One of the more interesting games I saw this year came from developer Konami. The front of their booth featured quite a bit of Dance Dance Revolution, but the reps I met with were more interested in having me see the products buried deeper in the booth. I ended up seeing two DS games and two Wii games in total, none of which were the newest Dance Dance Revolution, and one of which was the highly-anticipated Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the Wii. When I asked them, the rep responded that they were trying to do things differently, as well as appeal to people who could become new fans of the series.
A great number of people have asked this question, including at least one who approached the booth while my rep was showing me the game, so I’ll reiterate Konami’s stance here: Shattered Memories is not a remake of the original Silent Hill, but a re-imagining, and an elaborate one at that. The plot, at least to begin with, is similar: Harry Mason is looking for his daughter Cheryl after a car crash, and ends up wandering into the haunted town of Silent Hill, wherein he encounters some pretty horrible stuff. The game has seen a number of substantial changes, though, and they should change the title for the better.
One of the more touted features of Shattered Memories is the fact that the game is always watching the choices you make, and this includes a great number of choices. While I was watching Harry chase after Cheryl, he came to a split in the path, which allowed him to either look in some restrooms or go outside; depending on which path he took, something later in the game would change. I also received reports of cutscenes being changed, and characters acting differently, based on some relatively small choices you make during the course of the game, choices you’re not even aware you’re making. The rep told me that they were trying to get into the character’s head as accurately as they could, to scare them in the best possible way. This sounds awesome to me.
Graphically, the game could stand to look a little better; it’s running at a nice steady 60 FPS, but jaggies can still be seen on Harry Mason and in other places. The art direction is better, though; the town of Silent Hill looks convincingly abandoned and lonely, and watching the town freeze over, becoming the "other" Silent Hill, is a great visual treat. Storefronts ice over, lampposts freezer and crumple, and giant walls of ice shoot up to block you in.
The gameplay has seen some changes, as well. One major difference is that the development team is trying to remove backtracking as much as possible; if you encounter a puzzle, the solution is most likely in the immediate area. Additionally, there’s virtually no pop-up text if you inspect a diary or things like that; the necessary information will instead be scrawled upon a wall, or play as audio through the Wii Remote speaker, or some other place that doesn’t interrupt the flow of the game. You’ll use your flashlight to investigate your surroundings a lot, and the Wii Remote pointer controls work quite well so far. The radio comes into use as well; static will be heard, and sometimes seen on the edges of the screen, if danger is nearby, or if there is something hidden that you can investigate with your camera.
Another major change is the game’s combat; namely, there isn’t much to be seen. Early on in the game, Cheryl will warn you that you can’t fight the monsters, and that you have to run, which is exactly what you need to do; what she doesn’t tell you is that the monsters of Silent Hill are extremely good at chasing you. They will team up in groups of four or more, they will drag you out of your hiding places, and they will chase you all over that freaking town. Not to mention these folks are extremely fast; the rep was nearly dead when he finally reached an area that triggered a cutscene. It is never a good idea to presume you are safe in this town, because you are not.
Besides Silent Hill, Konami had a few other games to show me, though I didn’t get as much time with them. One of two DS games I played was Puzzle Chronicles, a game that seemed to be trying to marry Puzzle Quest gameplay with the structure of a traditional RPG. This combination of game styles also allows the player to level up how they choose, either by playing the game’s puzzles, or checking out the RPG-style quests. I only really got to see one puzzle game, so I don’t have as much to say about this title, but hopefully more information will surface before the game’s release in November.
Another upcoming title, for both DS and Wii, is Ant Nation, wherein you control an ant colony. In this game, aliens have landed on Earth and are doing bad things, and it’s up to your colony to grow strong enough to put a stop to it. One portion of the game has you digging underground to expand your colony, adding in chambers for strength training or breeding. In another portion of the game, you’ll be taking your ants above ground to explore your surroundings, and apparently to do horrible things to them to get them to obtain new resistances; setting them on fire, puzzlingly, will make them immune to fire. You’ll have to balance what ants get what immunities in order to cross the landscape and advance your cause, which apparently has small rivers of lava in its path.
The last game I got to see was a console title known as Zephyr: Rise of the Elementals. Basically you play as a Wind Warrior named Zephyr, who is tearing the world up in search of powerful orbs that can be fed to the space being known as Megaton. You’ll do so by turning yourself into a small tornado, destroying objects and absorbing them to get more powerful, which in turn allows you to absorb larger items, in a Katamari Damacy sort of progression. As you suck things up, you can uncover small fire sprites and absorb them as well, which allows you to add a point multiplier to your score, growing depending on how many of these sprites you absorb. This is the first phase, and from what I can see, the most interesting one. The second phase has you simply racing through gates, then the third and final phase of each level has you navigating an obstacle course so you can destroy the totems protecting the orb you’ve set your sights on. I didn’t get to try the game myself, but from what I saw, it looks to be decently designed, and if Katamari is any indication, this sort of gameplay doesn’t get old quickly. This particular title will drop in September.
I passed by some of the DDR games on my way out, but the longer lines threw me off, especially since I had another appointment to get to at the time, so this wraps up my impressions of Konami’s E3 offering. Keep watching the website to see what else was on display this year, from other companies.
I’ve never really played the Silent Hill games before, but I’m actually pretty stoked for this one.