Kojima Wanted Gears Of War Creator To Work On The Failed Silent Hills

The cancelled Silent Hills from Kojima Productions and Konami could have had an interesting collaborator on the project... a certain Cliff Bleszinski, better known to Gears of War fans as Cliffy B. However, Cliffy turned down Kojima's offer.

According to IGN, the famed creator of the Unreal Engine 3-powered third-person shooter, Gears of War, made a few comments on Twitter about potentially working on Silent Hills, the cancelled horror game that Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro were working on. Spanning multiple tweets, Cliffy stated on Twitter...

Kojima once told me he wanted me to do a new Silent Hill [with] him together out of LA. I was flattered but declined. I don't like LA, I love new IP, and I woulda fucked up [Silent Hills]

It's interesting because Cliffy B., had previously offered his services to Capcom in a somewhat facetious manner when it came to helping with Resident Evil 7. It created quite a stir but it would make sense given that Capcom has practically taken the Resident Evil series down the exact same third-person shooter path as Gears of War. Even Resident Evil 6 had a cover mechanic not unlike Epic's popular shooter.

I don't know how well Cliffy would have translated over into Silent Hills. In fact, I think he made the right call since the game that del Toro and Kojima were working on seemed to be more like a psychological thriller rather than a typical action shooter. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but based on the P.T. Demo and the atmosphere they created around the short tech demo running on the Fox Engine, I got the impression they were going for something more measured, almost like a slow-burn horror-thriller. That's definitely outside of Cliffy's wheelhouse.

The Gears of War Creator isn't wont for being out of projects to work on, and he's already hard at work on the game Lawbreakers after a short stint in retirement. It turns out that the retirement was more-so taking a break after gunning hard at the industry for 20 years straight.

Kojima, alternatively, is getting back to work at a newly formed Kojima Productions after Konami shut down the Los Angeles offices. The new independent studio has already signed on for a project that's coming to Sony's PlayStation platform(s) as part of a new partnership that the legendary designer has signed with the electronics giant. No details on the project have been revealed so far.

And despite Konami canceling the development of Silent Hills, fans are extremely disappointed in the matter and have been showing a lot of fervor in trying to get some aspect of the concept revitalized. More importantly, they want to see Kojima and del Toro working together again on the project and they want to see The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus back in the starring role of the project. Heck, it doesn't have to be called Silent Hills, it just needs the big three names on the marquee to bring in the crowds.

As for Cliffy B., turning down an opportunity to work with Kojima, what do you think of the matter? Was it really for the best or could the Metal Gear Solid and Gears of War creators have churned out something worthwhile?

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.