Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Platform: Wii
Developer: Climax
By: Torey Nelson, Associate Editor

Silent Hill Shattered Memories is by far one of the best games I have ever played. It has everything that I look for in a game. Though the graphics on the Wii aren’t my favorite, unfortunately it seems you can’t find any other games quite like this for the system. This game incorporates I think all the best features of the Wii into the game in a very natural way and almost every move you make in the game changes how the ending will turn out.
Starting out the game, a short scene involving a mysterious car crash erupts then cuts to Dr. Michael Kaufmann’s office. The psychiatrist gives you his first test which is a questionnaire that you must answer completely honest if you want to get the ending that best fits your personality. After you finish filling out the survey, the scene cuts back to the car crash. Enter Harry Mason, a middle aged man who was the driver of the car who has discovered that his daughter Sharon is missing! After frantically looking around the crash for her, he realizes that she must have ran off and begins his long journey to finding her.
Now the game begins getting really interesting. The first time you play is the best, because you will get most honest ending, then you can work on getting the other four. The thing you must remember is that anything and everything you look at, zoom in on, all the places you go or places you call or don’t call, changes the game.
There are usually going to be two or three choices you can make on where to go in Silent Hill. All the choices will lead you to the same place, but you may see different things, or get different trinkets along the way. Eventually you’ll come across Cybil, a hard ass police officer, depending on which way your game is going you’ll meet her before the next scene in the psychiatrists office, or after, but either way she’ll be in and out of the game up until the end.
You go through the next little part of the game and end up in an…interesting predicament. The town has seemed to freeze over and you’re now being chased by Them. They can’t see you, but They can hear you and They will find you. You have no weapon, but the key to making it through the nightmare is to look for little signs that will lead you out of it.
After the second nightmare, you’ll end up at a high school and eventually you’ll meet Michelle Valdez, who will lead you through the next bit of the game and into the next nightmare. The most important character doesn’t come until after you leave the high school however. Michelle will meet you outside the high school after the nightmare is over where she’ll get you to go get her boss’ car at the nightclub that she works at yet. This is where you will stumble upon Dahlia. The “hottest piece of ass” in town. She’s the main girl in the game and you’ll have more than a few odd encounters. The last girl you meet is a nurse named Lisa who will take you back to her apartment and ask you to grab her a pill for the head injury. She’ll fall soundly asleep on the couch and you’ll have to leave, but you’ll be back.
Toward the end of the game the nightmare’s get more and more intense and finally, you’ll make it to the last of the nightmares, which is the hardest and definitely the most confusing. But no matter what ending you end up getting, the journey getting there will always surprise you and you’ll never have to same game twice.