It makes sense that the map of the town would be available through Harry’s mobile device, but it’s also used to trigger some of the puzzles on offer and find out more about the world he’s now trapped in. While the original Silent Hill pivoted so much on Harry’s radio, the updated Shattered Memories relies heavily on the use of a mobile phone. If the puzzles are up to scratch, so, too, are how Harry interacts with his surroundings. Shattered Memories comprises some truly memorable and intricate head-scratchers made all the better by the fact that the majority of them are tactile and interactive rather than the trite “find object of peculiar size and insert into hole of similar peculiar shape.” In fact, it’s almost fitting that – considering Shattered Memories is essentially a reimagining of the original Silent Hill – the series’ latest title presents some of the best cerebral and intuitive challenges since the first game. Luckily, in the puzzle stakes at least, the control system differences make little to no difference. Alas, one of the main traits that made the game so memorable on the Wii is forever lost here in the PSP version. Given, having a fixed cone of illumination that dissipates out in front of Harry like a revealing triangle of impending death is hardly the worst thing the designers could have done to bypass the ability to move the torch around the environments. While tension and skittishness permeates the Wii version due to the practice of shining a frantic torchlight over a gloomy and possibly creature inhabited room with the motion controller, the PSP’s bastardised control system, though adequately implemented, loses all sense of the investigative interactivity found only on the Wii. It’s this patent yet necessary deviation in control system which highlights one of Shattered Memories few concessions. The structure of the gameplay on the PSP is almost a perfect clone of the game’s original release on the Wii, the obvious adjustments due to the lack of a Wiimote withstanding. It’s a nice touch the game literally concocting what is essentially your worst nightmares to then chase you around a dank and gelid town, hell-bent on catching and ultimately destroying you. Creatures do look different depending on how you answer some pensive questions regarding your own fears etc. From the direct, forward dialogue to other aspects such as skirt length and the amount of cleavage on display, though interesting and inventive to some degree, the extent of the customised experience is fairly limited. If you tell the doc you like your women a little slutty for example, expect the female characters you encounter during your sojourn in Silent Hill to be somewhat abrasive. Regrettably the scope of personalisation on offer rarely delves much deeper that the game’s aesthetic. It’s a quirky and quite scheming of gameplay mechanics the idea that the experience at hand will morph around your unique personality and choices, a game that is literally different each time for whomever is actually playing it. And brand they have, taking the opportunity to tinker with the formula in multiple areas. However, being the second Silent Hill from Climax Studios – the first being the enjoyable Origins – it’s understandable that the studio would want to take some more risks with the popular franchise, turn things a little on their head and brand the latest in the off-kilter horror series with their own indelible stamp. But make no mistake about it, this is very much Silent Hill redux. We even have his incessantly meandering and troublesome daughter, Cheryl, to contend with. Sure, we get a different looking yet obviously the same Harry Mason. ![]() As a blinding snowstorm causes a car to careen into the darkness only to reveal yet another missing child, it’s quickly apparent that this is not just Silent Hill as you remember it, it’s literally Silent Hill rebooted. ![]() ![]() As a prevailing sensation, it’s completely warranted though. ![]() There’s an acute feeling of déjà-vu upon first exposure to Silent Hill: Shattered Memories the tangible sense of not only having wandered around this particular dark, eerie town in another life, but of a path ahead already predetermined and well-trodden.
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