Shattered Memories is a mature experience, well worth checking out even if you are not a fan of the Silent Hill series.
Let's get it out of the way as soon as possible: if you are looking for a classic Silent Hill game, go and play the second title in the series again; you will not find any of the series' hallmark icons here. The fog has been replaced by snow, and the hellish "otherworld" is now a frozen version of the town, inhabited by strange creatures who have never heard the term "personal space". True, all of the characters' names are the same, but that is where the resemblance end; sure, Cybil is still a cop and Lisa is still a nurse, but the way most of them look and act is completely different (for better or worse) than the characters in the original version. The only one not effect by this "re-imagining" is the protagonist Harry Mason, who still looks and acts pretty much the same as his previous version did, but with a new background story, to suit the game's plot a bit better. So basically Shattered Memories has almost nothing to do with the original Silent Hill, and that is the last I'm going to say about that.
True to the source, Shattered Memories starts off with a bang, or more precisely, a crash. After waking up outside his wracked car, Harry finds that his young daughter Cheryl is gone without a trace and he immediately sets out to find her, but not before the game cuts to the office of a mysterious psychiatrist treating an even mysterious patient. This psychiatrist doesn't play a major role in the game's story, but he is important to the gameplay; you see, Shattered Memories pride itself on being able to get into the player's mind and change itself accordingly. This "psycho-analysis" is done through a series of personality tests the player takes as the game progresses, ranging from a simple "True/False" questionnaire to a sexual Rorschach test, and you'll find yourself actually waiting to see what the next test brings. The psychiatrist himself is an interesting enough character, and he's attitude toward the player may be a bit off-putting at first, but it soon feels compatible with his overall personality; although he sometimes teases or provokes, he seems genuinely worried about his patient .
When playing as Harry, the gameplay is split into two: exploration and running for your life. When exploring, the feeling of isolation (present throughout almost the entire game) hits the player right from the start as he wanders around the back alleys of Silent Hill. This feeling is only intensified by Harry's only weapon against the darkness – his flashlight. Outside its small circle of light, everything seems to be almost alien and frozen in time, like a dreadful painting, but at the same time it feels serene, almost peaceful. This contrast really sets the atmosphere and is maybe the only thing Shattered Memories shares with the other games in the Silent Hill series. Unfortunately, the atmosphere is broken again and again by the puzzles, if one can call them that; not because they are ridiculously easy (they are), but mostly because of the Wii's control scheme. The motion controls can be hardly called intuitive, but that isn't something unique to Shattered Memories, so it is hard to blame the game for them. The second thing that throws the horror element out the window is the fact that there are no enemies or hidden dangers while Harry is in the "normal" version of Silent Hill. It is too bad that this part of the game is reduced to a creepy sightseeing simulator, without any real challenge.
The other part of the gameplay takes place when the entire town changes into its other form, known as the "Otherworld". That is when everything around Harry freezes (even characters), and the monsters come out to chase down and hug Harry to death (or at least to submission). There isn't any really way for Harry to defend himself since combat has been taken entirely out of the equation, so the only option is to run. In every one of those sequences there is a safe area Harry must reach and then solve a puzzle in order to continue his tour of the town. These puzzles are usually a bit harder than the ones found in the exploration segments, but can be easily solved if one is observant to details. Some might also require Harry to go back outside of his safe zone in order to find the right clue needed to solve the puzzle.
Making it to the safe room isn't always so easy though. Sure, its location is marked on Harry's map, but the right route isn't, so trial and error is the best bet. It's not that the chase sequences are hard; they are just mostly annoying, especially the longer ones where it is easier to ran into a monster or get lost. The monsters themselves are a bit unimaginative and most of them look the same, with a few subtle changes that are hardly visible while running pass them. If one grabs hold of Harry, the player must attempt to throw it off by flailing the Wiimote in the monster's direction. When too many monsters are latched on for too long, Harry will fall down and the game will be over, so shaking the monsters off as fast as possible is a must (and might cause severe pain to the arms and wrists, since the Wii apparently registers only about a third of the gestures).
As Wii games go, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is hauntingly beautiful. The environments are very detailed, and it is easy to read road signs or ads without the need to zoom in on them with the B button (though it helps). The light and shadow effects cause by Harry's flashlight as he moves it freely around the environment contribute to the overall presentation of the game, and help boost the game's visual merits. Characters are a bit on the "dead" side with eerie, often exaggerated facial animation and a bit robotic movements, but it actually fits well into the game's atmosphere; most characters ends up feeling like ghosts passing through Harry's world, ramping up the sense of isolation the Silent Hill series is so well known for. Sound is also well used, be it the static noise coming from Harry's cell-phone when something strange is nearby, or the silent background music taping gently on the player consciousness, as we've come to expect from the series composer Akira Yamaoka.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories doesn't really feel like a Silent Hill (or even a survival horror) game and many long time fans of the series will probably feel disappointed; but if examined as a standalone game, it is easy to see that a lot of thought, afford and creativity has been poured into it. The visuals are remarkable considering the limited Wii hardware, and the story, while lacking finesse, is compelling enough to make the 6 to 7 hours it takes to finish the game fly by. Both the fact that the game changes depending on the player's choices and answers, and 5 different endings grantee a second playthrough, if not a third. As long as you can overlook the lack of combat and annoying chase sequences, your latest visit to Silent Hill will be nothing but fond, if a bit hazy, memories.