Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - PlayStation 2

Product Description

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. 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9973 in Video Games
  


• Brand: Konami


• Model: 20186


• Published on: 2009-10-31


• Released on: 2010-01-19


• ESRB Rating: Mature


• Platform: PlayStation2


• Number of items: 1


• Dimensions: .58" h x
  7.44" w x
  5.77" l,
  .20 pounds
  

Features

• A re-imagining of the original Silent Hill that turns everything you thought you knew on its head


• The game watches you and adapts to your actions to create a unique experience to each player and intensify their fears


• Implementation of a cell phone as the user interface, which acts as a story telling device, map, puzzle helper, and camera that provides seamless flow with no interruption in gameplay


• New nightmare sequence focus on escape and evasion rather than direct confrontation


• Silent Hill: Shattered Memories will feature an all-new soundtrack by acclaimed series composer Akira Yamaoka

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful.

Worth 30 Bucks, but not 31...


By M. Brown

Just finished very first play-through of this game-very interesting re-imagining. This very much reminds me of the conversations I was having back when the original SH came out for the PSone. What if Harry is really....or Cheryl....what about Dahlia? I don't want to spoil ANYTHING, so I will stop there so you get the idea.

Graphics-pretty ugly for a such a late PS2 title. I really wish they would stop just scaling down the engines and dragging them onto the PS2 without optimizing it first. Some textures cut in and out when viewing them, particularly posters. Also, can we at least try to anti-alias this thing. Some areas, with our swinging flashlight painfully illuminating the lack of A-A, were pixelated nightmares. Also, I noted that the top and bottom of the screen had some distortion-was this intended to make it look like video tracking or a graphical glitch. Dunno. Finally, FMVs were washed out, faded, with an obvious resolution shift.

Deep Breath....that's really my only complain for the moment, though

Gameplay-Wow. A game that responds to how you play it? Balderdash. I couldn't believe this was even possible. But it is-you can have a completely different experience depending on how you play, and how you respond to the "good doctor's" questions and exercises. There are a few places where you will notice obvious forking-you can only take one of two paths-and it is clear that this transforms the scenes ahead, and of course the ending. I really liked exploring each area for these markers, as they set up a great binary opposition in terms of your path-good or evil, easy or difficult. For some reason, all my scenes, interactions, and even scenery was vaguely sexual. Gotta wonder if that was intended or just "my play-through," but that is a digression. I plan to go through it again and try for a different scenario. Side note-you also have collectibles that come up in various spots-mementos-that just give you a little bit more to do.

Now for my last gripe-the "dog runs," or at least that is what I call them, the scene's where you are running for your life from your enemies, pulling down objects to get them between you and your attacker. I really liked the visceral sense of combat in the older games-stalking your enemy with a lead pipe and beating them to death in brutal fashion. I was very disappointed that this was missing. The new feature-running and hiding, with an occasional flare to keep enemies at bay-frustrated me to no end, but I felt that this wasn't the whole of the game, so I can let it slide. Plus, it gets you EVERY time when one of the ankle biters latches onto you and have have to time your button presses just right to get them off of you. Try this on when you have three of the things trying to give you hickeys. Not fun. Thankfully, the game is forgiving if you die during this, and restarts you at the beginning of the run.

All in all, I REALLY enjoyed this game. I believe that for such a late title, the graphics could have been polished/optimized a bit more for the system (I hear the Psp version is the best one to get), but I am not dissatisfied with my purchase. It's not going to be for everyone, but it is a worthwhile entry and new direction for the series.

Ankle biters...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.

Shattered Mold


By lastunusedname

I am a Silent Hill nerd. Needless to say, I periodically check the internet for new games in the series and as soon as I found out about Shattered Memories, I shifted between hopeful and skeptical like the titular town shifts between eerily atmospheric and disgustingly hellish. I stayed more on the good side when I read Akira Yamaoka would be involved, but then I saw it would be combat free. Both of these once-rumors are true. But is that good? Read on and see.

First, the sound. I listen to Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill OSTs like most people listen to Maroon 5 except the former doesn't make me wish guitars hadn't been invented. Its a long story, but GameStop messed up my pre-order and the copy I bought here had no soundtrack. And I really wish it had because the music in this installment is not bad by Silent Hill standards, real good by general music standards. Some of the tracks (I got the OST elsewhere) are, frankly, cacophonous while others are hauntingly beautiful due in part to returning vocalist Mary McGlynn. But the music is not the only sound. I didn't find the enemy sounds all that scary, but the ambient sounds and hints of what might lunge from the darkness put the fear of Samael into me. At times, its just footsteps, but even they aren't just 'guy walking'. They have that special echo that I hear whenever a detective in a book is searching for clues, which is very fitting because...

Without combat, Shattered Memories busies the player with seeking out clues as to Cheryl's whereabouts and with finding lingering spiritual residue around town and hearing a little horror skit on a cell phone. Basically, in addition to a father searching for his daughter, you're a detective of sorts. I would have liked to bash some of the more persistent demons with the classic steel pipe, but the searching and unraveling is engaging and interesting enough that I was almost never all that worried about it. Besides, they only come during events. Most of the time, you're free to look around without worrying about being grabbed from behind and you can enjoy it more. Every Silent Hill game has lots of environment to take in, but the demons always felt like you were in a gallery being hurried into the next room. Now, you can take it at your own pace, which I find to be a nice change.

