshots like some sort of first-person shooter sommelier is not to be understated, and Atomic Heart’s more intense action sequences are made all the more invigorating as a result of his involvement.
While I couldn’t get enough of the heavy metal shredding that accompanied the shredding of heavy metal, I’m yet to be completely won over by Atomic Heart’s mouthy main star. Agent P-3’s quips aim for action hero-style swagger but come across as something closer to the repetitive trash-talking of a fourteen-year-old Fortnite fan, and given Atomic Heart appropriates so much from the likes of Half-Life 2, BioShock and Doom, at times I did find myself wishing it had poached one of their silent protagonists while it was at it.
I was at least entertained by a number of the more friendly robots I encountered – although the constant dirty talk and double entendres from NORA, the surprisingly horny weapons vendor typically found near Atomic Heart’s save points – had me wondering if it was actually possible to report an AI to HR. She seems like a particularly sleazy sort of Siri, and signs off on every transaction with a flirtatious remark like, “I can’t wait for your strong hands to grasp my interface with lustful abandon!”
There’s also a slight concern that the wide open spaces in between Atomic Heart’s five main facilities may be lacking in interesting things to discover. While I definitely enjoyed testing out my electro-shock and force-slam abilities on groups of patrolling sentries, and then frantically scrambling to take down the repair robots before they could resurrect their tin can comrades, I couldn’t help but notice that my surroundings were seemingly populated by the the same handful of farmhouses and drivable vehicles in the short amount of time I spent exploring one corner of the overworld. This is in contrast to the opening of the game in Chelomey City, which looks dense with unique detail but can only be experienced in a very linear fashion.
That said, even if the open world area does primarily serve as a place to blast robotic hordes to bits in order to farm for spare parts to craft weapon upgrades with, it seems like there will be enough creativity contained within Atomic Heart’s main facilities to sustain the adventure, from underground labs with bodies of water suspended in air that you can swim through in order to quickly evade attackers, and various puzzle rooms to neatly take advantage of your growing suite of glove-based powers. My short time with Atomic Heart definitely left me with my curiosity piqued and my pulse racing, and if it can sustain its intrigue and ingenuity for the full length of its journey it could be something very special indeed.
Tristan Ogilvie is a video producer in IGN’s Sydney office. He’s never fought any machines in real life, although he did once have a tense altercation with a robot bartender in Tokyo. He almost never tweets here.
If you can’t get enough of The Last of Us after watching the series premiere on HBO Max, PlayStation is celebrating this big moment by offering a two-hour trial of PS5’s The Last of Us Part I for all PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers.
PlayStation Plus Premium is the highest level of PlayStation Plus and, in the U.S., it costs $17.99/month. In addition to Game Trials, subscribers also get access to cloud streaming, access to a growing library of PS1, PS3, PS4, PS5, and PSP games, cloud saves, monthly games, discounts, and more.
In our review of the series premiere of HBO’s The Last of Us, we said that it “thrillingly lays the foundations for the emotional torture ready to hurt us along every step of its journey. A cast at the top of their game with technical artistry behind the camera to match, it throws us into a world on the edge of cataclysm before brilliantly catapulting us into one that has been plunged into the depths of it.”
As for the game, we said, “A gorgeous and well-honed remake of one of the biggest boppers in the PlayStation pantheon, The Last of Us Part I is the best way to play – or replay – Naughty Dog’s esteemed survival classic.”
Apex Legends has a content drought problem. It remains one of the best battle royales and has dominated the scene thanks to its intense, fast-paced movement, impeccable gunplay, and unique Legend characters. But while it’s been four years since Apex surprise launched and quickly rose to success, it’s now beginning to look tired.
While Apex’s season launches are usually great, offering either new guns, Legends, or maps, the content between season launches is usually few and far between. There are some updates between seasons that come a month or two after launch – season 14 launched 9th August introducing new Legend Vantage – and the following update, the Beast of Prey Collection event, dropped two months later.
Collection events usually last about two weeks and offer up a few cosmetic items to buy and earn, often including an Heirloom – a legendary item that transforms your melee attack with a unique weapon tied to a specific Legend.
