➤ The fear of the past 🎮

The clichés of video games are a kind of Linus blanket, a sort of guarantee through which a developer can secure an "advantage" by touching on topics already known to users, familiar and appreciated.

In the context of psychological survival horror in the Silent Hill style, the setting of the asylum, or the psychiatric hospital, is one of the cornerstones most often shared by those who have tried to emulate its exploits. Last on the list arrives now on iOS, and in the coming months also on Android, PC, Wii U and PSVita this Forgotten Memories of the unknown French Canadian team Psychoz Interactive, a title in development for 6 years and which closely follows (or rather, from very close) just the atmosphere of the Konami series, more precisely of the second, splendid episode. Not very lucky the release period, to tell the truth, being practically contemporary to the excellent Lost Within which shares its kind of belonging and setting (yes, always the asylum): it is already difficult to push mobile users to abandon endless runners and the like. for something more complex, imagine if there is to divide the cake between two similar titles and with premium prices. Closed the parenthesis, Forgotten Memories undoubtedly deserves some attention, if only for the production values: the technical component and presentation are in fact at the console level, so as to provide an absolutely positive, if not surprising, first impression. But then?

Forgotten Memories does some things well, others less so, but the mobile environment doesn't seem right

From the very first moments of the game you can feel the extremely strong influence of the aforementioned sources of inspiration: the protagonist is the investigator Rose Hawkins, who for some reason wakes up wounded, without memory and with the only memory of being at the search for a girl named Eden. After getting back on her feet, Rose is destined to make the acquaintance of the mysterious Noah, a woman who speaks only through recorded messages and who promises to help the protagonist as long as she finds her friend nurse in the asylum. The entire structure is then inhabited by mannequins, at first disturbing but immobile figures, but soon destined to turn into dangerous animated enemies.

While certainly not standing out for its originality, the experience in Forgotten Memories can therefore be defined as rather successful: the atmosphere is in fact good, the plot unfolds slowly but putting a certain curiosity, and the characters are discreetly characterized. It is also certainly evident that Psychoz Interactive has worked with passion, trying to create a quality exponent of the survival horror genre. However, the enterprise was only partially successful, due to a series of problems that start from some game design choices that are difficult to digest. The biggest problem is that Forgotten Memories suffers a lot, if not too much, from adapting to the characteristics of smartphones and tablets; in this sense it is worth mentioning that there are also versions for PlayStation Vita and Wii U, consoles undoubtedly more suitable for hosting an experience of this type. The greatest difficulties are in fact undoubtedly deriving from the control system: the inability of a touch screen to replicate the functions of a pad has been discussed a lot in the past, but Forgotten Memories could be taken as an example of how this component can really frustrate and completely ruin the gaming experience.

The old school inspirations of the project translate into a character management model very similar to that of the various Resident Evil and Silent Hill of the PlayStation 2 era: woody controls, not very fluid movements and a certain general rigidity make the interaction via touch. screen a kind of nightmare, in which a simply bad combat system stands out in a negative way. Beyond the intentions of the developers, we sincerely think that it is an anachronistic way of playing and not very feasible nowadays. To make the players even more prone to a nervous breakdown, we think about the rescue mode, which requires you to recover precious floppy disks to be used on computers scattered inside the asylum. Dying between saves means having to repeat entire sections from scratch, quite simply. Then there is the torch, the only ally in the darkness of rooms and corridors, which however has a charge destined to run out rather quickly; in that case, special energy stations also scattered here and there must be used. In its first version, Forgotten Memories was therefore an almost impossible game by modern standards. The developers have evidently collected a good number of complaints, since an Easy mode was soon added that guarantees more energy to the protagonist, a torch that never goes out, the disappearance of floppy disks, more ammunition and weakened enemies. Unless you are a masochist then, our advice is therefore undoubtedly to choose the easy mode: by doing so it will be possible to appreciate the excellent - really - graphic component, the remarkable English dubbing (which can count on some of the actors of Silent Hill 2) the right atmosphere and overall good quality, even within the standards of the genre of ten years ago. Too bad, however, that everything runs out very quickly, with less than 2 hours needed to reach the far from exhaustive conclusion, which leaves the door wide open for further future episodes. Considering the development period, this is a rather disappointing aspect.

Comment

Tested version iPhone (1.0.2) Price 5,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

6.7

Readers

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Forgotten Memories is a classic survival horror that strongly recalls the atmosphere and gameplay of the historic Silent Hill 2. The work of the developers of Psychoz Interactive, while obviously driven by passion and characterized by elements of undoubted quality, suffers too much for an adaptation to control via touch screen frustrating beyond measure for even the most avid fans of the genre. The future versions PC, Wii U and PlayStation Vita could solve most of the problems reported here, even if the very modest longevity remains a defect on which it is difficult to turn a blind eye.