THOUGHTS ON YAOI: FOG EDITION
lmao crap well I actually just beat Shattered Mems, so that's fresher in my head right now... I guess I'll talk about that. SORRY PEOPLE WHO WANT ALAN WAKE I will definitely talk about that soon.
OKAY GOD FIRST OF ALL even I'm not sure what I think about this game; half of me wants to hate it and half of me wants to like it. Some parts of it were wonderful and others were corny. Was any of it Silent Hill? Or just parts of it? I'm not sure. Looking back on it it seemed very indepedent of the title, and definitely VERY different from what Silent Hill usually is. ( or used to be. siiigh. ) Only once I got into about the last 45% of the game or so did it start to feel like the series I know and love. Which was actually a real nice feeling, since Origins didn't have it and Homecoming was a piece of poopydoody. (I'm not sure what I was thinking when I wrote about that game two years ago lol THEN AGAIN I WAS YOUNGER and now I've had a lot of time to think about it )
The biggest issue I have with it is still the atmosphere. Save for that last 45% of the game I mentioned previously, Shattered Mems seemed to be lacking that "nightmare"-type feel that SH2-4 had and that made me fall in love with the series. To be blunt, it often felt more like a typical American horror film ("oh no! i have crashed my car, and now my daughter is missing in this creepy hick-town, and i must find her! aahh mysterious happenings and monsters!") ham-handedly trying to act like Silent Hill - sadly, similar to what the actual Silent Hill movie felt like. A lot of the abstract themes and imagery that existed in the first four were shoehorned into the game blatantly and with little obvious reasoning - the sexuality aspect, in particular, which has always only been an underlying theme IMO and was only really prominent in SH2, was about as subtle as a brick in the face. Which is also the way it was in Origins and especially in Homecoming. Sex topics were constantly dropped into the psychiatrist portions of the game in ways that made them stick out like a sore thumb. The sloppy handling of the theme just makes it embarrassingly obvious to me that the developers still aren't quite in full understanding of or comfortable writing the title they've been handling. Maybe it's me, but the vibe I got from the game wasn't one of "surreal psychological horror;" rather, it was "action-horror with some psychological profiling shoved in to make it seem more intellectual."
Speaking of which, I found the psychiatrist/psychological profiling bits to take away from the game quite a bit. I wasn't aware when I picked up the game that they had an actual virtual psychologist guy in the game asking you questions. I thought there would just be small surveys in between segments of the game that you would fill out separate from the game universe. Obviously, the end of the game managed to wrap this up in a shocking and interesting way (which I really appreciated), but for the rest of the game, it had just seemed dumb and often broke up the action in a way that prevented me from really getting into the story or getting scared. ALSO THE ACTOR FOR KAUFMAN WAS INCREDIBLY OVERENTHUSIASTIC but I can handle that because lmfao bad acting in survival horror just makes it BETTER
But the idea behind changing the game according to how you answer things / act in the game is an awesome idea, and I thought some of the ways they implemented it was cool. Again, the sexual aspect was incredibly ham-handed and blatant, but the concept is very neat, and I wouldn't mind seeing it pop up again. Just... done in a more classy manner than PSYCHIATRIST ASKING YOU ABOUT YOUR SEX LIFE WHAT COULD THIS MEAN
Was not too hot on the cell phone system / echoes / picture-taking, either - it seemed very random. It didn't really scare me, but it did remind me oddly of Fatal Frame, which was weird and made me want crossovers. Might have just been a way to use the Wii's interactive gimmick, though, like the box-opening and memento-finding. I can forgive them for that.
