Zero Punctuation: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

[Twitchy Racoon]

hey yahtzee, I remember you said awhile ago on twitter that you were going to jump off a plain (skydiving I hope) but you said it wasnt going to be that day cuz there was to much wind. Did you end up doing it afterwards, and if you did, is it fun, or at least worth it?

 

[GLo Jones]

The pink dress line actually made me lol, which hasn't happened in a while on ZP. Very funny, well done.

 

[Kwatsu]

The conga line of monsters reminded me of Shamus Young hilarious review / roast of Silent Hill Origins:

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1967

 

[RDubayoo]

Have to agree with most of the points Yahtzee made, but I disagree that this was a "good" experience. I walked away from Shattered Memories wondering why I bothered playing the game. It never scared me, and rarely surprised me. Searching for random trinkets was utterly pointless and boring, and the monsters were annoying rather than terrifying. And as for the psychological profiling, well, if you know the game is "playing you," then it can't play you anymore. You'll know the game is trying to test you and respond accordingly.

I do admire the developers for trying something different, but this style of gameplay has already run out of steam, and I hope that this is the last Silent Hill to use this style. It's just disjointed and not fun or scary.

 

[Grand_Marquis]

Holy shit, two not-entirely-negative reviews in a row??? What the hell is going on HERE?!
Strangely accurate points, though - my opinion of the game was eerily similar.

 

[ward.]

Haven't laughed this hard in a long time.

 

[Nemu]

"Oh fuck, a pink dress! Shit's getting reeeal!"

Oh god...

I loled...


and loled...

and loooooled...

bwahahaha

 

[hcig]

Holy shit, two not-entirely-negative reviews in a row??? What the hell is going on HERE?!
Strangely accurate points, though - my opinion of the game was eerily similar.

dude, thats actually three in a row

two of them wii games

 

[hcig]

I originally complained about how the ice world was blue. It *is* a calming color. I also complained about how it didn't look like a true Silent Hill game, without gore.

But I disagree with the "no weapons" thing. If you were in a horror situation, you would try to find a weapon. Running around without one is actually less realistic. Most people wouldn't be pacifists when demons are trying to kill them. He could at least get a pipe or a baseball bat. Sure, being weaponless might be more scary, but it's less realistic.

well, there are two things here:
1. the blue was most definitely meant to offset the atmosphere, to creep you out (think of why a clown is creepy. colorful, happy, silly, but ultimately a mind rapist) the problem is, they didnt get it quite right, which is upsetting, because the game ended up only being horror to people with issues related to the story.

interestingly, near the end, there is a moment where everything felt right (when you leave your apartment) there, despite the cool and calm environment, you cant help feel disturbed by the alice in wonderland type anomalies, a little more of that would have made the game miles better, i mean, think about eternal darkness, the game's sanity effects were what gave it its horrible charm, they didnt need half birthed babies hanging from gooey vagina monsters to freak you out.

2.in a horror situation, you would think grabbing a weapon and fighting stuff off would be the smart thing, but its NOT, that should be a last resort, they actually had weapons in the game (that you pick up and use once like the flare) but they found playtesters would get combative, hold their ground, take out one shock, then die from a mob attacking him, even when gaming, your instinct can get the better of you, and in harry's case, he isnt fighting a dog, or a rabid raccoon, they are fleshy monsters, he has NO idea how to fight them off, or what could kill them (maybe they cant be killed?) so he must flee.

remember when you watched a jason movie, and someone (the jock) would always get brave, and pick up a weapon to kill jason with, only for it to not effect him at all, resulting in that guy's brutal death? yea, its like that. dont screw with things you know nothing about, and your brain knows that, and so your flight mechanism is much better for a situation that your fight mechanism

 

[hcig]

I was hoping it would be have been better I would have loved to seen Yahtzee "remove three of his vertebra, peel his spine back and eat his own ass."

that doesnt apply, it was in reference to "the next" as in, whatever the latest one was (i think it was homecoming) he even announced in that review that he wouldnt have to eat his ass, the bet has been off now for like, a year

 

[Taneer]

It was a cool review, and definitely interesting, but he never really stated whether or not he liked the game. I don't expect him to give numeric scores, obviously, but at least something to tell me whether or not the game was, in his opinion, worth the $(Whatever amount of money he paid).

Personally, I've played the game, and while it wasn't exactly terrifying or traumatizing, it was amazing at putting you in the right mindset, to the point that you practically scare yourself.

 

[13lackfriday]

A decent horror game that has absolutely no horror at all...Oh dears.

 

[Agh-a-meme-knottle]

One of my favorite things about the internet is when clicking reload on a page causes a post to be sent twice. This post, for example, which used to read exactly the same as the next one. How thoroughly fascinating and rewarding this post is. Be sure to read them all.

