Happy Halloween, everybody. As I mentioned last year, Halloween in Japan just isn’t the same. This year we (and by ‘we’, I mostly mean my three year old daughter) have spent most of the time listening to Disney’s 19-minute “Halloween Street” parade song, which we were unfortunately exposed to at Disneyland a few weeks back. It’s actually only about 4 (contrived) verses which are repeated over and over, but every other repetition is a chance for another Disney character to sing along as he or she rolls by on a float. It’s difficult to get a proper pumpkin here so we didn’t even make a jack-o-lantern (though my daughter did attend a costume party or two, which is at least close in spirit).
So to get in the Halloween mood, I booted up Silent Hill: Shattered Memories this evening. My good friend Casey already reviewed this game for me, but his review was pretty fascinating and I’ve wanted to play for quite a while. You might remember that I played this game at TGS in 2009 and was a bit disappointed. The bit I played last year was a “run away from flesh monsters” segment, which is how Shattered Memories deals with its frozen, icy version of the Otherworld. It was super frustrating because I had no idea where I was going and couldn’t seem to shake the Wiimote the right way to get the monsters off when they grabbed me. I figured it was an early build.
So I put a few hours in this evening and made it to that same spot. The bad news is, that build I played wasn’t as early as I suspected; the bare-bones menus are part of the whole menu style, and the throw-off controls are still pretty hard to do. Actually, there’s only two that are hard to do: getting grabbed on the left side or the right side. I’ve played a couple of different Otherworld sections at this point and it’s unclear to me if they want me to move both the Wiimote and the nunchuck, or just the nunchuck. Sometimes the nunchuck seems to work alone, but for those side-grabbing dudes, I am often entirely unable to get them off. Swinging the wiimote is a problem because it causes the camera to swing out of whack, which is exactly what you don’t want when trying to run through a disorienting frozen maze.
Let me back up for a second. Everything else about Shattered Memories is pretty great. I dig the control scheme, the over-the-shoulder camera works pretty well (although I still weep for the death of the Silent Hill 2 / 3 camera system; ah well, times have changed), the graphics are slick and the game design seems to be really awesome. Most importantly, it feels more like a Silent Hill game than anything I’ve played recently. Even though a whole lot has changed, the feeling of isolation and slowly increasing stress that is the series’ signature is here in force, and I’m pretty impressed with it already.
It’s just that, the whole thing is horribly marred by the run-away sections. I played through the intro all dazzle-eyed and then got to that first running otherworld section and died about 20 times. I couldn’t find the exit, couldn’t figure out how to shake dudes off, and couldn’t properly knock things down behind me to slow them down. The game is like, “oh, just use your GPS to figure out where you are going,” but there’s no time for that. Stopping or even slowing down to pull out the map results in flesh monsters jumping you, and should you be so unlucky as to get grabbed on the left or right side, it’s probably game over right there.
We’ll see how it works out. I have high hopes for this one, as Casey liked it so much and the other parts of the game seem so well done. Maybe I’m just doing something wrong. But in the worst case, this could turn out to be like Cursed Mountain, in which one of the key Wiimote gestures just doesn’t register 60% of the time, thus almost ruining the game.
I loved shattered memories, it’s probably my favorite Silent Hill game just after SH3. But the run sequences can be very frustrating. I found that my first instinctive reaction to getting grabbed is to flail wildly in the direction that’s shown. But that doesn’t work too well. It seems that it’s easier to get them of when you suppress your instinct to flail and try to make more subtle movements. I dunno if that helps at all.
I’m sure you’ve figured this out already, but never use hiding places. The ability to look over your shoulder is a very interesting mechanic, but it’s useless, so don’t use that either. If you do use the GPS, always make sure to expand to the large map, so that it pauses the game (I’m sure you already knew that). Don’t “ration” your flares either. I was used to other SH games where you have to save your items til you really need them, but I’ve found that you usually need the flares shortly after you get them.
The monsters ARE faster than you running in a straight line. But they are much slowly than you at making turns and climbing over obstacles.
The chase sequences are annoying, but they actually have a surprising amount of depth if you ever get good enough/brave enough to experiment around with them (but that’s not something to do on your 1st playthrough).
Which Chase are you stuck on? The hospital one was really hard for me. Just don’t give up. Getting to the end of this awesome game is worth every bit of frustration IMO.
The best way to handle the shake-offs is to completely avoid shaking the controls. One firm tug in whichever direction will usually toss them off in one shot.
After I figured this out the frustration factor was severely reduced.
…and it’s got the best twist ending in the series since SH2, so yeah.
Also, I’m kinda curious, how come Japanese didn’t turn Halloween into a blood-chilling and heart-stopping feast of pale, crackling ghosts?
Like Plagued said, you just need a single “tug” (or two) to remove creatures no matter which side they grab you from. Don’t shake the remote or nunchuck. Also, I don’t recall changing the orientation of the controllers, keep them pointing at the TV. The way I did it was to imagine I was holding a piece of paper, one hand on each side, I would just juke the paper (wiimote and nunchuck) towards the creature holding me and it would fall off. And by not twisting/tilting the wiimote, when you finish that juke you’ll still be about centered and not rotating the camera once you are moving again. I didn’t experiment to see if it’s really necessary to juke the nunchuck too, I just did both controllers at once and it worked for me.
Yep, those chases are pretty weak sauce, but the rest of the game makes up for it. I am fairly sure you only need to shake the nunchuck a couple times in the direction you are getting attacked. As Ijbad said, completely ignore hiding spots. They are just frustrating death traps. Always keep moving, even if it means doubling back around the map, which will probably happen anyway because you will get lost. A lot.
http://www.gamescares.com
Glad to see you all feel the same way as me about this game, the chase sequences are pish, which is a real shame because the rest of the game is a creepy, twisted piece of entertainment.
