Silent Hill 4: The Room
Released: 2004Platform: Playstation 2, X-box, PC
Players: 1
Rating: M (Mature)
Playable Character: Henry Townshend
Summary: (from the back of the game)
A room full of nightmares...
Henry Townshend finds himself trapped in his apartment and the only escape is through a mysterious portal that leads to a horrifying alternate reality. With gruesome sights around every corner and his sanity being tested, he must find his way out of this nightmare.
Review
*spoilers*Well, finally finished the game, and my prior statement pretty much held true. It was longer than it needed to be, considering the central story, which is just okay; somewhat interesting...another dive into the cult of Silent Hill-Dahlia is even mentioned briefly. But the endings were disappointing, and where there were many triggers and factors in SH2 that affected your ending, here there are only two, and those only come into play in the end. However, that makes it easy (if you don't cleanse your room until the end, and save before you do) to go back and try for different endings.
I absolutely despised the new inventory system and storage box-there is nothing more frustrating than needing an item and having to run all the way back to a hole to retrieve it from the storage box. The voice acting was okay, graphics especially were pretty good, but the first-person controls were a little off, and the combat power meter was absolutely unnecessary. Otherwise, the controls are basically like the other games.
The addition of Eileen as an NPC companion is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Eileen can use a variety of hand-to-hand weapons (no guns, unfortunately) and she actually comes in handy when you're facing a large number of enemies. However, as far as I noticed, she couldn't *kill* them. She'd knock them down, but wouldn't step on them. On the other hand, her tendancy to actually stop and face villains that you'd rather run right by can be annoying (especially when you're running from a certain pistol-wielding psycho). She also tends to get in the way and fight when she's not needed. You can handle one or two monkies on your own, but Eileen will stand right beside you, whacking away, and often times, while using a melee weapon, you end up clocking her instead. Which brings me to another complaint: your inability to directly affect her healing process. It would have been nice to be able to hand her a nutrition drink or two when she gets to limping, but you can't. She heals on her own sometimes (I'm not too clear on how or when) but especially in the end, being able to heal her would be nice. There's a cheat trick you can use to heal her, but it's very complicated, and wastes holy candles, which can become prescious.
As for the scare factor, there are one or two moments that spur a jump or two, but on the whole, the game itself lacks that creepy feeling that the other Silent Hills used so well. There's no mist, no fog, no creepy radio. It's disappointing. One thing I have to mention, however, and praise to no ends, is the character of (older) Walter Sullivan. He is probably the scariest character of the other two games I've played. Scarier than Pyramid Head, Eddie, Samael, and Laura, combined. +wink+ The scariest points in the game are the ones where you're being chased by Walter. Not because of his weapons-those are little more than an annoyance. It's Walter's tendancy to pop up around every corner, behind every tree, that sort of thing, with his creepy laugh...+shudder+
But on the whole, the game lacks the consistantly scary atmosphere that made the other games so wonderful. It's certainly gory, but where the other games were scarier for what you didn't see, it seems like the developers tried to scare you more here with what you do.
All in all, it's...not as good as the other SH's, but Silent Hill is Silent Hill. It's not like you *can't* play. But I missed the wide-open, explorable town, creepy fog, and white noise. Hopefully the developers will take a few steps back for Silent Hill 5.
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