 

[Agh-a-meme-knottle]

I'd certainly give YC's review a better grade than he'd give it if it were written by someone else.

One thing I'm still pondering, perhaps because of the slice of my forehead hanging from the Winnebago of that chatty hydrocephaloid with an iPhone:

Isn't it possible the Wii version's more sanitized than the ones on PSP and PS2? Aren't the Wii versions of survival horror games typically the most censored? Truthfully, I haven't been following this because I'd given up on post-Japan Silent Hill sequels and remakes, but from what I recall of other games (like the noble yet restrained Manhunt 2), the version for Wii is usually the most adult-unfriendly. Is it possible that the corporate blue color and other aspects of misplaced tranquility in this remake are specific to the Wii?

I fully expect to be proved wrong about this, but a man can dream, for the love of Peter Joel Witkin (who was playing with corpses in naughty photos at around the time the first SH game was confected).

 

[RelexCryo]

I originally complained about how the ice world was blue. It *is* a calming color. I also complained about how it didn't look like a true Silent Hill game, without gore.

But I disagree with the "no weapons" thing. If you were in a horror situation, you would try to find a weapon. Running around without one is actually less realistic. Most people wouldn't be pacifists when demons are trying to kill them. He could at least get a pipe or a baseball bat. Sure, being weaponless might be more scary, but it's less realistic.

well, there are two things here:
1. the blue was most definitely meant to offset the atmosphere, to creep you out (think of why a clown is creepy. colorful, happy, silly, but ultimately a mind rapist) the problem is, they didnt get it quite right, which is upsetting, because the game ended up only being horror to people with issues related to the story.

interestingly, near the end, there is a moment where everything felt right (when you leave your apartment) there, despite the cool and calm environment, you cant help feel disturbed by the alice in wonderland type anomalies, a little more of that would have made the game miles better, i mean, think about eternal darkness, the game's sanity effects were what gave it its horrible charm, they didnt need half birthed babies hanging from gooey vagina monsters to freak you out.

2.in a horror situation, you would think grabbing a weapon and fighting stuff off would be the smart thing, but its NOT, that should be a last resort, they actually had weapons in the game (that you pick up and use once like the flare) but they found playtesters would get combative, hold their ground, take out one shock, then die from a mob attacking him, even when gaming, your instinct can get the better of you, and in harry's case, he isnt fighting a dog, or a rabid raccoon, they are fleshy monsters, he has NO idea how to fight them off, or what could kill them (maybe they cant be killed?) so he must flee.

remember when you watched a jason movie, and someone (the jock) would always get brave, and pick up a weapon to kill jason with, only for it to not effect him at all, resulting in that guy's brutal death? yea, its like that. dont screw with things you know nothing about, and your brain knows that, and so your flight mechanism is much better for a situation that your fight mechanism

If you attempt to run away from a bear, it will outrun you and kill you. If you stand your ground, it might not do that. If you get a gun, you can simpy kill it despite what the bear *wants* to do. If you attempt to run from a tiger, it will kill you. If you stand your ground, it might not do that. If you have a gun, you can kill it despite what it *wants* to do. If you attempt to run from pretty much any predator, it will outrun and kill you. Predators rarely chase or atack something that holds it's ground. Even when they do, a gun will still kill them.

Explain this to me: Why, if the vast majority of predators in nature are fast enough to outrun us, would a supernatural predator be *slower* than us? It seems like two possibilities are reasonable to me:

A) You can kill it and survive.

B) You cannot kill it OR outrun it, since we can't outrun the vast majority of animal predators, what chance do we have of outrunning a supernatural being? In this scenario, you are guaranteed to die unless you can make the supernatural force happy some how, like convincing the greedy land developers to *not* build a casino/whorehouse on top of the Native American burial ground.

 

[MaltesePigeon]

First, you entertain me while I am drunk. Thank you
Second, you are what Vonnegut called a snarf. I think I said something about how great it would be if you recited what he thought a snarf was, and you came close with your toilet seat joke. Bravo.
Third, I finished Trilby's Notes today and I enjoyed it completely. Parsers are fun, I asked about sex, tits, and love and got this response: "I didn't understand love/sex/tits."

 

[Deef]

I hit with my Axe was released one hour before ZP, and it's been 20 minutes and ZP has nearly 50 more comments. But than again IHWMA only has 1.

But then again IHIWMA is terrible and not worth watching.

 

[TheEnglishman]

I hit with my Axe was released one hour before ZP, and it's been 20 minutes and ZP has nearly 50 more comments. But than again IHWMA only has 1.

But then again IHIWMA is terrible and not worth watching.

Well I've never watched the show, don't really know what it's about, but yeah, that was the message I was aiming for.

 

[archvile93]

I enjoyed that review, very funny. Seems to me though that the developers shifted the series from horror game to psychological thriller.