Climax Studios' second stab at the series, Silent: Hill Shattered Memories, revisited the idea of doing a reimagining of the first game. It is, as Sam Barlow puts it, "a weird-ass postmodern riff" on the original PlayStation classic. As in 1999, you step into the role of hapless father Harry Mason, who stumbles from the wreck of a car crash to find himself in the eponymous locale. Unseasonal snow is falling, the whole place seems deserted, and – worst of all – his daughter Cheryl has gone missing. It's a familiar setup, but the story that then unfolds is anything but.
Shattered Memories stands out among the Western games as the title that most clearly breaks with tradition. Though it features characters from Silent Hill, there's nary a cult to be found. Instead, the story the game tells is a much more intimate affair. Its demons are personal, its themes universal aspects of the human condition: childhood, family, loss, and coming to terms with the world as it is, not as we would like it to be.
