um dos melhores da saga, muito macabro e tenebroso, adorei demais!
Oh I was playing this? Can't get into it sorry!
Flawed, but I kinda love it regardless, and in a perfect world it probably could have been my favorite of the series. So many parts of this SHOULD make it so; it has the most vile atmosphere out of any of the Silent Hill games I've played, the way it plays with the concept of a safe room is brilliant, and everything regarding Walter Sullivan is so good until you actually play it and it's just alright I guess. At the very least it's basically just a better version of The Evil Within, and I do greatly appreciate how different this one was in comparison to other Silent Hill sequels (especially 3), it's clear Team Silent had plenty of new ideas that just sadly weren't fully executed.
Tem o melhor vilão da franquia e a pior gameplay até seu lançamento, uma movimentação BIZARRA e uma câmera de FUDIDO. Tem também o fator funny de que isso é de certa forma uma sequência do Silent Hill 2, provavelmente pela mesma razão do Silent Hill 3? Capaz... Eu curti, apesar de ter tipo UMA boss fight, uns """"puzzles"""" e a metade do jogo ser backtracking e escoltar um npc, é um jogo sólido.
My opinions on this game shifted quite a lot during my playthrough. I started off really intrigued by the claustrophobic first person sections, then bored by the lack of atmosphere and incredibly low risk gameplay of the first half, and then mostly engaged by the far more difficult and stressful gameplay of the 2nd half. This is a game that definitely lacks cohesion. It has a lot of interesting ideas - some of which are executed well, some poorly - but all of which fail to ever coalesce into a focused and high quality experience.
First off, and something I found myself very disappointed by - there’s little to no actual gameplay in the first person apartment sections. I assumed the apartment would be used as an area where the player would engage in puzzles or something unique to the setting other than combat, but there’s really not much at all. It’s mostly used as a safe room that contains your item box and save point and where you can get story info by spying on your neighbor, reading mysterious mail, etc. All of this was fine but it just felt like a bit of a wasted opportunity. I don’t think I’d be as disappointed about this if the eponymous room wasn’t such a big focus of the game. If this were any other game, the apartments status as simple safe room that allows the player to take a break and engage in some additional lore would be totally fine. However, in SH4 the apartment is the central focus of the game from a narrative standpoint, and I wish they’d done more with it given this context. There is a very small gameplay mechanic that shows up in the apartment towards the end but the players engagement with it involves little more than the mindless repetition of the solution the game gives you for it.
Outside the apartment you engage in standard SH combat and exploration. Puzzles are noticeably absent from this game which I thought was unfortunate since I’ve always enjoyed SH’s puzzles - especially the more challenging ones.
Control scheme is absolutely terrible in these sections. Player has no control over the camera which is fixed but repositions itself when the player leaves the center portion of the frame. Survival horror games normally use tank controls to make movement straightforward in the context of a fixed camera but SH4 adopts a very clunky player based analog movement system (i.e the character changes direction based on the position of the analog stick and independently of the rotation of the camera. A modern example of this is Breath of the Wild). This is a difficulty movement style to implement with a fixed camera, and I can only think of a couple games that do it well. SH4 does not do this movement style well. One of the biggest issues with movement in SH4 is getting your character to turn. If you push the analog stick in the opposite direction your character is facing, instead of spinning around or doing a tight turn, they start making a very wide turn. This leads to the character facing in various directions that are contrary to the position of the analog stick during the turn, which can be incredibly disorienting especially if you want to abandon the turn and have them go somewhere else. These ultra wide turns also frequently end with your character bumping into a wall and losing all momentum, which is frankly an unacceptable problem in a game centered around the skillful evasion of enemies. It’s all very frustrating, and I would have much preferred tank controls, which can’t be switched on in the menu unfortunately.
These sections are also more combat focused than previous SH games. To temper this and prevent levels from being an all out monster smack down, SH4 introduces limited inventory slots and gives the player fewer resources - bullets in particular. These survival mechanics are definitely welcome in this context. Combat is unfortunately far too easy and lacks any tension in the beginning of the game because you do a full heal every time you go back to your apartment and enemies don’t respawn. If you have the patience you can pretty easily take down every enemy in a level without ever risking death. This makes the first portion of the game very boring and low stakes gameplay-wise. The atmosphere in SH4 is also by far the weakest in the series up until this point so ambience is unfortunately unable to save the subpar gameplay.
