Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Ten years after the original game and Harry's still searching for his daughter.

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MsValtiel
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Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by MsValtiel »

Okay so I've never played this game in my life and just realized it existed about a month ago.

I've been meaning to pick a copy of Shattered Memories up from my local Buy Backs or Game Stop but haven't had time, work has been swamping me lately.

What would you say (assuming "you" have completed Shattered Memories) to me being a 23 year old female who has completed Silent Hill 1-4 throughout the span of her adolescence, who is about to play Shattered Memories for the first time?

What are some of the things you like about this one? What are some things you would have changed?

I appriciate all the responses I've been getting!

I just started playing Silent Hill 3 again for the first time in many years and I'm starting to get excited about the movie coming out soon! GAHH!
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by KageReneko »

You will love it... It can be a bit boring after a while but you will love it anyway...
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MsValtiel
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by MsValtiel »

KageReneko wrote:You will love it... It can be a bit boring after a while but you will love it anyway...

Boring how?
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by SHF »

It's more psychological, like silent hill 2 was.
It's very explorational. It's scary.
Its awesome. GET IT
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MsValtiel
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by MsValtiel »

helldescent wrote:It's more psychological, like silent hill 2 was.
It's very explorational. It's scary.
Its awesome. GET IT

I want to now!

I loved Silent Hill 2, it probably scared me more than any other Silent Hill game for sure.
Very dark, sad, and scary.
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by AuraTwilight »

The game has no combat, but it has high replay value because how you play the game changes things like cutscenes and characters and stuff. It's personally my favorite, topping even SH2, but for other people it's also the WORST game. It's really base-breaking for people.

Also, I would personally recommend the Wii version if you can get it. The game was totally designed around Wii controls, and I've heard the other versions feel kinda weird to play.
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Tillerman
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by Tillerman »

I would personally recommend you do NOT get it for the Wii. It's cool to use the wiimote as a flashlight, but I and a lot of people found the controls in the nightmare world very frustrating. The main problem is that you have to shake the wiimote to get monsters off of you, which means you have to point it away from the screen, but you can't steer your character without having it pointed at the screen, so every time you have to shake off a monster you have to akwardly line up the cursor with the TV again before you can start running. You get used to it after playing for awhile, I guess, but it's really annoying. From what I've heard, those nightmare scenes are a lot less frustrating on the PS2 version.

Keep in mind that most of the people in this section of the forum are people who like the game. It's actually probably the most divisive of the Silent Hill games, with some people who love it, and some who hate it. I fall into the hate category. Mainly because I find the characters boring, the horror aspects watered down, the chase scenes repetitive and frustrating, and there's just not a lot about the game that's scary. There's also very little to do in "exploration" mode other than walk forward and solve the occaisonal simple puzzle, although there are a lot of nice details to look at. The "psychological profiling" thing is a neat gimmick, though it does a pretty bad job of profiling you in terms of changing the game to adapt to you.

Personally, considering how divisive this game is, I'd strongly recommend that you rent it... you may end up loving it like a lot of the folks here in this forum, but you may end up hating it like me and a lot of other people I've talked to. It's worth trying, though.
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by Typographenia »

Since most people are covering standard information...


Do NOT save photos.

Harry has a cellphone in this game, and you are able to use it for examining the environment and a number of other things. One use is taking photos. I was saving the photos I took as I played through it the first time. I figured, "Why not? I might need these later on." You won't need them again.

The reason I bring this up is because when I took the final picture that filled up the capacity of my camera, my game freaked out. I couldn't exit the "cellphone mode," I couldn't exit using the menu on the phone, and I found my save data for the game had corrupted after I reset. I was probably 3/4 done with the game, and it was rather upsetting. I started over, and ended up loving the game. It was totally worth it, but I was still frustrated that it happened.

----------------------

Just to balance out Tillerman-

I personally loved it on the wii. I never really experienced any problems with the controls, and many sections were very much improved because of how the controller allows you to interact with the game. As long as you keep your movements a little slower and restrained during the escape sections you should be perfectly fine.
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by Soulless-Shadow »

I didn't love Shattered Memories, but at the same time I didn't hate it. I simply liked it. I'll admit I thought it was better than Origins and Homecoming, but for me it wasn't as good as some of the earlier games. It has most of the bad points Tillerman mentioned, but I think the story makes up for all of those.

