Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

For those of you Silent Hill aficionados out there like me be warned. This is a rewrite of the original Silent Hill from the Play Station 1, however it bares little resemblance to what made that game or the series so great. There is no inventory system. The only items you collect are mementos which are of no use at all, keys, which are usually found in the same area as the door and require a simple puzzle to solve to get them, and flares (rare) which keep at bay the only monster in the game for a short time and you can only hold one at a time. That means there are no baseball bats, knives, guns, machine guns, bullets or health drinks. Also every interactive item has a little white arrow above it so you don't even have to search a room for a key, memento or puzzle. The one and ONLY type of monster you meet throughout the entire game is invincible and your only real defence to run away sometimes through mazes of identical rooms until you stumble into the exit. You can shrug off the nasties when they jump on you but this entails just hitting the correct key and this believe me becomes tiresome and annoying very quickly. Death will occur often.

There is no end of play score or rewards. No menu to unlock higher levels of play or multiple bullets, no boss battles and so no real reason to play it again. The story while interesting again is a pale shadow of the original series and far to short. The graphics are passable as you would expect on a PS2 and the lighting effects are ok.

My advice to any Silent Hill fan thinking about buying this game is to wait until it hits the bargain bucket at a fiver or less. Then it may be worth the money as it's not worth close to 24.99 I paid on its release. Anyone new to Silent Hill may find it interesting but don't let this sway you against the rest of the series. This is by far the worst Silent Hill game ever released.

After the disappointing Silent Hill: Homecoming last year I feared the worse with Shattered Memories. A game developed by the same team for the Wii and ported to the PS2. Sounded like a recipe for disaster, but gladly I was wrong.
Shattered Memories takes the series in a very different direction. But this is no bad thing. Fans complained about the combat system in Homecoming, so in this game it is gone completely. Replaced instead with the named 'Nightmare Sequences'. This involves running around a transformed ice version of the area you just explored frantically looking for the exit door. Removing the combat engine completely may sound like a crazy thing to do, but lets face it; the combat was never a Silent Hill strong point. The idea just about works with button bashing to remove enemies and the odd puzzle to solve, but it can become a bit repetitive and annoying after every area you explore, especially when there is no quick solution. Finding the exit usually involves blind luck rather than strategy.
The rest of the game is pure exploration based. With a new over the shoulder control system similar to the way Resident Evil 5 plays. You are lost in the dark, with only a torch and a phone to aid you. You must search for clues, solve puzzles and interact with characters to develop the plot and progress through the game. It sounds like business as usual, but this is Silent Hill with a twist.
As, I have mentioned in the title, this is the first Silent Hill game to demand multiple replays. Previous games have always offered rewards for playing the game again, such as more powerful weapons, new costumes and of course multiple endings to the story. While this game retains the multiple ending structure, it also has a few more tricks up its sleeve.
You see the game changes around the player on each and every single play through it. This happens mainly through the psychology sessions with your doctor, who at times can ask you some very personal questions. Depending on your answers, a character's physical appearance and personality can alter dramatically. Hence altering the way in which the story unfolds. But this is not the only thing that can alter the game. Merely looking at certain objects for too long while exploring, can alter your fate. For example, focusing on bottles of alcohol, or graphic images can suggest to the game the sort of person you may be and alter it accordingly. This is no joke, I am now on my second play through, and have noticed that even some of the rooms have altered in appearance due to me making different choices. As some areas are quite open, you can even explore things in a different order. While the game is perhaps a little on the short side, this more than makes up for it, as you constantly feel there is going to be something new around every corner.
My worries about the control system were also short lived, as while I'm sure the Wii remote makes for smoother interaction, the analogue sticks are more than capable.
Graphically, it is not going to win any prizes, certainly not on the PS2. The graphics are certainly passable, and the lighting effects with the torch are very impressive. But overall it just seems a bit ropey and unfinished.
The story is also very different to that of the original PSone game and not quite as gripping. However, it doesn't in any way spoil the original, think of it as an alternate universe Silent Hill.
Overall, another unique Silent Hill experience. Definitely not for everyone, but I'll give it full marks for trying something new. Perhaps if the new production team hadn't wasted their time on the very average Homecoming, this could have been a simply amazing game for the next-gen consoles. Still a decent effort.

As a diehard Silent Hill fan, I can immediatley say this is clearly not the best one. After Team Silent stopped making them (Silent Hill 1 - Silent Hill 4: The Room) they went downhill pretty quickly. Still, it quickens your heart rate in the monster-chase parts. Makes you jump quite a lot, and has a chilling atmosphere. The game lasts around 6 hours in all, but was a great experience, just doesn't live up to the earlier games.