Silent Hill is dead. Someone shoot the refresh.

Well folks, it's hard to admit it when a good franchise dies. Or a fairly decent franchise with a top dog game, but you know where I'm getting. It's time to pull out the gun and shoot Silent Hill out of its misery, and having been a fan for so long and over so many years, it might as well be me. It had been pretty obvious since the fourth title that this was going nowhere. But Silent Hill's fifth instance (not 0rigins, mind you, that wasn't exactly great, but it wasn't god-awful either) and its newest bastard child, Shattered Memories, can be truly interpreted as the signs the final Seal is opened, and it's all downhill from here. Now let me make something perfectly clear: I have not played Shattered Memories. I know how the plot goes, I've seen others play and I've seen a few walkthroughs. But I know Silent Hill, and I know what isn't, and well, do the maths.

A tendency has manifested itself lately, in movies such as the new Star Trek, to "reset" franchises long gone in a vague attempt at resurrecting them from the dead. Instead of having everyone downloading the original works or remaking them, people seem to now opt for re-doing things. "This is how it would look like if I had thought of it today". Well, I didn't have much to say about the new Star Trek, although if you were at the theater with me, you probably heard me bitch and moan by the movie's end. The same goes for Silent Hill, sadly. Shattered Memories has been called a "refresh" on the series instead of a "remake". I call it a "reset". We all know any other game coming out will go by this one's standards, since Shattered Memories is now... "the modern first"... how did we get to this? Sit down for a while and keep an eye on the SPOILERS, child, I'll tell you.

Konami had a good thing going, back in the day where you could suggest things to people in video games without them trying it in real life, and without seven hundred and nineteen members of Mommies Against Video Games coming to TV to whine and spoil the ride for those of us who are actually sane. There were plenty of titles that made you play against all types of monster, shooting all that moved like bullets were being given away with gum, but very few had the gruesome, passive-aggressive hatred lying in Silent Hill. Back then, they introduced a simple story, not unlike those you have seen in plenty of horror movies throughout the years: death cult, missing child, hero daddy, yadda yadda yadda. On the surface, the game was plain like your breakfast porridge. It was only when you began to sit down and actually think a little about what you saw that the complexity behind the game began to unveil.

Its sequel is arguably the peak of the series. Once again, and perhaps more so than on the first title, not a single aspect of the game was left to chance: the monsters had meaning, the people had meaning, pretty much everything and anything you saw during the game was tied in with the idea they wanted to reveal, and the twist came as a true shock for many of us. The more you play it, if you did, the more you can tie in those messages. It was a work of crow-damned-video-game art. We aren't sure if Konami planned all of Silent Hill 2's tie-ins, but even if it didn't, there was enough material to establish a consistent, logical interpretation. And, of course, the prime aspect of the first game was maintained: ambiance. The town of Silent Hill. The fog, the dark, the noises, the unnerving soundtrack. As I see it, this is something other games of the same period never managed to pull.

On came Silent Hill 3, because something worth doing is worth doing three times. And because so many of the fans didn't truly grasp the meaning of the first game, thus needing a sequel that would provide an answer to all of those questions. It's still a Silent Hill, and still adored by many. Unfortunately, it would pretty much be the last instance you'd see of it. Because Konami thought something worth doing is also worth screwing. On came The Room.

I repeat this every time the game is mentioned, and this is how my friends know I have a problem. As a standalone game, The Room could've pulled it. As a part of Silent Hill, it looks like something made at the last minute to resemble the rest of his brothers and sisters from afar. That's probably because, this is exactly the case. The Room was made as a standalone, and only crammed into Silent Hill when Konami started fearing the game wouldn't stand on its own two feet. My questions: a) when in Silent Hill did we ever have ghosts attacking?, b) how is this Silent Hill if we never even go to Silent hill, and c) a limit to items that can be carried? No flashlight? No radio? I'm not saying that it's bad on its own, on the contrary, the game is fairly entertaining and has that delicious gruesomeness we usually go to Silent Hill to find, but it would've been a perfectly decent game on its own. In order to cram it into the series, they picked one of the most farfetched missing links the history of Silent Hill ever had: a guy who killed himself with a spoon in prison, whom we only know from Silent Hill 2.

0rigins... was odd. With Silent Hill 5 already in the making, and the clear notion that this was not only a prequel but borrowed greatly from the asinine movie adapted from the series, we the fanpeople expected the worst. It was actually much more decent than either The Room or the fifth title, as I see it. Because... this is Silent Hill! We're in the town, puzzles must be solved, enemies must be avoided, and we can walk around with fourteen portable TVs and nine toasters in the same menu. It's actually an improvement from its predecessor. Hell, I can even live with the fact Travis can sucker-punch his foes and we have control over the swap between the normal town and Dark Silent Hill. While the game looks rather incomplete - you can easily see a lot was scrapped from the original plans - it was still good to play. And crow knows it had critics: the presence of the Butcher as an attempt to duplicate the success made with Pyramid Head actually makes sense from the story's perspective: James had Pyramid Head because he needed a punisher, and Travis has the Butcher because that is what haunts him! It surely made a lot more sense that Pyramid-chan's appearance in the fifth.

