![]() ![]() Think about that now: Book of Memories features combat similar to a survival horror game, where fleeing is often necessary for staying alive. Your only other course of action is to run away, as you would in any other survival horror title. You could attempt to execute a dodge maneuver, except that your evasive techniques are not capable of putting enough distance between you and your foes. You can try blocking, but doing so doesn't cancel damage and still leaves you susceptible to further beatings once you release the block button. ![]() Your adversaries step up their games later on, nailing you with punishing blows that render the trite button mash method obsolete. nurses, needlers, Pyramid Head, cancers, etc.) and a multitude of traps.Īs the game advances, it grows quite difficult on top of being repetitive. ![]() The difference from one dungeon to the next is the presence of particular enemies from various Silent Hill games (e.g. Sure, each one is procedurally generated, but you run afoul of the same obstacles, visit familiar rooms, and eventually form a tiresome routine. For starters, every level is more or less the same. Occasionally you'll end up in a special room, such as a shop, a save point, or a chamber stocked with cash, weapons, or an artifact (read: armor).Īlthough there are plenty of fantastic games that utilize a similar formula, Book of Memories doesn't make the most of the dungeon crawler setup. Once you've completed a room, you can then shuffle through a door of your choice, mosey on down the hall, and begin the process anew. Conversely, blood points grant you access to a similar spell with elevated HP sapping capabilities, but it doesn't heal you the process. For instance, securing enough holy ash allows you to execute an HP drain attack, which you can control using the Vita's back touch screen. Once you've moved the meter far enough to one side, you can initiate a spell infused with its corresponding element. Collecting these adds to a balance meter at the top of the screen, with either side signifying "blood" or "holy," respectively. The rules should be familiar to most players: you enter a room, scour it for items (some of which hang out inside of furniture), mash the attack button until all local goons are deceased, and sometimes collect a monetary reward.Īs each beast keels over, it leaves behind either a red or white pile of ash. The rest of the game is not a total loss, although it is your standard fare dungeon crawler with trappings of the Silent Hill franchise. The only time I actually that found the story interesting enough for me to pay attention was during the closing cutscene-in other words: way too little, far too late. I skimmed the myriad scrawled notes found throughout the campaign, just to get the gist of what the protagonist was attempting to accomplish. Heh heh, I'm soooo calling this game by that name from now on.Īs you can imagine, I eventually stopped paying close attention to the story. Is this what the once mighty series has finally reduced itself to? We've gone from stories that reveal the hideousness of human nature to a narrative befitting of Halloween issue of the magazine "Seventeen"? Granted, the protagonist doesn't exactly use the book for noble purposes, but still, you'd think the writers could imagine something a little more mature, and not this wanna-be "Twilight" garbage. ![]() Rather, he utilizes it to get a girlfriend. You'd think that, this being a Silent Hill game, he'd use it to some psychologically horrifying or thought-provoking end. The protagonist obtains a peculiar book and discovers that he can use it to alter reality, mostly through changing the lives of others. It ushers you into a character creation mode, allowing you to craft your own twenty-something, complete with idiotic MTV-generation class like "rocker" or "goth." From there, it initiates a puerile, un- Silent Hill-ish storyline. Silent Hill: Book of Memories doesn't kick off with much promise, unfortunately. I knew it wouldn't scare me, but figured that it could at least serve as a decent thrill. I'll admit, though, that an action RPG bearing the Silent Hill moniker sounded tempting when I discovered it. They've given way to broken action titles, combat-free escapades, and even a dungeon crawler. No longer will there tense chases in tight hallways with Pyramid Head, or the constant dread that I've nearly depleted my supply of healing items, or the wondrous and terrible visages of massive hulks and incongruous sculptures of flesh that populate the titular city. I have finally realized that the fantastic moments I've spent delving into shadowy labyrinths whilst outrunning hellish nurses, demonic children, and mutant dogs are over. I've stopped holding out hope that the Silent Hill series will return to grace. Silent Hill: Book of Memories (Vita) review ![]()
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