Through backwards compatibility, the Xbox One has been slowly expanding its library of original Xbox and Xbox 360 games. Thanks to the Silent Hill series, the Xbox One gets to add entries from both its previous generations. Silent Hill: Homecoming and the Silent Hill HD Collection are now part of the Xbox One backwards compatibility list.
Silent Hill: Homecoming is the 2008 entry of the long-running horror series. The United States developer Double Helix Games was behind the game, making it the second title in the franchise created outside of Japan. It focused more on melee combat, which was a cause for concern for many of its critics. Silent Hill: Downpour, the next main entry, has been backwards compatible on the Xbox One since November 2016.
The Silent Hill HD Collection is a much more complicated and unfortunate story. This collection contained HD-ified versions of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, which are not only widely regarded as the best in franchise, but also some of the best horror games ever made. The Silent Hill HD Collection did not do those classics justice.
Instead, Konami released extremely buggy versions of both titles. Horrific framerate issues and the lack of menacing fog mystified players, as the game was considerably worse on stronger hardware. Konami eventually patched the game and fixed some of the issues but their goodwill, along with the hype surrounding “Silent Hill Month,” was thoroughly burned though.
The Silent Hill Collection’s final update never came out for the Xbox 360 version, meaning that this backwards compatibility news could be that same busted, unpatched version. It’s unknown how it’ll run on the Xbox One, especially since employees from Hijinx Studios, the developer in charge of the HD Collection, have stated that Konami had lost the original source code.
Therefore, the game’s issues could lie more heavily in its unfinished code and not necessarily within hardware limitations. It’s unclear whether of not the Xbox One’s horsepower would be able to power through the game’s technical issues or if it’ll still run like a slideshow.