Halfway through the game, however, all of this changes pretty drastically. You’re no longer able to heal in your apartment and you’re now forced to escort a weakened companion. This companion can’t die but the damage they take determines whether or not you get the good ending. SH4 immediately becomes much more tense, strategic, and high stakes in the vein of an actually good survival horror game. Players are also forced to actively strategize during combat encounters - is it better to run past and risk my companion being hit or do I use resources and potentially lose health and a healing item to take them down so I can safely escort her through - stuff like that. It’s all actually quite fun and redeemed the game a bit for me.
Story is fine but is definitely the weakest in the series. I enjoyed unraveling the mystery surrounding the eponymous room and all the supernatural goings on stemming from it, but the story didn’t have much else going on. Characters are incredibly flat and underdeveloped. I also found the villain to be pretty boring and cliched. Same goes for the eventual explanation for all the strange stuff happening with the player characters apartment.
This is IMO a thoroughly mediocre game that is only saved for me by the truly tense and somewhat strategic gameplay of the second half. The music is also fantastic as per usual for SH. I appreciate the devs trying to do something different. The idea of the claustrophobic first person sections and more survival minded horror combat in the third person sections is interesting. It’s unfortunately not executed very well. It also lacks the top notch atmosphere that had come to define the silent hill franchise up until this point leaving SH4 with almost nothing to redeem its mediocre gameplay.
This game is somewhat interesting from a more philosophical standpoint re: how we as human beings relate to our homes. I like the tension between the player being trapped in their apartment but how that also reinforces its safety - something shown in gameplay with healing and save points and also visually with the locks on the door that simultaneously keep the player in and the outside world out. I also like how the game tries to take this safe space away from you halfway through by showing the sickness of the outside world slowly seeping into it - bleeding through the walls, rattling against the windows, bubbling up from the drain. I like how the player is required to constantly deal with these threats to keep their apartment in a livable condition (although this theme would definitely be better served by making them harder to deal with). I also do like how the villain thinks the apartment is his mom. As somehow who is very happy being alone and who also has OCD I feel safest when I’m alone in my apartment since that’s the one time I can have a modicum of control over my own world. Moreover, the idea of losing that control is terrifying to me - something I’ve spent years successfully working through for the benefit of myself and my loved ones. Because of this a lot of the themes invoked by SH4 are very personal to me. I think it’s a testament to how mediocre this game is that I was able to notice these themes while playing but that they had pretty much no emotional impact on me whatsoever. That said these themes are cool to see in a game and make SH4 prime material for analysis by people who are into psychoanalysis, the study of space, material culture studies, etc, and I’m sure there are some very interesting readings of this game out there.
None of this redeems the game for me unfortunately. Being conceptually interesting doesn’t make it impactful, fun, or interesting to actually play. Truly great games - like SH2 and 3 for instance - figure out a way to do both.
First off, and something I found myself very disappointed by - there’s little to no actual gameplay in the first person apartment sections. I assumed the apartment would be used as an area where the player would engage in puzzles or something unique to the setting other than combat, but there’s really not much at all. It’s mostly used as a safe room that contains your item box and save point and where you can get story info by spying on your neighbor, reading mysterious mail, etc. All of this was fine but it just felt like a bit of a wasted opportunity. I don’t think I’d be as disappointed about this if the eponymous room wasn’t such a big focus of the game. If this were any other game, the apartments status as simple safe room that allows the player to take a break and engage in some additional lore would be totally fine. However, in SH4 the apartment is the central focus of the game from a narrative standpoint, and I wish they’d done more with it given this context. There is a very small gameplay mechanic that shows up in the apartment towards the end but the players engagement with it involves little more than the mindless repetition of the solution the game gives you for it.
Outside the apartment you engage in standard SH combat and exploration. Puzzles are noticeably absent from this game which I thought was unfortunate since I’ve always enjoyed SH’s puzzles - especially the more challenging ones.
Control scheme is absolutely terrible in these sections. Player has no control over the camera which is fixed but repositions itself when the player leaves the center portion of the frame. Survival horror games normally use tank controls to make movement straightforward in the context of a fixed camera but SH4 adopts a very clunky player based analog movement system (i.e the character changes direction based on the position of the analog stick and independently of the rotation of the camera. A modern example of this is Breath of the Wild). This is a difficulty movement style to implement with a fixed camera, and I can only think of a couple games that do it well. SH4 does not do this movement style well. One of the biggest issues with movement in SH4 is getting your character to turn. If you push the analog stick in the opposite direction your character is facing, instead of spinning around or doing a tight turn, they start making a very wide turn. This leads to the character facing in various directions that are contrary to the position of the analog stick during the turn, which can be incredibly disorienting especially if you want to abandon the turn and have them go somewhere else. These ultra wide turns also frequently end with your character bumping into a wall and losing all momentum, which is frankly an unacceptable problem in a game centered around the skillful evasion of enemies. It’s all very frustrating, and I would have much preferred tank controls, which can’t be switched on in the menu unfortunately.
