Silent Hill: Shattered Memories Review

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is the latest entry in the long running horror series Silent Hill. A franchise know for it’s disturbing imagery, cultic religious themes and it’s ability to wow the player with more thought required stories than M. Night Shyamalan could ever cook up. Shattered Memories takes almost all we know about Silent Hill and turns it upside down in an effort to appeal to newbies and to give the diehard fans something new. Does this re-imagining live up to the Silent Hill name? Find out after the jump.

Shattered Memories takes the familiar story of the very first Silent Hill game and uses it as a jumping point in which to create an entirely new story. You play as Harry Mason, a man who awakes from a car crash to find his daughter Cheryl missing. Harry leaves his car in search for his young daughter Cheryl in the town of Silent Hill. This is where most of the similarities end. The core cast remains the same (plus a few new additions) but their roles should not be expected to be the same.

Shattered Memories is Climax Group’s second foray into the Silent Hill series, their first being Silent Hill: Origins. This time around they’ve decided to steer as far as possible from the original formula and create something new. Long gone are the predetermined camera angles and the tank controls. Instead we are given an over the shoulder view that ends up feeling better than Homecoming‘s control scheme. The entire menu and map all reside on Harry’s cell phone. It may look like an iPhone rip off but it gets the job done well. Random voice messages and texts pop up when you wander close to an haunted item or take a snap shot of a ghost like figure from the past.

As you may have heard, combat is gone. Shattered Memories revolves around 2 types of gameplay. One being the “normal” world where you explore and look for clues and the second being a frozen nightmare world where you must run from enemies. Raw Shocks is the name given to Shattered Memories one and only enemy type; you can’t kill them, only run. While they are not as visually disturbing as previous Silent Hill enemies they do vary in appearance according to how the player is playing the game. Choices influence whether they look diseased, cult like or just plain have boobs. A mixture is possible as well. The blood and rust themed “otherworld” is also gone in favor of a cold, icy and depressing environment. The snow effects in Shattered Memories look great for a less powerful console that’s known more for it’s simplistic visuals than it’s big brother consoles. The flashlight is your best friend this time around, no guns, nor pipe. The way the flashlight illuminates the environment is pretty damn impressive, every object casts a deep shadow and reacts realistically to the angle of illumination.

The major highlight of Shattered Memories is the Psychological Evaluations that you must take at regular intervals throughout the game. There was even a warning screen while the game loaded up. The warning states that, “The game plays you.” It indeed does. Previous Silent Hill titles have had some game altering based on the players actions. For example, Angela’s suicide knife that James acquires in Silent Hill 2; if the player looked at it often it had some influence on the games ending. Shattered Memories is entirely based on making the experience unique to players choices.

Harry Mason; Father, pervert?, alcoholic? There are multiple “Harrys” that can be created. Not only does your character differ but so does the world around him. Other characters personality and physical features are influenced by the players actions. If you lean toward a more sexual personality then expect local Silent Hill police officer Cybil Bennet to look like she walked straight out of a bad porno. Nearly every character has 1 or more alternative looks and responses. This kind of variety greatly improves the games replay value. Not only characters change, through our multiple playthroughs we noticed a few alterations when it came to what pathway would take us to our next destination.

The story of Silent Hill Shattered Memories is what makes this game a must buy, but while unique and engaging it left us a saddening thought. “Are we really playing a Silent Hill game?” While the game has that familiar mind bending story that we have grown to love, we are still left feeling like the name Silent Hill could have been absent from the title the game could have just been something else. The town feels more like a backdrop instead of the main character this time around. The familiar characters taken from the first Silent Hill seemed almost pointless because their roles are so drastically different. The sense of dread is also missing from this entry. Since no enemies roam around the corners or behind a door the fear is just a shadow of its former self. It’s hard to consider the game a Survival Horror title when you know that no enemies or threats are around during the normal world sections. Even with the frozen otherworld the fear factor is still rather muted. There may be a jump moment or 2 when the door you’re heading for opens and you’re grabbed by a Raw Shock but that’s about it. There is a slight saving grace toward the very end though. Without getting too spoilerific we’ll just say the otherworld takes on a few cues from previous installments (no, not blood and rust) which helped us remember that the Silent Hill series is still kicking.

Climax could have easily done an entirely new plot but decided to re-imagine the very first Silent Hill. A safety choice? A way to test out their ideas for a future Silent Hill title? We’re not entirely sure. Either way the end result is a fantastic game that is a must have for Wii owners and Silent Hill fans alike. The game takes new turns with familiar but original twists and while not feeling completely like a Silent Hill title it does contain amazing new features that are a must needed addition to any future installments. The original Silent Hill team is gone, but Climax is looking to be the perfect successor.

+ Simple controls.

+ Fantastic Story.

- Not really a horror game, more like a thriller.

- A little on the short side.

? Is this game a test for future Climax Silent Hill titles? (Climax currently has 3 Konami project’s, one is Shattered Memories, the other 2 unannounced.)