Silent Hill Shattered Memories is the newest iteration in the Silent Hill series, developed by Climax Group who decided rather than simply do a remake, they created a reimagining of the original Silent Hill. This is very important to note, as if you are a big fan of the original, you will not see much of it in Shattered Memories, and this is what makes the game so great.
It has taken the series down a completely different route, less like Resident Evil, Shattered Memories is closer related to games like Clock Tower and Forbidden Siren; it’s the monsters v you, not you vs monsters. There are no weapons, instead you rely on running, hiding and knocking over objects to slow your enemies, although I find it far more enthralling by simply running.
Of course, the monsters are only present in the nightmare world, the transition to which is absolutely terrifying, the best way to describe the world itself is to compare it to the Lost Woods. Except instead of Hyrule, you’re in an icy prison, and you are surrounded by tens of skinned 4ft monsters, left to act on instinct, trying to pick out where the light ahead of you is trying to tell you where to go, although you’re running so fast you can’t concentrate. Now I have played every Silent Hill game, and this is the best mechanic that any of the games has ever had. It has you sitting on the edge of your seat, scared out of your mind, hoping that each door you run through will take you out of this nightmare!
The new controls system designed for the Wii also works very effectively, from simply using the Wii remote as your flashlight, the amazingly simple, but fun puzzles that you are required to work through, to the option to slowly open doors and peer inside rooms, or listening to voicemails on Harry’s mobile phone through the speaker in the Wii remote.
The game is divided into three sections, you’ve got the nightmare world, the real world, and the psychologists office -this hasn’t exactly been explained to me yet- although they do have some very nice knock-on effects to the real game, my personal favourite was colouring in a picture of a house which affected the asthetics of a certain house in-game.
Akira Yamaoka made a reprise creating the music for Shattered Memories, and as always it’s done with perfection, nothing is too in-your-face and there are no rehashes of the original game’s soundtrack, unlike a certain film with the same name.
Oh, and after watching at least an hour of Ethan Mars shouting Jason in Heavy Rain, I was ecstatic when I found that I could shout for Cheryl at the beginning of the game. There is so many things in this game that I like, and it really is miles better than I imagined it would be, it’s one of the scariest Silent Hill’s in the series, and utilises the Wii’s motion system to its fullest extent.
