Day Tripping in Silent Hill

Recently I’ve had the pleasure of spending a few days in everyone’s favorite sleepy little town, Silent Hill. Initially I was not going to purchase this game but after a few hours of playing this in store (thanks to Joe and Play N Trade) I was won over and decided that this game warranted a purchase. To be fair I have been on a Silent Hill collecting ‘binge’ (I have Homecoming and the first Silent Hill in my possession with 2 through 4 waiting to be picked up at the shop. The only ones I’m missing are the PSP and Arcade version, which I’ve already finished). The Silent Hill series has had it’s issues as its progressed. Some feel that with each installment it has gotten further and further away from what made the original good. Most critics and fans agree that there has not been a good Silent Hill game since the 3rd one in the series. What about this one? How does it stack up to the source material? And what kind of gimmicks does it have on the Wii? Will the blood create fear for the flesh?! We’ll find out, lets take this trip.

Have you seen a little girl? Short, black hair? About seven years old?

The story of Shattered Memories is best described as a re-imagining of the one from the original Silent Hill. It follows writer/monster-buster extraordinaire Harry Mason and his search for his daughter Cheryl in the town of Silent Hill. They were separated after a car crash, when Harry comes to his beloved little girl is gone. Sound familiar? Then you’ll know exactly what to expect with but with some major changes. The characters from the first game have been given their known purposes. One of the first character you’ll probably recognize is Dr Kauffman. He’s your psychologist trying to help you sort things out. You’ll encounter familiar faces and places such as Cybil Bennett and Lakeside Amusement Park. The way the story unfolds before your eyes is at times a bit confusing but extremely rewarding. Newbies to the series and spectators will find themselves engrossed during their playthrough due to the pacing.

Did you see those monsters? Have you ever seen such aberrations? Ever even heard of such things? You and I both know creatures like that don’t exist.

The game features a psychological profile warning stating that the game plays you as much as you play it. At first I didn’t know what to make of this until I encountered the save snafu (I played for a solid 3 hours without saving figuring that there was an auto save function. Once I came back and saw that there wasn’t one I had to playthrough again). In that mistake I realized that this game is going to an interesting one because the Cybil Bennett I met in my very first play through was completely different from the second one I met. Even some things in the town has changed drastically, such as the in-game advertisements and stands. At various points of Shattered Memories the game has you take some psychological tests. My biggest regret is not taking these tests alone. Having everyone put their input into something like that I feel mucked up the results I should have gotten. Also it was somewhat embarrassing answering the game’s initial questionnaire in a crowded room because they ask semi personal questions. Normally I wouldn’t care but I don’t think I need my friends knowing I enjoy roleplay during sex…God Damnit!!!!!

Huh? Radio? What’s going on with that radio?

The games controls are very spartan. You use the Wiimote itself to control your flashlight and use your phone. The nunchuck controls your movement. The phone also acts as a radio. For the newbies, the radio lets you know when there are monsters afoot or there’s something about to go down. Also, your flashlight flickers in reaction to ‘white noise’.  And there’s even vibrations to boot! The main issue I had with this game is the phone management tends to get in the way at times. Everything is controlled in real time so you have to think quickly and get things done.  Checking a map while in the normal world is fine because there are no monsters around.  But when you’re in a nightmare and there’s monsters chasing you down you can’t really plot out your course properly. I haven’t died due to this but I’m fairly certain some people have with their I-phones out. With that said, if you don’t check your map then you’re doomed to run in circles to evade monsters. Why am I just evading monsters? The only weapon you get is a flare and even those are extremely rare. How rare? In my playthrough I have seen maybe 4, and that is being generous. You could also hide from the monsters(I have not done this, but I am sure that it does affect your ending and the notes written about you), or you could knock things down to impede their path. I did nothing but run and shake them off whenever they latched on to me. In theory you could throw them into walls to stun them for longer, but they will inevitably get back up. The other issue I had was during some of the puzzle it was hard to manipulate certain objects. Thankfully there weren’t too many things that fell into this category, but it became frustrating trying to open windows in a car or pick up certain things.

“It’s being invaded by the Otherworld. By a world of someone’s nightmarish delusions come to life.”

This game looks surprisingly good on the Wii considering the Wii’s reputation as a jerry-rigged Gamecube. The transformations from the normal world into Hell world in this installment aren’t as good as it’s predecessors. Since the motif used in this game is cold and ice, things freeze over and warp in a flash freezing. Inside of Hell world you’ll notice a glowing blue light over doors. I don’t know if this was intentional but the light was sort of comforting. The models of the characters do have that classic Silent Hill look to them even though “naughty” officer Cybil looks a bit too masculine. The monsters look bizarre and change as throughout the story depending on the choices you make. I never really took a good look though because I spent a good time running from and not looking back at them.

The music was done by Akira Yamaoka so soundtrack-wise it’s right up there in terms of quality. The only gripe I have is that the opening song sounds very similar to the vocal track from Silent Hill 3. Though they did bring in the same singer, so I suppose it was unavoidable.

The sound effects can grate on you a bit. The ‘scream’ of a monster gets extremely annoying especially since so many of them spawn at once. The Wiimote for all of its functionality is a terrible pretend cell phone. When you have to relay important information about puzzles via cell phone you need to be able to hear every detail. The Wiimote’s speaker makes some puzzles harder than they need to be due to the fact that most audio coming through it is static and filled with the game’s added static makes listening for simple clues into hate inducing exercises. You can set the phone audio to play through the TV, though this does detract from the game’s atmosphere. Even so, to save you hours in frustration this is the best option. The voice acting is as good as any of the other Silent Hill games, and the writing is fairly decent with not too many “That’s what she said” lines or any ‘engrish’ snafus.

You see it too? For me it’s always like this

This game is worth a playthrough if you are a fan of the series.  If you are stuck with a Wii as your only current-gen console, then this is a good game to pick up.  Several aspects of the game change each time you play so you get to meet new characters that you might not have met in your first playthrough, even if you answered the battery the same. Where does Shattered Memories rank in terms of the Silent Hill hierarchy?  Well, it’s definitely better than Homecoming and the Room. It is tough to compare it directly to the first three games because while it is very close to what Silent Hill is,the game goes in a different route. It isn’t as gore-filled or tied as much into the occult, and being on the Wii makes it very gimmicky. It’s also much shorter than the first three. The best way I can describe Shattered Memories is that maybe it is one of the best Silent Hill games that wasn’t originally on the Playstation.