Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a remake to the original Silent Hill released for the Playstation and starts with: "it plays you as much as you play it." Now, this is not the Silent Hill you knew. The fog, rust, and awkward combat of the past have been replaced by snow, ice, and loads of running! So shall we start?

When Harry Mason loses control over his car in his hometown, Silent Hill. He discovers that his young daughter, Cheryl isn't there with him. He decides to look for her and for help in the snowy streets and interacts with many thing.

That's not the whole story. While you make progress, you'll meet from a local cop to an overly familiar party girl. He also often struggles between reality and fantasy.

Forget everything you knew about the first Silent Hill because this is where all the similarities end. This game isn't afraid to point out a new direction to the series. This is something I like. Just because it's a remake doesn't mean that it has to be the exact same game, right?

You can control Harry Mason through the dark streets of Silent Hill. He just needs to go to some point onto your map and that's basically it. Since everything is so dark, you're given a flashlight to lighten your way. You control your flashlight by pointing the Wii-remote to your screen and you can use the B-button to zoom in. You can crawl through small spaces, climb over gates, open doors and so on. Luckily this isn't the only thing you'll do. You carry an Iphone and with it, you'll receive messages from events that happened in the past! You can also call people, well some people by looking for their phone numbers on posters or walls. When one characters speaks on the phone, the sounds comes out the Wii-remote like No More Heroes. The sound quality of it is so bad that it almost seems like they're speaking from a real phone! You can also save your game, adjust the settings and even take pictures of spooky ghosts. To solve puzzles you need to do many of these so you might call it repetitive even though I don't mind it that much.

There will also be times when you see yourself at a psychiatrist. It's his job to analyze you and give you exercices. He'll ask questions about sex, fear, tell several stories and so on. By doing so you might alter the game at some points and also change characters their costumes though I haven't figured out how it really works. At the end, the game judges you like if you were a real patient but I don't think most of it was actually true.

There are times when Harry loses control over reality and the world gets completly covered in ice. It's still your job to reach the goal but this time. It's a bit different. This time you will be chased by screaming, inside out humanoids that have a gigantic hole in their heads and that's the best way I can describe them. So what to do? Do we pull out the rocket launchers Resident Evil style? Hell no. You're completly defenseless and when they come, you can only run. This is something I like. It's a bit more exciting knowing that nothing can save you and it might even frighten you but unfortunatly the enemies are not as scary as they seem. When they come close they grab you and give you a hug. That's right a hug. You'll begin to walk slower and your life is being drained away. To prevent this you have to swing both Wii-remote and nunchuk in the direction depending on which side they're on. If you do this then he'll simply shake 'em off and get away as quickly as possible. Sometimes, the motion controls are not registered but I didn't had that problem that much. You'll ocasionally find fire that holds them off but even that comes with an invisible time limit, so you'll never be safe. You can hide under tables or in closets but even then they might find you! This is also the part where you get lost the most. You still have a goal on the map but it's not worth checking the map since while you're doing this, the game is still going on so the creatures may find you. The map isn't always clear on passages since some roads are blocked by ice while the map doesn't clearly show that. Luckily you can draw your goal on the map or indicate what's blocked off so it isn't that bad.

There's not much else I can say about the gameplay. I guess some puzzles repeat eachother often but then again, I don't mind that.

I like the gameplay but it's over before you know it as it only took me 6 hours to beat the game. Knowing that the game might alter, I decided to replay it again. I saw some different costumes and dialogue but the principal is still the same. Even the ending is exactly the same with the exectpion of one specific unimportant cutscene.

Silent Hill is a dark, scary and well-detailed game. The lightning effects are good, the ice levels look awesome and the streets and houses are great to explore except when it comes to opening doors. I'm not sure why but for some reason there's always some graphical issues when doing this. It's not gamebreaking but then again, couldn't they fix such a small problem? The shadows can also be a bit wacked out but I don't mind it too much. The music is also great. As Akira Yamaoka returns produces one of his most distinctive soundtracks yet and it defenitly shows. The voice acting is also better then the first game.

In the end Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a great game. It's defenitely a game that any horror fan can enjoy. If you're looking for a great M-rated game on the Wii then look no further then Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I give it a 8.5 out of 10.