These sections are also more combat focused than previous SH games. To temper this and prevent levels from being an all out monster smack down, SH4 introduces limited inventory slots and gives the player fewer resources - bullets in particular. These survival mechanics are definitely welcome in this context. Combat is unfortunately far too easy and lacks any tension in the beginning of the game because you do a full heal every time you go back to your apartment and enemies don’t respawn. If you have the patience you can pretty easily take down every enemy in a level without ever risking death. This makes the first portion of the game very boring and low stakes gameplay-wise. The atmosphere in SH4 is also by far the weakest in the series up until this point so ambience is unfortunately unable to save the subpar gameplay.
Halfway through the game, however, all of this changes pretty drastically. You’re no longer able to heal in your apartment and you’re now forced to escort a weakened companion. This companion can’t die but the damage they take determines whether or not you get the good ending. SH4 immediately becomes much more tense, strategic, and high stakes in the vein of an actually good survival horror game. Players are also forced to actively strategize during combat encounters - is it better to run past and risk my companion being hit or do I use resources and potentially lose health and a healing item to take them down so I can safely escort her through - stuff like that. It’s all actually quite fun and redeemed the game a bit for me.
Story is fine but is definitely the weakest in the series. I enjoyed unraveling the mystery surrounding the eponymous room and all the supernatural goings on stemming from it, but the story didn’t have much else going on. Characters are incredibly flat and underdeveloped. I also found the villain to be pretty boring and cliched. Same goes for the eventual explanation for all the strange stuff happening with the player characters apartment.
This is IMO a thoroughly mediocre game that is only saved for me by the truly tense and somewhat strategic gameplay of the second half. The music is also fantastic as per usual for SH. I appreciate the devs trying to do something different. The idea of the claustrophobic first person sections and more survival minded horror combat in the third person sections is interesting. It’s unfortunately not executed very well. It also lacks the top notch atmosphere that had come to define the silent hill franchise up until this point leaving SH4 with almost nothing to redeem its mediocre gameplay.
This game is somewhat interesting from a more philosophical standpoint re: how we as human beings relate to our homes. I like the tension between the player being trapped in their apartment but how that also reinforces its safety - something shown in gameplay with healing and save points and also visually with the locks on the door that simultaneously keep the player in and the outside world out. I also like how the game tries to take this safe space away from you halfway through by showing the sickness of the outside world slowly seeping into it - bleeding through the walls, rattling against the windows, bubbling up from the drain. I like how the player is required to constantly deal with these threats to keep their apartment in a livable condition (although this theme would definitely be better served by making them harder to deal with). I also do like how the villain thinks the apartment is his mom. As somehow who is very happy being alone and who also has OCD I feel safest when I’m alone in my apartment since that’s the one time I can have a modicum of control over my own world. Moreover, the idea of losing that control is terrifying to me - something I’ve spent years successfully working through for the benefit of myself and my loved ones. Because of this a lot of the themes invoked by SH4 are very personal to me. I think it’s a testament to how mediocre this game is that I was able to notice these themes while playing but that they had pretty much no emotional impact on me whatsoever. That said these themes are cool to see in a game and make SH4 prime material for analysis by people who are into psychoanalysis, the study of space, material culture studies, etc, and I’m sure there are some very interesting readings of this game out there.
None of this redeems the game for me unfortunately. Being conceptually interesting doesn’t make it impactful, fun, or interesting to actually play. Truly great games - like SH2 and 3 for instance - figure out a way to do both.
This review contains spoilers
"Flawed Masterpiece" is a descriptor I find tends to get a bit overused when it comes to media discussion, but in the case of "Silent Hill 4: The Room" I honestly think it's at it's most apt.
SH4 is a game that you can unfortunately kinda tell had a bit of troubled, rushed production, and this is mainly evident in the gameplay, which in my opinion is the weakest of the 4 team silent games. The game spams way more enemies at you then previous entries, and while I do think this works with the narrative, it also leads to a lot of monetary, with a lot of backtracking towards the second half, and a hud that's always on screen and kinda takes me out a bit. Puzzles were still pretty cool, though I prefer the riddles of the other installments.
