There are game series people tend to play just for gameplay, that remains mostly unchanged from game to game. People just expect “more of the same, but preferably better” from sequels and it works for a while. Until people get fed up with a lot of the “same” and while it tends to depend on a franchise, there is always an inevitable need to refresh the series. Some of these refreshin attempts are controversial but work out just fine (like Resident Evil 4), some are just failures.
Silent Hill as a series weren’t about gameplay. They were always more about the mood and the theme, more on the “experience” for the player. And this is where I need to say that I started losing interest in the series starting with 3. In it, a lot of the uncertainties and mysteries were laid bare and it had a lot of emphasis on gameplay, something that was always pretty clunky in the series, often intentionally so. So it didn’t come as a surprise to me when we eventually got to Homecoming, which was all about the mechanics and had barely any kind of mood to itself or good writing. This is where Shattered Memories come into play…
This is a game that shouldn’t be played by those who love cheap jumpscares, who cared about action parts of the previous games or was really deep into the “lore of Silent Hill series”. People like that will hate this game, thinking it’s too slow, too boring and “why can’t I fight the monsters?!” This isn’t survival horror. There is no action. This is Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason without the shooting. This is an adventure like Fahrenheit or Dreamfall, but without dumb plot and QTEs and with pretty simplistic puzzles. This is an interactive story/psychological horror which “psychologically profiles you as you play the game”. An experience that is always slightly different when you play it, yet not something you’d want to replay immediately. Yet a story that you’d love to experience.
Not just because of the plot, that does get predictable, not because of the great voice acting, good narrative or even references and easter eggs for longtime fans of the series or lots and lots of cool details. But because all of this, and much more, works well together and makes up for a really good game. If anyone attempts to make a sequel using the same template, it won’t work, it won’t be exciting. Turns out, a “true” Silent Hill game can be created by “western” developers, you just need someone who knows what they’re doing.