I am a Silent Hill nerd. Needless to say, I periodically check the internet for new games in the series and as soon as I found out about Shattered Memories, I shifted between hopeful and skeptical like the titular town shifts between eerily atmospheric and disgustingly hellish. I stayed more on the good side when I read Akira Yamaoka would be involved, but then I saw it would be combat free. Both of these once-rumors are true. But is that good? Read on and see.
First, the sound. I listen to Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill OSTs like most people listen to Maroon 5 except the former doesn't make me wish guitars hadn't been invented. Its a long story, but GameStop messed up my pre-order and the copy I bought here had no soundtrack. And I really wish it had because the music in this installment is not bad by Silent Hill standards, real good by general music standards. Some of the tracks (I got the OST elsewhere) are, frankly, cacophonous while others are hauntingly beautiful due in part to returning vocalist Mary McGlynn. But the music is not the only sound. I didn't find the enemy sounds all that scary, but the ambient sounds and hints of what might lunge from the darkness put the fear of Samael into me. At times, its just footsteps, but even they aren't just 'guy walking'. They have that special echo that I hear whenever a detective in a book is searching for clues, which is very fitting because...
Without combat, Shattered Memories busies the player with seeking out clues as to Cheryl's whereabouts and with finding lingering spiritual residue around town and hearing a little horror skit on a cell phone. Basically, in addition to a father searching for his daughter, you're a detective of sorts. I would have liked to bash some of the more persistent demons with the classic steel pipe, but the searching and unraveling is engaging and interesting enough that I was almost never all that worried about it. Besides, they only come during events. Most of the time, you're free to look around without worrying about being grabbed from behind and you can enjoy it more. Every Silent Hill game has lots of environment to take in, but the demons always felt like you were in a gallery being hurried into the next room. Now, you can take it at your own pace, which I find to be a nice change.
In between sections of town, we see scenes of someone being analyzed by a psychiatrist. That someone is you. The former bastard, now creepy shrink Dr. Kaufmann asks some unseen person questions and gives them tests (one of which is, I'm not joking, coloring a picture of a smiling family), which the game then analyzes and adjusts the main game to. I said in my review of Prototype that I liked the feel of not being accountable for your actions, but this game goes in the complete opposite direction with it. Looking at posters changes who Harry Mason is if you do it enough. This is an absolutely brilliant addition to the series and when the next one comes out, I'd like to see it again.
I also liked hearing some of the best voice talent the anime industry had to offer appearing here including Kirk Thornton and Laura Bailey. While my concern about whether this means the anime industry is sinking and games are a life raft or if the actors just expanding their careers is neither here nor there, but I am a bit surprised they were chosen over less specialized talent. No doubt they pulled off the roles, but its somewhat unusual for voice actors who primarily do anime to have featured roles in a game like this. But I guess it is becoming more commonplace and if my concern for the industry is notwithstanding, I'll accept it gladly. Thornton does a good Harry Mason in all his potential aspects but Bailey's Dahlia sounds enough like Lust (FullMetal Alchemist) that they remind me of each other, especially now that Dahlia is sexier in both body and personality. But thats good because it makes for a good segue.
This is a re-imagining of the original Silent Hill for the PS1. When I say re-imagining, I don't mean its been made prettier. I mean its an altered cast in a completely new world, doing completely new things in completely new ways. If not for the names of the characters, this could easily pass for a whole new game. But the biggest change is to the history of Silent Hill in the form of one chain reaction starting thing.
There is no Alessa.
If you know what that means, you've begun to grasp the depth of the differences between this and Silent Hill 1. It means that, if this were the 'real' Harry Mason story, none of the other games could have happened in any way. Its the Batman Begins of the series, but its a dead end. Nothing involving The Order can happen in this timeline. If you just want to play a good mystery, great, but if you care about Silent Hill as a whole, this will either frustrate or intrigue you.
You'll notice I gave this game a two star fun rating. Its not an accident. This game is really good. Its well-made, written, acted, scored and modeled. Its beautiful visually and audibly, yet its ugly emotionally and psychologically. It plays well, rewards ingenuity and induces floods of adrenaline during the chase events. The mystery is deep and intriguing, the twist at the end would put M. Night Shyamalan in his prime to shame and made me actually care about everything. Its just not a lot of fun. Most of the game is just looking for stuff and making the static on the phone loud until you find a spot to take a picture and hear a short play about dying or passive fantasies a man has about his daughter. Its easy to make Harry a blend of all the possible personalities just out of habit of looking at everything. Its interesting but not always entertaining.
Final word, buy it, but only if you can devote yourself to it. If you can't find an hour or more regularly to let yourself live the game, don't bother. Silent Hill is not a game, its an experience. If you can't truly experience it, I can't recommend it. But if you can, I can and enthusiastically do.
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