These Collection events also bring in limited time modes like Gun Run (basically Gun Game from Call of Duty) and Control (Domination), it’s not that much of a draw and the player base, myself included, is getting tired. We’ve had the same limited time events every year for too long now. The Winter Express train domination mode event has been the same for the last three years and, while it’s still a fun game mode, I want something new. The Halloween event is the same and even though timed events last two weeks, some players lose interest after a week, often even less.
The community has been desperate for a new permanent game mode, something like Control, which pits two teams of nine against each other. It’s appeared in previous timed events and is a welcome change from Battle Royale and Arenas.
Last week, Control returned as part of the Spellbound Collection event, which was great to see. However, the event update had so many issues. I ran into a ton of difficulties when I tried to load Apex, I was unable to get past the loading screen most times and when I eventually made it to the main menu, I’d get kicked out of the game due to a “fatal error” or Code Net.
Getting disconnected from matches has been a recurring problem especially after major Season updates when there are big game changes like new maps, guns, or Legends. I’ve stated before that I honestly would not mind Apex taking a day or two off to implement a big update to fix some of the underlying issues to the game, like what Fortnite does between seasons. But this is much harder to implement than just saying. However, players have also been asking for Apex to fix its server stability issues for a long time, especially since getting disconnected from ranked games often result in players getting a time-out penalty for “leaving” the game when they were just disconnected.
The community really just would love some open communication and updates about the situation, especially when these problems are just aggravated by the event or season updates that highlight new cosmetics and the same repeating limited time game modes.
Heads up, legends ? We just pushed a fix to resolve the connection issues players were seeing in the lobby. Thanks for sticking with us through this, and we hope you enjoy the Event!
I adore Apex. It’s my number one battle royale, and one I continually play. But I cannot ignore the issues Apex has, with its lack of content drops and poor communication from Respawn. A quick fix could be to open up custom private lobbies to everyone, which the Spellbound event did do. However, lobbies needed a full server of 30 people to launch. Any less and it doesn’t work.
Obviously game development is extremely complicated – there are lots of moving parts to consider, especially with a live service, and everything needs to be thoroughly tested before it’s launched to the public. But Apex devs have already said they look at data from current and limited time modes, as well as player behaviors, to provide updates to the game. If that’s the case, why are we still getting the same holiday events time and again, even though interest has dwindled? And bugs like server issues that prevent people from logging on are, frankly, unforgivable.
Epic took Fortnite offline for a few days to relaunch it on a new engine. It was a big move – it no doubt cost millions in lost revenue – but it ultimately meant the player experience was the best it could be when it came back online. Maybe it’s time for Respawn to do the same? The Apex community has been asking for major updates to the sound and server system for years, due to the audio bugs and server latency issues that have plagued it in the past, but right now things don’t seem to be getting any better.
The lack of updates has meant that a lot of players and content creators who used to play Apex have started to migrate to other games. According to SteamDB, Twitch viewers dropped heavily from November 21st’s peak at 285,383 to a steady decline to a low of 83,838 on December 19th. That’s a huge 70% drop. The player base also dropped 12% from 413k on Steam to 360k during this timeframe as well which was between content updates.
Major Apex streamers like LuluLuvely have switched over to playing other games like Overwatch 2. Ex-Apex Pro player Rocker, who played for one of the top North American Apex teams NRG, released a statement on Twitter on January 10th saying he was quitting not only competitive Apex, but also playing Apex in general.
He wrote, “I’m done with apex. I’ve been lying to my self for awhile saying I want to grind and that I enjoy the game, but in reality I just cannot seem to enjoy it- let alone play the game for more than 2 hours at a time.”
I also took a break, though a shorter one, from Apex for a month to play Warzone, which was a nice vacation but for me, nothing comes close to Apex’s movement and gunplay. I love Apex and its core game, but the lack of updates will be its downfall unless it’s addressed, and fast.
