The latest entry in the Silent Hill series is a blast to the past, beware, as you may find your memories shattered...
The basic story of Shattered Memories is pretty much the same as the original Silent Hill, with it being a re-imagining and all; you play as Harry Mason, who was driving with his daughter Cheryl, in the forgotten town of Silent Hill. After an unexplained car crash, he comes to and notices that his daughter is missing. Like any father, he goes off in search of her.
The town of Silent Hill is usually a hellish place, filled with disturbing monsters; here it's a normal town that's experiencing an abnormal snowstorm, but you soon learn that something isn't right when the whole town freezes around you and the sound of nightmarish shrieks fill the air. It's a great tale with a few surprising plot twists that leave you thinking. I'll just say, the ending is one of the most emotional endings to game I've ever seen.
Gameplay in the other Silent Hill games is hit or miss, the same holds true here, but this particular Silent Hill does more hitting than missing, or less actually.
Shattered Memories involves no combat what-so-ever and because of that you spend the entire game running from your more harmful fears. Fears that can't be escaped physically you solve mentally using the game's interesting control scheme.
When exploring the lonely town of Silent Hill on Wii, the Wiimote's pointer aims your flashlight around, the nunchuk's joystick moves Harry around while moving the pointer towards any edge of the screen moves the camera. Holding the Z button runs, pressing the A button will interact with the environment. A press of the B button will zoom in on whatever you are looking at. When playing on the PS2, the game plays like a 3rd-person shooter and isn't as satisfying as the Wii's control scheme.
The focus of the game is on puzzle-solving and your phone is the key to almost all of them. The times the town freezes over are chase sequences through mazes. They can be a rush and can surprise you during your first playthrough but they are scripted and frustrating. You must always be on the move and Harry will burst through doors while running.
During these sequences, you are defenseless, if an enemy grabs you, you must shake it off before they dog pile you. Your only source of protection is the flare which will repel the monsters until it dies out. At the end of these mazes, puzzles usually await, which puts an end to nightmare for a little while.
When played on Wii, the puzzles all use the Wiimote's functions quite well, they even put phone calls through the Wiimote's speaker. The controls are spot on and responsive, used to observe the environment and manipulate items. Expect about 6-10 hours of play, unless you want to see all of the multiple endings, then you can expect to play longer.
The audio is top notch, not only in music, but in dialogue as well. Silent Hill had hit or miss writing in the past, but this one is excellently written and performed. Akira Yamaoka makes another haunting soundtrack that wouldn't leave my head for days. This is Akira Yamaoka's last soundtrack with Konami and he goes out with a bang!
Being a Wii game, the presentation can't be put up against a PS3 or 360 game's, but if you did, I think this game might stand a chance. The town is the most realistic and realized in the series. You can actually read anything just by looking at it and the tests you have to complete throughout the game, changes some of the things you see and your ending.
The characters are nicely rendered and have very realistic looking faces. Harry's flashlight illuminates objects and makes them cast realistic looking shadows, even the snowflakes. When the town freezes, light posts bend to it's will and it just looks great. But with most highs, there's a low, the creatures look the same and your behaviors don't change them very much, everything that changes is cosmetic.
The PS2 version has notable graphical differences compared to the Wii version and it's for the worse.
For the fist Silent Hill on Wii, Shattered Memories manages to actually give meaning to the genre Survival Horror. The short-length, set-in-stone puzzles, and cosmetic-only changes keep it from being perfect, but the great story, visuals, audio, gameplay and puzzles (on your first playthrough) make it worth at least one playthrough. Dust off your Wii and prepare to be shattered!
Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 9.0/10
Sound: 10/10
Presentation: 9.5/10