Okay Geek Farm
Wii Review: Silent Hill Shattered Memories
Alex Tretrop
Summary
Story
Shattered Memories is a reimagining of the original Silent Hill, where Harry Mason gets into a car crash in Silent Hill, when he comes to, he finds that his 7 year daughter is missing so he heads into the spooky town. The story is told in an extremely interesting way, with you switching between a psychiatrist session and the game. When you’re with the psychiatrist, he'll ask you some questions that, after you answer them, affect the game in some of the subtlest ways from the color of your house to the character models, which can be completely different depending on the choices. Some of the choices get very personal and it may take a few playthroughs to see just how different the game can potentially be.
When you’re not answering questions for the psychiatrist, you’ll be exploring Silent Hill as Harry Mason who, like the first game, is caught in a car crash with her daughter, Cheryl, missing. Considering you have nothing but a cell phone and a flashlight to keep you company, Shattered Memories uses a different approach to its story with the occasional dialogue from the few residents in Silent Hill which are fairly interesting and can change depending on the things you’ve done up to this point. Where Shattered Memories really succeeds is when you’re alone with no one, in the dark, and exploring some of the unsettling and creepy areas of Silent Hill. While your exploring you can also receive interference from your phone, telling you that something in the environment contains a memory of someone who was previously there. This is where some cool mechanics that, while they may not always work, definitely add to the atmosphere of the game, with one in particular being that when you find a memory, it’s usually in the form of an unsettling text message or creepy voicemail which, interestingly enough, uses the Wii Remote’s internal speaker to playback. While it’s amazing in some places, at times you can tell that the internal speaker isn’t up to snuff, with some audio being hard to hear and understand. It’s interesting that they take this risk and it would be great if Climax Group could expand and perfect this in its future titles. Considering Harry can call any number he sees on posters or advertisements in the game, you can spend quite a while just trying out some of the numbers to see who answers.
Since it’s so atmospheric, the game can became quite unsettling when the monsters come into play. The monsters can also look different depending on your choices but for the most part they are faceless creeps who will scare you when the town freezes. It’s very effective at evoking a genuine fear in you if you let the game envelop you in its immersive atmosphere, with one of the best endings I’ve seen in quite a while, especially in a Wii exclusive title.
Gameplay
As I mentioned before, Silent Hill is a survival horror game. Unlike something like Resident Evil 5, which felt more like just a survival game, Shattered Memories never gives you any weapons. No seriously, none! It’s only you with your trusty flashlight (which seems to never run out of batteries) and your Iphone like smartphone, which comes with a map, message box, phone (obviously) and the ability to take pictures of anything you point it at.
The gameplay can be summed up in 3 parts per chapter. When a chapter opens, you have an interview with the psychiatrist, which seemingly takes place after the game, and after answering the questions he asks, your thrust back into Silent Hill as Harry. When this happens, you always begin by exploring the newest area of Silent Hill, solving some particularly memorable puzzles, and eventually getting to your objective. When that happens, the third and final stage of a level begins, with the world freezing over and becoming much more gloomy as monsters come and attack you. Considering you have no weapons you have to run from the monsters until you find the exit inside the “frozen labyrinth’” which will then return the world to normal and complete the chapter. When you’re running from the monsters, the first few times, it’s almost terrifying with you being easily killed if one of the monsters surprises you. As the game moves on however, it starts to get annoying, with some of the labyrinths being so complicated and confusing that you feel like your going around in circle until you finally get lucky and find the exit.
When your exploring you usually find some puzzles that make some very great use of the Wii's control scheme. From the numerous phone calls to playing a piano, twisting gumball machines and taking pictures with your camera all feel like they were specifically made for the Wii. Where the controls tend to fall short is during the creature chase section, which can start to get annoying when the motion based controls don't respond correctly. This gets particularly annoying when a creature has grabbed you and you have to push the Wii Remote in a certain direction to shove it off or when your trying to pull an object like a dresser or a cabinet down to block the creature's path. After a while you start to get used to the weird way the motion controls are used during the chase scenes and start to use them more effectively. Another interesting idea that is usually implemented very well are the flares during chase scenes which, if you find one, provide a very short immunity against the monsters. This works especially well during the later levels where, with so many creatures chasing you, you debate whether to use it immediately or later. With only one or two per chase, you usually need to decide fast or save it for when your close to death.
It's very fun especially when your exploring but it can be a little frustrating in the later levels of the game when you die over and over for silly reasons.
Graphics
While the Wii is nowhere near the graphical capabilities of a 360, PS3 or PC, Shattered Memories delivers some very detailed graphics on character models, environments, and monsters. Graphically, the game stands out with its use of the flashlight, which provides some of the best lighting in any videogame. Since you'll be mostly exploring in the darkness, Shattered Memories uses this as an advantage to provide a very eerie and unsettling experience at all times.
While there are the occasional texture problems, the game stays good looking during most of the game.
Audio
Another place where Shattered Memories really stands out is in the Audio area. As you explore Silent Hill, you get a huge sense of uneasiness with the creepy music playing in the background and as your exploring the wails of ghosts and monsters echo the area your in. The game also uses the phone to scare you, with many tense moments being interrupted by a ring tone that really makes you feel like even Harry's personal belongings want to scare you. The constant interference from your phone that you receive through the Wii Remote sufficiently creeps you out and the audio that emanates from the Remotes internal speakers isn't horrible, its just occasionally hard to understand
Who Would Enjoy This Game?
This game isn't for everyone. If you get scared easily then you'll probably want to steer clear and anyone who comes in looking for a game where you shoot up tons of zombies you may as well go play Left 4 Dead. However, if you enjoy psychological horror or want something a bit different then your typical survival horror game Shattered Memories is an excellently atmospheric game that will always impress you as you spiral to it's quite epic conclusion.
Final Thoughts
While it doesn't last too long, Shattered Memories is a great reboot to the Silent Hill franchise and is quite atmospheric when it hits it stride. If your a huge fan of the survival horror genre, you'll feel right at home with this game. While it's too short to merit a buy, some people may be interested in a purchase to see all the different ways it does it's story.
