Review by: Brian Rowe

Ten years ago, a tragic car accident not only changed the horror genre forever, it set the bar at an unimaginable height. After tumbling down a spiral of sequels that failed to recapture the glory, Shattered Memories promised to break the cycle by forging a new path through the mythos of Silent Hill by re-imagining the original tale. Like its ancestor, Shattered Memories begins with a car accident. Harry Mason regains consciousness in the middle of a raging blizzard to find his young daughter, Cheryl, missing, but that is all the two games have in common.

The most distinctive change to the series – one that underscores the successes and failures of Shattered Memories – is a near-complete lack of combat. Veterans are already intimately familiar with the bleak, alternate reality of the Nightmare world in which evil things come out to play. Rust and grime have given way to thick waves of ice that twists the environments into labyrinthine homes for fleshy beasts that chase Harry with relentless ferocity. The line between Nightmare and reality was a blurry one in previous entries, but this is not the case in Shattered Memories. Blue waves of crackling ice wash over the terrain instantaneously and disappear just as quickly.

Without a single pipe or pistol in sight, the only option is to run with speed and agility that Harry’s predecessors (and alter ego) never knew. Each Nightmare is a maze of walls, gaps, and doors to navigate. Even while ramming forward at a desperate pace, you will never encounter a single loading screen, although there are moments of stuttering when the game is obviously trying to keep up. You must use the remote and nunchuck to topple shelves as you pass, and throw the predators when they cling to you. I say “when,” because the monsters’ speed and numbers increase with each Nightmare, to the point where you will be grabbed the moment you step through a door. This in turn makes you slower, easier to be caught, slower still… you see how this is going. With each Nightmare, fear gives way to aggravation.

The other side of Shattered Memories – the search for Cheryl - is ponderous by comparison. Harry’s trek through the snow-choked city will introduce you to a cast of curiously helpful and often disturbed characters, and a myriad of locations. I tip my hat to Climax for not making the hospital a focal point for once. Breaking into a high school and wandering through a closed mall in search of Cheryl struck me as ludicrous, but it all comes together in the end for a brain-churning conclusion. Much like its predecessors, Shattered Memories is best-appreciated in hindsight, when you have the corner-piece of a previously unsolvable puzzle to work from.