Silent Hill: Shattered Memories | Video Review

Shawn Lebert says, or is it, he shows, or is it, he recorded... Either way, this is awesome. Any fan of the Silent Hill series who owns a Wii owes it to themselves to watch and listen. And stay tuned to the end for the final review score.

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Sleebs Says: The Silent Hill predecessors always share and explore a common message. With Homecoming, such a traditional narrative stays strong. The series itself is riddled with themes and psychological meanings that the protagonist is meant to unravel. Much akin to its counterpart, Silent Hill 2, there’s a morbid underlying motif of expedition that the main character is inevitably called to the city of Silent Hill with a specific reason just below the visible surface. And as dumbfounded as we are, we know just as much or as little as our main character.

In Homecoming, you take control of Alex Shephard, a soldier who comes back from the recent war. Quickly, you’re sent right into the hospital, strapped into a bed, with a screaming Alex, who has no recollection what he’s just gone through. We soon discover that Alex’s primary objective throughout this game is his concern over his missing younger brother, Josh. Chaos starts nearly right away, and you’re forced to defend yourself seconds into the game. Much unlike the previous games, Homecoming starts with an impending attack; whereas, in previous titles, the game creepishly descends into a hellish nightmare that does little to nothing and yet still messes with your nerves. It’s that foreboding feeling that something will happen, and you experience the worst. Homecoming catapults you right into the nightmare. It doesn’t punish the player all too early with frightening action, but takes a moment to heighten your fears, which is a nod to prior build-ups.

This is the first time that a Silent Hill game was made on the Western front, so the Japanese developers took a back seat on this one. It’s an obvious attempt to recreate the Eastern makers’ intentions and has an honorable salute to the ideas of the other games, but the thing that is quite noticeable and stands out is that a lot of the game is actually inspired from the recent Silent Hill film made back a few years. The Silent Hill film nurses reprise their role in Homecoming as the awkwardly sexy nurses who are forever bound to clutching knives. Even when the world changes to the alternate, bloody and rustic world of Silent Hill, it incorporates the exact transformation of worlds from the film. Another worthy note is that such a transformation is no longer held in the constraints of a cut-scene. When the real world transforms, it does so in real time game-play, where the earlier games would automatically turn into cut-scenes to show such a change. Walls and floors melt into disgusting flesh, butchered in rusty metal. Ahh, Silent Hill, we missed you most distastefully.

Nevertheless, Homecoming never lowers its standards for what it is, and that is an adventure into the psyche of Alex Shephard. With the rest of the series, Alex, too, is called to Silent Hill during various sequences apart from visiting his hometown of Shephard’s Glen, a town not too far from Silent Hill. And now the weirdness is happening with Alex’s hometown, and he’s got many questions that need to be answered. However, upon visiting his own home and his mother, he soon understands that Josh, his younger brother, has disappeared, and Alex begins his unrelenting journey for answers.

Oddly enough, the only other inhabitants Alex meets up with is Judge Halloway, who is found at the City Hall, a childhood friend named Elle, and a few others. When having conversations with other persons, the developers behind the latest game decided to spice it up a little and have alternate, optional conversation queues, similar to Bioware’s Mass Effect. Although while this does leave you wondering what if you chose the opposite statement, it only leads to one conclusion of the conversation and feels unnecessary to its narrative if the conversation always ends the same. It’s a ploy to add more curiosity for the player, but never as deep as conversational strategies like in Mass Effect or Fahrenheit; therefore, feeling uselessly tacked on.

What I found even more odd from my own personal opinion is that when Alex has the liberty to speak with other people occasionally, he seems to be asking a lot of the wrong questions. While he is on a hunt for his missing sibling, that seems to be the only thing on his mind, rarely does he ask about what’s going on around him, nor does he demand much answers about why things exist the way they do. What I found the most disturbing of all is that while I had Alex search his home, I found the basement filled with water and I was attacked from this creature inhabiting the water. Mind you, Alex’s mother is sitting upstairs in her rocking chair apparently having no clue what’s down in the basement. After my fight with the creature, Alex makes no mention to his mother about what he just fought down in the basement. It’s not rocket science, but wouldn’t you ask what the hell that was in your own home?

