So I started playing this game last night, Lone Survivor. It’s basically a 2D, side scrolling survival horror game. I’m about 20 minutes in, it’s pretty good. The one thing I’d say is that it cribs a bit too closely to Silent Hill.
The designer, Jasper Byrne, already parodied/homaged Silent Hill with this previous game, Soundless Mountain (which I have not played but I hear good things about). Yet here in Lone Survivor we’re still hewing closely to SH2. The monsters look the same, the music is reminiscent, and even the sound effect when you pick something up is similar.
You have good ideas, Jasper. You don’t need to couch them in Silent Hill language–you can do your own thing.
I found out about this game from a NeoGAF post claiming Lone Survivor was more SH than Downpour. This was a plus in the eyes of the forum, but I’m not really sure it should be.
None of this is to say it’s bad – I enjoyed what I played and can’t wait to get back to it, I am just not sure it’s going to surprise me (though hope I am wrong).