Apex Season 16 is set to launch sometime in early February and since the holiday season is over we may get more updates to the game. I certainly hope so, because while I love the game and want to see it continue to succeed, if nothing changes I’ll have to shift my main FPS focus elsewhere.
Warning: the below contains full spoilers for The Last of Us premiere, as well as the beginning of the video game.
In 2013, writer Neil Druckmann and developer Naughty Dog traumatized a generation of gamers with what could very well be the most devastating opening in video game history (until, that is, The Last of Us Part II came along). The Last of Us infamously opens with a gutpunch, having the player watch as a devastated Joel holds his dying daughter in his arms in the midst of a burgeoning zombie apocalypse. It’s one of the things that made The Last of Us the touchstone that it is, establishing an integral part of our protagonist’s motivations and setting the stage for one emotionally grueling game.
So how do you follow that up when adapting it to a television series? Apparently, you make it even more heartbreaking. Showrunners Druckmann and Craig Mazin could’ve just made a one-to-one adaptation of the game’s opening and it still would’ve been an effective introduction, but instead, they give us valuable time with Sarah (Nico Parker), while taking the opportunity to slowly build some chilling tension. The end result – Sarah dying in Joel’s (Pedro Pascal) arms – is the same, but the journey to get there is a key example of how adaptations can build upon their predecessors while staying loyal to them.
What Changed and What Stays the Same
The TV series doesn’t so much change the opening as much as it adds to it. In fact, it quite literally doubles the runtime of the intro; in the game, it takes about 15 minutes to get from pressing play to watching the opening title card, whereas the series lingers further, spending 34 minutes setting the environment before jumping forward 20 years. Of those 34 minutes, only about 10 are spent directly adapting scenes from the game – specifically, when Joel, Sarah, and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) are booking it out of town, and staying true to its source to the point of showing Joel electing to keep driving past a family begging for help.
So what pads out the other 24 minutes? Firstly, some context for the virus that the characters are about to face, with a talk show clip from 1968 that has doctors explaining the threat that a certain type of fungus could pose to the human race (interestingly enough, the game saved its snippets of panicked news reports for after the initial intro, placing them over the opening credits that follow the title card). This serves to, again, build a little tension before we essentially get a day in the life of Sarah.
The TV series doesn’t rush its way to her death. Instead, we spend precious time with her, seeing the world through her eyes just hours before it descends into chaos. We don’t start in the evening, but at breakfast, with her preparing eggs for Joel’s birthday. From there, we see her going through the day-to-day motions – attending school, heading into the city to get Joel’s watch fixed, reluctantly spending time with the neighbors, and watching in horror as the pandemic begins to unfold.
Why the Changes Matter
Given that Sarah is still killed in the premiere, these additions might just seem like indulgent ways to elongate the already hefty 86-minute episode. But it’s clear that Druckmann and Mazin (who co-wrote the episode together) have a more considered goal, one based on adding weight to Sarah’s eventual death. There’s humanity in the mundane, and watching her go about these seemingly unimportant actions quietly gives us insight into her as a character, making us more attached to her in the process.
In the morning, we get to know her as a caretaker of sorts, making sure that her dad gets a birthday breakfast while also weaving in some charming banter between her, Joel, and Tommy. And in the game, while we may have seen her give the fixed watch to Joel, we didn’t see the thought that went into heading to the city to get it repaired. And when she’s hanging with the Adlers, she’s clearly not thrilled to be there, but she’s a devoted enough daughter that she heeds Joel’s request to do so without much of an argument.
There’s something powerful and, most importantly, humanizing about seeing what she’s doing,
In seeing all this, we get significant insight into her personality – something that the game didn’t take the time to do. Sure, we got to know game Sarah as funny while joking with Joel on the couch (the “Drugs. I sell hardcore drugs” quip survives in the show), and thoughtful in giving him the gift of the watch. But there’s something powerful and, most importantly, humanizing about seeing what she’s doing, rather than just knowing that it happened somewhere off-screen. It paints a picture of a more fleshed-out character who we can relate to and empathize with, making it even more heartbreaking when she’s inevitably offed. I won’t put Pedro Pascal’s performance up against game actor Troy Baker’s – both are absolutely gut-wrenching in Sarah’s death scene – but in the series, we’re not just crying over Joel losing his daughter; we’re crying over a character we got to know too.
