Developed by Climax Stuidos; Published by Konami

★★★ (out of 5)

Tension and frustration are two feelings that often blend into each other, which has always made the burden of making a horror game a much heavier one to bear. Many fault the janky combat and aimless exploration of the Silent Hill series, because these elements aren’t particularly fun. I know I’ve had my fair share of complaints, but I’ve still had a respect for the series because fun hasn’t ever been the goal for Konami. The same can be said of Climax Studios, developer of Shattered Memories. Where Silent Hill: Homecoming made the mistake of redesigning Silent Hill as a western-minded video game, SH:SM seeks to reimagine the series as an experience. It makes for the most original and enjoyable Silent Hill since SH2.

One gets the feeling that everything that happens in SM is intentional, from the deafening ring of your cellphone to the often-trying chase sequences (more on those later). It’s a very controlled experience that can be considered a much more on-rails take on the series. You are always limited to the path in front of you, the puzzle you have to solve is limited to a room or two, and item management is nowhere to be found. It could almost be considered Silent Hill for kids if it weren’t for the haunting atmosphere and sexual themes. In fact, the game resembles Zack & Wiki in that you are always using the Wii remote to interact with the world in a literal way. You hold the controller to your head for cellphone calls, you reach out and open cabinets, and always solve puzzles with the precision of the remote. It makes for one of the most original Wii games that makes good on the promise Zack & Wiki offered so long ago. It might seem like a gimmick at the outset, but these interactions bring you into the world and make you feel more vulnerable as a result.

Shattered Memories has some of the best looking player models on the Wii.

It’s hard to make people care about a series that has been as niche and redundant as Silent Hill, so I can’t blame Climax Studios for their marketing blitz that played up the idea of this being a reimagining and breaking psychological ground with technology that monitors the player’s state and acts upon it. Honestly, neither of these ideas would have come to my mind otherwise. Firstly, SM plays like Silent Hill if it leaned more on the adventure aspect than the action. There are no boss fights and the majority of the game is played within segments of puzzle solving with no sense of danger. Depending on the environment and music, these sections can be surprisingly relaxing. Silent Hill veterans will undoubtedly feel a bit let down when they discover that the merciless sense of dread from past games is gone. However, there are nine chase sequences that add a bit of tension and inevitable frustration. Like the combat in past games, the chase sequences aren’t particularly fun and make the player feel out of control of the situation—not something you want in a video game, but has it’s own special result relevant to this type of game. Unlike combat, these sections are easier to forgive since they don’t have a direct comparison in other games. Also, you can’t die in SM, at least not in the traditional sense. Similar to Prince of Persia, failure in these sections results in a quick respawn to the beginning of a section. I found this to be a very progressive choice, as Silent Hill is an experience and not one you want constantly interrupted by game-over screens nor item management and map studying for that matter.

The psychological aspect of SM feels like a joke, if only because how Climax framed the game. It’s always at the forefront of interviews about the game, and, even worse, the game boots with a screen warning you that it will psychologically analyze you. That’s like if Uncharted 2 had a warning screen that it will attempt to have awesome explosions. The psychological sections don’t add up to anything more than plot segments that help change the tone, bridge gaps in the story, and decide the ending the player will receive. These sections help give SM its own unique identity, but it’s hardly a game mechanic that will be remembered for years to come.

Interacting with your phone always feels intuitive with the Wii remote.

SM’s biggest problem is that it reinterprets Silent Hill conventions and calls it a day. Once you hit the mid-point after 3 hours of play, you’ve seen all the game has to offer and its not going to go out of its way to surprise. This is a major disappointment when you consider how ripe the game is for some “Eternal Darkness”-type mind fuckery via the Wii remote speaker or the first person view, which is applied during dialogue heavy scenes. There are a couple standout moments, but SM is a one trick pony that soon becomes a comfortable thrill ride when it would be more successful had it been more daring and confrontational for its duration. Then again, I can’t remember the last time a game asked me if I was a virgin in high school.

SM is welcome reimagining not only of Silent Hill but also the long stagnant survival horror genre. It doesn’t have the loftiest goals and it is far from having the scope and depth of a triple-A title, but there are so many great ideas at work that you can only imagine what it would have been with the resources of a bigger project. It’s the sort of game you wish was great instead of good and that you’d loved instead of merely liked. That’s still a lot more than I can say of any Silent Hill since the first three.