OneMetal.com REVIEW:
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Silent Hill has dramatically evolved since the original game, presently a decade behind us. Now Shattered Memories lifts the ashes and exchanges the rust-colored decor for a colder touch. Put down the chainsaw and stop running—the latest installment dares you to revisit the classic town and remember everything you, and Harry Mason, tried to forget.

Shattered Memories logs a relatively short length, and the gameplay and story elements are profoundly redesigned. In fact, fans will recognize the changes before they even start pressing buttons. The game invents more personality for characters, polishes familiar locations with fresh attributes, and incorporates the depth absent in the first run-around. Borrowing the first-person technique utilized in The Room, the psychologist sessions allow the game to profile you by translating various exercises, like coloring a picture or answering intimate questions, into Harry’s adventure. The characters and locations might remain, but this isn’t the game you remember. Shattered Memories molds to your unique personality and develops a new and engaging spin on an old story.

Who can run on ice, anyway?

Icy, monster-dominated “nightmare sequences” interrupt your otherwise unhindered exploration of the remodeled Silent Hill, which you investigate via the contextually reactive camera. However, the gameplay sours the worth. Looking over your shoulder feeds the paranoia and adds more versatility to the chases that, unfortunately, easily turn stale. The PSP version essentially uses quick-time events (QTAs) to handle the disfigured attackers, but the feature lacks the Wii’s interactivity. Devoid of any real scares, the Otherworlds disrupt the flow more than anything else, even though they embody the game’s only true action. The sequences also frustrate—unless you enjoy playing dead, you’ll probably choose to run at random and hope for the best over studying your phone’s restrictive GPS.

When the town returns to normal, you’ll frequently collect mementos, which hold little meaning until the grand finish. Exploiting ghostly truths with your phone’s messages and camera would work better as a side quest rather than a main core, and the game makes you slow to a standstill in order to dial the numbers scattered around flyers and billboards or simply hold the technology. Your flashlight creates some disorienting shadows, but they bounce too much and interfere with your observations. Plus, on the PSP, at least, lags often occur while opening doors and even worse, during conversations. Talk about bad service.

Hope that guy has insurance.

At its best, Shattered Memories barely verges on creepy, which certainly ranks as a first for the series. The story quickly veers onto a curious route, but like an off-putting television show, it continuously leaves you hanging and confused. The ending, however, pulls an amazing twist that justifies the entire game and boosts the replay value. As the credits roll, they detail your own psychological profile, which influences the gameplay experience.

Not every fan will admire these new chills that rely heavily on storytelling, but the game earns your appreciation and especially appeal to players who favor context games. If Silent Hill already dwells right up your survival horror alley, just don’t expect the usual static disturbances from Shattered Memories.

Bottom Line

Although by no means a shining example of Silent Hill, Shattered Memories presents one of the series' best twists and approaches gamers in new ways. The psychological aspects warrant a second, more conscious play-through, but the title struggles with long stretches of uninspiring gameplay that's dominated instead by deeper storytelling and a few confusing, less admirable plot threads.