And oh crow, the fifth! Again, Konami missed the hole by about a mile and a half with this one. Pyramid Head's appearance was pure catering to fans, ultimately destroying any sense the entity might've made in the past. Again, most of the game isn't spent in the town of Silent Hill. Like with The Room, the connections to the series are so tiny you only very briefly heard about them. And while I do accept Travis' emotional luggage in 0rigins as rather well-made, Alex Shepherd's is so in the face it ends up not being fun at all. It's a half-assed game, with half-assed motivations and a half-assed plot, on a series of games well-known for its character depths, its amazing ambience and its near-flawless plots. I hated it.

And so we reach Shattered Memories on a long line of major titles released in the franchise. Where do I begin...?

Up first, and with just E3 information to base my claims on, I thought I would criticize a lot of things. No combat, the fact that it's a "refresh", no monster variety, loss of a lot of depth, the works. But it's way worse than I figured. This is not a refresh, it's the ultimate death of the mystery.

All this history of the town of Silent Hill as a holy place, the cult, Alessa, it's all gone. The ambiance is gone, there is no longer a lingering, passive-aggressive hatred, no uneasiness anymore. The fog is gone, and has been replaced by icebergs that spawn out of nowhere - a very aggressive change if I may say so myself. All that underlying bit that made a name for Silent Hill has been tossed aside like yesterday's diapers. But wait. We haven't gotten to the worst part. Sure, the game has a lot of problems... the puzzles are rather nice at times, with a few (very simple) heads-up to the original title (replacing the piano puzzle, which was the cross of many Silent Hill players up to then, with a toy piano puzzle. Ingenious or proof that the more mankind evolves, the dumber they get?)... the lack of combat seems to be a standard in horror games these days, more and more. Seems "get out of dodge" is a more likely reaction to something horrifying than "I beat it with my lead pipe!". Still, most original characters are there, even if simply to take a nod at the original game. This seems like a game made out of inside jokes between Silent Hill fans... maybe that's exactly what it's supposed to be, I figured, and that's not as bad as just another shitty title.

After a while watching, though, I just assumed they were just poking fun at the original game.

Dahlia, chief of the Silent Hill cult and mother to Alessa? A punkish high-schooler. Kaufmann, another high-profile member of the cult and responsible for the traffic of the drug White Claudia? Your psychiatrist, actually trying to help you. Nurse Lisa has one of the worse cameos ever thought of for a "refreshed" character. There is no Alessa. What the fuck am I looking at here?!

And then the epic twist Konami seems to have decided to include in every single Silent Hill since fans went batshit bonkers with the second title: it's all in Cheryl's head. The ice, Harry Mason's quest, all things happening in town, everything is in Cheryl's head. Yeah, it seems they accepted the worst ending of the original title as canon and Harry died in that car crash, and then his daughter hallucinated the rest on the course of several years of denial and making up. What...? So... Silent Hill is a completely normal town? It's not even a ghost town, since real people live there? What...?

And you know what actually grinds my gears? You know what actually pisses me off in Shattered Memories from what I've seen of it? The fact Konami decided to claim the game psychologically analyses you. Meaning, different aspects of the game change according to your answers to a series of psychological tests. To this, I do have something to say.

A few years ago, when the PS entered the market, I bought a puzzle game for my Mum called Puzzle Bubble 4. I bought it because my Mum actually liked to play that sort of game. One of the features of the game was the fact that when you finished one of the campaign modes, you had a tarot reading done by the system. It only covers the amorous life, but my Mum enjoyed shooting bubbles to solve puzzles and found that feature funny. She had her tarot read several times. Even today, if she happens to fire it up, she will go for the tarot reading. Why am I telling you this story? Because the tarot reading my Mum so enjoyed is about as accurate as the psychological profiling done by Shattered Memories. Namely, it's a cute feature, but not to be taken seriously.

Psychologically profiling a person based on her answers to a couple of tests and questions? Damn, why are there even psychiatrists?

Why do it like this? Is the game supposed to be made to fit me? And you know what bothers and scares me based on the answer to a few simple questions? Why so obvious, Konami? Why not move the game according to choices made in game? Oh right... because then you'd have to sacrifice the whole psychiatrist bit and lose your ending twist that invalidated Silent Hill as we all knew it. So you gave us a painfully obvious game mode to aid in your ugly-as-sin ending twist! How am I not supposed to be. Pissed. Off. My. Brains?!

... alright. So. My final diagnosis. Shattered Memories can be fun, and it does contain a series of inside jokes to Silent Hill fans, provided you decide to approach it as a game made in honor of a better one. This is the only way a true blue fan of Silent Hill can enjoy it. If you never heard of Silent Hill, find the first title and play that, and then the two first sequels, before you drive head first into this sorry piece of crow. I promise any of those three games are well worth your time, and will make you feel like you're playing a game. Shattered Memories wins plenty from being on the Wii, since this is likely the best way to play it - you may enjoy a lot of what the Wii has to offer for this one, and it will improve your gaming experience. Not by much, but with this one, all help is needed.

To all of you who know and love the original series, don't come here looking for Silent Hill. It's not the same. Hell, more of the usual would be welcome here! Using the same basis, several more stories like James Sunderland's could be told, with different approaches. I can point you several decent horror movies which have gone by with one basis and several different plots! 0rigins did it, so can others! Now open a beer, and pour a couple of drops for this franchise, toast to it, and chug it down. Sometimes we just have to admit it - it's not coming back.