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Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - Reinventing what wasn't broken.

I love Silent Hill. It's probably my favorite game franchise. I like it so much that when I realized I missed 3 somehow, (I rented it but never actually bought it) I paid $60 for a sealed copy on ebay. In 2010. $60 for a PS2 game.

So yeah, I really love this series, and because of that, I had been following Shattered memories for a long time. Everything about it just kept getting better and better. From the interesting concept (re-imagining of the 1st game) to the game altering depending on your personality, to the numerous accolades it received from gaming publications. Then came Phelous's review...

I have rarely seen a bigger Silent Hill fan than him, and when he gave it a less than favorable review, I began to worry. Although, after a while I softened up, and finally took the dive last weekend and picked it up.

The game tells the familar story of Harry Mason getting in a car accident and his daughter, Cheryl, going missing. From that point forward, everything, while having a tinge of prior knowledge from the previous game, deviates quite a bit. Most notably, the Otherworld this time is not a grimy hellish place, but ice covered. This is an strange change, which causes some other issues down the line.


One very interesting aspect of the game is the personality adaptation. The game opens with a personality survey. Using that (and a few other questions sprinkled throughout) the game actually changes. Characters will change, conversations will change, and ultimately, the outcome of the game can change.

This game also has a very nice exploration aspect. The nunchuck us used to move Harry, with the remote itself controlling his flashlight. This can be used to look around and explore, also to find mementos. These items can unlock different messages that fill out the story, but they can also add to the game's adaptation aspect.

The Graphics of Shattered Memories are actually really beautiful for a Wii game. Character models are nicely detailed, with good lip synch. The flashlight casts great shadow effects, and the noise filter and tracking lines that appear when danger is near, really add to the atmosphere. The Otherworld, however, is very bland looking. Everything is bathed in a blue tint and there are a few chunks of ice around. It is a shame that what is usually the centerpiece of a Silent Hill game is the most mediocre looking part.

This game's sound and music are amazing. Akira Yamaoka hits another one out of the park. From beginning to end, a great score. It makes me very sad that this is probably the last game in the franchise he is scoring. The sound effects are also great, and the idea of having all the phone calls go through the wiimote speaker goes a long way in making the game more immersive.

The controls are very schizophrenic. In the normal exploration mode, they are fantastic. The flashlight is extremely responsive, and the button mapping is exceptional. This all goes to shit when you enter the other world though...

Yes the otherworld is pretty much fromw where all the problems with this game stem. I started out in love with the game, pretty much thinking Phelous over exaggerated. However, when I entered the second Otherworld section, I began to see what he meant.

To start, the otherworld is full of immortal enemies that persue you relentlessly. This means you have to run, start to finish, in the Otherworld sections. Fine, but the game does not give you any HUD indicators on where to go, you have to use your map. The map is a real time map though, so using it does not pause the game, it only causes you to walk (you can't run with the map up) which 95% of the time results in a enemy grabbing you. This means you have to awkwardly jerk the controller in the direction of the enemy to throw them off.

I spent 30 minutes running through a sawmill. The map did not give me any indication where to go, and I kept getting dogpiled by enemies and flailing around like Michael J. Fox trying to get them off of me. By the end, I threw my wiimote and nunchuck on the floor in frustration, opting instead to write this.

I wanted to love this game so much, I really did. Don't get me wrong, it does a lot of things right. Unfortunately, the things it gets wrong, it gets game breaking-ly wrong. Will I go back and try to play it again? Of course. Will I enjoy it? Well I certainly hope I can find a way to, but that isn't looking likely.

Overall, this game gets a 6.5/10 from me. Slightly above average.