Brahms P.D. and Silent Hill: Cold Heart

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

Before going classic they wanted to make a completely different game.

Silent Hill Wii/Brahms PD#

The conception of the idea of a Silent Hill Wii game goes all the way back to the times Tomm Hullet would join to Konami, after a few months he was able to pitch three games, those being Contra 4, Rocket Knight (2010) and a Silent Hill Wii game, however he went to work directly in Contra 4 and Rocket Knight without having any involvement with the Silent Hill Wii pitch he did until a producer left the Silent Hill project.¹²³

The idea appears to have stick with the producer at the time of the Silent Hill brand in US (William Oertel) who proposed to Climax to make a pitch based of the Hullet's idea, a spin-off first-person shooter where the player would have incarnated an amnesiac police detective from the Brahms Force Police looking for her missing partner which became Brahms P.D., however during early conceptual stages Sam Barlow came with the idea of adding the psychological profile system which would become the most highlighted feature when presenting the game to Konami where it would be sell as “the world’s first truly interactive psychological horror". This pitch was rejected.⁴

Silent Hill: Cold Heart#

At some point after the release of the PSP version of Silent Hill: Origins, Konami wanted a follow-up for Origins with another PSP title, however Simon Gardner (CEO of Climax at the time) didn't want to do another game in the style and thanks to William Oertel they were able to improve the dealings by suggesting making the idea of Sam Barlow alongside a PSP game more in line with what Konami wanted.⁵

The original Brahms P.D. pitch ideas were reformulated into another pitch which turned into Silent Hill: Cold Heart. This pitch implemented the idea of changing the traditional foggy and sometimes covered in rust town to a cold and sometimes covered in ice. The story would have followed a psychologically traumatized university student named Jessica Chambers who wanted to have a break of his life, so she went to her parents house, however, on her way to her parents house, she ends trapped in Silent Hill. The game would have expanded the psychological features from Brahms PD pitch by adding a Wii's Connect24 based news and weather feature, the user's Mii profile would have modified Jessica's appearance and profile and the players would have been able to share their psychological profile with other players. The game would have been a traditional Third-Person game featuring melee combat, puzzles and many more survival based features as limited inventory, temperature feature and a basic food system. A brief part of the original story can be seen in the game pitch document. This pitch was also rejected.

After the Cold Heart was rejected, William Oertel suggested pitching the game as a remake just like how Silent Hill: Origins was initially pitched as a Silent Hill (1999) remake additionally there was an internal Konami database that had a Silent Hill Remake project greenlighted which they took advantage by marking Shattered Memories as remake. They decided to pitch the game as a reimagination, because the idea of revisiting again the same Silent Hill was boring for the team, Sam Barlow (game designer) decided to make it a reimagination inspired by how the Battlestar Galactica 2000s reboot handled the original 80s story. It was green lighted, and it ended as Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.⁶⁷

Cold Heart's Pitch Document#

The pitch document for the game was released through giveaways held by Climax in 2013 and 2016, but in 2016 an early digital version was released on the Unseen64 page. ^89101112

The pitch document is composed of 16 pages (including the front and back cover). One of two pages with differences in early version is the back cover as text position have been adjusted, the copyright claim has been changed and the name of Simon Gardner and his email (redacted) have been added.

The first page introduces the game as a new groundbreaking entry from the Silent Hill: Origins team that would appeal for both hardcore and mainstream gamers. The other page with differences in the early version is this which there the text position have been change and the background art instead shows a render of Lisa with her Silent Hill: Origins design alongside some Rorchard Test Cards.

The second page gives a brief history introduction. The story follows Jessica Chambers an emotionally vulnerable athletic college student who have become dependent of her psychiatrist who decided to take a break going to her parent house, however, in the road she becomes trapped in middle of a blizzard, so she tries to find a shelter in a close town, Silent Hill.

The third page describe the main gameplay features under three sections:

• Wii control
  • The flashlight that would have not only served to illuminate player's path, but also attack enemy and would have been able to use it to attack and solve puzzle while also be able to get different types of flashlights (polarized, ultraviolet and infra-red).
  • Melee combat which would have allowed the player to fabricate their weapons which would then break and make finishing moves against enemies while also enemy would have been able to grab the player.
  • Puzzles taking advantage of Wiimote's features.
• The Freezing Horror (Ambience)
  • Like in final Shattered Memories the environment would have dynamically changed at certain points of the game to a frozen world, however also counting with some rust features and flesh elements with running blood through the environment.
  • The environment would have also been against the player as it would have been more element that both slowdown and also hurt the player, either by affecting the internal temperature of the protagonist as well as directly inflicting damage.
• Real Psychological Terror (Psy profile)
  • This describes a pretty much identical psychological profile feature as the one in the final Shattered Memories, however, it would have also influenced the field of view of the player and the players would have been able to share it through internet.

