MCV: Shattered Memories ‘most important’ Silent Hill release to date
Posted By: Whitney December 22nd, 2009 | 10:20 amWell this is interesting PieceofSheet666 sent over this news article to me! A SH:SM movie tie in? That will certainly be interesting! I’m eager to see how the UK will promote SH:SM.
MCV is the leading trade news and community site for all professionals working within the UK and international video games market. It reaches everyone from store manager to CEO, covering the entire industry. MCV is published by Intent Media, which specialises in entertainment, leisure and technology markets
Shattered Memories ‘most important’ Silent Hill release to date
by James Batchelor
Publisher preparing to revitalise long-running survival horror series with innovative upcoming Wii release
Konami has described its upcoming title Silent Hill: Shattered Memories as a landmark entry in the survival horror series.
The game is due for release on Wii, PS2 and PSP on February 5th, making it the publisher’s first major release of 2010.
Early reviews for Shattered Memories have been very positive, supporting Konami’s claims that this will continue the success of the long-running horror series.
Product manager Martine Saunders told MCV: “The Silent Hill series is one of Konami’s many jewels in its crown, and Shattered Memories is by far the most important advance in the series to date.
“Silent Hill is a strong series with excellent recognition. The review scores from the US version are universally high, and the groundswell of opinion from UK press has also been unanimously positive.”
Konami is putting its full marketing weight behind Shattered Memories, hoping that the expected positive reviews will raise awareness of the game’s arrival in the same way the US press did.
The publisher is preparing a strong in-store presence for the game and is in discussions with its movie partners about potential horror tie-ins.
Shattered Memories is based largely on the original Silent Hill but Saunders is keen to stress that the game is much more than a simple port, thanks to some interesting new features added by UK developer Climax.
“The key to the game is that it changes constantly,” she explained. “While the game shares certain plot similarities with the original PSone title, Shattered Memories is an incredible new take on it.
“The game is constantly monitoring the way the user plays the game and responds to situations, and duly adapts to their decisions.
“This ‘psyche profiling’ means that characters and situations will differ depending on how the user reacts.
“Two different people playing the game will not experience the same reactions as each other, while other smaller differences will play out as the title continues.”
Well, that ‘most important SH’ caught my eye, pretty much everything else is what others say too. But, what really got my attention was the movie tie-in. I also think it’s important that Konami seems to be fully supporting it, ’cause I had seen rumors in articles that they didn’t believe in its success thus messing up its release time (announcement). And even a movie? :O I feel that this article is the peak of the positive reviews and the title now is somewhat “acclaimed”/a step for new paths. I like it when the atmosphere is heating up. I too believe it’s a very good game (after having progressed more in it) – with some drawbacks, which however don’t spoil it overall. 🙂