I beat this with my friend last night after renting it (took maybe 5 hours top)
It's really, really good and really, really fucked up and the psychology side is very well done
but it's really as far from being similiar to other Silent Hill games as it can be, though I'm not entirely sure if this is good or bad
I wouldn't recommend anyone buy this though because of how terribly short it is, even though you can replay it a few times and get various different interesting things, or just outright change the outcome of some parts (psychology..)
spoilers (Click to reveal)they call it a reimagining of SH1 but I find it really isn't that at all. it's a reimagining in the sense that SOMEONE IN THE GAME is imagining the events of "SH1" but really all I can understand from this is that Shattered Memories is closer to a fanfiction written about cheryl's mental troubles post-sh3; a fanfiction/tribute game, since other than there being Harry, Cheryl and Cybil and taking part in Silent Hill it has absolutely nothing to do with SH1.