Story
The story in Silent Hill: Book of Memories revolves
around a character that receives a Mysterious Book for his birthday sent from Silent
Hill delivered by an uncanny Mail Man, he soon finds out that everything he’s
done so far in life can be found written in the book. As he starts trying to
write down in it to try and change things, he begins to have nightmares in
which he is placed inside a puzzle that he must solve in order to survive. Book
of Memories’ story is a bit confusing and to actually understand it all you must
collect all Broadcasts and Notes which contain bits and pieces of the Story.
The game is not related to any of the previous Silent Hill games.
Gameplay
Silent Hill: Book of Memories’ gameplay is
your classic Dungeon-crawler and it is Addictively Fun. The game has a basic
levelling system with simple STR, DEX, VIT, AGI, MND and INT stats to increase
as you level up, accessories may also be purchased from the in-game shop. In
Silent Hill: Book of Memories you play though ‘Zones’ that are small mazes that
you fight your way through to find all the puzzle parts in order to proceed to
the next zone and progress through the story. The Game has over 100 zones that
will give over 50 Hours of Gameplay. Initially you are given a Flash light to
explore and find all the loot and treasures hidden within the world; the
flashlight set-up, however, sort of throws off the scary feel to it. 
Design
The game does not have set characters, and
it allows players to design their own. However the game does not contain much
character personalisation capabilities as it only offers 5 different options within
each category. The game has a large verity of weapons going anywhere from
knives and baseball bats to chainsaws and burning swords. The game doesn’t
really take much advantage of the PS Vita’s Features however.
The Multiplayer is where the real fun comes
in. Multiplayer in SH:BoM is similar to the single-player campaign with one
little twist, you take zones on in groups of 4 players and dead characters
respawn at the start of the map; unlike the story mode where you have to
restart the whole zone
Presentation
Silent Hill: Book of Memories surpasses
other Vita games by having a very nice lighting effect. Characters and monster
Models look pretty nice, the game’s texturing and animation works are also done
pretty well, the environment visuals a very nicely done. The thing that puts
the game down in presentation is the background music; it gets very repetitive.
Overall
Despite the lack of story and “oh my god I
almost pissed myself” moments, Silent Hill: Book of Memories is an addictive dungeon-crawler
that will have you on the edge of your seat for many hours and features some
great multiplayer action.
If you’re a player that ignores story for
good gameplay, then Silent Hill: Book of Memories is one game you definitely
have to play.
Score: 7.5
Reviewed by: Sora Yahya
