Silent Hill: Shattered Memories Isn't Too Bad... Pity It's A Silent Hill Game, Though

[Seil]

I bought this for the PS2, 'cause 'M not spending $300 to play a new Silent Hill I was convinced was gonna be terrible. But all in all, it's pretty good. It refers to the original Silent Hill once or twice, and some of the characters have the same names as the PS Silent Hill characters, but it's not a SH game.

It's really not.

Climax, for those have been the holders of the Silent Hill franchise for a while, continually try to shake things up. They've tried to do so with Shattered Memories with all new gameplay, they tried to do it with Homecoming by refining the combat, and they tried to do so with Origins by making it shit.

The general staples of the series - subtle psychological scares and Freudian symbols mixed in with generally fun puzzle soling and some scary monsters. You're often totally alone with a meager supply of weapons and items,trying to do... something in a foggy town.

Shattered Memories loses points right out of the gate for telling you that it's going to try to psychoanalyze you, then the "scares" pretty much amount to long chase scenes with the "scary monsters" or taking a photo of something and hearing a scary sound effect.

The game tries to incorporate reality into the mix, such as having relatable moments atwixt characters and giving definitely plausible reason that the streets are cleared. A huge snow storm has hit Silent Hill, and like in Max Payne, that's their reason for no one being on the streets. Which kind of flops the "alone," on its end, as you're imagining everyone's there, you're just staying inside.

Which totally ruins the puzzle aspect of the game - in a mall bit, I had to go into a hair dresser's shop and turn on a faucet - hot water here, guys - so that the steam would allow me to read the code to a nearby door on a mirror. Now in a regular Silent Hill game, that'd be great - the puzzles in SH1-4 were like that, emphasizing on the "empty haunted fog filled town" ideal. But since the game is trying to break the reality ceiling here, it's just confusing - why wouldn't someone write a note? Now everyone who gets their hair washed in the salon will know the code to the door.

The monsters are kind of a letdown - in each prior game, they designers, whether the original Team Silent team or Climax, tried to match aspects of the monsters with aspects of the main characters personality - creating a wonderful metaphor of battling ones own demons. They were generally scary or off-putting, and viewed at as challenges. The Raw Shocks - ("Rorschach") ...aren't.

I haven't finished the game yet, but there are some things I like about it so far:

The flashlight is a really cool bit of game design, and the flickering bits could make for a fun horror scenario.

The phone mechanic is pretty neat, but so far I've been calling every number I see. I do like the camera bits, had they been worked on longer - but allowing us to take pictures of clues/passcodes is neat.

The over the shoulder perspective is pretty great... but where are my weapons here? This is one Silent Hill game that could have great combat if I had anything other than a flare.

All in all, the game is pretty interesting. It's just a Silent Hill game in title only, though. Even with references to the source material, it falls short. But within Homecoming, Origins and Shattered Memories, I believe Climax could make a pretty cool SH game.

...Well, maybe not Origins.