Shattered Memories Shatters Dreams

Now, I’m not going to rant that I had high hopes for Climax’s Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, but even then it is letting me down.

The game has already taken a big red marker to the original game’s story, and in my opinion it isn’t for the better. Silent Hill 1, Harry’s car spins out because he sees Alessa on the road. Shattered Memories, Harry’s car spins out because he goes over a patch of ice? Bah.

Story changes aside, the game holds a pretty good representation of the Silent Hill atmosphere… but it has not yet reached the heights of Silent Hill 2 or Silent Hill 3. The phone features are fantastic, and I love the use of the Wii Remote as a phone/radio as well as how it controls the torch. In fact, from the start you’d be forgiven for thinking the game might not be so bad but then…

…the Nightmare world is revealed. Suddenly any chances the game has of amounting to something above average begin to crumble to the ground with ever unresponsive Wii Remote flail. Questionable that Climax would bring Silent Hill‘s horrors back to such a boring, unoriginal end point. The game contains no fear, no suspense and ultimately feels vapid when the monsters appear. The game plays better when you are in the regular world, and that’s just a disappointment.

Such is the strange case of Shattered Memories so far, hopefully it will improve with more time into the game. I’m nervously looking forward to how the game handles Dahlia and Alessa. We shall see how much of the story is changed with crayons then…

Hey! At least they stuck to the part of Silent Hill that Harry visits instead of forcing him to go to the other part of Silent Hill where James’ visits in the second game.