The most annoying part for me was the nightmare sequences and the no combat. I kept getting lost in the nightmare sequences because it can get difficult to keep track of where you've been. In fact there was one near the start where I found myself in the same room four or five times before I found my way. As for the lack of combat... Well, I find it takes me out of a game. I like the option of being able to fight or run, rather than being forced to do one or the other. But, like I said, the story makes up for all that. I can't exactly say anything else because I don't want to spoil anything. ;)

Definitely hire Shattered Memories if you're unsure.
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MsValtiel
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by MsValtiel »

:? Sounds like you either really like it or you really don't, thats okay though, I've played games like that. I felt that way about Silent Hill 4 for a while until I started getting more into it and I ended up thinking it was a really challenging melee game.

I checked out some screen shots from the game and it doesn't look very visually stunning, I thought it would have some really cool new monsters but they look like aliens. :( Eck.
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by krakalackin »

This is my opinion:
I wish it had never existed. I hate it. I wish I could get my money back. Has nothing to do with any of first four game. It's depressing and it made me sick. SH4 is awesome compared to this game.

If you are into goth or emo stuff you will probably love it.
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by stopped_clock »

krakalackin wrote:
If you are into goth or emo stuff you will probably love it.

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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by KageReneko »

MsValtiel wrote:
KageReneko wrote:You will love it... It can be a bit boring after a while but you will love it anyway...

Boring how?
You have 2 type of faming in this SH... One is the exploration in the snowy layer, this is cool with the stuff that you get with your phone like photos, weird messages and more... But you just walk and walk and walk and walk.... Besides the changes in the messages the exploration gets boring although it still being interesting...is hard to explain...

The other thing is the icy layer when you have to escape from the hugging creatures, the first times are nice because it really surprise you but after a while it gets old... Once you learn the pattern the chases become boring and repetitive; the otherworld has lots of nice details but you can't see them because you need to run as hell...

You never die in this game and this kills the "Scary" factor for me; the replaying factor is pretty nice but you would wish that the changes in every playthough were bigger (Different areas, real different monsters)... The puzzles are ever dumber than the ones in Silent Hill Homecoming but the little homages to SH1 are really nice

The Wii version is the best in the visual aspect but the controls just make me mad, anyway to listen the calls and noise through the wiimote is probably the best feature of this game; the PSP and PS2 have better controls but they lack lot of details, also they allow you to save photos without kill your save file, you will feel it like a more traditional SH game so the game feeling is almost the same...

The game could be a lot better, I feel that it could use more development time in order to add alternative levels and better creatures; anyway the story is just beautiful, I played it after finish Mother 3 and these 2 games have made me cry in their endings...

This game is a worthy Silent Hill game with bad and good points like all the others, I advice you to play it since it is a good experience; well, for me every SH is a good experience (Except SHH; it's the only SH game that I stopped playing without get all the endings)
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by Tillerman »

MsValtiel wrote:I checked out some screen shots from the game and it doesn't look very visually stunning, I thought it would have some really cool new monsters but they look like aliens. :( Eck.
Yes, and it should also be mentioned that those are literally the ONLY type of monster in the game. The "action" sections literally consist of you running from masses of them while blindly looking for an exit. The map is near useless and you can't pause the game to look at it, you aren't even allowed to look at the map while hiding in a locker or using an invincibility flare (which makes hiding completely useless.) Also, these sections all have a very similar ice motif, there's not a lot of variation. I've been told that there are some cool details in the ice, but the game forces you to charge through these sections at full speed since the monsters are very numerous and very fast. Although to be fair, there are some occaisonal cool details that you will notice, like a crashed plane out of nowhere. Still, the game doesn't really give you time to appreciate them.

The exploration modes are completely threat free, which pretty much takes the tension out of them. They are also almost completely item free, since health drinks and ammo no longer exist. The only items you will find are "mementos" which are just there to collect, and keys which are always in the same room as the locked door. This sort of makes the exploration scenes feel like empty, so I can understand why KageReneko and others say it gets boring. However, on the bright side there are tons of little details spread around the environments, and when you look at them sometimes Harry will comment.

You can also get a few extra voicemails and messages from exploring, which are supposed to be creepy, however personally I found a lot of them to be pretty hamfisted, and also badly acted, so some of them come accross as unintentionally funny. There's also some bad character dialogue that I found pretty hilarious... keep an eye out for Kaufman's "sex is death" speech, and see if you can understand what the Hell he's talking about, because I sure can't. My girlfriend and I were cracking up after watching that. But overall the phone is pretty neat because it has a lot of functions to play with, like calling whomever you want (although they will only answer once.)