A major issue with the game is its lighting. In other games, you had a flashlight with you for the entire game, which lit up the way for you rather easily showing you what was in front of you, and very well at that. Homecoming seems to actually suffer from this. With the flashlight on, and while you’re in a long corridor, you won’t be able to see anything visible in front of you unless you just keep walking forward. I found this a very horrible problem because when coming up against a wall and walking into it, the flashlight made apparent harsh reflections of light, just like how it would in real life when putting a flashlight up against a wall or carpet just inches away. However, when faced with a dark corridor, out in the open, with the light on, you can’t see a single thing. After manually adjusting the brightness of the game to max, there were still issues; an obvious flaw in the development of the game.

Although it does stamp the name Silent Hill on the front of the game with valor in many respects, there is a certain aesthetic to its history that does not deserve to be altered to become a contemporary gimmick with recent games on the market. For the first time, Silent Hill Homecoming introduces quick time events during game-play. While button mashing at key moments is a particular interest to many, it’s an unnecessary add-on to this game that serves little purpose, which in fact, takes me out of the game knowing that there’s a colorful button on my screen telling me to push, in contrast to the dark gray and brown palette of the environments that I’m supposed to be lost in.

The inventory system stays true with previous games, with a little change that turns out to be one major issue than a luxury. They implemented a hot key function to the inventory so once the inventory is opened with pushing the appropriate button, you move the cursor to highlight a certain item. If there is a highlighted item still on the inventory menu upon clicking the inventory button again to go back to the game, it automatically uses or equips what you just highlighted. This is an issue mostly for when you open your tab for healing items and you look at what you have. I’ve found myself accidentally using more health items when I didn’t need them than actually use them. What was wrong with the “Are you sure?” prompt in other and much older games that conveniently made me confirm my action before making it? It may be a hassle to constantly confirm your decisions in other games many times, but it’s definitely quite safer than accidentally using an item you didn’t want to – especially if it’s a limited first aid kit when I already had three-fourths health intact.

The game-play mechanics remain almost the same except now Alex is able to dodge attacks. I suppose it’s a feature that was implemented a little smarter than other ideas for the game. Understanding that Alex is a man of war, he’s capable of doing such moves as an alternate way of defending himself. And some of the moves that Alex can do are helpful in some situations when held up against multiple enemies at once, and after performing a roll to sidestep an attack, with appropriate strategy, he can counterattack quite devastatingly. There was one thing to notice during a fight with many enemies at once, is that it seems if you’re targeting a specific enemy, the remaining enemies don’t attempt to attack until you target them, which is a strange change. However, I suppose to keep it a little less overwhelming in combat, there had to be some balance to it. Another good game-play function is that not every weapon is most successful against the enemy. A slow, heavy axe may be the worst weapon you could use against a nurse because they’re fast with their daggers and leaving yourself completely vulnerable to repetitive attacks from them, which can seriously lower your health in a matter of seconds. Homecoming’s smart tactical fighting encounters are present much more abundantly than the other games. The player has to think about which weapon to use against the enemy. The idea was also used in past games, but not as transparent.

Akira Yamaoka, the Japanese composer for all the other Silent Hill games, comes back to the musical seat in Homecoming to bust out another album, which is top notch as for music. His unique attention to different styles and instruments mixed together reminds us of a perturbed, delicate mentality infused with sounds of the industrial and the fragile. The singer Mary Elizabeth McGlynn comes back for a fourth game, always bringing wonderful life with vocals from time to time.