In between sections of town, we see scenes of someone being analyzed by a psychiatrist. That someone is you. The former bastard, now creepy shrink Dr. Kaufmann asks some unseen person questions and gives them tests (one of which is, I'm not joking, coloring a picture of a smiling family), which the game then analyzes and adjusts the main game to. I said in my review of Prototype that I liked the feel of not being accountable for your actions, but this game goes in the complete opposite direction with it. Looking at posters changes who Harry Mason is if you do it enough. This is an absolutely brilliant addition to the series and when the next one comes out, I'd like to see it again.

I also liked hearing some of the best voice talent the anime industry had to offer appearing here including Kirk Thornton and Laura Bailey. While my concern about whether this means the anime industry is sinking and games are a life raft or if the actors just expanding their careers is neither here nor there, but I am a bit surprised they were chosen over less specialized talent. No doubt they pulled off the roles, but its somewhat unusual for voice actors who primarily do anime to have featured roles in a game like this. But I guess it is becoming more commonplace and if my concern for the industry is notwithstanding, I'll accept it gladly. Thornton does a good Harry Mason in all his potential aspects but Bailey's Dahlia sounds enough like Lust (FullMetal Alchemist) that they remind me of each other, especially now that Dahlia is sexier in both body and personality. But thats good because it makes for a good segue.

This is a re-imagining of the original Silent Hill for the PS1. When I say re-imagining, I don't mean its been made prettier. I mean its an altered cast in a completely new world, doing completely new things in completely new ways. If not for the names of the characters, this could easily pass for a whole new game. But the biggest change is to the history of Silent Hill in the form of one chain reaction starting thing.

There is no Alessa.

If you know what that means, you've begun to grasp the depth of the differences between this and Silent Hill 1. It means that, if this were the 'real' Harry Mason story, none of the other games could have happened in any way. Its the Batman Begins of the series, but its a dead end. Nothing involving The Order can happen in this timeline. If you just want to play a good mystery, great, but if you care about Silent Hill as a whole, this will either frustrate or intrigue you.

You'll notice I gave this game a two star fun rating. Its not an accident. This game is really good. Its well-made, written, acted, scored and modeled. Its beautiful visually and audibly, yet its ugly emotionally and psychologically. It plays well, rewards ingenuity and induces floods of adrenaline during the chase events. The mystery is deep and intriguing, the twist at the end would put M. Night Shyamalan in his prime to shame and made me actually care about everything. Its just not a lot of fun. Most of the game is just looking for stuff and making the static on the phone loud until you find a spot to take a picture and hear a short play about dying or passive fantasies a man has about his daughter. Its easy to make Harry a blend of all the possible personalities just out of habit of looking at everything. Its interesting but not always entertaining.

Final word, buy it, but only if you can devote yourself to it. If you can't find an hour or more regularly to let yourself live the game, don't bother. Silent Hill is not a game, its an experience. If you can't truly experience it, I can't recommend it. But if you can, I can and enthusiastically do.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful.

Interesting concept and story of a reimagining but falls short


By Daniel Fong

I'm a big fan of Silent Hill series and have played SH1, 2, 3, 4, and Origins. Though I would've played 5 (Homecoming) if only the controls were inverted. Anyway, I wasn't too sure what to expect in Shattered Memories but I picked it up right away at a local store since I wanted to play it right away.

On with the good part.

First impressions of the game was pretty interesting since the concept is new and a little different. You first answer a questionaire about yourself which will decide what ending you will get. The game is more interactive such as having to open up cabinets and finding keys to open lock doors. Opening up desk drawers to find mementos. You get to use a cell phone to call phone numbers you find in the game. Receive text messages, receive phone calls, and take pictures using your cell phone. There are also a few puzzles to solve and some interesting scenes to watch as you progress more into the game.

Getting into the nightmare mode was kind of trip since it's not the bloody, rusty scene most people are familar with in the SH series. Instead places are covered in glaciers of ice. What's pretty fun is that while in nightmare mode you're only option is to run since there are monsters that will chase you no matter what you do. There are guide markers to help you open a door, climb a wall, hide, etc. There's also a flare to use to prevent the monsters from chasing you but it doesn't last long. If the monster grabs you, you press a certain button to take them off of you. You can also pull down objects nearby to block the monsters for awhile.

Now on with the bad part.

This game is pretty much linear, a little repetitive, and not difficult. It's pretty cool that the game is interactive but it kind of feels more of the same. As you go to each stage, it's always about finding a key somewhere to open a lock door. Then you explore the stage looking for clues on where to go. As you are about finish the stage you enter the nightmare world. You are given markers (which makes the game kind of easy) to help you run from the ONLY ONE type of monster in the game. Don't expect to see any other monsters since there are no bosses. I was really disappointed by this. Also, you don't have a health bar in this game but you can die if the monsters grab you too much.

After passing the nightmare world, everything goes back to normal and you go back to your psychiatrist and do another questionaire/experiment. Later on, you'll realize that you can't decide on what you want on the questionaire/experiment in order to find the different endings. After all this, you go back into the game and you repeat what you just did the last time. Figure out how to get into the next stage by finding a key, entering another stage, finding mementos, taking pictures, solving some puzzles, entering the nightmare world, finishing the nightmare world, go back to psychiatrist, and repeat.

I won't talk about the story or who you will meet but I was surprised by the ending. But don't expect this game to be entirely similar to SH1. Think of it as having the same characters and setting, but different plot. I also felt that the survival horror aspect of this game to be somewhat weak and there was no nostalgia. I realized that this game was intended to be on the Wii, so there's no way of seeing a port to PS3 or Xbox 360. I still think Konami should've done a full remake of SH1 by keeping the story the same with the graphics in 720p/1080p. Overall, I think this game deserves to be a rental.

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