At first glance you may be quick to dismiss Shattered Memories as a half-hearted spin-off to a down-sliding franchising. Of course, you may also look at the fact that it's for the Wii and instantly presume it's a recycled game with Wii-mote controls added for extra effect. Resident Evil gave itself to the Wii for an on-rails shooter and also allowed the original to be updated with the new control scheme, so what's to stop Silent Hill from doing the same thing?
Thankfully Climax Group, the developers behind Shattered Memories, are the same people who brought us a competent PSP Silent Hill instalment with Origins. Although Origins didn't offer anything new, it still managed to capture the essence of Silent Hill in mood and theme, albeit with a tacky prequel plot that did little to add to the franchise. With Shattered Memories, Climax aim to shatter our memories of the original and much like the plots of the games, you need to look beneath the surface to see what's really going on.
Shattered Memories is not a port or a sequel, it's not even a remake - it's a "re-imagining" of the original game. By re-imagining, you can turn everything you thought you knew about it on its head.
The basic premise remains the same, you need to guide Harry Mason through the strange and twisted resort town of Silent Hill and search for his daughter, Cheryl. Along the way you'll encounter several familiar faces, such as the cop Cybil, the nurse Lisa, the twisted Dahlia and the good Dr. K. There will also be appearances from brand new characters, including a female bartender who may or may not have some relevance to the quest.
This time around, the town's alternate world is in the thick of an ice-age, with ice replacing the usual rust and grime that we're used to in the Otherworld. Each person usually perceives the town in a different way - Heather saw plenty of blood, James saw rust and decay and Harry originally saw a mixture of both rust and blood. Each vision said something symbolic about the characters' state of mind, so there's something seemingly cold about Harry and his quest this time around.
Ask yourself this - when you're stuck in a twisted town where no-one talks any sense and a host of strange monsters are chasing after you, no-doubt planning to put you in a cage and hang you up as part of the scenery, what do you do? That's easy, you run like hell. That's exactly what Harry Mason will be doing this time around. There's no combat at all in Shattered Memories, therefore you have to run for your life at every encounter. Like a girl? No, like any normal human being.