Honestly though I don't care for all that too much, what I highly appreciate about SH4 is the narrative beneath the narrative. The main story the game tells is a pretty solid one, Walter is a memorable villain, and piecing everything together is pretty satisfying.
However, I feel like there's a lot the game is trying to tell that unfortunately went over many peoples heads, there's a bit of a hidden story here, which mainly involves its infamous protagonist Henry, who is often regarded as one of the worst in the series.
Throughout the game, Henry remains mostly silent, occasionally speaking only through a few whisper. This is an aspect I feel was intentional with the kind of character Henry is supposed to be, it's very easy to make assumptions about him being on a spectrum, and while I would incline to agree, he also fits into a certain archetype popular in Japan known as the "Hikikomori", funnily enough made more popular with a game that came out only about a month before this one, the RPG Maker title "Yume Nikki", which shares a few similarities with SH4
The Hikikomori is a socially reclusive person, one who tends to distance themselves from society, instead just lucking themselves in their own homes.
I feel that this game became a bit more relatable to folks around Covid times, when most were forced to remain in homes, you could almost imagine all the iconic chains featured on the game's cover blocking your own door, as the insanity slowly takes over, as you get so used to your personal space, that even the most minor of inconsistencies seem disturbing, which is captured in game via the various hauntings. However, I believe looking at it that way reveals only part of the larger picture.
The locks on Henry's door are something I see as symbolic really, of his own personal fear of the outside and desire to stay in-doors, he shares a lot with Walter really, with the many levels behind manifestations of their fear of the outside, all the enemies representing the inevitable social interactions Henry would rather avoid if possible, just speaking with people can be a terrifying prospect to many folks, and these, sorts of nightmares, represent what I believe Henry would rather avoid.
However, as Henry stays in his room longer and longer, he begins going mad, The Hauntings are elements I believe come from his massive paranoia, getting so used to his room it starts coming off as creepy. The game doesn't really specify just how long Henry spent in his apartment, if you want to you could imagine it's only been a few weeks, but I believe a few years is closer to the money, with all the time Henry spent going insane eventually getting him to start and try to overcome his fear of the wider world, as during the final act, he finally braves to exit room 302.
He initially finds to outside world to be as disturbing as he imagined, This is until he finally confronts Walter, the manifestation of all his fears, who wants to revive his "mother", who in reality is just the room he wants to stay in and never leave. And with Henry finally defeating that side of himself, he can finally brave the regular outside happily, warping up his arc, and ending Silent Hill 4.
SH4 is certainly a game that could've been better, and maybe even told its story in a way more would understand, but as a person who personally IS on the spectrum, and felt a lot of the emotions I believe henry felt during his journey, this is a game that meant a lot to me, 2 is still my favorite SH game, with this being a somewhat close second, but this is easily the one that hit the closest to home for me, and I hope others were able to experience what I did with this wonderful, beautiful, messy game
SH4 is a game that you can unfortunately kinda tell had a bit of troubled, rushed production, and this is mainly evident in the gameplay, which in my opinion is the weakest of the 4 team silent games. The game spams way more enemies at you then previous entries, and while I do think this works with the narrative, it also leads to a lot of monetary, with a lot of backtracking towards the second half, and a hud that's always on screen and kinda takes me out a bit. Puzzles were still pretty cool, though I prefer the riddles of the other installments.
Honestly though I don't care for all that too much, what I highly appreciate about SH4 is the narrative beneath the narrative. The main story the game tells is a pretty solid one, Walter is a memorable villain, and piecing everything together is pretty satisfying.
However, I feel like there's a lot the game is trying to tell that unfortunately went over many peoples heads, there's a bit of a hidden story here, which mainly involves its infamous protagonist Henry, who is often regarded as one of the worst in the series.
Throughout the game, Henry remains mostly silent, occasionally speaking only through a few whisper. This is an aspect I feel was intentional with the kind of character Henry is supposed to be, it's very easy to make assumptions about him being on a spectrum, and while I would incline to agree, he also fits into a certain archetype popular in Japan known as the "Hikikomori", funnily enough made more popular with a game that came out only about a month before this one, the RPG Maker title "Yume Nikki", which shares a few similarities with SH4
The Hikikomori is a socially reclusive person, one who tends to distance themselves from society, instead just lucking themselves in their own homes.
