Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii) Review
Silent Hill has been one of my favourite series ever since the original game was released in 1999, and the sequels have managed to continually build upon everything that their predecessors did without ruining the “feel” of the game too much. These days, the later sequels hold up quite well, but the original PlayStation version hasn’t quite stood the test of time as well as some people would believe. I was pretty thankful when Konami announced that they had contracted Climax Group to develop a “remake” of the original game, titled Shattered Memories. However, Climax promptly revealed that the game was not a remake, but rather a “reimagining” that aimed to create a new experience with similar elements to the original game, as well as a game that changes as the players psyche would dictate.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories takes place in the picturesque penal colony named Silent Hill. The game takes place in two different settings at two different times – the first is in a psychologist’s office in which the player interacts with the game and essentially assists in the game’s psychological profiling element. The second is in Silent Hill itself, where Harry Mason has just been in a car crash with his daughter, but is horrified to wake up and not be able to find his daughter anywhere. Cue a whole lot of wondering throughout the streets of Silent Hill and the meeting of several mysterious and enigmatic characters. The story sounds pretty simple and, well, it is, but at the same time it slowly unfolds to become a lot more complicated. There’s one thing that’s certain, though, and that’s the fact that Shattered Memories has little to nothing in common with the original Silent Hill game, despite a few locations and character names here and there. Obviously, some fans will be disappointed but the result is a much more approachable mythos for both fans and newcomers alike.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a horror game and because of that, it relies a lot on its ability to convey a suitable ambience in order to frighten the player or at least draw them in. Thankfully, the graphical presentation of Shattered Memories does a great job at doing this. During most of the game’s indoor scenes and a select few outdoor scenes, the exploration runs at a very smooth 60 fps. Snow falls on objects realistically, wind changes the direction it falls and Harry’s flashlight casts shadows dynamically in a manner that’s very impressive for the hardware. It doesn’t end there either; most of the character models are very well detailed with some well drawn textures, and their animations are fairly natural too. There are some parts where the textures on buildings, particularly ones that the player isn’t meant to interact with, appear blurry and less polished, however.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories plays like an exploratory game that’s peppered with several tense but tedious chase sequences and punctuated with psychological tests to separate the acts. Players control Harry Mason with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, with the Wii Remote being used to interact with objects as well as the pointer for directing the flashlight and the area it illuminates. Every now and then, Harry can find mementos that harbour spiritual energy, as well as use his cell phone to receive “text messages” and “voice clips” from these mementos. These build back story to the areas that the player is exploring but never really build upon the game’s main story. In addition, players can find mementos without spiritual energy that serve no purpose other than to foreshadow the story, though I won’t divulge any more information without giving the story away, so we’ll leave it at that.
Throughout the game, Harry gets to take a brief break from exploring and the story segues into a psychologist’s office, where the player gets to complete simple tasks in order to assist the game in establishing an accurate idea of the players psyche. These range from pretty simple questionnaires, to more morbid puzzles like identifying whether people in photos are sleeping or dead. It’s unknown exactly how the outcomes of these ’tests’ affect the gameplay itself, but they do change up the environments that players will visit and the looks and personalities of the characters they will encounter. We managed to play through the game twice and both times we visited different areas, solved different puzzles and encountered characters who were similar in their roles but very different in appearance and personality. There’s no talk of how much possibilities there are, but for now we’re impressed. There is one element to these psychological tests that makes them detrimental to the Silent Hill atmosphere, but only established fans of the series will notice it. Having these occasional segues into the psychologist’s office really ruins the whole “stuck in a never ending nightmare” effect that the previous games have had.
