About a week or two ago, some information about the development of a new Silent Hill game was released. A very brief teaser trailer was shown. While not uploaded online yet, eye witnesses at Konami’s Gamers Night 2010 describe that the trailer showed a blonde-haired man waking up from a bed before stumbling out into a fog covered street. After aimlessly walking for a few moments, he comes to a rust covered gate of a suburban neighborhood before the screens fades to black with the words “End the Silence” followed by “E3.”

We know for a fact that the game is in development and official details are around the corner but fans are quickly beginning to speculate on the possibilities of what could come from this new installment. It’s said that the character resembles James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2 which made the first guess to be a [url=http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/09/new-silent-hill-game/]remake of the game[/i] for the PC, PS3, and Xbox360. However, new details are slowly being uncovered.

A new development team known as Vatra Games is being put in charge of the new game. Vatra Games has no records of any previous working, making the new Silent Hill their first game ever. Some fans have looked more closely at the new developer and have discovered that they list their only project as a Q1 2011 First Person Shooter. Could this mean the new Silent Hill be a First Person Psychological Horror game…?

As of right now, it seems very possible. Fans of the series seem to be very against this in fear of the series completely losing its ground. I’ll admit I was very displeased with the news myself but if Vatra Games can manage to keep the tense mindf**ck going without being a “typical shooter”, I don’t see a problem in the perspective change. For those who own Director’s Cut copies of Fatal Frame II or played Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth or the Penumbra games, you’ll have some experience on how First Person horror games can be pulled off nicely.

Honestly, if they can mimic a feel that Call of Cthulhu I think they’ll be fine. Call of Cthulhu is a prime example of how you can have a non-combat based, story-driven horror game that can still be entertaining and fun while still really getting under your skin. It remains one of my favorite horror games due to how vulnerable I felt and how well the atmosphere was. (Nothing like being stuck in a screwed up town where everyone hates you just because you’re not “one of them” while also suffering from amnesia and schizophrenia and being a bit psychic.)

Nothing is set in stone yet. For all we know, their “Q1 2011 FPS” could be another unannounced title and everyone maybe just jumping to conclusions. Then again, maybe they’re not. There’s also some concern coming from the tagline “End the Silence”. Could this be hints of the series closure…? We’ll know for certain come E3, but I’m curious as to what people think.