8.2

Silent Hill Shattered Memories

Silent Hill was originally released for Playstation in 1999 and it has been re-imagined into Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I've been playing Shattered Memories for a while now having played the Silent Hill 2 as well as the weird Silent Hill 4 - The Room. Needless to say, it's an interesting and entertaining game on the PSP.

The game starts off with you as Harry Mason who is recounting his strange experience to a psychiatrist. Driving his car through a blizzard with Cheryl, his daughter, Harry loses control and crashes, just outside the town of Silent Hill. On waking, Cheryl is gone and Harry goes off to find her.

Silent Hill is undergoing wild weather conditions, and a lot of the streets are blocked off, forcing Harry to climb through buildings and such in order to progress. The town is weird, seeming at first to confuse time and place, with echoes of a possible otherworld appearing from time to time. It gets even more confusing when characters start recognising Harry and Cheryl and facets of their life in Silent Hill which unrecognised by Harry. This alludes to something seriously sinister and creepy.

The most valuable tool is the mobile phone available from the start. From here, Harry can call different phone numbers and take pictures around town and pick up clues and background information on the events that have occurred, giving you more information on the visual echoes you can see. Also, you can save the game here and access the GPS/map which shows you your current location and waypoints you need to get to. You can also access old phone calls and text messages that you have received.

From time to time, the world will freeze over into a nightmare and Harry must make his way to a way point running and avoiding ghouls as he clammers towards a waypoint. Fortunately he can throw things in their path, pick up flares and generally just push them off. These are the only events that can kill Harry and also makes it one of the more frustrating as you are running, climbing and crawling through a maze with ghouls shrieking and jumping on you from everywhere.

The puzzles themselves in the main part of the game are reasonably easy, with arrows pointing out what is interactive. It usually is clear what needs to be done and if not, the solution is usually just around the corner.

The controls are adequate but some of the movements (for example the twirling of the analogue sticks) would be so much better on the alternate versions of the game on the DS and the Wii.

The general atmosphere, like all Silent Hill games, is especially creepy and dark and the story is compelling. You do feel an affinity for Harry and his quest for his lost daughter and the more time you spend in Silent Hill, the more questions are raised, making you want to play even longer - you seriously want to work out what has happened as it's all so creepy and confusing.

The only real downside is the graphics which are a bit plain in general, rough and lacking in detail but adequate. The cutscenes are well scripted and visually appealing though. Silent Hill is a great reimagining of the first game in this franchise.