I feel that this game became a bit more relatable to folks around Covid times, when most were forced to remain in homes, you could almost imagine all the iconic chains featured on the game's cover blocking your own door, as the insanity slowly takes over, as you get so used to your personal space, that even the most minor of inconsistencies seem disturbing, which is captured in game via the various hauntings. However, I believe looking at it that way reveals only part of the larger picture.
The locks on Henry's door are something I see as symbolic really, of his own personal fear of the outside and desire to stay in-doors, he shares a lot with Walter really, with the many levels behind manifestations of their fear of the outside, all the enemies representing the inevitable social interactions Henry would rather avoid if possible, just speaking with people can be a terrifying prospect to many folks, and these, sorts of nightmares, represent what I believe Henry would rather avoid.
However, as Henry stays in his room longer and longer, he begins going mad, The Hauntings are elements I believe come from his massive paranoia, getting so used to his room it starts coming off as creepy. The game doesn't really specify just how long Henry spent in his apartment, if you want to you could imagine it's only been a few weeks, but I believe a few years is closer to the money, with all the time Henry spent going insane eventually getting him to start and try to overcome his fear of the wider world, as during the final act, he finally braves to exit room 302.
He initially finds to outside world to be as disturbing as he imagined, This is until he finally confronts Walter, the manifestation of all his fears, who wants to revive his "mother", who in reality is just the room he wants to stay in and never leave. And with Henry finally defeating that side of himself, he can finally brave the regular outside happily, warping up his arc, and ending Silent Hill 4.
SH4 is certainly a game that could've been better, and maybe even told its story in a way more would understand, but as a person who personally IS on the spectrum, and felt a lot of the emotions I believe henry felt during his journey, this is a game that meant a lot to me, 2 is still my favorite SH game, with this being a somewhat close second, but this is easily the one that hit the closest to home for me, and I hope others were able to experience what I did with this wonderful, beautiful, messy game
All I remember from playing Silent Hill 4 was, me going around in circles on a level which I remember had a cabin and a forest in it and I peaced out because I got stuck in that area.
Silent Hill 4 is (imo) the worst of the main SH games. The main character, escorting and backtracking sections definitely take away a lot from it.
The core gameplay is similar to the previous titles although there are some new mechanics. The combat is quite similar, although sometimes you also have to fight some camera angles lol. You can change the camera's position by pressinng L2 but sometimes it won't help at all. Now you can only carry up to 10 items, which may sometimes be annoying. You can drop and pick up itens from a chest in your apartment. The apartment and the change of third to first person is the biggest difference from the previous titles. It's a basically a safe room, which heals you... :) I had to play this at 30fps since 60 will often softlock you, make Henry unable to move when it attack stance and make the game unbeatable due to a bug in the final boss. It was fine for the most part but 60fps would've been way better.
The main character, Henry, was very uninteresting. The poor voice acting didn't help either, none of the SH games I've played so far had amazing voice acting but here it didn't help at all.
The story itself isn't bad but poor VA and boring backtracking and escorting sessions take away some of your interest, unless you're really into npc escorting.
Backtracking itself isn't bad and can be done well! But here it was a drag since you have to escort AND protect that npc if you wanna have a better ending.
Enemy design was mostly interesting! There are some very cool designs but some very meh ones too.
The atmosphere is good for the most part! Some sections don't really feel scary or tense but overall the feeling's there.
The soundtrack was okay.
Overall, it's not a terrible game, it's fine! As a main SH game it is disappointing (again,imo), if it was a spinoff I probably wouldn't be so harsh on it.
The core gameplay is similar to the previous titles although there are some new mechanics. The combat is quite similar, although sometimes you also have to fight some camera angles lol. You can change the camera's position by pressinng L2 but sometimes it won't help at all. Now you can only carry up to 10 items, which may sometimes be annoying. You can drop and pick up itens from a chest in your apartment. The apartment and the change of third to first person is the biggest difference from the previous titles. It's a basically a safe room, which heals you... :) I had to play this at 30fps since 60 will often softlock you, make Henry unable to move when it attack stance and make the game unbeatable due to a bug in the final boss. It was fine for the most part but 60fps would've been way better.
The main character, Henry, was very uninteresting. The poor voice acting didn't help either, none of the SH games I've played so far had amazing voice acting but here it didn't help at all.
The story itself isn't bad but poor VA and boring backtracking and escorting sessions take away some of your interest, unless you're really into npc escorting.
Backtracking itself isn't bad and can be done well! But here it was a drag since you have to escort AND protect that npc if you wanna have a better ending.
