Are you prepared to brave the streets of Silent Hill?
Well although the game claims to be a remake it is more a re-imagining, the characters and the setting are the same but the story is completely different. You play as Harry Mason, a writer who after taking his daughter to the Carnival, crashes his car and when he awakes has lost, not only his daughter, but also his memories. He must travel through the creepy town of Silent Hill trying to piece together the mystery of where his daughter is and his past. Much has been made of the psychological profile system that the developers have touted. They even give a warning that the game plays you as much as you play it! While this may be an exaggeration it is certainly a clever system, throughout the game you visit a psychiatrist who asks you questions and your answers will determine the way characters act around you and which of the many different endings you will get. It is a clever way of drawing you into the game and even simple things like staring at a bottle of alcohol or perving at the female characters will change how the game world and characters perceive you.
The game world itself is one of the most impressive things about this game, the developers have done a great job to actually make you believe that Silent Hill is a living, breathing town. Everything is done in great detail from been able to read the menus in a diner, to reading graffiti of the lockers in the school and look at posters and be able to call the number you see on your cell phone. It all adds up to make it one of the most atmospheric games of the year. This mainly comes from the fact you are armed with a torch and cell phone, no weapons to be found here. You control the torch with the wiimote by simply pointing at the screen and illuminating the area you wish to see. It is incredibly atmospheric as you wander around the isolated town, with only your torch to guide you. It is a clever feature that I am surprised hasn't been utilised that effectively in more horror games on wii.
The cell phone is the other bit of vital tech you need in the game and it comes tricked out with a lot of different uses. You can use it to call characters you meet, even those numbers on the wall I mentioned, some of them are truly brilliant and it all adds to the immersion. It has a map feature so you can plan out your route (essential for the nightmare sequences later on) and in one of the Wii's most under-utilised features all the calls you receive are played through your remotes speaker, meaning you hold it like a real phone. It even picks up static when you are close to a trapped memory, which gets louder as you get closer. When you find these trapped memories you will either get a phone call or a message filling in back story, and again making the town feel alive. The game also goes Fatal Frame on your ass when if you see something that doesn't seem right, you can take a picture of it and unlock another memory. Your use of the cell phone will certainly determine how much you get out of the Silent Hill experience, so make sure you go hunting down as much as possible. I guarantee it will increase your enjoyment of the game ten-fold.
One area of the game that is certainly hit and miss are the nightmare sequences. This is where the world freezes over and becomes inhabited with monsters, forcing you to run away to the next area of the game. Now because you don't have a weapon it means that the first few of these sequences are exhilarating as you run from door to door, clambering up and under things to escape the nightmare. The problem is that by the end of the game they start to become quite boring and disrupt play too often. Also the monsters themselves aren't that scary as the design stays the same throughout the game. The only form of combat in the game is when the monsters catch up to you and grab hold of you, when this happens it you shake the nunchuck and wiimote and go on your merry way. While I can see why Climax chose to go down this route, a variation in the types of monsters you face could have the made the scenes more dramatic. On a side note prepare to get lost in these sections a lot, I found myself running around in circles far too many times for my own comfort (You should check the map but I'm a man so no way am I asking directions!) A staple of the Silent Hill franchise is the puzzles and again we have a mixed bag here. Most of the time it is find a key and unlock the door but the key is never particularly hard to find. There are some serious puzzles dotted about and they tend to be quite tricky to solve, but the answers are never ridiculous and the answer tends to be staring you in the face without you realising. The utilisation of the wiimote in this game is brilliant while most of them are simple motions, they all add to the immersion. Things like tilting cans, cracking safes and opening car doors (Don't forget the child lock!), it brings you back to a time when developers still cared about using the remote to enhance the experience.
It would be rude of me to not pay tribute to the graphics in this game as they are amongst the best on the console. I've already mentioned the detail that has gone into fashioning Silent Hill and the visuals more than back up this detail, adding immersion to an already gripping plot. The facial animations are amongst the best on any console, conveying all the emotion that the characters are experiencing and the lighting effects are just superb, with shadows been formed wherever you lay your torch. The voice acting is up to the standard of the animations with all the characters putting in a good performance, particular praise though for the psychiatrist who puts in a creepy and assured performance. Finally the musical score is up there with the usual high standard of the Silent Hill franchise, with it giving a creeping sense of dread but at the same time never becoming cheesy. It's a masterclass in how to make videogame music. Brilliant.
The main problem though that this game has is that it is just too short I finished my first playthrough in just 6 hours, and for the full RRP it is just too expensive. Although there are multiple endings to encourage replayability, and the game is different depending on how you manipulate the psychology tests. It doesn't change the fact that you're looking at a 10-12 hour game even with other playthroughs.
Ultimately then is Silent Hill worth your cash? Yes if you can find it at the right price after all what you are getting here is a game with a fantastic story, atmosphere and some ingenious uses of the wiimote. Many will find the length and the nightmare sequences but this is a game that at least demands a rental. So sit back, turn off the lights and let Silent Hill mess with your mind.
Pros
+ Fantastic Story with a chilling atmosphere
+ Psychological aspects are well ingrained
+ Some very clever uses of the wiimote
+ Beautiful visuals and a mesmerising soundtrack
Cons
- Nightmare sequences become repetitive
- Very Short
Overall
8.5/10