Before I start: yes, I am aware of the fact that this is the 7th Silent Hill game, yet the one called Origins is number zero.
Back on subject.
The story follows Harry Mason, who wakes up after a car accident to find that his daughter Cheryl is missing. Harry will wander the snowy streets of Silent Hill searching for answers of her disappearance, but when the world freezes over, he will need to escape the lumbering demons that haunt his steps. Harry will need to navigate both worlds to discover the truth; not just about his missing daughter, but also the type of person he actually is.
Silent Hill’s debut on the Wii makes the fear more real than ever before. Players will be drawn into the mysterious town using the Wii Remote as a flashlight and a cellphone as they search for clues. Choices they make will shape Harry Mason, as well as the people he meets and the places he visits. The enemies evolve as well, taking the form of the player’s deepest fears. Silent Hill promises to be more terrifying than ever, bringing the fear to Wii, PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, and PSP (PlayStation Portable) system.
As you can see, Shattered Memories is based on the first part, but it’s not an actual remake. We may meet the same characters, but in different order. The game will track our movements and progress and put the plot according to our style.
The “enemies evolve as well, taking the form of the player’s deepest fears. Silent Hill promises to be more terrifying than ever” part sounds promising yet there are few things about this game which make me nervous.
The most important one is the console: Nintendo Wii. I’m not quite sure it’s a disadventage. Playing on Wii gives you more freedom and might be a really good solution for a horror game where you can’t even kill the monsters, because “Combat has been removed from the game with emphasis placed instead on evading encounters with monsters entirely.” At least we will be able to break through the doors and windows while we run, but it’s not this much fun if you won’t play it on Wii. It will be simply boring. It also means that the whole sight thing might be a real pain in the ass on Play Station 2 or PC. On the other hand, just imagine playing Silent Hill on this!
I’d deffinitely want to try it out!
Secondly: “Harry will wander the snowy streets of Silent Hill searching for answers of her disappearance, but when the world freezes over”. Like what? What about rust, grunge and blood stains? Those are things which I will always associate with this game! They can’t just get rid of them so easily!
Another thing is that “we will be able to open every single door”. Guys, come on! It was so much fun when you had only a few doors open and everytime you tried to get somewhere you had to spend some time on finding the right path. And if it, for example, were the alternative school from the first part, you never knew if something was about to attack you or if you were safe, because the enemy was stuck behind the fence (and the radio told you it was close…). Oh, I will miss such things so much! I really feel an urge to play it once again…
Next change: cell phone. You will just keep using it for everything: taking photos, calling, finding way (GPS), saving game or keeping track of the notes. This might be interesting, because some clues will be visible only on the photos and sometimes a ghost or two might also appear on them.
So will it be any good? There’s no rust, no blood, no combat, no closed doors. There’s one thing which remains: Akira Yamaoka and his music. The song from the trailer is called “Always on my mind” and you can listen to it here:
OST has 21 tracks, 4 with vocals. Marvelous as always. I guess I don’t have to encourage any of the game fans to get this OST. Music has always been one of the most important and the most impressive parts of the game.
Overall, this will be a very good game for Wii players (and I wish to become one of them soon ;)). Those who are as obsessed with SH as much as I am will enjoy it as well. Or at least this is what I hope for.
Rest of the world? We must wait and see. It should be released in February 2010. You can be sure I will get it soon after and tell you if my fears were groundless. If I won’t die of heart attack somewhere in the middle, that is.
