Review: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

[Napalm_Man]

This new team are idiots, they couldnt come up with any more crappy sequels so they rip off the original. Konami never should have sold it.

This sucks so much, interacting with other survivors, talk about killing the feeling of isolation and dread. IMBECILES.

this was actually not developed by the same team that made Origins and Homecoming.

I am actually enjoying the game myself. Obvioulsy nothing can top Silent Hill 2 and as a member the series I'm sure people are going to hate it and throw it in the same group as Homecoming and Origins, but as a stand alone game it is a very interesting idea well executed and to be honest the nightmare scenes are actually the first in a long time that I have actually felt scared playing a videogame.

...if this is your first Silent Hill game, as it was for me...

I thought reviews on this site were supposed to have credibility?

Worse, you can't hold a flare and your phone at the same time.

Hmmm... sprinting while holding a flare in one hand and attempting to read a map on a mobile phone in the other hand. I don't see anything implausible about that.

You are so right. People are picking this game to death for the stupidest reasons.

 

[Rafe]

Great review. I'm really looking forward to this and I pretty much guessed that the running away bits would get really annoying.

 

[kraemerica]

I wish we had been friends during High School. Surely at least one of the numerous women you were casting aside would have settled for me.

 

[blackguy32]

I really felt as if the game was dull as hell. Because it really felt like all portions of the game were sloppy. I guess I can say that the best thing about the game was the story, but I play games for much more than the story.

The exploration part was sloppy because there really was very little to interact with. You are pretty much just led along and walk a shitload for the sake of walking to get to the next puzzle or chase sequence. There is very little that you can interact with. For example, you go into a biology lab, and most of the stuff in there, Harry doesn't say a single word about. There is also something weird going on with the shadows, like they dont act like real shadows. If you look really closely instead of the shadow being cast on the walls, they look like 3d models placed to make it look like they are real shadows, but that is really just a nitpick. But these sections bored me to tears. There is no danger, hardly anything to interact with, and just a whole lot of trying to scope out rooms with a flashlight.

The chases genuinely interested me, and the first and second ones really went well for me and they were frantic and tense and kind of fun. But by the 3rd one, I started getting fed up because they were really trial and error affairs. If you dont find the exit fast enough, you are bound to get caught and killed. Thankfully you restart pretty close. The controls exacerbate problems since you are required to use the remote and nunchuk to fling them off of you, but doing that messes up your sensor bar position, which gimps your movement. Overall, I liked these portions better, but they definitely have a few issues.

By the time I got to the end, I couldn't wait for the "game" to be over. There really wasn't much meat to it for me. I guess most of the game is supposed to be found through the voicemails and text messages, which kind of make sense after you see the ending. But that just feels like me reading a script instead of experiencing it. Also, the re imagining kind of irks me. I guess I dont know the true meaning of re imagining since the game's only similarities with the original lie with the characters. Their roles and motivations are all different to the point where they might as well have been a completely new cast of characters. The game really encourages subsequent playthroughs, but I finished the game a few days ago, and I really have ZERO desire to play through again, based off of how empty I know the game is. Fool me once...

 

[ThatFanBoyGuy]

let me use my psychic abilities to paraphrase Yahtzees up coming review on this game.

"would be decent but let down by the fact that it's on the Wii"

If I were to make a prediction on what Yahtzee will think about this game, it will be the same thing as homecoming: take it out of the Silent Hill franchise, give the characters new names, put them in a different town, it's a good game. But because you tried to stuff it in the silent hill series, it's not true silent hill, and it's not a good game.

That's the way I feel about it. I would go into more detail on why I don't like it, but it really comes down to that I don't like the plot twists and I don't like the end, which explaining it might spoil the game experience for you.

 

[GDW]

You know what? People need to take there lips off of the original series' cock for a minute and evaluate these games at face value.

Personally, I love the first three games in the "Silent Hill" franchise. To be honest, I thought 2 was the weakest of the original trilogy due to the fact that it didn't seem to understand that, for a franchise to work, there has to be a continuity of some kind, thus three quickly reminded me of all t he reasons I liked the original. It's a great, if not effective, horror-survival series and I may be the only one here who can seem to evaluate the new games without an air of "new-dev" spite.

"Silent Hill: 0rigins" was a good game. A damned good game that actually seemed to remember that the franchise's continuity should have some kind of baring on how the stories should work. Yes, it created a new plothole (that, oh, by the way, WAS COMPLETELY FUCKING IRRELEVANT), but it remembered why the town was the way it was and decided that THAT SHOULD ACTUALLY MATTER WHEN WRITING THE STORY. "Silent Hill 5" (Yeah, that's write, 5, ***** some more) was in the same boat, though, overall, was a fairly pointless game that, much like 4, before it, really didn't add anything to the plot or change anything in any way significant... except for the obvious fact that it was set in/near Silent Hill itself and had some actual bearing on the shit going on within the game.

