Silent Hill: Shattered Memories review

So Climax always did have an unenviable task ahead of them after the original developers lost interest in the series after Silent Hill 4: The Room. Sadly, both Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Homecoming could not have missed the point of the series more if they had tried - much like the similarly-overblown movie and were decidedly mediocre. So when Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was announced, we could not help feeling a great deal of anxiety at the thought of a re-imagining of the very first game in the series.Incidentally, never has the phrase re-imagining felt more appropriate. For one thing, the plot is entirely re-written from the ground-up. Things start off familiar enough, as everyman Harry Mason loses track of his daughter Cheryl after a car crash and sets out to find her in the haunted town. The only other connections to the original are several characters such as Cybil Bennett and Michael Kauffman returning, re-cast from their original roles. Other than that, the story being told is entirely new. While we essentially liked the story and commend Climax for being daring enough to tell it, we are still not entirely sure that it holds together as well under close scrutiny as some other entries in the series.For most of the game, you control Harry as he moves around different locations in the town, usually with nothing but a flashlight to find your way in the ever-pressing darkness. The torch is controlled with the Wiimote, and it works as well as youd expect. There is not a great deal to do in the real-world sections, though certain parts of the background can be manipulated. The puzzles that crop up are also much easier than in past Silent Hill games and most amount to little more than a collection of motion-controlled mini-games. Its rare that the real-world areas become genuinely tricky, although there are a couple of truly excellent set-pieces.The Nightmare sections make a return, only with a different aesthetic of the town being frozen over instead of the iconic rusted metal and hellfire. These areas are the only time in the game when you get harassed by monsters, eventually removing any sense of apprehension or paranoia about being ambushed at any time. Even in these areas, however, there is no combat in the game at all, aside from throwing off monsters that latch on to you. Instead, all you can do is run for your life. You can light flares to momentarily keep monsters at bay, but most of the time youre completely defenceless.In theory, this is a great idea that we endorse (especially as the last two games became little more than monster-themed beat-em-ups), but the execution leaves something to be desired. For one thing, the layout of the Nightmare sections is deliberately confusing, and while you do have a map through the GPS function on Harrys phone checking it doesnt pause the game, so while youre being chased you cant stop to get your bearings. What this means is that its entirely possible to end up running around in circles. Truth be told, we have heard that there is a pattern to escaping the Nightmare realm, but it still reduces these parts to a frustrating exercise in trial and error. In the real-world areas, the fear that is supposed to be felt from the possibility of being flung into the Nightmare realm at any minute (which doesnt happen; you only go at specific points) is replaced by irritation when you do get thrown in there and have to repeat the process of picking a door on-the-fly and praying its the right one. Hiding also proves to be pointless, as does knocking down furniture as you run to impede the monsters, and when they do catch you the Wiimote actions for throwing them off are unbelievably picky (we really though MotionPlus would be standard for all Wii games by now).The other central new idea revolves around psychological profiling. The game itself claims that it adapts itself depending on how you answer questions in the intermittent therapy sessions and on certain actions you do throughout the game. For example, examining bottles of alcohol profiles Harry as an alcoholic, while looking at sexual objects leads you down the path of being profiled as a pervert. Its a great idea and the results of the profiling are disturbingly accurate, but unfortunately the only significant impact it all makes is on the ending. Most of the time, the effects are very superficial, so this is another example of a missed opportunity.The graphics and sound are excellent by the standards of a third-party Wii game. The environments and characters look great, though we feel that the new look for the Nightmare sections isnt as creative as it was before and we did notice a couple of hiccups with the torch effects on occasion. Theres also some surprisingly decent voice-acting on display, and once again there is a haunting soundtrack throughout which compliments the game well.We admire a series that is willing to shake things up and try out new ideas, and we really commend Climax for being daring enough to make such a bold and inventive game. However, the problems weve highlighted are compounded by the fact that the game is now entirely reliant on its scares, and those just dont make you fear for your virtual soul as the original games did. The extremely short length of the game may also leave players feeling short-changed. Its really unfortunate that, for all its great ideas and obvious graft, the game never seems to quite click as a satisfying whole; while we certainly recommend it over Origins and Homecoming, we still advise tracking down Silent Hill 2 instead.