The game only really got good as it headed towards the end. I remember the exact spot where I thought it started picking up was Toluca Mall. This great piece by Yamaoka started playing in the background, and standing in a messy store, with all the details and lighting rendered just right, I was like IT'S SILENT HILL. Feels good man. Harry started acting more and more weirdly, the characters started changing and switching around, everything started going to hell and I was confused and the surreal feeling was back! The part near the end with Harry jumping into the blackness (which was a nice nod to SH2) and slowly falling past all these images and shadows was very well-done. Even the Otherworld segment in this part was well-done, with the futile running through different rooms of his house that all look the same and going slowly towards single doors in the distance. It was all very artistic and very reminiscent of the first four games, even with the drastically different gameplay style and theme - the first new-developer game that's proved it can be done. I was a happy camper.
The plot was okay. For most of the game, they're leading you on, though, so I'd have to play it again to really get a handle on it methinks. I'm also still... confused by what's going on, exactly, so I'll have to meditate on it.
The Otherworld / Nightmare parts were actually not that great in this fangirl's opinion (ice just isn't that scary, and I haven't seen the other monsters in the game, but the ones I got [Abstract Raw Shock] weren't scary, either), but the fog dimension was done beautifully in-game for the most part. I kind of miss the original 3rd-person gameplay style, but I think that's definitely an individual opinion.
OVERALL: SIBERIA HAS SOME HOPE FOR NEW SILENT HILLS. SHATTERED MEMS ISN'T THE GREATEST BUT THE LAST PORTION OF IT WAS VERY ENCOURAGING. CLIMAX IS GETTING THE HANG OF THIS NOW... but of course, they're not producing SH8, so this doesn't really shed light on how that game will turn out. /sob
I'm confused as hell on how this game fits into the series, though. Is it a full-on AU? Because that's really the only way I can see it making sense. I remember it being called an "alternate retelling of the original Silent Hill" back when it came out, so I'm guessing this is the case.
CLEARLY ONLY THE UFO ENDING CAN HELP ME AMIRITE?
In other news, parttimeprince and I are planning on apping to sirenspull! WHOOPIEDOODLE I'M SUPER EXCITED except we have to wait until July 1st to app... and my app is done. ( It's my Ash app. It's ~5000 words. Why is it that I can write forever about ASH OF ALL PEOPLE EVER god. The thing is, the more I wrote about and analyzed him, the more I honestly liked him. 8( i am sorry, my friends )
OKAY GOD FIRST OF ALL even I'm not sure what I think about this game; half of me wants to hate it and half of me wants to like it. Some parts of it were wonderful and others were corny. Was any of it Silent Hill? Or just parts of it? I'm not sure. Looking back on it it seemed very indepedent of the title, and definitely VERY different from what Silent Hill usually is. ( or used to be. siiigh. ) Only once I got into about the last 45% of the game or so did it start to feel like the series I know and love. Which was actually a real nice feeling, since Origins didn't have it and Homecoming was a piece of poopydoody. (I'm not sure what I was thinking when I wrote about that game two years ago lol THEN AGAIN I WAS YOUNGER and now I've had a lot of time to think about it )
The biggest issue I have with it is still the atmosphere. Save for that last 45% of the game I mentioned previously, Shattered Mems seemed to be lacking that "nightmare"-type feel that SH2-4 had and that made me fall in love with the series. To be blunt, it often felt more like a typical American horror film ("oh no! i have crashed my car, and now my daughter is missing in this creepy hick-town, and i must find her! aahh mysterious happenings and monsters!") ham-handedly trying to act like Silent Hill - sadly, similar to what the actual Silent Hill movie felt like. A lot of the abstract themes and imagery that existed in the first four were shoehorned into the game blatantly and with little obvious reasoning - the sexuality aspect, in particular, which has always only been an underlying theme IMO and was only really prominent in SH2, was about as subtle as a brick in the face. Which is also the way it was in Origins and especially in Homecoming. Sex topics were constantly dropped into the psychiatrist portions of the game in ways that made them stick out like a sore thumb. The sloppy handling of the theme just makes it embarrassingly obvious to me that the developers still aren't quite in full understanding of or comfortable writing the title they've been handling. Maybe it's me, but the vibe I got from the game wasn't one of "surreal psychological horror;" rather, it was "action-horror with some psychological profiling shoved in to make it seem more intellectual."