If you decide to play the game, just be prepared that the nightmare scenes *will* frustrate you. It's very easy to die repeatedly in them until you know where to go, and you will have no idea where to go until you do them several times and start to memorize the layout. If you are lucky, you will find the exit on an early try, but the paths branch and loop a lot, and many areas look the same, so it's very easy to go backwards. But, do your best to push through them, because the game is really pretty short, and most people seem to really like the ending.
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by AuraTwilight »

Do NOT save photos.

Harry has a cellphone in this game, and you are able to use it for examining the environment and a number of other things. One use is taking photos. I was saving the photos I took as I played through it the first time. I figured, "Why not? I might need these later on." You won't need them again.

The reason I bring this up is because when I took the final picture that filled up the capacity of my camera, my game freaked out. I couldn't exit the "cellphone mode," I couldn't exit using the menu on the phone, and I found my save data for the game had corrupted after I reset. I was probably 3/4 done with the game, and it was rather upsetting. I started over, and ended up loving the game. It was totally worth it, but I was still frustrated that it happened.
I need to elaborate on this. This is a glitch that happens on the Wii version if you save more than 10 photos. There's only one instance in the game where you would NEED to save a photo if it's your first run through the game, so as long as you don't save like every stupid picture you take, you're fine.
If you are into goth or emo stuff you will probably love it.
LOL, what the fuck does this even mean?
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Tillerman
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by Tillerman »

krakalackin wrote:If you are into goth or emo stuff you will probably love it.
I am into both goth and emo stuff and I did not like this game at all.
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by SPRINGS02 »

Hmm well, i thought the game was not bad. Probably around a 7 out of 10. The problem is that it's NOT scary. It focuses more on being a psychological thriller rather than horror, and it's supposed to be more of an emotional journey. Which is fine and dandy, but if you're like me and you think a silent hill game should focus more on fear, it will be kind of a letdown. Actually that's the games main flaw, because the story is executed well and i really enjoyed the interface of everything.
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by Fevered Dream »

I'll sum up the pros and cons of this game:

Pros:
-Great story with a wonderful twist
-The icy otherworld is a nice change of pace
-The psyche profile is a good idea, if not as deep as it could have been, and some of the minigames can be amusing
-You can forget all you know about the Silent Hill universe of the past games and just play this game for what it is

Cons:
-Frustrating otherworld chase sequences
-Lack of combat
-Boring, and repetitive monster design
-Not really scary
-Puzzles are kind of lame and mostly consist of pure memorization instead of using logic.
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by ashatteredmemory »

I think you will generally like it, especially you liked Silent Hill for the stories
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Re: Only Silent Hill Game I Have NOT Played

Post by JuriDawn »

I love this game. A lot.

The complete removal of combat was a bold step for the developers, but within the context of this story, I think it works great. Being forced to run for my life every time monsters appear really ups the tension for me, though I admit it can be a little frustrating at times. I have a terrible sense of direction and most of the chase levels are very poorly lit, so I often find myself getting lost and subsequently swarmed by monsters. Shaking them off with the wiimote was extremely annoying at first, but once I realized I was over-exaggerating the movements, I got better control of it and was able to break free and continue running without too much swearing at the tv. Overall, I really like the interaction of the Wii version and wouldn't want to play on another system.

The monster design has people divided. While you will only face one type of monster, its appearance will evolve based on your actions and exploration. Some people aren't crazy about it, but again, I think it's fine in the context of this particular game. Considering you aren't supposed to even get a good look at these monsters (you're supposed to be running for your life), I don't think it's particularly important what they look like. Also, the noise they make is deliciously chilling, in my opinion. One of many aspects of the game that will take on a whole new meaning once you've actually completed your first run through.

The story is my favorite part. In fact, I like it better than any of the games that came before it. If you haven't read any spoilers, avoid them like the plague. In fact, I would suggest you stay out of the Shattered Memories forum altogether after your mind's made up, since the spoiler function doesn't work properly at the moment.

Character development is great, although fleshing out characters means they have to interact with others to a greater extent than previous games. Between face-to-face encounters and numerous phone calls you lose some of that sense of isolation that's found in other Silent Hill games. Regardless, I'm glad Harry was so well-developed as a character. I cared about him and his journey much more than I could Henry, for example.

Holy crap, I'm writing a book here. I need to stop.

And you need to play this game. Go in cold (har har) and try not to let guides influence the way you play, at least for your first run through.
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