I mean, it was alright. It was much better than what I expected after reading some of the reviews.
You have to see this game for what it is; a short, budget Silent Hill made for the Wii.
It is a reimagination of the first Silent Hill, although I'm not quite sure why. Aside from some names, the story doesn't have much in common with SH 1, so they could have just changed the names of the characters.
Either way, I enjoyed the story quite a lot. The way they reimagined SH 1's story was interesting. In addition, the game was also fairly short (finished it in 5-6 hours), so I felt like it didn't overstay its welcome.
I was quite surprised by the voice acting. It was pretty good, which is very uncommon for a Silent Hill game. Instantly recognised Laura Bailey's voice.
The audio-visual presentation was a bit mixed.
For a game from 2009, the graphics looked very outdated. Obviosly, it's because the game was made for the Wii. It was also sad to see that there were not many monsters
designs in the game.
The horror atmosphere was top notch on the other hand. Classic Silent Hill. It was also interesting to see this new icy version of the otherworld. In general, the environmental design was really cool, even if it was very low-res.
The music by Akira Yamaoka was mostly good. It's not his best work tho. As always, his music does a great job at setting mood. However, most of the songs in Shattered Memories are just very short loops that are not very memorable.
The gameplay was... interesting. Unlike the other games, Shattered Memories is not survival horror. It's mostly just a walking simulator, adventure horror game. For a game from 2009, I thought that it was quite ahead of its time, as it was very similar to Outlast and Amnesia, but it came out before those games.
The added phone mechanic was cool. It made the exploration more fun, and it played a pretty important part in the storytelling. Gave me Condemned: Criminal Origins flashbacks.
Same thing goes for the in-game therapy sessions. The mini games were fun. The psychological profiling was an interesting feature.
The weakest part of the game was easily the combat... or the lack thereof. You cannot fight back, so your only option is running away. Again, very similar to Outlast and Amnesia.
While these chase sequences add some tension to the game, they become quite boring fairly quickly, as there are only 2 (?) types of enemies in the entire game. The way you have to complete these sections by running through random blue doors was also a bit confusing. Let's be honest, the enemy encounters and combat were always the weakest parts of Silent Hill games. Shattered Memories doesn't change that.
Overall, I enjoyed Shattered Memories. It's not a perfect game. But if you're into Silent Hill, and you want to play a short game that focuses primarily on exploration, it is worth finishing once.
You have to see this game for what it is; a short, budget Silent Hill made for the Wii.
It is a reimagination of the first Silent Hill, although I'm not quite sure why. Aside from some names, the story doesn't have much in common with SH 1, so they could have just changed the names of the characters.
Either way, I enjoyed the story quite a lot. The way they reimagined SH 1's story was interesting. In addition, the game was also fairly short (finished it in 5-6 hours), so I felt like it didn't overstay its welcome.
I was quite surprised by the voice acting. It was pretty good, which is very uncommon for a Silent Hill game. Instantly recognised Laura Bailey's voice.
The audio-visual presentation was a bit mixed.
For a game from 2009, the graphics looked very outdated. Obviosly, it's because the game was made for the Wii. It was also sad to see that there were not many monsters
designs in the game.
The horror atmosphere was top notch on the other hand. Classic Silent Hill. It was also interesting to see this new icy version of the otherworld. In general, the environmental design was really cool, even if it was very low-res.
The music by Akira Yamaoka was mostly good. It's not his best work tho. As always, his music does a great job at setting mood. However, most of the songs in Shattered Memories are just very short loops that are not very memorable.
The gameplay was... interesting. Unlike the other games, Shattered Memories is not survival horror. It's mostly just a walking simulator, adventure horror game. For a game from 2009, I thought that it was quite ahead of its time, as it was very similar to Outlast and Amnesia, but it came out before those games.
The added phone mechanic was cool. It made the exploration more fun, and it played a pretty important part in the storytelling. Gave me Condemned: Criminal Origins flashbacks.
Same thing goes for the in-game therapy sessions. The mini games were fun. The psychological profiling was an interesting feature.
The weakest part of the game was easily the combat... or the lack thereof. You cannot fight back, so your only option is running away. Again, very similar to Outlast and Amnesia.
While these chase sequences add some tension to the game, they become quite boring fairly quickly, as there are only 2 (?) types of enemies in the entire game. The way you have to complete these sections by running through random blue doors was also a bit confusing. Let's be honest, the enemy encounters and combat were always the weakest parts of Silent Hill games. Shattered Memories doesn't change that.
Overall, I enjoyed Shattered Memories. It's not a perfect game. But if you're into Silent Hill, and you want to play a short game that focuses primarily on exploration, it is worth finishing once.