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Wii

North America

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

by Zachary Miller - June 2, 2009, 3:01 pm EDT
Total comments: 1

A very short demo, but a promising game.

“We try to avoid the term ‘remake,’” said the rep at the Silent Hill booth. “We prefer the term ‘reimagining.’” After playing through the short demo of Shattered Memories, I can’t help but agree. There are few, if any, similarities to that old PSOne horror game here, save the infested town and omnipresent flashlight. You star, as in the original, as Harry Mason as he tried to find his daughter, Cheryl. This new version of the titular horrorscape is covered in ice, and mountains of rubble and rock spring up to block your progress to areas you’re not supposed to go yet. Snow and silence envelope the town. Harry receives a phone call, and in order to hear it, you put the Wii Remote up to your ear so you can listen to the speaker. It may seem corny, but the gimmick is surprisingly effective. Static and cut-outs disrupt the voice on the other line, and Harry hangs up in frustration.

The player moves Harry with the analog stick and aims his flashlight with the Wii Remote. Almost all environmental interaction is done with the A button but when attacked by an enemy, you are instructed to “throw it off” by mimicking such a movement with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck (move them away from you) in the direction the monster attacked from. Harry displayed a lot of skill in climbing over walls and opening doors, but not much else. The inventory system was not explored, and I hope that combat doesn’t just involve pushing enemies away.

Shattered Memories looks fine, although Harry’s character model could use some refinement. He’s a little jagged around the edges and holds his flashlight with a very awkward wrist angle. The one creature in the game looked ridiculously generic (meaty ragdoll) save his twitching head and lunging ability. At one point, Harry picked up a flare then dropped it in a narrow corridor, and the creatures were briefly held back. I was concerned about the game’s soundtrack, which in other entries further illuminates the atmospheric horror. Unfortunately, the show floor was too loud to make anything out, and the rep didn’t have a lot of information for me about it.

In general, the demo wasn’t that informative given the lack of gameplay variety (climb over this wall, avoid this creature, go through that door, etc.), and the immersion factor was downplayed significantly because of the surrounding noise. But it certainly caught my attention and got me interesting, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting more information on the Wii debut of one of my favorite horror franchises.

Talkback

NovaQJune 02, 2009

I'd be interested to here more impressions from a calmer, quieter gaming environment. Crazy ol' E3 is no good for this game, by the sounds of it.

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Silent Hill: Shattered Memories Box Art

Genre Action
Developer Climax
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Release Dec 08, 2009
PublisherKonami
RatingMature
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