Hands-On: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
I had my doubts on how Climax UK would handle a “re-imagining” of 1999’s survival-horror epitaph, Silent Hill. Though I liked their previous stab on the series, Silent Hill: 0rigins, it was too short and a barely memorable experience in the end. Moreover, Silent Hill was starting to get rather formulaic; 0rigins in particular added nothing new to the series, mainly sticking to a lot of gameplay elements from the first two games. Shattered Memories looked to be more of the same; or rather, a ten year-old game slapped with waggle and maybe Resident Evil 4-style pointer controls, if we’re lucky. As Konami’s kiosk unit lit up, I was preparing for what I thought would be the definition of “phoning it in.”
I’ll admit to scoffing at Shattered Memories’ opening warning (clearly a take off from Resident Evil’s “extreme violence and gore” title card), warning the player that “as you’re playing the game, the game is playing you.” The Konami attendant quickly noted that the game adjusts the difficulty, number of enemies, and how aggressive they are according to your actions. A bold statement, I thought as I began my re-imagined embarkation to the world of Silent Hill.
The game’s prologue started out with a little pop-quiz, I suppose to determine what kind of person you are, and all that jazz — think Dragon Quest III. Interestingly enough,the psych evaluation was very probing (I won’t spoil the questions for all the readers out there) and I could tell had deep, overarching consequences to the game’s overall narrative.
Several minutes passed, and the introductory cinematics ended. The first thing I noticed is that the visuals looked superb; something that isn’t really a hallmark of Wii games that have a PSP port-down companion. The game’s main trope still remains the same — it still revolves around everyday man Harry Mason’s quest to find his lost, adopted daughter Cheryl within the dystopic town of Silent Hill. Climax has appropriately tweaked Harry’s look to be a bit more older, a bit more tired, and a bit more frightened as the game progresses.
The Wii Remote controls like a charm and is surprisingly intuitive, if not unobtrusive. Few will actually remember the original Silent Hill’s muddy and clunky controls; a feature that mired the survival-horror genre until Resident Evil 4 came along. The player moves Harry around with the analog stick, and can use the Wii Remote to control his flashlight and to look around. Within minutes I found myself being pursued by those miniscule baby demons, quicker and more aggresive than ever before. Again, here’s where the Wii’s motion control shines intangibly — mimicing your real-life reactions as you jump and jostle in palpitated panic, you get rid of enemies that jump at you by pushing away with both hands; slamming down an obstacle can be performed by dropping both your hands; and the game’s flashlight mechanic impressively casts the right shadows as you wave your remote around a room. I had issues here and there of these motion gestures failing on me, but that’s understandable, as the team over at Climax still have a couple of months to get it sorted out. Right now, I can’t see myself playing the same game on the PlayStation 2 or the PSP though — waggle adds a lot to Shattered Memories.
Getting back to the game’s psychological underpinnings, Shattered Memories truly does study the player’s every minute action, and responds accordingly to the situation. As I tried to slither through the streets of the titular town, I was told that the game was already “judging” me, assigning more demon babies to stalk me in the area; and true enough, once I tried to go gung-ho and make a run for it, I was surrounded. Ice was starting to form around the area, blocking every exit, leading to a small shack with a knife inside. Clearly the game was telling me to stop being a wuss and fight. Impressive.
Even characters and dialogue options morph and twist as you play through the game your way. Each NPC’s personality can swing one way or the other depending on your actions. Near the end of the demo, I stumbled upon a dimly-lit bar. Players who charged throughout the demo and blasted enemies were greeted by a policewoman inside. Those who took the time to solve puzzles and sneak by were met by a bartender inside the joint. Both of their personalities can vary greatly depending on how you fared during the earlier psychiatric evaluation. A warm and welcoming bartender welcomed me into the pub, for the record.
Overall, Shattered Memories presents an interesting offshoot to the run-and-gun antics the survival-horror genre has taken recently. Opting for a more unnerving, genuinely creepy experience, I thought that Climax UK has done well in re-imagining the original Silent Hill in ways that avoids the silly comparisons to the original material, while treading on ground that the series — even the entire genre — has never explored before.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories Screenshot Gallery:
Ok, I need to play this to believe.