On that note, it has the added benefit of making you think she’ll be the main character if you don’t know any better – and, given that HBO is marketing the series far beyond those who’ve played the game, there are going to be plenty of people who don’t know Sarah won’t live to see the end of the episode. It’s not quite “Ned Stark getting beheaded” levels of killing off your main character, but it’s certainly still a shock to unknowing audiences and gives them an idea of the stakes.
Sarah, too, is our anchor as the outbreak unfolds, and this is where I’d be remiss in not praising Nico Parker’s performance, as short-lived as it may be. As Sarah, she’s constantly relatable and charming, and the tear that escapes from her eye as she struggles to remain calm while Tommy and Joel rush them out of town is a brilliant little touch. Placing viewers in her shoes makes the tension more effective as well, with Parker showing real terror upon seeing the brutalized Adlers. And that shot of the elderly Adler, Connie, subtly showing symptoms in the background while Sarah reads a DVD box? Perfectly chilling.
What It Could Mean for the Series
As with any adaptation, one of the main questions facing HBO’s The Last of Us has been how much it will deviate from the source material. But that question perhaps hangs heavier over this adaptation than others, as The Last of Us’ story is one that could very easily be transferred to television without many tweaks and still be riveting. After all, there are morethan a few compilations on YouTube that tell a compelling story just by stringing together The Last of Us’ important cutscenes.
But the best adaptations aren’t just the ones that do the story justice, but that evolve it – ones that take advantage of the medium to fill in character and world-building gaps. And it also gives Druckmann, the writer behind all of this, the chance to improve upon his own work from a decade ago, an opportunity many writers would kill for. You can’t judge a TV adaptation on just its premiere – 34 minutes of that premiere, no less – but in reworking one of the most iconic scenes from his own game, Druckmann’s made it clear he won’t be resting on his storytelling laurels for this one.
It also means that fans who are still recovering from the devastation of the game (and, it has to be said, from the emotional wringer that was The Last of Us Part II) have a lot more heartbreak to endure. But hey, at least you won’t be getting tears on your controller this time, right?
Warning: contains full spoilers for episode 1 of HBO’s The Last of Us.
HBO’s The Last of Us is a mostly faithful adaptation of the hit PlayStation game. But just how close to its source material does it get? We’ve gathered images from the series premiere and put them next to stills from Naughty Dog’s masterpiece to see just how similar some of it is.
After years of speculation, it was finally announced on October’s Silent Hill Transmission livestream that the Silent Hill series will get a multi-project reboot. While the showcase revealed several games and even a new movie, it began with the news that the first title in the return of the series would be a full remake of Silent Hill 2 by Bloober Team, the Polish studio known for games like Layers of Fear and The Medium.
IGN Japan had the opportunity to interview not only Silent Hill series producer Motoi Okamoto, but also Silent Hill 2 concept artist Masahiro Ito and composer Akira Yamaoka, both of whom have a deep involvement in the series. Not only did Ito and Yamaoka work on the original, they are involved in the remake as well.
You can watch part of the interview in video form, and read on for even more detail, as the developers discuss the future of the Silent Hill series, game remakes, working with Bloober Team, and memories from making the original Silent Hill 2.
Why start with a Silent Hill 2 remake?
IGN: How did you decide on the direction and concept of the Silent Hill series reboot? Why start with Silent Hill 2, rather than Silent Hill? We’d love to hear your reasoning.
Okamoto: “The Silent Hill series had been dormant for quite a while. Konami as a company wanted to bring it back, and lots of people working here wanted to make Silent Hill games. The only thing was that everyone had different ideas of what Silent Hill is and why they loved it, making it difficult to coalesce around a single direction.
“I joined Konami during this time and was asked if I could make something work. I agreed to bring everything together and took charge of the project, eventually getting everyone to go in the same direction.
