Shattered Memories takes a page from the Capcom playbook and creates a new horror genre: Psychological fear-venture.
Silent Hill started off as a riff off the popular Resident Evil series back on the Playstation. The game used a dark and twisted story to uncover what was going on in the snowy town of Silent Hill. The game was a success, leading to the most well know of the series being its sequel on the PS2. Since then the series started its downward spiral as the games become less about the story and atmosphere to be replaced by a heavy dose of poor combat. Climax studios has been handed the rights to the Silent Hill license once more after there mediocre venture with the series on the PSP. Can Silent Hill: Shattered Memories save the series, or will it be the final nail in the coffin?
Story:
The game begins in both the present and the past as the story is being told during a psychotherapy session. The game uses your responses to change how people react to the main character Harry Mason. The flashback to Silent Hill starts with Harry crashing into a snow drift and taking a good blow to the head. Once awake, he finds that his daughter is missing and goes off into Silent Hill in pursuit of her. The story from that point can take several different approaches depending on how the player responses to the doctor's answers. The biggest advantage for this game is that the story is deep and disturbing bringing the bone chilling series back to form.
Harry is suffering during the flashbacks from a head injury which is warping his sense of reality. Basing this on the decisions you make, it changes how he remembers the events and physical appearances of the people he meets in the town. This explains why he has run-ins with horrific monsters and why is unable to fight them. These monsters also change based on the decisions made as well. Like in games past, the presence of these monsters in Harry's retelling of the events give reason to believe that something disturbing has happened which is uncovered as the story progresses. This well envisioned narrative is aided by some of the most convincing voice acting to hit a video game this year. The voice actors really got into the characters they were portraying and it keep players in the experience.
Gameplay:
This is game is for the Wii, no surprise it uses the gimmick that is the Wii mote. Normally this is a bad thing and to be honest, until I played this game, I had not turned on the system in over a year. To start, the controls are very simple to understand, a god sent since most users of the Wii use it for its simplicity. Moving your arm moves the flashlight around the area and the sound speaker in the Wii mote is used to simulate static from previous games and it is broadcast through Mason's cell phone. Moving is done via the nun chuck as well as to allow for Harry to jog or run depending on the issue at hand.
The game breaks itself into two different sections; the first is where players explore the environment and solve puzzles. This is done by allowing the player to explore the areas without fear of being attacked. This also bring to light that the game does not fit into the realm of Survival- Horror as there is no monsters causing issues in your path. On the overall, based on the questions that are answered in the therapy sessions it determines if the player is uneasy with jump scares, an unsettling musical score or how disturbing the phone messages are and how characters react.
When it comes to keeping the player in the moment everything is done is real time. The only way to pause the game is by pushing the home button on the controller. Using the phone allows players to use common tools of the modern cell phone to there advantage as it aids in solving puzzles and collecting hidden clues. The sound from the cell phone is administered through the speaker built into the Wii-mote.
The tension that builds during these exploring sections is thrown out the window as soon as the world around Harry becomes a winter horror land. When this happens it becomes a mad dash towards the exit. This is the biggest change as the game has no attacking of which to speak of. The idea is to avoid the ghoulish monsters by navigating the maze and slowing down your pursuers. This can be done by throwing objects in the way behind you, or by lighting a flare as the monsters seem to be afraid of fire.
The biggest draw back to this new form of speed fear is the fact that it looses its dread once you find that surviving the maze is trial and error. Even though the enemies have very methodical AI path finding, once you know where to run, it becomes much easier to avoid them. It also can become very frustrating when it the game continually punishes players by not scaling the difficulty of the chase.
Even with these complains the games does a fantastic job of keeping players on edge as it is never clear what lies behind each door or when Silent Hill is going to have hell freeze over.
Presentation:
The limitations of the Wii hardware are a given for this game as looks good for not being on the more powerful systems. What the game does do right is that it uses the power of the Wii to its full potential. The game is very polished and looks stunning for Wii standards. Shattered Memories does what it needs to do when the processing power is not as great and that is make Silent Hill believable. This is done with painstaking attention to detail and by making almost everything in the game world necessary. Players will soon take for granted on how much time was spent making sure that environment that it places players in is fully rendered and that no shortcuts were taken. This game is a prime example of how to make a nearly bug free experience. Climax had set deadline and it used every waking minute combing over the sound, visuals and effects to make sure that nothing is left half finished.
With this said, the game is of course, outdated when it comes to graphics and will most likely be ported over to the bigger consoles. Look for this game to make an appearance on the downloadable market of both Microsoft and Sony arcade markets.
Overall:
Silent Hill was waking towards the light at the end of the tunnel after the disappointing debacle that was Homecoming. Like Resident Evil reinventing itself into an action horror title, Climax studios have taken the Silent Hill series into a psychological fear-venture. The game is immersive, creative, intense, intelligent and down right bone chilling. It is only complimented by convincing vocal work done by the cast and a story penned better than almost every horror film in the past few years. The game does not involve combat and this will be a let down for that is left of the survival- horror fan base, but what it does right over shadows its flaws. Silent Hill is back, and hear is to hoping for more trips to come. Grade: B+