The strongest area of this game is arguably its story, underneath its flaccid exterior. While on the surface, it may not be generally understood and well accepted, but it was admirable for its attempt to recreate a direction that Silent Hill 2 is so famous for. Homecoming’s important detail is about the strength and weaknesses of the foundations with the family. It was a favorable representation of elements with war, and explores the dysfunction of the family, that can ultimately mold a child into a problematic upbringing. It goes much deeper with the human emotions of love, fear, hatred, and compassion and the psychological impact between the bonds that each parent has with his son. All of which encircle the mentality of our protagonist Alex Shephard, which gives reason for the things he has to experience in order to understand the truth. In the end, however, while the strength of it was to build a foundation of such elements, it was executed rather weakly throughout, leaving unappealing art direction, dimensional-less supporting characters, and lightly inspired principles that made Silent Hill 2 so strong.

Grade: C+

The Forgotten Games of 2008

Andrew Weymes (aka MrWeymes) Says: With 2008 coming to a close, it's easy to forget about all of the excellent games that were released earlier in the year that you have yet to play. This holiday season is packed with games competing for your hard earned cash. Games like Resistance 2, Little Big Planet, Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, Valkyria Chronicles, and Prince of Persia are probably some of the latest games that are on gamer’s minds. This holiday rush of games is going to overshadow the majority of excellent games made in 2008, primarily because they are fresh in people’s minds. However, a lot of great games were made in 2008, and shouldn't be overlooked. Many of the games listed below are on sale for a discounted price to compete with recent games.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot (Playstation 3, Xbox 360)
Condemned 2 is the sequel to Condemned: Criminal Origins, which was an Xbox 360 exclusive. Condemned 2 is unlike many of the first person games released in 2008, because it's not primarily a shooter. Although you acquire a few guns in the game, most of the combat is done with your fists, or melee weapons such as pipes, and bricks. The combat is rather enjoyable, as well as brutal, the graphics are very nice, the story is well told, and there is a strong horror vibe to the game, so fans of horror should enjoy this game.

Dark Sector (Playstation 3, Xbox 360)
It's a bit of a mystery as to why this game didn't receive more attention from gamers. Dark Sector features a very similar control scheme to Gears of War, or Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. You press a button to run to cover, use the analog stick to pop around the corner, etc. The main difference between this game and Gears of War is the glaive. The main character in Dark Sector is a man named Hayden, and his primary weapon is the glaive, which you acquire early in the game. The glaive is like a three-sided boomerang with blades on it. You're able to throw the glaive at your enemies, cutting off any limbs in your path. You're even able to control the glaive itself in slow motion as you guide it towards the specific limb of your enemy that you would like to amputate. While the story in Dark Sector isn't the best told in the world, neither is Gears of War. The action in Dark Sector is very fun, and if you're a gore hound, Dark Sector certainly won't disappoint. This is actually one of the cheapest games on this list. It's being sold for an insulting $19.99 new in many video game stores.

Eternal Sonata (Playstation 3, Xbox 360)
Although Eternal Sonata has been out since 2007 on the Xbox 360, it has recently been ported to the Playstation 3, therefore it qualifies for this list. Eternal Sonata is an action-RPG set in the mind of Frederick Chopin. It features an enjoyable combat system, an interesting story for the most part, and an amazing art style. The graphics are technically well done, but the art style is absolutely gorgeous. If you absolutely despise anime as an art style, then you will hate looking at Eternal Sonata, but if you're one of the many anime fans out there, there is no better game than Eternal Sonata when it comes to replicating the anime art style. The combat is relatively easy, and there aren't many side quests to speak of, so it's a rather short game. Despite this, Eternal Sonata is a worthwhile RPG, and can be found at a discount for the Xbox 360. The Playstation 3 version is still at full price, but it comes with many bonus features such as new characters available for your party.

Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360)
Lost Odyssey has to be one of the most under rated games of the year. It's a classic turn based, Japanese RPG. The story of Lost Odyssey is a rather interesting one. It starts off great, and lulls a bit at the end, but overall it's very engaging. The characters suffer from some RPG standards such as having a quiet tough guy, a comedian, the big breasted woman, the annoying kids, etc, but if you give the game time, the characters are actually well developed over the course of the journey. As stated above, the combat is strictly turn based. If you don't like taking turns with your enemies in JRPGs, then you won't like Lost Odyssey. However, if turn based combat is your thing, there isn't much to dislike. Character, and enemy design is top notch, and the graphics as a whole are impressive. There are many side quests in this game, so if you're the hardcore type, expect to play upwards of 80 hours. Lost Odyssey is an excellent JRPG, and it's a pity that it didn't get the attention it deserved.

