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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. |
