Ok, wow...I just beat the game (yes, that's right...I beat the game in about 7-8 hours or so. What of it?) and...wow. This is a game of three almost disparate elements: a story that's among the best Silent Hill's done since SH2; extremely experimental gameplay that's flawed but competent; and an atmosphere and style that, while unique, has issues.
The problem with the story is that until all the pieces draw together, the game just feels like it's flopping around aimlessly without any real direction or purpose. Also, the story's big secret isn't as well hidden as it perhaps thinks it is, as I think most people will have a good idea of where it's going by the halfway point. The good news, though, is that this very fragile story is held together by very strong, interesting sections with the psychiatrist that often reveal more about yourself than you'd think possible. And the trips to the Psychiatrist do have an impact on your game, and you mold a very particular experience unique (keep an eye on the enemy designs) to yourself, topped off with a psychological analysis of yourself during the end credits that I found disturbingly accurate.
The gameplay is...well...monotonous. I'm used to this kind of monotony because I've played Silent Hill games for years, but for the life of me I don't see how anyone outside a very particular niche is going to appreciate it. Half the game is spent just wandering incredibly normal-looking buildings searching around for keys and other such doodads moving from a place the game deems significant to a place the game deems significant. The other half comes when you reach those places, where the ice kicks in and you run like hell. And you will run like hell for quite a long time because the game gives you absolutely no direction on where you should go outside a "waypoint" on your phone's GPS, which is suicide to ever stop to check and is only the "end point" of the chase. News flash to Climax: "waypoints" are deemed as such because you use them as markers to determine that you're on the right path, not the end of the path itself! So you will run and run and run in all directions AND DIE until by pure luck you stumble upon the correct path, meanwhile screaming at the controls because the game's not quite registering your "throw" gestures with the Wiimote & Nunchuck. By the end of the game, this got really tiresome and got especially tiresome when they throw a series of random mazes and incredibly dark rooms at the end just to piss you off.
The graphics, for a Wii game, are very good on average. Some sections look really good, some really bad. The grain filter certainly doesn't help things, and frankly it never has in the Silent Hill games so I don't know why they keep bringing it back (it was PS1 concession for a reason: the PS1 was incapable of good-looking 3D graphics so they had to cover them up to make them look even halfway decent). The framerate is the biggest casualty: while it stays pretty consistent at about 24 FPS throughout the game, during the chase sequences and while opening doors it can dip and sway pretty badly (I even got a "loading" text" one time opening a door, odd in a game that hyped 100% perfect streaming). Where the graphics hurt is in the atmosphere: the ice version of Silent Hill is just fine, and fits the eerie mood of the franchise perfectly. The problem is in the "normal" world, which isn't threatening in the least and drops all pretense of tension. I also have to take issue with the music for the first time in a Silent Hill game: there are 21 tracks on that soundtrack CD, and if I'm lucky I heard 6 of them the entire game. Part of the reason the game can't hold the tension is because the usual Silent Hill noise-esque music that usually maintains it simply isn't there. It's good when it is there, but for the most part Silent Hill actually holds true to the "silent" part of its name, and that's disappointing.
Overall, I really enjoyed Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and it's clear that Climax has the right idea for this series, but needs more experience and perhaps talent to get the gameplay quite right. This is a solid game and a worthy addition to the Wii library that just feels like a Wii game should: tasteful use of motion control without going overboard, and it's integrated in such a way that I don't know how the other versions are going to do this right with just analog sticks. The psychological profile system in particular is innovative and probably the best addition to the series in years.
Topic: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Read 94859 times)
