silent hill book of memories vs dungeon hunter alliance

On paper this makes the ensuing seconds scary and frantic, which could be good for Silent Hill.

For example, one trap you encounter randomly in dungeons, the poison trap, temporarily drops your health down to one hit point. When things go bad, though, they go annoyingly bad.

While the co-op in Book of Memories is nothing revolutionary, it helps to have people at your side with whom to either stick together to more easily overcome some of the combat's shortcomings through brute force, or spread out to collect puzzle pieces independently, greatly accelerating progressing and negating some of the need to backtrack. Having three friends to play cooperatively with can help make the experience more worthwhile. play isn't all that special, but it does expedite the puzzle-solving process. Book of Memories scratches an itch for those who enjoy a steady grind toward a stronger character. There are many randomly placed notes and broadcasts to collect as you play, and while they each add only tiny bits and pieces to the game's story, it's enough of a hook to get your attention. There's something compelling about clearing floors and leveling up your character, especially since you can take the game on the road (though long load times hinder the ability to pick it up and play for a few short minutes at a time). Still, while many aspects of Book of Memories fail to meet their potential, if you're prone to dungeon crawler addiction, you might easily find yourself enjoying this action-heavy Silent Hill despite its flaws. Similar to the end-of-zone puzzles, these rooms are a nice idea and are interesting a few times, but they lack variety. When playing alone, there are also 'forsaken rooms,' which serve as mini-puzzles and have good, bad, and neutral possible outcomes. It's neat the first few times, though unfortunately all of the puzzles follow the same basic pattern of asking you to order all the pieces by size or color, in some direction hinted at not too subtly by the given hint. You use these pieces to solve a basic puzzle and open the zone's exit. Each randomized zone has puzzle pieces and a puzzle hint scattered throughout it. The Silent Hill aspects come into play more in the environments, the enemies (from nurses to straitjackets to, yes, Pyramid Head), and, most interestingly, the puzzles. Karma is earned by killing enemies of the opposite type (so you gain light karma for killing blood enemies), and early on you gain the ability to flip the alignment of nearby enemies, leading to an almost Ikaruga-esque strategy implementation of killing certain enemies before others.įor the most part, all of this could be an explanation of any dungeon crawler. A simple magic system can also be used by collecting either 'light' or 'blood' karma, enabling healing skills and offensive skills, respectively. Weapons can be leveled up through extended use, but it's a long process, and it's not clear what improvements are acquired when you do so. You may find that you have an affinity for a particular weapon, but at a certain point you've seen all there is to see. Every fire axe you find is exactly the same as every other, and there are a finite number of weapon types available, negating some sense of the discovery and loot lust found in other dungeon crawlers. The stats for these weapons aren't surfaced well, but to some extent it doesn't matter. Different enemies have different weaknesses to weapons, so you might want to pay attention to what you bring with you. Both melee and projectile weapons are either one-handed or two-handed, and one-handed weapons can be dual-wielded. These weapons break relatively easily, but they can be repaired with a toolkit or simply replaced with similar weapons scattered throughout the environment. Most weapons are reminiscent of those in the earlier Silent Hill games, meaning you pick up a lot of wooden planks and steel pipes. Typical of most action RPGs, clearing a zone involves a lot of whacking enemies with weapons to get experience, money, and loot, with less of an emphasis on the latter. Like many a dungeon crawler before it, Book of Memories is built around randomized dungeon floors, or zones. This is immediately followed up by the idea to change what's written in the book, ultimately leading to a past-changing journey through your nightmarish psyche. Your character, whom you customize before starting the game, quickly learns that his or her entire life's story is written in the book (it must not be too exciting, because the book isn't that thick). The titular Book of Memories arrives on your character's birthday, in a mysterious package from the town of Silent Hill. Don't you want to beat up Pyramid Head with a guitar?īook of Memories begins, unsurprisingly, with a book.

Silent hill book of memories vs dungeon hunter alliance