“During that period of dormancy, though, lots of indie horror games had come out, some of which were influenced by Silent Hill. If we wanted to revive Silent Hill in that environment, we needed to firmly redefine its identity as a brand, sharpening it and differentiating it so that it stood out.
“When we thought about what Silent Hill’s identity is, we came to the conclusion that it’s the true psychological horror of the series. And when you ask people what true psychological horror is, just about everyone will tell you Silent Hill 2.
“We decided that if the brand’s identity is true psychological horror, we needed to start by remaking Silent Hill 2. There were of course some people inside the company who thought it would be better to start with 1, but I wanted to start this project with something that symbolizes this identity.”
IGN: You announced that you’ll be working with many different indie studios on multiple games, including Bloober Team, who will be working on the Silent Hill 2 remake. This collaboration with indies felt like a theme of the announcement broadcast.
Okamoto: “That’s correct. There’s only so much we can do ourselves, which means we need to work with lots of different indie creators if we want to make lots of different Silent Hills. That’s why we made moves to work together with people around the world who want to make Silent Hill games and approached Bloober Team, as well as Anapurna Interactive and No Code.
“Unfortunately, there are some projects that never actually got off the ground. Still, I think the number of projects we have will only continue to grow. The fact we were reviving Silent Hill was a secret until now, so we couldn’t exactly go out and yell, ‘Hey, everyone! Bring us your Silent Hill projects!’ We can do that now, so if creators from around the world who love Silent Hill bring us their pitches, I promise to look through every one of them. We’re all ears.”
IGN: What’s your impression of Bloober Team?
Okamoto: “I get the sense that they take their work very seriously, and that they believe videogames to be art even more than we thought. Japanese people are so shy when it comes to declaring videogames as art, you know? But I feel like they truly believe that. That’s exactly why they treat Silent Hill’s artistic sound and visuals with so much respect.”
A modern game that respects the original
IGN: Judging by the trailer, the visual quality of the remake looks like it will be incredibly high. Do you get a feel for how Bloober Team works when it comes to that?
Okamoto: “To begin with, Bloober Team is amazingly talented at creating environments. You can really experience what James is feeling just by walking through the foggy town. I think they’re excellent at making backgrounds, environments and atmosphere. On top of that, they’re putting a lot of attention into combat in order to make the gameplay that much deeper. I see them as very hard workers who are full of love for Silent Hill.”
Ito: “Personally, I’m very satisfied with the quality of the town and the atmosphere of the Silent Hill 2 they’re making. I really get the feeling that they respect the original while still making sure to arrange things in their own way. In particular, we had strong demands about the motif of fog when first starting on this remake, and they were sure to depict it just as we wanted. I believe from the bottom of my heart that they’re making something incredible.”
Yamaoka: “I’ve played Bloober Team’s games myself, and as game developers we can tell just how much they love Silent Hill. It’s more than just love, too. I sense a strong respect for the title, and they exceed my expectations. I think that when it’s done, the game will be one made with real thought about how to bring it back in this day and age.”
IGN: There seemed to be Japanese voice acting in the Japanese trailer for this remake. What can you tell us about the Japanese and English voice options?
Okamoto: “While I don’t believe we’ve implemented Japanese voicing in Silent Hill until now, we’d like to do so for the first time here. Our hope is that doing so will make Japanese players feel an even stronger sense of familiarity with Silent Hill 2. English voicing will also be present, as it has always been. We’re working with actors and using performance capture.”
IGN: The protagonist, James, seems incredibly expressive in the trailer. I believe the original used motion capture, but not facial capture. So you’re using performance capture this time around?
Okamoto: “Yes. We’re using performance capture to record the actors’ bodies, facial expressions and voices all at the same time, incorporating their raw expressions and performances into the game. This has made possible a level of detailed emotional expression that wasn’t possible when making the original. Though the trailer does go out of its way to feature many bombastic scenes, the game as a whole is also full of moments with more subtle performances.”
IGN: James looked older to me in the trailer. Is that correct?