The Silent Hill series never really won awards for amazing combat systems or action sequences, and that’s probably why Shattered Memories has removed most, if not all, of the combat and has replaced it with what I like to call “chase sequences”. It is in these sequences that players are transported to the other side of Silent Hill, an “other” Silent Hill, covered in ice and filled with strange monsters. It is here that Shattered Memories falls apart, as these sequences simply aren’t fun. Harry can run from these monsters while vaulting, crawling and smashing through his obstacles, and to the game’s credit these areas feel pretty fluid in the way Harry can move. However, they are incredibly tedious, boring, and marred by too many similar looking environments to be truly enjoyable. One could argue that the feeling of just wanting to get out of these areas is what the developer was going for, but when it affects the pacing of the game and creates a very tedious and boring scenario, it really ruins an otherwise good game. To the game’s credit, it can create a sense of fear, but only out of an inability to actually make any progress as quickly as you would like.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories does everything that a Nintendo Wii game should do. Not only does it have gameplay that’s not entirely boring, it utilises the Wii Remote in interesting ways that really benefit the gameplay without actually cheapening it. Whenever Harry makes phone calls on his cell phone, or receives a spiritual message, the audio plays through the speaker on the Wii Remote. Almost every single puzzle exclusively uses the motion sensitivity of the Wii Remote and the motions required to throw monsters off Harry are quite accurate and indicative of what Harry would really do in that situation. The use of the Wii Remote’s pointer as the flashlight is also one of the best implemented light sources I’ve seen in a video game.
While the original team who developed the original Silent Hill game are long gone, one element has managed to stay pretty constant throughout the whole series – the game’s music. Composer Akira Yamaoka, who has scored pretty much all of the Silent Hill games, returns to compose the game’s soundtrack for Shattered Memories. While it’s not as intense or as memorable as the soundtracks made for the previous games, Yamaoka’s melancholic beats really help players to get into the Silent Hill mood. Thankfully, the voice acting in Shattered Memories is also very well performed with most of the dialogue sounding natural and, well, not forced at all.
Like most Silent Hill games, Shattered Memories clocks in as a rather short experience. The first playthrough should take players no more than eight hours, with the minimum probably being six. Upon completion, however, players will be treated to a simple yet amazing closing cutscene as well as one of four possible endings. These possible endings give some replayability as they offer pretty different outcomes for the game’s story. In addition to this, the mementos that can be collected throughout the game add a bit more replayability for those looking to collect everything. Finally, just playing through the game multiple times to see how the characters and environments change depending on your psychological decisions definitely extends the life of the game a fair bit too. As a nice easter egg, the game creates a “final” psychological profile during the credits that was spine chillingly accurate for me. It really makes you wonder how Climax managed to determine so much from the tools they’ve used, but also reaffirms that the team knows what they’re doing.
Silent Hill Shattered Memories is a bit of a mixed bag for me, and it’s a shame that my very intense fandom of the series has partially impaired my judgment of the game. It’s definitely an atmospheric horror game. It definitely has an intriguing story with interesting characters and a killer twist. And while it isn’t a very good Silent Hill game that really only shares characters and locations, it’s an excellent thriller/horror title that is sure to impress most of the “core gamers” that the Wii’s audience definitely contains. It’s nice to see Climax creating a quality product that doesn’t feel overly rushed or half-arsed and instead providing a great product that every player should experience at least once. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is the first of its kind and I look forward to seeing where Climax takes this series next, that is, if Konami choose to keep the series alive. After this iteration, I have confidence they will be smart enough to do so.
Graphics 9.0
Some of the best graphics on the Nintendo Wii. Fluid animations and very well animated models combine with well designed environments to really emphasise the creepy ghost town aesthetic.
Gameplay 7.5
This is essentially an adventure game with some thrilling chase scenes thrown here and there. While the exploratory gameplay and implementation of the Wii Remotes motion controls are fantastic, they are really brought down by tedious and repetitive chase sequences. Hidden spiritual messages are well implemented despite not really adding anything and thus not really being compulsory.
Sound 8.5
Brilliantly executed voice work combined with a great original soundtrack from the series composer makes Silent Hill: Shattered Memories just as much an entry in the series as the other games.
Tilt 8.0
There are multiple endings and several collectibles, but what really sets Shattered Memories apart from the crowd is its psychological element and the way it consistently throws different characters and environments at the player, something that is sure to encourage more play-throughs. At six-to-eight hours, this goal is not too unrealistic either.
Value 8.0
As a Silent Hill fan, I had a really fun time discovering how the developers really changed the details and story around, despite a few frustrating action sequences.
