• Games
• Wii

by InuJoshua on 09.10.10

Recently, the horror genre of video gaming has seen a bit of a decline as it has moved more towards a focus on action. Early franchises had their fair share of combat, but relied more on shock, atmosphere and imagery to push the game forward while scaring the crap out of gamers. While the Silent Hill franchise has been guilty of scaling back some of the horror in recent installments, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the Wii looks to bring the series back to the purest form of terror. Based off of the elements of the first Silent Hill, rather than remaking the source material, Climax Games has built a stand alone re-imagining of the game. As a stark contrast to recent trends, Shattered Memories takes the risk of eliminating combat altogether, but can a game still be fun without crowbars and pistols?

The premise of Harry Mason, a 30-something author who crashes his car while taking a ride with his daughter, only to wake up and find her missing in the seemingly abandoned town of Silent Hill will be very familiar to longtime horror fans. After these opening moments however, you’ll be hard pressed to find any similarity between this and the PlayStation classic. At the very start of the game, you’ll find yourself in the office of Dr. Kaufman, a psychiatrist sharing a name with another character from the original game. In a first person viewpoint, he’ll give you a questionnaire to profile your personality traits. The answers you provide will determine Harry’s personality. Different tests are given after every major plot point, some of which will change appearances, settings and even the supporting cast. For example, Harry normally meets Cybil, a police officer patrolling the town, in a diner at the start of the game. If the player has a tendency to enjoy the occasional drink, he might meet her at a bar, where she’ll be a bartender instead of a cop. Outside of the psychiatric sessions, the game can be altered by Harry’s personality in game, depending on his actions and what the player focuses on.

Exploring the town focuses solely on the atmosphere to give a mysterious, yet creepy vibe. The town is in the middle of a horrible snowstorm, and Harry is the only one braving it to find his missing daughter. Armed only with a flashlight, the Wii-remote shines it in different directions while the nunchuk moves Harry through the town. For anyone tired of the unrealistic puzzles that revolve around fetch quests and over elaborate hidden doors, Shattered Memories grounds itself into reality by using puzzles that actually make sense. If a door is locked, you need a key. Yeah, a regular key - not an animal crest or sheet music. Some puzzles use the Wii-remote in unique ways like calling a radio station to request a certain song to practical solutions like hacking a computer by finding clues to the user’s secret questions (which goes to show that you shouldn’t leave your pet’s name laying out for all to see). It’s a breath of fresh air when most games in the genre have done little to break away from conventions set over a decade ago.

To help navigate the areas, Harry has a cell phone rather than a broken radio that serves as his all in one in game menu. Used to access options as well as a GPS that looks a lot like the maps of old (which now allows you to make your own notes), the phone plays a central part of the game play mechanics. By taking pictures with the camera phone, you can store important clues used to solve later puzzles. Snapping shots of static outlines of the town’s inhabitants will unlock voicemails and text messages that reveal the details of sometimes gruesome side stories that usually reveal a horrific incident. Voicemails as well as phone numbers posted on signs can be called through the phone and listened to via the Wii-remote speaker, often giving further insight into the town. If holding the controller to your ear isn’t your thing, you have the option to turn it off, but otherwise, it creates another level of interactivity between the player and the game and immerses you like no horror game before it.

After important revelations in the game’s story, they’re usually accompanied by chase sequences, where Harry has to reach a certain point while a group of flesh monsters chase him. Parts of the town freeze over, so the same routes used to get to one point can’t be used to get back, and only unfrozen areas highlighted in bright blue can be accessed. As the game progresses, these areas become more complex and act as mazes. Harry can throw obstacles in the way of the monsters or use the occasional flare to scare them away for short periods of time, but if he gets caught, a push motion with the Wiimote will throw them off. Get caught too many times, and you’ll fall as they begin to hug and pet you, while their screams fill the air. Part of the game’s allure is the mystery surrounding the events and how it’s all connected, so you might wonder what naked flesh monsters have to do with a missing daughter and a frozen town, but by the end of the story, the intricate web that’s woven results in one of the best crafted stories in a horror game. Saying any more would spoil the surprise.

Even though the town of Silent Hill has a lot to be proud of, there are a few sections that could use some renovation. While the graphics of Shattered Memories are impressive (with a cool looking VHS filter), there are some visual glitches like shadows that jump off of their object and pull you out of the mindset of the game. The voice acting and music are all fitting for the game, and the audio is great all around for the most part. Although part of the point is for the phone calls is to have static blocking the call, some of it makes it very hard to hear important details in the messages. The constant screaming from the monsters can start grating on the ears after hearing it enough times, and if anything, serves as an incentive not to die. Speaking of the chases, enemies can be hard to shove if the motion isn’t precise, and while it’s relatively easy to pull off, it’s frustrating when you’re taken down at an exit because you lost your composure in a panic. It would also be great if you can view your map while looking for the goal during a chase, but using your phone at these points causes you to walk, which makes you ripe for the catching. Most of these problems can be seen as conscious design choices that aid in creating a sense of urgency, and I commend the developers for taking chances, but they’re not for everyone, and will definitely rub some in the wrong way.

While I know that a majority of the fanbase will be divided on their opinion on this drastic change for the series, I for one see this as a positive, if not ballsy, move in the right direction. The first rate narrative rivals some of the mystery thrillers seen in a movie, but engrosses the player in a level of interactivity that the Wii was made to deliver. An adaptive story mixed with twists, turns and ways to use the Wii-remote that have never been done before, Shattered Memories can be seen as a change for Silent Hill as big as what Resident Evil 4 was for that franchise. Multiple endings and a plethora of collectables on top of the variety in the experience depending on your personality give plenty of reasons for multiple playthroughs, and despite the game’s shortcomings, serves as one of the finest horror titles in recent memories. Rarely has a game conveyed the feeling of confusion, mystery and desperation so well, but thanks to Climax’s risks, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a perfect reason to rediscover the town of Silent Hill.

  Add to N4G

• 
• Login or register to post comments