Okamoto: “After speaking with Mr. Ito, we decided to raise James’s age in the game a bit. This is in part because fans from 20 years ago are older now, and because the average age of people who play videogames has risen too. We want to depict a James who is more mature and has had to suffer through more in his life, and to do that we raised his age, though only by a bit. If he looks older to you, it’s not your imagination.”
Ito: “To add to what Mr. Okamoto just said, I personally feel like it’s also our way of emphasizing that this is a remake.”
Okamoto: “You couldn’t depict skin in a nuanced way during the PS2 era. Everyone ended up looking younger, or at least had smooth skin. Now that we’re in the age of the PS4 and PS5, we’re able to better show someone’s exact age, whether that’s someone elderly, someone middle-aged, someone in their thirties, and so on. That’s why we decided to go with a more convincing sense of age.”
A new kind of fear for the 4K generation
IGN: What kind of new elements have you added in the Silent Hill 2 remake? Is there anything aside from graphical changes you can tell us about?
Okamoto: “One thing that I can say is that unlike the original Silent Hill 2, the remake uses a more immersive camera. We really hope that players will get to experience its atmosphere, which will stir up lots of different emotions, as well as the game’s combat that’s even more fun than before.
IGN: How did you change your approach when it comes to monster AI and the variety of different enemies?
Ito: “First off, we’re improving the combat design, something that received a lot of feedback in the original. Doing so would be difficult without changing the way the monsters move and act, so we’ve tried to respect the original designs while adding combat that’s fun and new to the remake as we improve a number of enemies.”
Okamoto: “We’re remaking enemy AI from the ground up to be designed in a way that will allow players to enjoy the combat. Bloober Team’s love for the original is strong, so they’re not going to simply add new enemies. They are looking at fine details that can help make combat fun, though, which means changing AI or small design elements. It might look the same, but it’s different when you look closely. They really did a good job all throughout the game.”
Ito: “I think that the remake has ended up as a more interesting experience than the original.”
IGN: Some fans are worried that the visuals will have advanced too much and look so pretty that the game will be less scary. What are you doing to faithfully recreate the original’s unique atmosphere?
Okamoto: “I think that in the original, there were places where players used their imagination to compensate for the graphical limitations at the time. I hope they take a close look at all of the remake’s completed visuals, though. Bloober Team is excellent at recreating the atmosphere of the original, so I think you’ll be able to feel its horror even more than the original once you walk through the game with a controller in your hands. Thanks to the latest technology and Bloober Team’s efforts, we’ve embodied the atmosphere of details that players used to have to imagine, and I think that should be clear once you start walking around the game’s spaces.”
Ito: “There is the issue of everything being a step brighter spoiling the fear of darkness, an issue that’s come up often not just for this remake but since the time of the PS4 in general.
“I don’t know at this point how fans will ultimately react when it comes to this issue once the remake is finished and released. If fans play it and get to enjoy the game experience in ways completely different from the original, though, I think that’s a positive outcome too. Part of me would like players to wait for the remake’s release and not worry too much about it.”
Okamoto: “The fear players projected onto the dark screens of the original using their imagination have been replaced with fears they can actually walk through and experience on a large 4K screen. I hope they’ll play the game themselves and see that there’s a kind of fear you can only experience in such a detailed world. That’s what the 4K graphics and PS5 are there for. We really want you to enjoy the 4K streets of Silent Hill 2.”
Looking back on the original Silent Hill 2
IGN: I’d like to hear from Mr. Ito and Mr. Yamaoka about what it was like while making the original Silent Hill 2. What was the starting point for the original? For example, could you share any stories about why wasn’t it connected to 1, or why it became what you could call a literary title?
Ito: “While I can’t speak for the entire team at the time, I personally wouldn’t be able to say that I set out to make Silent Hill 2 something you could call a ‘literary’ title. As far as how the game came about, though, the main production team responsible for making the first Silent Hill had been taken off of development for 2.
“We found ourselves asking if the team that remained could make an authentic sequel to 1 without the members who depicted the core images of its world. After a lot of brainstorming about the idea of making 2 a spinoff but still a sequel, we ended up with the game it became.
