Publisher: Konami
Developer: Climax Group
Genre: Survival Horror
Release date: Available now
Review by: Lieren Teeling

Konami’s Silent Hill series has been popular since the first game’s release in 1999. A pioneer in the survival horror genre, Silent Hill plays a delicate psychological game with its players, in contrast to similar games’ more visceral physical horror. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a drastic reworking of the first game that takes only the basics from the original and twists them into a whole new experience.

Memories places you in the role of Harry Mason, resident of the small town of Silent Hill. Harry spends the game in a psychiatrist’s office reliving a string of memories, beginning with a terrible car crash that separated him from his 7-year-old daughter, Cheryl. Harry explores the snowbound town in search of her, and stumbles in and out of nightmarish stretches of reality, but can find no trace of Cheryl or anyone who knows either of them, despite this being his home town.

You explore the world of Silent Hill by using the PSP’s analog stick to make Harry walk, and holding down the square button to have him run. Various things such as the flashlight and cell phone are accessed by the triangle and circle buttons, while the X button triggers interactions with items. Zooming in and looking behind are handled with the back triggers, and shortcuts to the cell phone’s functions are called up using the D-pad.

Taking a step away from the original, Shattered Memories abandons almost all in-game combat and focuses instead on fleeing and evading the horrifying creatures Harry faces. While some people feel this takes away from the original game’s concept, I think it enhances the surreal air of psychological terror that the game takes such care to build. Fleeing with the sound of heartbeats and Harry’s heavy breathing loud in your ears, with monsters shrieking behind and around you, is amazingly well done. It gives a very frightening rush of adrenaline, and it plays out smoothly without your worrying about clunky control schemes or unresponsive buttons. The PSP graphics and ambient noise, with a light undercurrent of distant music, beautifully build the atmosphere.

There is very little bad to say about this game. While the graphics aren’t everything that the PSP is capable of generating, they don’t really need to be; what’s there does the job. The rough edges, blurred distances and muddy textures all add to the atmosphere rather than take away from the game experience. My only real complaint was that I wish it was easier to see past Harry from the third-person camera while trying to run, and the map should be accessible while running.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories might not remain true to the original, but everything new just makes it better. The lovingly crafted atmosphere of sights and sounds makes for a new game experience that is both nostalgic and frighteningly unfamiliar. A must-have for fans of the series and anyone who enjoys a good horror story.

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