Silent Hill 4: The Room is the fourth installment in the Silent Hill survival horror series. The game is similar to the past entries in terms of atmosphere, never letting the player know what's behind the next corner or down the street. Aside from the traditional third-person-view, there is now a first-person mode which is used to control the main character when he is in his apartment. Objects that can be interacted with are highlighted by eyeball icons. The previous games in the series have mostly been about exploring the town and solving puzzles, but this installment has much more combat involved. There are more enemies in a given area, spread in cramped spaces. The main character mostly uses a standard Silent Hill arsenal of weapons, such as the steel pipe, pistol and a golf club.
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muito bom, mas poderia ser ainda melhor se não fosse uns pequenos detalhes
The survival horror deep dive continues. I always heard silent hill 4 was one of the most divisive titles in the series and so I thought it would be appropriate to dive in blind and figure out first hand how bizarre The Room really gets.
For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the title but it warrants it’s place as one of the “weirder” silent hill installments, which is an achievement in itself for a series so deeply routed in elusive and symbolical horror.
For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the title but it warrants it’s place as one of the “weirder” silent hill installments, which is an achievement in itself for a series so deeply routed in elusive and symbolical horror.
The characters here are a bit more lacking compared to the previous titles, and I thought some of the subtlety that made the stories of the first games so brilliant is kind of lost here, but it still does something quite unique with it’s premise and I feel like that deserves some praise on it’s own.
The first person segments are a bit clunky, but they still feel a bit ahead of their time with how they elevate the story. The creepy factor in silent hill 4 is really something else and the difference can be felt straight from the intro screen.
Even in it’s premise Silent Hill 4 seems to want to do something completely different than it’s predecessors, from the mysterious plot to the drastic location change.
Even in it’s premise Silent Hill 4 seems to want to do something completely different than it’s predecessors, from the mysterious plot to the drastic location change.
As with the subtlety, the creative flair seems to be a bit divided as well. There’s still a lot of that classic silent hill imagery and foggy horror, but there’s a lot of disconnect with huge, open and sometimes obnoxious areas. This detracts from the claustrophobic factor that made the games stand out in their horror.
The game also loses a significant amount of steam in the half way point, and could have benefited from streamlining the story and characters. Despite how much I really liked the character of Eileen, glorified escort missions rarely work for me, unless they’re handled smartly. In Silent Hill 4, it works some times, but most of your playthrough you’ll be rambling back through floors realizing you lost her 3 rooms back, or circling around enemies trying to get the AI to follow you so you can go in a room.
Change is a welcome factor, and this doesn’t ruin the experience at all, this mechanic just runs it’s course very quickly and the fact you have to run through every area a second time can make it frustrating.
Change is a welcome factor, and this doesn’t ruin the experience at all, this mechanic just runs it’s course very quickly and the fact you have to run through every area a second time can make it frustrating.
Nonetheless, Silent Hill 4 complements these divisive changes with a familiar gritty tone, a genuinely scary villain and a sense of dread and horror that follows you even into the save rooms and the titular apartment you’ll spend a good amount of time walking around.
Some justifiable flaws here and there, but still a super fun survival horror experience.
Some justifiable flaws here and there, but still a super fun survival horror experience.
What The Room has to offer is indeed interesting, and sets it fairly far apart from the other entries in the series. It's sad to see the repeated content for the second half and the amateur use of stock sound effects that really take you out of it.
I liked what this game offered. Nice horror atmosphere. Sadly bogged down by bad gameplay decisions like escort missions.
This could’ve all been avoided if they didn’t circumcise Walter Sullivan smh
Some Spoilers Ahead
The final SIlent Hill game made by Team Silent and wow.. what a really weird note to disband on. It does away with previous horror formulas and creates it's own ways of scaring you. I love how the game tells it's story, rather than outright tell you, you have to make an effort to collect all the notes within the game that explain all of the backstory and what's going on around you, it's genuinely such a fast and hard way to hook someone which makes it my favorite story in the series right behind 2. It's seriously that great. I love how immersive the apartment and locations are (especially the apartment world). I do have issues with this game though, the combat is braindead easy, ruining the horror of enemies almost immediately, it's a lot more.. "action" orientated, don't get me wrong though. You're not crashing a car into a gas station with giant explosions while gunning down hordes of enemies (there's only two types of guns in the entire game and they're both handguns). I mean there's just a lot more enemies to deal with. Henry's voice actor is just.. not good. I was looking forward to him the most in this game and well.. I was left sorely disappointed with his laughably questionable deliveries and monotone reactions. Also the limited inventory just absolutely breaks the pace of the game when you have to go back into the your apartment, dump everything into a chest, and go back to the otherworld. It does away with a lot of the horror elements created by previous games but to make up for it, it creates new horror elements that make this game still one of the best ever. In a world where every Silent Hill game after this redoes the concept of Silent Hill 2 over and over again but shittier and shittier, a game like this is so over hated. More Silent Hill games should do more unique situations and stories like this in the future and I'm hoping Silent Hill f does exactly that instead of just another Dollar General Silent Hill 2. This game is great, horrifying, and the most unique horror game to this day.