This entry WOULD have suffered from the "nothing to do with the franchise" club IF it was set in the same franchise continuity. It was just a reimagining of the original story with a new Silent Hill and a new Harry Mason. I liked it. Didn't love it, but it was good enough to work as a stand-alone experience and was a damned enjoyable play through. The enviorment was gorgeous (I enjoyed the ice to the traditional bloody-rust Otherworld) the monsters were interestingly original and the lack of combat in exchange for the nightmares made for a new kind of experience, much more interesting in the sceme of things.

As good as the original trilogy? I think so. Just not in the same way. Seriously guys? The original series is over, this is a new one. Start trying to remeber that before you announce how inferior this is: It's different.
Remember that... or don't... I don't care. Fuck you.

 

[haaxist]

So I know it's for the Wii, but does anybody have any idea when the PS2 version comes out? Because I know there is one, I just don't know the date for it.

I believe it's slated for late January or early February. But if you're interested in the game, I'd suggest the Wii version.

I know, it's probably infinately better, but I don't own a Wii. And from what I've heard about Wii games, if I bought a Wii I would only have that one game to play on it. I am the type of person to do something like that, but I'll probably hold out for a PS3 or 360.

Wii seems to be a common place for horror games. In addition to this, there's Cursed Mountain, which takes place in the Himalayan Mountains, Fatal Frame IV (if they ever bother to get it translated), the Calling and several others I'm sure I've forgotten. So if you're into that, you might want to reconsider your position.

Ooh, thanks! I never knew there were so may horror games for the Wii, mostly because my friend doesnt have many. Now I want one...

 

[GDW]

I only have a problem when people attempt to fit this game into the original trilogy because they are completely separate. They are all good games in their own right but Silent Hill Shattered Memories is not a sequel to Silent Hill 3.

Oh. Okay, that I can agree with. I don't even see how or why someone would do that, it's just silly. Hell, especially the (pretty badass) ending, how can anyone try to link them? I mean, didn't t hey beat "SH3"?

 

[Yukichin]

I only have a problem when people attempt to fit this game into the original trilogy because they are completely separate. They are all good games in their own right but Silent Hill Shattered Memories is not a sequel to Silent Hill 3.

Oh. Okay, that I can agree with. I don't even see how or why someone would do that, it's just silly. Hell, especially the (pretty badass) ending, how can anyone try to link them? I mean, didn't t hey beat "SH3"?

They seem to often think that it's an offshoot of Silent Hill's bad ending in which Harry dies and the entire game is a delusion. There are problems with that theory, however.

Though, I would like to say, a franchise can work without continuity: see Final Fantasy. Silent Hill's continuity has psychological horror and the town of Silent Hill affecting things.

 

[Zeroresistence]

People may be thinking oh god its on the wii this is gonna suck. But it looks like this could work very well

You also have to rember there are always gonna be people who will ***** and moan about anything they aren't used think of this as a new series think of homecoming, origins, and shaterrd memories all a new series i thought of them that way and i thought homecoming and origins were good who cares if the combat is a little shaky its different from just standing there with a pole spaming the hit button hoping what your hiting won't hit back now you can dodge things.And now in shatterd memories there taking a game and making it more real you shake monsters off as your trying to climb a fence you get a questionare to determine the story what else do you need

 

[Pokeus]

I really enjoyed this game personally, the exploration, the nightmare, the puzzles. I admit one of the chase scenes had me throwing my controller around, but the puzzles and having fun with all the game mechanics they added easily overshadowed that brief frustration. I liked the idea of the monsters and ending changing based on the psych profile that got taken I only wish it affected the gameplay (and the monsters) in a more significant manner. My biggest complaint would be length, I really wished it was longer, and unless you really get into it and unlocking all the endings, I would suggest renting it first.

And as an aside to all the it being a Silent Hill, I really wish they had relabeled it. The main part of the ending (which is the one consistent factor between all the endings except for the secret one) pretty much pulled it out of the Silent Hill mythos and into alternate reality territory. Why not make it a unique game separate from Silent Hill? That's pretty much what it was, I realize it might have been for marketing purposes, but look at Devil May Cry, it did really well without the Resident Evil name.

But, when I replay it I'll just pretend it's simply called 'Shattered Memories'.

 

[mawk]

I'd venture to say that SH:SM has practically no license to place itself under the Silent Hill banner, but then I realize: there's a method to its shameless use of existing characters. from the beginning, you're familiar with Harry, his daughter Cheryl, and various other faces throughout, and in your mind you keep expecting things to play out like they did in the original Silent Hill. you need Harry Mason to travel the town, find his missing daughter (but not before going through absolute hell and wondering what's going on with that radio,) and finally escape relatively unharmed; this puts you, the player, in the exact same mindset as the Harry Mason you play throughout the game, and makes every revelation viscerally unsettling as things slowly deviate from the story you're comfortable with.

of course, it could just be chalked up to a cash-in on an established and popular name, but considering what it actually accomplished this time around, I'd propose that their reasons were more artistic than utilitarian. it's one of the few time I've been impressed by some narrative technique in a video game.

 

[TKretts3]

I wish you didn't say that the therapy seemingly takes place after the events of the story... It kind if spoils the ending.