I never got around to finish it because of the god awful chase sequences, the dodgy controls and getting lost in same looking environments ruined it for me, I will probably return to it to see how it ends, but yeah, they really didn’t test those sections enough…
Good news is that there’s only 6 such chase sequences in the game, and not all of them are all that bad.
Gotta agree with everyone else that the chase sequences were lame, but I think I’m the only SH fan that despised the game for plenty of other reasons.
The psychological tests are neat, but mostly just a gimmick and I felt they broke (what little) atmosphere the game has built up. Also aside from the ending (which I admit was pretty brilliant) I found the rest of the story to be pretty bland and mostly irrelevant.
I think the biggest problem though was that the game just isn’t scary, even a little. The first chase you do is slightly tense (slightly, but still not scary) but even before that one is over they’re more of a chore than something that gets your adrenaline pumping.
But then, I am the guy that loves SH4 so I’m probably just weird.
Over on ign forums, a poster wrote up some interesting things he’d found while experimenting with the chase sequences. I thought it might be worth posting what he said here.
Indy83 said: “You can zoom in on your gps, and draw a path to follow that shows up on your gps, that you can look at once you lose the monsters (yes, you can lose them).
The game has subtle design hints as to which door to take is the correct one. Such as exit signs, or all lines in a scene strongly corresponding with a vanishing point that would be behind the door, more interesting scenery etc.
The game employs ‘pacman’esque mechanics.
The monsters are faster than harry in straight lines. They will ALWAYS catch you if you simply run.
Harry is faster at turning, and is also faster at clearing any obstacle, being it crawling under an overhang climbing a wall, or jumping a gap. Harry can be made to ge even faster by waggling while hes performing an action.
Needless to say, avoid straight runs, and seek out obstacles to overcome to put distance between you and the baddies.
Turning off the flashlight also helps lose the baddies, and makes it harder for them to find you once you lose them, of course, it also makes it hard to see….
Once you lose the baddies they go into search mode. Where they actually look for harry using simulated senses of sight and sound. If your flashlight is off, they likely wont see you from far away. Also, avoid slamming doors as they will home in on loud sounds.
THis is when the game gets really interesting and WAY freakier to play.
THese things will go EVERYWHERE looking for harry, on catwalks, on rooftops, under the ice, crawl over the windows when you are inside, on top of ceiling supports inside a room.
They use the sewers as fast travel shortcuts and pop out of storm drains.
And the liklihood of running into them unexpected skyrockets. Makes the game a million times more entertaining.
You can also see them on your gps, and hear where they are from the static, and you finally have the time to actually look a some of the scenery…. WHich is VERY visually engaging (and also holds clues on where to go).”
I haven’t really experimented enough w/ the chases scenes to know if this guy is right.
For mi the problem with the chase scenes is that they are not fully integrated in the game. I generally runned thru’ them fast, and didn’t play them thoroughly. They may be deeper than they seem, but they look like an obstacle in the game to pass as sooner the better. I didn’t find them tood dificult, too.
I expected something more like Forbidden Siren, where actually yo get to think your strategies for avoiding the foes. For me this Silent Hill plays like two different games in one.
I also found it more than scary. It was a mixture between horror, solitude, melancholy… The game is always making you think about lost youth, decadence, sins of the past, and makes you feel a lot of things if you are not looking for cheap scares. It’s a kind of horror not different from Silent Hill 2. And this is what makes the game worth for me.
danielwkelly.com/blog
Well, me and a friend played this game and I was hugely disappointed in the game mechanics. I’ve expressed my own opinions on the game and explained how I ‘cheated’ my way through the nightmare scenarios at the very end of the blog post (second to last paragraph), so if you just want to get them over with and end the frustration, this might help:
http://danielwkelly.com/blog/2010/videogames/silent-hill-shattered-memories-i-feel-cheated-because-i-had-to-cheat/
http://templeofandrex.com
I don’t even care if it’s their own original horror IP, but Climax needs to get another shot at making a game with this template. Shattered Memories 2 or whatever, it doesn’t matter. The game gets so many things right it proves how much talent Climax has if they’re able to freely use it.
I got through the first nightmare scene after about 10 tries but haven’t bothered to pick this one up again. I was more or less furious at the developers. What were they thinking? I find it hard to believe that more than a very few gamers actually enjoy both very different styles of gameplay featured in this game, and Climax should have figured that out. I hated the first chase scene but really enjoyed the game up to that point. Pity. Will probably try again someday though.
I got through the first nightmare scene after about 10 tries but haven’t bothered to pick this one up again. I was more or less furious at the developers. What were they thinking? I find it hard to believe that more than a very few gamers actually enjoy both very different styles of gameplay featured in this game, and Climax should have figured that out. I hated the first chase scene but really enjoyed the game up to that point. Pity. Will probably try again someday though.
I don’t even care if it’s their own original horror IP, but Climax needs to get another shot at making a game with this template. Shattered Memories 2 or whatever, it doesn’t matter. The game gets so many things right it proves how much talent Climax has if they’re able to freely use it.
My bad. tags.
I have to say, chase sequences aside, this is the title that has truly given me hope for the series again.
Halloween in Japan is certainly a unique experience as you detailed in your article, although I had little basis for comparison as Halloween isn’t celebrated so much here in Australia as it is in the states. I spent Halloween in Japan last year and found the wait time for what was delivered with the Nightmare before Christmas Ghost Train unforgivable, but I disagree with your disdain regarding the repetition of the Halloween street parade song, the repetition created a rather haunting experiencing when coupled with the brilliant dancers and performers(at least it was at night, after a yard glass or two).