"Silent Hill: Shattered Memories"

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a 2009 survival horror game developed by Climax Studios and published by Konami Digital Entertainment. It was released in December for the Wii and ported to the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable platforms in January 2010. In April 2014, it appeared on the PlayStation Network in Europe.

Shattered Memories is a reimagination of the first game and retains the premise—Harry Mason's quest to find his missing daughter in the fictitious American town of Silent Hill—but is set in a different fictional universe, has a different plot, and altered characters, alongside new ones. Five endings are available. Gameplay takes place in two parts: a framing, first-person psychotherapy session, and an over-the-shoulder perspective of Harry's journey through Silent Hill, which is periodically interrupted by the occurrence of a shift to a more dangerous environment. Answers given to the psychological tests in the therapy session affect various gameplay elements in Harry's journey.

After designing the Silent Hill prequel (2007), which intentionally replicated elements of the first installment, Climax Studios wanted to try a different approach to creating a title in the series. Among the changes made was the removal of combat and the constant presence of monsters. Akira Yamaoka composed the soundtrack of the game, which was the first in the series to prominently feature dynamic music. The game received generally positive reviews for its graphics, plot, voice acting, soundtrack, and use of the Wii Remote were praised by reviewers, and has been favorably compared to M. Night Shyamalan's visuals. Though it drew mixed response for gameplay, puzzle exploration, chase sequences and psychological elements by some reviewers, which they respectively deemed potentially frustrating and short.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a reimagining of the first installment of the series, Silent Hill. It keeps the premise of writer Harry Mason looking for his daughter in Silent Hill after a car crash, although it leads into a different plot. The personalities and roles of characters from the first game have also been changed, and Shattered Memories introduces new characters as well.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories divides its gameplay between two different settings. The first section is set in a psychotherapist's office and the second in a town called Silent Hill. In the first section, the player interacts with Dr. Michael Kaufmann, a therapist who is a non-player character, from a first-person perspective. The player responds to Kaufmann's questions and completes a psychological test, fills in a questionnaire or colors pictures. The player's responses to these tests alters aspects of gameplay in the second setting, including the available areas, the physical appearance and behavior of characters encountered, and the physical appearance of the monsters. Shattered Memories returns to Kaufmann's office periodically throughout the game.

In the second setting, the player guides Harry Mason in an over-the-shoulder view as he searches for his missing daughter Cheryl in the snowy town of Silent Hill. Harry is equipped with a smartphone and flashlight: he can use the phone to check his location on a Global Positioning System map, take photographs, and make telephone calls. Moving to certain spots with high interference, represented by a lot of radio noise, or by taking pictures of spots where shadowy figures can be seen, unlock various text and voicemail messages that expand the story and occasionally provide clues. To view the details of various documents, the player can zoom in on objects. The game also alters details of gameplay based on what the player views. Throughout his journey, Harry encounters puzzles such as mechanisms, which reward either a key required to progress or a bonus memento. In the Wii version, the Wii Remote is used for puzzle solving and to control the flashlight and cell phone.

The game occasionally shifts to an icy alternate dimension called "Nightmare", where hostile monsters exist. To escape from this dimension, Harry must find a predetermined exit while avoiding the wandering creatures which chase him upon detection. Unlike previous installments in the series, there is no combat element to the gameplay: Harry is weaponless for the entire duration of the game and can only run, hide, slow down the monsters by knocking down objects to block their path, throw off the creatures if they latch onto him, and temporarily ward them off by picking up and using flares found lying on the ground. His running speed and "health" (the amount of damage that he can endure before dying) decrease every time the monsters grab him. In contrast to the previous installments of the series, which featured various types of monsters, Shattered Memories features only one type of humanoid monster, whose physical appearance changes in response to the player's actions inside and outside the Nightmare realm, including their responses to Kaufmann's psychological tests.

