Silent Hill:Shattered Memories

[Woot Spitum]

I finished Silent Hill: Shattered Memories recently, and I have to say, this game may have the best story I have seen in a game ever. The characters are interesting, the plot makes sense, and the ending is amazing.

Unfortunately, it seems like no one I know has played it. Am I alone in thinking this game is this good?

[LurkerInPlayground]

People are just going to compare it endlessly to SH1. Aside from which, I'm personally tired of fan remakes of the game.

I hear the "running away from the monsters" bit goes from interesting to very annoying quickly though.

[Woot Spitum]

Shattered Memories is the first and only game I have played in the Silent Hill series. It's mostly (outside of the chase sequences) an adventure game, with the focus on exploring, talking to people, and solving puzzles.

I really would like to hear what a fan of the old series thinks about it.

Edit:

I felt the game maybe could have done with one less chase sequence, but overall, I feel they add more to the game than they take away. I haven't played the old ones, so I couldn't say if the combat from the other games is better or worse than the chases in Shattered Memories.

[Atreyu the Masked LLama]

I played SH 1 back when it first came out and I played SH: Shattered Memories and despite the similar plot hook and the characters being named the same, the games are truly nothing alike.

Shattered Memories does a good job of putting the survival aspect of survival horror back in the game. I can see where the "Nightmare" mode would become very repetitive very quickly, but I found that if you played it smart and didn't panic, you didn't often have to play through it too many times.

I was very concerned when I heard it would be a "re-imagining" but it did not feel like the first Silent Hill game at all. The story had a similar sort of "what the heck" feel, but if you paid attention to the clues, you could decipher the backstory and figure out what was going on in the crazy town of Silent Hill.

On Combat: The monsters played great part in setting the tone in the older games, but the more weapons you have the less your game feels like a survival horror game and more like an action adventure.

I enjoyed the new one. I enjoyed the first one. SH 3 continues to be in my top 3 creepiest Survival Horror games.

[LurkerInPlayground]

The thing is that while Silent Hill 1 could have an obscure plot if you weren't paying close attention, Silent Hill 3 pretty much spoon-fed it to you. So I've been there and done that. Origins and SH5 sounded bad. Shattered Memories . . . not so much, mostly because it was just supposed to be a repackaged Silent Hill 1.

Although it may sound like I'm being critical, I did enjoy SH3 and it had plenty of things to add to the franchise. SH1 is showing its age and it was nice to see the aesthetics done over in a more modern engine. Artistically, I think SH3 is the most iconic of the franchise.

SH2 and SH4 are not part of the same storyline as SH1 and SH3 and stand alone. SH2 is considered the high point of the series because it featured a tragic hero working through his karma. (SH2 is apparently so memorable that trying to copy its tragic theme is the inevitable downfall of the other spin-offs.)

Hell, check out SH3. It's about the aftermath of the events of SH1 and Shattered Memories anyway.

[Comet]

I really liked Shattered Memories. The gameplay was a bit trial and error at times, but the story was just golden. I was especially glad about the fact that they didn't just recycycle the story from Silent Hill 1. There are some nice twists in this game that really left me grinning like an idiot.

The psychoanalysis bit was the best, though, and I wish more horror games would do something similar. I loved noticing little changes in the environment that were just there to screw with my weak little mind :smallbiggrin:

[Zen Monkey]

If you like any of the games in the series, I'd recommend trying SH2. The graphics will be a little dated now, but it's still considered one of the scariest games ever made on most polls and lists. The story in that one is particularly compelling, especially if you can personally relate to the loss and what you'd go through to get that person back.