The fourth page describe more gameplay features:

• Limited inventory system which would have been reflected in the character.
• The phone feature (same as Shattered Memories, however this pitch doesn't mention anything about elements that the player can collect like the echo photos/messages).
• Survival features.
  • Clothing that would impact combat sessions.
  • Food system which would have let the player recover their body temperature, health and stamina.
• A more fleshed character interaction system compared to previous entries that could have also impacted the psychological profile.
• Barricade system
• A weather system that would have been tied to the psychological profile making the exploration harder.

Additionally, this page mention as a gameplay feature that the game would be set in the west zone of Toluca Lake while also including some previously seen zones.

The fifth page continues with more gameplay features:

• The map (same as retail Shattered Memories).
• Wiimote speaker would have also played out the sound of the currently used weapon and also used for puzzles, curiously this point mentions that the player could have been able to pick lock a door.
• Puzzles Examples
  • Metal detector: the player would have been able to find metal objects covered under snow.
  • Frozen message: the player would have been able to melt pieces of ice with the flashlight in order to unlock a clue or some element for a puzzle.
  • Sewer fishing: the player would have been able to use wires with hook that would have used in order to grab an element that can be found inside a sewer.
  • Crossed wires: the UV flashlight would have been used in order to solve puzzles that would have required restoring electric systems.

The sixth page describe some technical aspect of the game, most of this inherited from Silent Hill: Origins while also improving upon them taking advantage of Wii capabilities. Also mentions the integration of Wii's Connect 24 features which would have specifically taken advantage of the weather and news feature in order to spook players while also using player's Mii data in order to affect both the playable character aspect and psychological profile, however, this point is mention as "pending discussion with Nintendo".

Page 7 to 14 relates a fragment of the story. Page 7 start relating how Jessica find herself in between Nathan Avenue and Bryant Street where she finds an abandoned truck which in one of it's windows says "Gone to the lake" the player would have then marked in the map a path to the lake that would have gone through a park, in the park, the player would have found a carousel which have odd looking figures which as soon as the player start aiming their flashlight to them would become alive, a persecution where the player would have run from the enemies would have started, the player could have grabbed objects to throw them as well as point their flashlight to the enemies in other to keep them away, once the session finishes the player would have found themselves in the lakefront of Toluca. The last paragraph also says how psychological profile could influence these sessions and be influenced, most of this also applies for final Shattered Memories by the exception to weather conditional and if the player decides to fight back or not, however also mentions that enemies were able to carry arms or not depending on the psychological profile.

Page 8, 9, 10 and 11 relates how she comes trapped in the lake by the enemies, and she ends falling in the cold lake, while she also deceives in the background a boat she tries to reach to it, but the lake start to become frozen until the entire lake frozen, and she is now trapped in the frozen lake she starts fading out and suddenly a flashback to a therapy session occurs, after the sessions where the player would have been able to answer and solve questions the psychiatrist made, we come back to Jessica being trapped in the frozen water, she sees how a figure that intimidates the monsters close up, a man she meet in a bar before and ends breaking the ice around her making her to finally pass out (the dialogue interaction would have variate depending on the psych profile). Jessica wakes up over the frozen lake as she goes to the boat she previously saw, once in the boat she starts investigating it trying to reach the engine room while discovering the poor state of the boat covered in rust and ice, once in the corridor that leads to the engine room two enemies find her and start fighting her, then the player would have received a message of the man she meet earlier (the dialogue interaction would have variate depending on the psych profile).

Page 12 relates how Jessica turns the boat's engine and founds a key that leads to a room where a girl is found, despite her attempts of communicating with her the girl stabs Jessica making her pass out. Once she awakes she no longer feels any pain, there is no ice in the boat anymore, and it's moving forward the shore, another flashback to a therapy session occurs and then the pitch ends with Jessica leaving the boat in the offshore of the lake.

References#