The game begins with a psychotherapy session conducted by Dr. Kaufmann, which acts as a frame story for Harry's quest. Suffering from issues with his memory, Harry travels home to search for his seven-year-old daughter Cheryl, hoping that she is already there. His consciousness moves between the in-game real world and Nightmare—a frozen version of the town in which monsters chase him—and finds that another family lives in his house. Police officer Cybil Bennett arrives and decides to take him to the police station, but they become caught in a blizzard, and Harry eventually leaves her car to continue his search. Eventually, Harry finds his way to the local high school, where he learns from a woman named Michelle Valdez that a Cheryl Mason attended school there previously, but then moved. She offers to drive Harry to Cheryl's new address, but after briefly stepping away, he returns to find Michelle has been replaced by Dahlia Mason, who claims to be Harry's lover and acts as if she has been with him the whole time. He accepts the ride, although during another shift to the Nightmare, the car falls into a river. Harry escapes but loses consciousness.

He awakens in a wheelchair pushed by Cybil in the town's hospital. Before Cybil can tell him about his file at the station, the town transitions to the Nightmare. Harry escapes and meets Lisa Garland, a nurse injured in a crash, and escorts her to her home. At her request, Harry gives Lisa pills for her headache, and returns to find her either dead or dying, depending on in-game actions taken by the player. Finding him next to Lisa's corpse, Cybil attempts to arrest him, but is frozen as the Nightmare emerges around them. Harry escapes to Cheryl's home, where he finds an older Dahlia who claims to be his wife and tells him that Cheryl is at the lighthouse. Harry enters the Nightmare, escapes it, and eventually gets a ride from Michelle. Harry finds a young-again Dahlia aboard a boat at a lakeside harbour, who sets the course for the lighthouse and seduces him. Harry wakes, finds an aged Dahlia and the environment covered in ice, and crosses the now-frozen lake but falls into the water and passes out. Harry is dragged ashore near the lighthouse by Cybil, who confronts him with the news that Harry Mason died eighteen years ago in a car accident. As Harry proceeds, he finds "the lighthouse" is the name of Dr. Kaufmann's counseling clinic: the patient in the therapy session is an adult Cheryl, who is in denial over her father's death. Harry enters the office and Cheryl either reconciles herself to his death or continues to cling to her fantasy father.

At the end of the game, an old video clip from Cheryl's camcorder is played. Four variations of this clip are available depending upon the player's actions as Harry. In "Love Lost", Harry packs his luggage in a car and tells Cheryl not to blame herself for her parents' separation. In "Drunk Dad", a drunken Harry yells at Cheryl, demands a beer and blames his drinking on his family. In "Sleaze and Sirens", Harry flirts on his bed with Lisa and Michelle. In "Wicked and Weak", Dahlia verbally abuses Harry and slaps him. In the "UFO" joke ending, Cheryl tells Dr. Kaufmann that she believes Harry was kidnapped by aliens and that Silent Hill is a spaceship. After James Sunderland interrupts, the therapy session continues, revealing Cheryl to be a dog and Dr. Kaufmann to be an alien. Regardless of the ending, the final scene shows Cheryl packing away mementos that the player can collect throughout the game. An additional scene the player can obtain shows her reconciling with Dahlia outside the clinic.

A playable demo of Shattered Memories was made available in June 2009 at the annual trade fair Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 (E3) and received favorable reviews from video game journalists. A group of editors of the IGN website gave the game three "Best of E3" awards in the Wii category for best overall game, best adventure game, and best video game graphics technology. The game was also given a "Best Wii Game" award by editors of the GameSpot website in an article on their preferred games featured at the E3 show.

Shattered Memories was published by Konami for the Wii in North America on 8 December 2009; in Europe on 26 February 2010; and in Japan on 25 March. The Australian release was delayed until 22 June, due to European supply problems caused by the economic effects of the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull. Major Australian retailers struggled to confirm available copies of the game for several months after the delayed release, potentially damaging initial sales of the game. The PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable versions were published in North America on 19 January 2010; in Europe on 26 February; in Japan on 25 March; and in Australia on 22 April 2010. It also became available on the PlayStation Network for Europe and the United Kingdom on 28 April 2014. A PlayStation Vita release for Shattered Memories was apparently planned, but was cancelled.