Sega Superstars Tennis (Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Wii)
As the name bluntly points out, Sega Superstars Tennis is all about various Sega characters playing tennis, as well as participating in tennis themed mini games. It features a respectable amount of characters to choose from: ranging from the beloved Sonic to the lesser known Beat from Jet Grind Radio. While the tennis itself is enjoyable for a while, it's the mini games that really make the game. All of the mini games are inspired by classic Sega games. For example, instead of killing zombies with a gun in the House of the Dead mini game, you repel them back to the grave with tennis balls. This may sound lame, but it's not. It's a good time. The Puyo Pop mini game is worth the purchase alone. In addition, there is a lot of multiplayer fun to have with this game.

Silent Hill: Homecoming (Playstation 3, Xbox 360)
When Silent Hill fans heard that Team Silent wasn`t developing Silent Hill: Homecoming, expectations for the game dropped dramatically. It was met with generally positive reviews from critics, with most scores ranging from a 6 out of 10, all the way up to a 9 out of 10. The main problem for fans of the series with Silent Hill: Homecoming is that it shares more in common with the theatrical film than the previous games in the series. For those that enjoyed the film, this may not be a problem. Much like the film, the game focuses on a cult. It`s obvious that Silent Hill: Homecoming was based off of the film in many ways, because many of the effects such as transitioning between the foggy Silent Hill, and the hellish Silent Hill look as though they were ripped straight from the film. The combat system is entirely different than it was in previous games. You are able to dodge, and perform finishers. This may be a bit of a turn off for long time fans, but others may find the new combat system to be a breath of fresh air. The graphics are above average, and the enemy and boss design, are particularly impressive. It may not be the best survivor horror ever made, but it’s certainly worth a play through for fans of the genre.

Siren: Blood Curse (Playstation 3)
Siren: Blood Curse, or Siren: New Translation in Asia is a rather dated survival horror game available for download on PSN, or available on Blu Ray disk if you import. Although the game is rather dated by 2008 standards when it comes to the controls, it’s an enjoyable game for survival horror fans. If you still enjoy games like the original Resident Evil games, or Silent Hill games, then you will probably find something to like about Siren: Blood Curse. Besides the sight jacking mechanic, which allows you to view surroundings through the eyes of your enemies, and others, the control scheme is very similar to classic survival horror games mentioned above. The story is interesting, although a little confusing, and despite the archaic controls, the graphics are actually pretty good. Character, and enemy design is among the top in the genre, and if you can get past the controls, there are a good amount of scares to be had in Siren: Blood Curse.

Turok (Playstation 3, Xbox 360)
If you`re the type of person that fantasizes about killing dinosaurs in a first person perspective, then you can`t really go wrong with Turok. It would have been nice if Turok received a little more polish from the developers. Some of the texturing is down right sad, and there are some clipping issues, but it`s an above average looking game overall. If you`re not experienced in playing first person shooters, some of the enemies may drive you over the edge. You fight a lot of humans in Turok, and they all seem to possess amazing accuracy. If you`re a more experienced player, you shouldn`t have too much trouble. There are quite a few dinosaurs to slay throughout your journey including raptors, and a t rex. For each dinosaur, you have a different execution animation that you can trigger with your knife. These are all quite gory. Overall, nothing really separates Turok from every other first person shooter out there when you`re combating humans, but the dinosaurs really give the game a unique feel. Turok sells for relatively cheap on both consoles, and is the perfect game for someone who has always dreamt of slaughtering a helpless herbivore as they graze.

These are just a few of the games released in 2008 that are well worth your time. Many of these games are sold for a discounted price. It`s easy to get excited about new games, and to look ahead to the 2009 lineup, but just because a game is more recent than another doesn`t mean it`s better. Many of these games are among the top in their genre, and if you haven`t picked them up yet, now would be a good time.