“One story from when we were brainstorming and it felt like the game could go in any number of directions involves the film Lost Highway by director David Lynch. It’s a classic example of a film that’s difficult to understand with just one viewing, and a key part of its story is the way the protagonist changes partway through. There was a period when we were strongly influenced by that to have a twist where the protagonist suddenly switches mid-game.
“Ultimately, we decided to just focus the story on the character of James, as players may have had a difficult time understanding the game if we had gone with that idea. Also, not only were there very few members left on the team at that point, there were also issues of budget and development time. We were slow to start researching the PS2 development kit as well, which meant we couldn’t establish a testing period we could use to improve the game’s combat design. There were times when we barely had any effective methods at our disposal, but we decided to focus on story after a lot of thought, which is why the game turned out the way it did.
“We thought that if we were going to focus on story, we needed to do something that would stand out a little, which is why we made the decision for the protagonist to… well, it’s not the official ending, but we showed him committing suicide, something rarely seen in videogames at the time.”
IGN: Mr. Yamaoka, when you looked back on making the original during Silent Hill Transmission, you mentioned hearing that the game was influenced by Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment and wondering what you were going to be making. Going back through old interviews, there are mentions of being influenced by Kunio Yanagita’s Tono Monogatari and Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris. I mean this in a positive way, but it’s almost like you were making a video game not meant to be pure entertainment.
Yamaoka: “There was a feeling among the development team that we were going to challenge ourselves to make something never before seen in videogames. The team happened to contain a lot of members who approached things in ways you wouldn’t expect from game developers, including the kind of movies and novels they’d experienced, Crime and Punishment included. We all loved works that you could consider literary, as you put it, or minor. When all of that energy was added and multiplied together, though, it turned into something major, resulting in the work it became.”
Smashing Silent Hill’s music to pieces
IGN: It seems as though you were greatly influenced by themes and concepts alien to video games at the time, including their sound design and music.
Yamaoka: “Yes, absolutely. There’s a phrase I love, ‘Don’t do something like your life depends on it; do it like you’re trying to kill it.’ You’ll just get tired out if you do something like your life depends on it. I’ve loved videogames even before the first Silent Hill, but I hated the way that music and sound in videogames was so single-sided, or by the book. I always wanted to find an opportunity to smash game music to pieces, or to ‘kill it,’ and I feel like I worked on the first Silent Hill as though I was trying to kill videogame music. Looking back, though, there were times when I really did smash it to pieces a little too much.
“Thanks to the reset that was the first Silent Hill, I was able to come to a personal interpretation of what music is in videogames by the time I started working on 2, and could approach it with a calmer state of mind. When I look back and consider what sound design is in videogames as a whole, as well as when I think about the unique music and sound design you can only hear in Silent Hill, I think that Silent Hill 2 plays a major part in that.
“Mr. Okamoto mentioned ‘true psychological horror’ earlier… I see that as a kind of originality, not just horror that’s satisfied with scaring people. I was able to get a bird’s-eye view of what resonates and hits home with lots of people, and learned that you need more than just individuality. That’s become foundational to the work I’ve made until now and who I am as a creator. It’s why I continue to feel like Silent Hill 2 made me who I am.”
IGN: I’d like to ask about the music piece Theme of Laura. It’s become a standout work even among your many famous pieces, but why Laura, and not James or Mary?
Yamaoka: (Laughs) “The reason for that is because the first cutscene to be finished back then was Laura’s. To be honest, it got that title because Laura was the first character I saw, not so much because I set out to write a theme song for her.
“Theme of Laura is actually based on Japanese folk songs and old children’s songs. I wanted people around the world to appreciate it, and so I started thinking about what I could do that people outside of Japan could not. I ended up concluding that I needed to incorporate a Japanese kind of originality and mentality, as well as the kind of native environment in which Japanese people are raised.