Speaking of which, I found the psychiatrist/psychological profiling bits to take away from the game quite a bit. I wasn't aware when I picked up the game that they had an actual virtual psychologist guy in the game asking you questions. I thought there would just be small surveys in between segments of the game that you would fill out separate from the game universe. Obviously, the end of the game managed to wrap this up in a shocking and interesting way (which I really appreciated), but for the rest of the game, it had just seemed dumb and often broke up the action in a way that prevented me from really getting into the story or getting scared. ALSO THE ACTOR FOR KAUFMAN WAS INCREDIBLY OVERENTHUSIASTIC but I can handle that because lmfao bad acting in survival horror just makes it BETTER
But the idea behind changing the game according to how you answer things / act in the game is an awesome idea, and I thought some of the ways they implemented it was cool. Again, the sexual aspect was incredibly ham-handed and blatant, but the concept is very neat, and I wouldn't mind seeing it pop up again. Just... done in a more classy manner than PSYCHIATRIST ASKING YOU ABOUT YOUR SEX LIFE WHAT COULD THIS MEAN
Was not too hot on the cell phone system / echoes / picture-taking, either - it seemed very random. It didn't really scare me, but it did remind me oddly of Fatal Frame, which was weird and made me want crossovers. Might have just been a way to use the Wii's interactive gimmick, though, like the box-opening and memento-finding. I can forgive them for that.
The game only really got good as it headed towards the end. I remember the exact spot where I thought it started picking up was Toluca Mall. This great piece by Yamaoka started playing in the background, and standing in a messy store, with all the details and lighting rendered just right, I was like IT'S SILENT HILL. Feels good man. Harry started acting more and more weirdly, the characters started changing and switching around, everything started going to hell and I was confused and the surreal feeling was back! The part near the end with Harry jumping into the blackness (which was a nice nod to SH2) and slowly falling past all these images and shadows was very well-done. Even the Otherworld segment in this part was well-done, with the futile running through different rooms of his house that all look the same and going slowly towards single doors in the distance. It was all very artistic and very reminiscent of the first four games, even with the drastically different gameplay style and theme - the first new-developer game that's proved it can be done. I was a happy camper.
The plot was okay. For most of the game, they're leading you on, though, so I'd have to play it again to really get a handle on it methinks. I'm also still... confused by what's going on, exactly, so I'll have to meditate on it.
The Otherworld / Nightmare parts were actually not that great in this fangirl's opinion (ice just isn't that scary, and I haven't seen the other monsters in the game, but the ones I got [Abstract Raw Shock] weren't scary, either), but the fog dimension was done beautifully in-game for the most part. I kind of miss the original 3rd-person gameplay style, but I think that's definitely an individual opinion.
OVERALL: SIBERIA HAS SOME HOPE FOR NEW SILENT HILLS. SHATTERED MEMS ISN'T THE GREATEST BUT THE LAST PORTION OF IT WAS VERY ENCOURAGING. CLIMAX IS GETTING THE HANG OF THIS NOW... but of course, they're not producing SH8, so this doesn't really shed light on how that game will turn out. /sob
I'm confused as hell on how this game fits into the series, though. Is it a full-on AU? Because that's really the only way I can see it making sense. I remember it being called an "alternate retelling of the original Silent Hill" back when it came out, so I'm guessing this is the case.
CLEARLY ONLY THE UFO ENDING CAN HELP ME AMIRITE?
In other news, parttimeprince and I are planning on apping to sirenspull! WHOOPIEDOODLE I'M SUPER EXCITED except we have to wait until July 1st to app... and my app is done. ( It's my Ash app. It's ~5000 words. Why is it that I can write forever about ASH OF ALL PEOPLE EVER god. The thing is, the more I wrote about and analyzed him, the more I honestly liked him. 8( i am sorry, my friends )