Silent Hill: Ascension kicks off this Halloween, but Europe's getting shafted
It certainly is a choice that was made.
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Silent Hill: Ascension, that "live" take on the classic horror series, is finally kicking off on Halloween itself, October 31.
Last week, it was spotted that the Google Play store page for Silent Hill: Ascension had updated to say it would be launching October 31, which developer Genvid later confirmed was the case. For those that aren't aware of the project and just wish the Silent Hill 2 remake was out instead, it's basically an interactive streaming series where players will collectively vote on the events that take place. Think of something like Until Dawn, but instead of just you making the decisions, thousands of people are, which sounds like a bit of a nightmare ironically. There's one big problem for Europeans though: it kicks off at 9pm ET, which in the UK is 2am, a bit late for most players especially considering Halloween is on a school night this year.
You of course then might be asking yourself, "well how am I meant to even take part if I don't live in the US then?" Genvid CEO Jacob Navok took to Twitter to explain the decision, but the fact he had to do that in the first place does kind of tell you there might be a problem with how the game is designed. According to Navok, "all choices are available at minimum 24 hours in advance. Important decisions are available several days in advance. You do not need to be there live."
Yes, this interactive live series isn't actually fully live, it's just the glorified cutscenes that are the live bit. Except, that's not entirely true either, as apparently there "are some things that are only available live," but Navok "set a rule early in production that anything that changes story outcome needs to be able to be participated in asynchronously."
Right, so, anyone in Europe basically just won't get the live treatment. You are apparently able to watch the VODs after the fact, and continue to make more decisions, but it's not really the point is it? At least we've still got Silent Hill F and Townfall to look forward to.