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Silent Hill Re-Imagined
Product: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Company: Konami
Date: 06/10/2009
Avaliable On:

Silent Hill has been a long standing title for Konami that has seen its shares of ups and downs. Well, fans of the series will get to return to not only the classic dead city, but also to a classic storyline.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a re-imagining of the original Silent Hill game. I would say it has been modernized and updated with the latest graphics, but since the game is only slated to be released on the Wii, PS2 and PSP, the visual effects quality is going to be about the same as they were back in the day, but the game does take cues from the direction the survival horror genre has evolved into over the years.

While you will once again control Harry Mason as he scours the frozen city looking for his daughter Cheryl, there is no direct combat. That's right, a game that has been known for giving you very little ammo has taken it all away. Instead, be prepared to do a lot of running, and if a monster grabs onto your back, a shake of the Wii-mote and Nunchuck will (hopefully) throw them off.

What the developers of Shattered Memories really wanted to do was go back to the horror aspect of the games. They have put a lot of effort into figuring out what is scary and how they can keep your nerves on end. One of the ways they do this is to watch your gameplay and have the game discern from your choices and actions what scares you personally.

When my demo started, I was given a personality test. Nothing too in depth, just a few questions like how easily I make friends, if I like to drink and things like that. This test, given to Harry (I presume), by a psychologist as he prepares to tell his story, is the basis for how the game interacts with you. From there, it presents you with tons of smaller choices and tailors the gameplay experience to your personality. At one point, when I was trying to get my way through a locked door, I found a note saying the key was on a mannequin behind me. I approached a wall with three such mannequins, each wearing a different colored and styled jacket. Which jacket I unzipped to find the key tells the game something about me. If I left the jacket unzipped before leaving also tells the game something. At one point, when I was being chased by a swarm of monsters (armed only with my flashlight, mind you), I kept running into halls filled with several doors. I have no doubt that each door was unlocked and I could have gone through any of them, but the choices made in that rushed state also told the game something.

Other details also differ depending on the choices you made. For instance, if you said that you liked to drink beer, when you approach a part of town with a store next to a bar, the bar is open, but the store isn't. I don't know if the information gathered within the two buildings is different, but the feel of the game is. Another change was the fact that I found a key to a gate under a can of beer instead of some other object.

One of the points the developer helping me with my demo pointed out was that they worked a lot to bring down the back-tracking as much as possible. For the most part, if you are faced with a locked door, or a simple puzzle, the solution is in the room with you. In the case of the beer and key mentioned in the above paragraph, I only had to do some looking around near the gate before I found the beer can I could move and continue progressing the storyline. The developer also pointed out the removal of any kind of HUD. Instead, Harry has a cell phone which will give you access to everything the standard survival horror player expects (maps, camera for pictures and even a puzzle helper).

So fans of the Silent Hill series who have been looking for something different to revitalize the license will have a lot to chew on in Shattered Memories. While it is the same basic premise of the original game, this one takes it in a few new directions and promises a scarier experience.

J.R. Nip aka Chris Meyer

GameVortex PSIllustrated