May 12, 2011
I (Still) Love My Daddy!
Near the beginning of this semester, I invited Cara over for an experiment. I was in a mood, reading more stuff about Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and wanted to see another ending. However, I had answered honestly and shit, and it seemed like it would ruin the magic of the game to try to, well, game it to get a different ending. This is when I had the great idea to let Cara make all the decisions, and I just drive. Then I’d get to see another ending, as Cara likely wouldn’t get the sex ending I got, and she could experience the magic. We sat down, and had a great time. We stopped, though, when we got to the Nightmare sequence after the most dramatic wheelchair scene. That nightmare is, by far, the worst part of the game, and I just couldn’t make myself keep going, especially since it was late. So we tabled it for later.
Months passed, and Cara mentioned that she wanted to finish the game off. I armed her with an iPad with a FAQ pulled up for her to help guide me through the stupid nightmares, and we polished the rest of the game off, with Cole joining in as spectator. I got to see a new ending (I believe we got what’s called the “family” ending this time) and we had a good time, so that’s nice. I thought I’d put down a few thoughts about the experience.
First off, it was interesting how much better of a person Harry was in the Family ending. He was still a person with flaws. He wasn’t some unrealistic knight in shining armor like in the video at the beginning of the game, of course, but he had much more genuine feelings for his daughter. While, perhaps, the more “normal” level of problem that Cheryl was facing of her father dying in a car crash right after he separated from her mother makes all the supernatural shenanigans slightly harder to buy than the pretty intense “evil” I saw in the sex ending, it still fit, to an extent. It certainly seemed like a happier ending for Cheryl, in any case, as she learned her father really did love her, much more than in the sex ending, where she found that she should leave him behind and move on. Though the big strokes of the story stayed the same, the outcome really was affected. It was impressive.
I also learned some interesting things about Cara’s gaming sensibilities. She couldn’t stand the mystery of what was happening for the whole game. Nearing the end, she really wanted it to be over so she could “get” what she was seeing. She wasn’t willing to wait for the conclusion, which takes a lot of time to get to in a video game, I admit. Much more than a movie or whatever, even in a short game like Shattered Memories. She also lacked the general idea of what was “interactable” and what was not, especially early on, when she’d see things and want me to do stuff with them outside of “shine a flashlight on it” and “call the phone number written on it” which really isn’t what the game does. Still, that meant she was engaged in the narrative, so that’s fantastic.
The second playthrough really made the flaws stand out all the more, though. The Nightmare sequences are just flat-out bad, which is acknowledged. The rest of the game is so good, though. Great, creepy as fuck narrative, storytelling, and presentation. It was enjoyable to experience a second time, though having a fresh pair of eyes on the game really was a big part of my enjoyment.