Silent Hill Shattered Memories: Eyes on review

Well I thought I'd give my initial thoughts on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. When the game started up I really thought this game was going to be lame. Things were slow, and things just weren't scary. The atmosphere was relaxed, and I wish I had felt some sense of panic; Harry Mason just really didn't seem that frantic about finding his daughter. The puzzles seemed quite good, it seemed like they were very grounded in reality, it didn't seem that the felt forced.
However when the icy otherworld came into focus the uneasiness slowly trickled in. At first I didn't feel much tension, how can you when the game has treated you so well? However as soon as the enemies poured in and attacked me I felt extremely panicked. The game suddenly started to win me over. It isn't really a feeling I've felt too strongly in previous instalments (especially the later instalments), which may or may not be a good thing. From what I've played I'm really not sure if this feeling will last and bring on the feeling of wondering what is around the next corner I'm on a balance beam on that one.

On the note of sound and visuals, the score is of course well written, and I wasn't sure if the first part of the game was to welcome me home, or if it was to make me feel relaxed, but if that's the case: it did it's job. The voice acting is terrible, it's maybe just above the horrid dull voice acting of Silent Hill 2: I just don't see why it's so hard to find decent voice actors now-a-days? But like Silent hill 2: It is something I can forgive, just as long as the rest of the sound design doesn't epically fail as its job.

The visuals are not the best visuals ever to be released on this console, but some effects such as lighting and ice has impressed. I'm not too impressed so far about the lack of fog, but I'm getting used to darkness replacing it. From what I played the whole town is rendered completely off that bat. From the detail it is rendered in it's an amazing achievement.

All in all I can say I'm on the fence on this one: On the whole some stuff seems quite far and alien from the franchise, but I look forward to playing the thing in Autumn 2009.