Die Another Day! (Shadow Of Memories (PS2))

Member Name: tom1clare

Product:	Shadow Of Memories (PS2)
Date:	11/08/05 (361 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderful visuals, pretty original, atmospheric, multiple endings

Disadvantages: Ultimately rather basic gameplay, very short despite the endings

It’s fair to say we all have our bad days from time to time, where nothing seems to go right. Spare a thought then for the star of Shadow Of Memories, Eike Kusch, who before the 8th April 2001 is over will be stabbed to death, burnt, smashed over the head, poisoned, run over and pushed off a tower. After being unceremoniously murdered in the opening cut-scene, Eike is resurrected and told by a mysterious entity that he has the ability to avoid he preordained death, though avoiding it alone won’t solve the overriding problem. Kitted up with a time-travelling device, Eike is sent back to the town of Lebensbaum to try to change his destiny, finding his assailant in the process. It’s going to be a long day…

Shadow Of Memories (SOM) was one of Konami’s early PlayStation2 showcases, released as it was back in 2001. A quick glance at some of the screenshots may suggest that it’s a close relation to Konami’s own Silent Hill franchise; both set in creepy towns populated with suspicious inhabitants, a third-person perspective and a bemused central figure. However, closer inspection reveals that the two are little more than distant cousins; rather than going down the familiar survival-horror route Shadow Of Memories opts to put a more mystery/whodunit slant on things – it’s a definite individual.

SOM is, when ultimately considered, something akin to an interactive movie. You’ll be watching cut-scenes for a longer period than you will be actually controlling Eike, but don’t let this put you off. The adventure is split into eight chapters and a prologue – each generally begins with the hapless hero being killed in some way, given hints by the mysterious ‘Homonculus’, and then resurrected between thirty minutes and an hour before the event happened. Successfully prevent Eike’s doom, and you will be rewarded with a bit more time as you progress to the next chapter.

Time is everything in SOM; you’ll always have half an eye on the clock that runs throughout your travels. Whilst Eike is moving around Lebensbaum the clock progresses in real-time, but particular care should be taken when deciding who to talk to; though certain members of the community can hold crucial information, others merely deliver idol chat, and each time you interact with them thirty seconds will be whittled away from your time.

It’s a terrifically original and well-crafted effort, with several ideas that could, in the current gaming climate, be considered very brave. Highly unusually for a third-person adventure these days, there is a conspicuous absence of any weaponry or fight-scenes whatsoever (it’s the only game I’ve ever played that can be completed with the player dying more times than the enemy) – it instead focuses on challenging your brainpower and awareness, with time being your only foe where gameplay is concerned. As you progress, timelines in 1979, 1901 and 1580 are opened up, with decisions in the earlier times changing the ‘modern day’ look of the Lebensbaum environment. These can range from minor things such asking a famed local artist to paint a specific picture so it appears in a gallery in ‘2001’, to crucial decisions such as influencing the owner of an old house to convert it either into a museum or a library. It’s gripping stuff; the storyline is mostly excellent and though there are some rather lengthy segments of dialogue, it’s all rather atmospheric and immersive. The characters are quite superb too as there is such variety in the cast, and it’s all extra-appealing given the relative freedom you have to alter their destinies along with your own.

Shadow Of Memories looks absolutely wonderful; in every respect it is a feast for the eyes. Whilst the basic layout of the town remains the same in each time-period, the contrasting visual approaches are highly impressive. The older eras are predictably the most unusual, both in terms of the architecture and inhabitants. 1580 sees maids and squires roaming the streets, with a remarkable mixture of pale browns and yellows making for an understated class, and the palette of 1901 proves muted to the point of black and white – a wonderfully successful contrast to the rather more consistently-colourful Eike. The modern era shows off the designers flair; its easy to see why the camera is set slightly lower than in most games, its uncomplicated rotation-system (which can be navigated with the shoulder buttons) allows the player to witness some truly beautiful sights – the church in particular is a remarkable structure, both from inside and out. The attention to detail is quite brilliant; there is even a tower from which the entire town can be viewed from all directions – it’s breathtaking, especially given that the same view can be admired in 3 different time zones across a hundred year period.

Without doubt, Shadow Of Memories has an immense amount of style and uncomplicated beauty that suits it down to the ground. The cut-scenes are generally very good – they need to be given how big a role they play – camera angles are superbly cinematic and though there isn’t the kind of see-the-frown-lines detail on the characters that some newer games aim for, it again doesn’t matter a great deal. It’s all so perfect and glitch-free; aiming in certain areas to appear quite minimalist (menu presentation, character design), whilst in contrast using sheer detail and variety to hammer home the overall visual quality (environments, weather effects). It’s just lovely.

Whilst the plot is every bit as a complex as Konami classics Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill, the gameplay ultimately lacks the depth of these titles. Playing Shadow Of Memories through first time is an immensely gripping and enjoyable experience that does have a fair degree of challenge to it at times. However, it took me only 4 hours to finish first time through, and that included cut-scenes. Having completed it once you are given the option to skip the cut-scenes that you have already witnessed, and consequently a second play took me only 1 hour 45 minutes. After that, with only the various different endings to play for, there is well under an hour’s total gameplay left, which is rather alarming by today’s standards. Sadly, when you strip away the intriguing storyline, you are left with a game that is at its core quite basic – simply requiring you to move from one point to the next, talking to the correct person and using the right item at the right point. Perhaps in the long-run a lack of enemies does hurt Shadow Of Memories, as there is little real challenge once you have figured out exactly what you’re doing.

In terms of its voice acting, in typical Konami fashion SOM fluctuates wildly from the sublime to the ridiculous. Fortunately for the most part the main characters reel off their lines nicely, if you can ignore the (I assume historically inaccurate) American accents in 1580 and bizarrely out of place lines such as “hey, you’re cute” and “I’ll go take a peek”. It does lapse at times towards the old Silent Hill technique of placing ridiculous emphasis on totally innocuous information as if it was the key to life itself. Oh well, some things never change…

One of the benefits that comes from the time-travel/destiny elements is the wealth of endings that can be uncovered. Predictably the varying conclusions involve certain decisions made at key points throughout your journey, with six normal endings (each with their own minor variations). Attain all of these and you’ll uncover the ‘extra’ game mode – essentially nothing more than an extended prologue, but very funny as Eike pre-empts most events that he (and you) will have seen several times already, surprising the fortune teller by telling her they’d already met a bunch of times! As another minor incentive to play out the different conclusions, the more endings you unlock, the more bonus movies are revealed – in this case there are three rather nice game-expo clips; nothing too unusual but fans will no doubt enjoy them.

Given that it can be found relatively cheap (around £5) on eBay these days, the lack of longevity may not be as big an issue as it could have been. The lack of violence and gore means it’s suitable for pretty much all ages, and I know that there are a lot of gamers out there who enjoy adventure games for their cerebral side rather than their action-based parts, and Shadow Of Memories would ideally fit those in this bracket.

Ultimately, Konami have themselves an adventure that combines tried and tested elements with some eye-catching and generally well-implemented new ones, with the end result being a gripping and clever time-travelling mystery. Gaming veterans will find little challenge beyond a couple of days, and ultimately its brave decision not to use violence as a form of gameplay works against it somewhat as most of the challenge evaporates after you have completed the game through once. It’s a real shame; Shadow Of Memories is gorgeous-looking, cunning and well-structured – a little more gameplay and it could have been fabulous. Perhaps a sequel is too much to hope for but it would certainly be something to keep an eye on given the foundation laid down here – worth renting or buying cheap.

Summary: A bad day can make a good game...