“Of course, presenting people outside of Japan with something like that as-is would be like suddenly placing an unfamiliar food like natto (fermented soybeans) in front of them. Calling it rock-style would undersell it, but that’s why it sounds the way it does. Add a little bit of ketchup or Worcestershire sauce and people might enjoy it. Even people who don’t know anything about Japanese culture or folk songs could eat it and think, ‘What is this? It’s tasty,’ or ‘I’ve never had anything that tastes like this before’. I think that’s the essence of Laura’s theme, and I think people say it’s so memorable because it has a sensibility foreign to non-Japanese people in places. That piece got assigned to the character of Laura, and that’s how it became Theme of Laura.”
Unlikely yet timeless creature design
IGN: Mr. Ito, were you strongly influenced by the concept of the game too? For example, you didn’t use standard creature designs with features like horns and antennae. Could you tell us about your aesthetic that presents beauty even within the disgusting and grotesque?
Ito: “My aesthetic…? Well, I didn’t really go into the game trying to kill it.”
Yamaoka laughs.
Ito: “My understanding of Silent Hill 2’s story is that it’s about James, a man with trauma, going on a psychological journey through its town. James himself is the reason why he’s traveling through it and why he feels his life is in danger after encountering Pyramid Head and other monsters along the way.
“When I thought about James, I didn’t see him as a character who could possibly be well-versed in what monsters look like, given the trajectory of his life. He just didn’t seem like someone who loved creatures with antennae and horns. In that case, the monsters would have to take the form of what he’d seen and heard until the present moment. That’s why I felt it wouldn’t really be right to use stereotypical creature designs when depicting the person James is.
“There were a few other reasons I designed Pyramid Head to look that way, though. At the time, the primary source of information about videogames was magazines. When I thought about the kind of game Silent Hill 2 would be, I did feel concerned that it may be hard to get the attention of magazine readers through screenshots. So if I’m being honest, that’s one of the reasons I designed a creature with such a bizarre yet simply shaped head and a human silhouette.”
IGN: I understand that you supervised the cutscene where Pyramid Head appears in the original. Was this something you wanted to place a particular focus on, in part to present the character’s design?
Ito: “I think the original Silent Hill 2 was first shown to the media at Tokyo Game Show, and we really didn’t want to lead old fans who still had the world of the first game in mind in a strange direction when they saw the trailer for 2. We were trying to tell them that 2 is completely different from 1, and so we intentionally put in those scenes of Pyramid Head torturing a creature with legs on both ends of its body.”
The future of the Silent Hill series
IGN: Finally, what does the future hold for the Silent Hill series? What kind of vision do you have for it?
Ito: “I hope it will be something diverse, the way it was when going from the first Silent Hill to the second. I think it’ll become something that players aren’t even able to imagine, and I strongly hope for that to be the case.”
Yamaoka: “Bloober Team, developers in Poland, are remaking this game that was first created with uniquely Japanese sensibilities. They love Silent Hill, a Japanese horror title, and deeply understand it. When they bring it back, I think that it’ll have a slightly different taste by their hands while strongly retaining the sensibilities of the original game. Though society and our living environment and situations have changed since we first picked up a controller 20 years ago, I think they’re going to make a Silent Hill 2 that matches our present day perfectly.
“I’m a fan of Silent Hill myself, and I want the series to keep on going. So while I’m someone who first started making Silent Hill 20 years ago, I’ve also been a fan ever since those days. I want this title to continue on for the next 30, 40, 50 or even 100 years. Not to mention that I also personally collect the figures of characters that Mr. Ito creates (laughs).”
Ito laughs.
Okamoto: “We’ve announced a number of new titles in addition to this remake. I knew from the start of the project that just a single remake would not be enough for players to consider it a series revival. There were unfortunately some projects that never got started, but we’ve been talking with many creators and are still having lots of discussions about what to do going forward.
“I’m happy to see players reacting to Silent Hill f, which is a Japanese-style horror game, with even stronger interested than I’d expected. The future of Silent Hill will only continue. I think what’s important about the series is that it’s unique, highly artistic and original, and I’d like to continue focusing on that.”
Koji Fukuyama is a freelance writer for IGN Japan. This article was translated by Ko Ransom.
