Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii)

 Instantly, when I hear the word “re-imagining” I cringe. These usually end up being bastardizations of the original, with only a faint string of attachment connecting the two, seemingly only created out of laziness, lack of originality, or a simple attempt to cash in on a name.

In the case of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, I’m proud to say that Konami knew what they were doing, and this is actually one of the best games in the series.

Basically, the game borrows the basic premise of the original Silent Hill, with Harry Mason looking for his lost daughter after a car crash in Silent Hill.

Make no mistake, this is very different from any other SH game out there. There is NO combat. When the demons or whatever the hell they are appear, you haul ass, you hide, and you escape the nightmare. This is a methodical, mind-fuck, discovery-driven adventure. Which is precisely why I fell for it so hard.

I have never heard of a video game psycho-analyzing it’s players based on the choices they make in in-game therapy sessions, which is why SH: SM fascinated me so much. The game uses your answers and shapes the next section of the game accordingly. For example, I was asked to choose my perfect high school class schedule, and the following gameplay session had me run through a high school, making me solve puzzles in bizarre versions of the classes I chose.

The thing that I absolutely love about this is the differences each game playthrough will have. On starting my second game, I selected completely different answers in the first therapist session and met a completely new character in a different location. Some of the characters were even dressed differently and had a variation in personality, which I thought was a great touch.

You’ve heard me say it ten million times, but “this game looks good… for a Wii game.” This is probably the prettiest game on the system. Everything comes together, graphically, in the best possible way. They clearly pushed the boundaries of the system to get this game looking as good as it does.

Now, this is the one area where the game disappoints. The voice acting is quite good, but the music is lacking. The same composer, Akira Yamaoka, scored this game, but all of the music seems a bit lackluster and boring compared to his astounding work in the rest of the series. And the creatures’ initial scream is super cheesy, and ripped off from a 10 cent toy sound effect machine. Otherwise they sound suitably creepy, which makes no sense.

The game controls very well, making use of the Wiimote to guide your flashlight throughout the screen. And even the gestures you have to perform are well-conceived and actually accurate.

I’m a huge fan of “the little touches”, and Shattered Memories has them in spades. Your character’s cell phone is the all-purpose Map/Call People/Get Hints/Take Pictures tool, and little things like the cell phone’s battery meter actually being the Wiimote battery meter made me see that a lot of care was put into this product.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories may not be the most action-packed or creepy game of all time, but it messes with your head like no other game has.