Enemy design was mostly interesting! There are some very cool designs but some very meh ones too.
The atmosphere is good for the most part! Some sections don't really feel scary or tense but overall the feeling's there.
The soundtrack was okay.
Overall, it's not a terrible game, it's fine! As a main SH game it is disappointing (again,imo), if it was a spinoff I probably wouldn't be so harsh on it.
this happened to my buddy eric
The Room but without Tommy Wiseau.
The black sheep of the original four Team Silent games, but is that rightfully so? Well it for sure is understandable. Henry Townsend is the definition of a dull and one dimensional character. Pretty much in contrast to Heather who is arguably the most 4-dimensional character I have ever witnessed. However SH4 has the series most interesting villain. Tommy Wisea...I mean Walter Sullivan. He sure looks like Tommy though lol.
Anyway the story about Walter and the 21 sacraments is pretty damn intruiging. The enemy design is great. Enemy sounds are pretty damn odd though, especially those burping monsters. Combat is worse yet easier at the same time. Once you got the axe you become invinvible ruining much of the horror. Imagine how dangerous those Twin Victims (one of the best and most underappreciated monsters in the franchise) would be with Silent Hill 3 gameplay and combat mechanics. The handgun is kinda like a shotgun shooting through multiple enemies sometimes.
The level design is great but I miss the radio and flashlight. The escort mission isn't as bad as in RE4 but witout it and the backtracking is something I could do without but I don't really mind it. Akira Yamaokas score is a masterclass. Room of Angels anyone?
9/10 Ghosts haunting your apartment.
The black sheep of the original four Team Silent games, but is that rightfully so? Well it for sure is understandable. Henry Townsend is the definition of a dull and one dimensional character. Pretty much in contrast to Heather who is arguably the most 4-dimensional character I have ever witnessed. However SH4 has the series most interesting villain. Tommy Wisea...I mean Walter Sullivan. He sure looks like Tommy though lol.
Anyway the story about Walter and the 21 sacraments is pretty damn intruiging. The enemy design is great. Enemy sounds are pretty damn odd though, especially those burping monsters. Combat is worse yet easier at the same time. Once you got the axe you become invinvible ruining much of the horror. Imagine how dangerous those Twin Victims (one of the best and most underappreciated monsters in the franchise) would be with Silent Hill 3 gameplay and combat mechanics. The handgun is kinda like a shotgun shooting through multiple enemies sometimes.
The level design is great but I miss the radio and flashlight. The escort mission isn't as bad as in RE4 but witout it and the backtracking is something I could do without but I don't really mind it. Akira Yamaokas score is a masterclass. Room of Angels anyone?
9/10 Ghosts haunting your apartment.
Good:
-One of the most interesting main villains in video games
-A lot of unique mechanics and details such as the hauntings and the ghosts
-An interesting take on the Silent Hill formula
-Very atmospheric
-Some cool enemies
Neutral:
-The soundtrack is very good (listened later on because you can't hear it through the TV's speakers)
Bad:
-The areas are quite boring to go through
-One of the most interesting main villains in video games
-A lot of unique mechanics and details such as the hauntings and the ghosts
-An interesting take on the Silent Hill formula
-Very atmospheric
-Some cool enemies
Neutral:
-The soundtrack is very good (listened later on because you can't hear it through the TV's speakers)
Bad:
-The areas are quite boring to go through
It's half of a good game! The instant you hit the halfway point and you have to go through the first half backwards while escorting an NPC the entire time is really rough.
The additional mechanics in this game are interesting. Some of them end up being more frustrating than anything, but I will always love the mechanics around your safe room slowly getting haunted over time and turning your one point of respite into a hostile zone.
The additional mechanics in this game are interesting. Some of them end up being more frustrating than anything, but I will always love the mechanics around your safe room slowly getting haunted over time and turning your one point of respite into a hostile zone.
gameplay is kinda ass but it's okay!! 🔥🔥🔥
Senhoras e senhores, eu me caguei.
Didn't think I'd be writing that, but Silent Hill 4 is my favorite SH since the 2nd one.
What won me over is how unique and lightly experimental it is compared to the previous ones. The concept of Henry locked in an ever-changing apartment fascinates me. It messes with your sense of safety, because if the protagonist isn't safe in his own house, anything else can happen. This makes SH4 one of the most disturbing and intriguing out of the 4, even if it's not the scariest.
I also prefer the focus on melee combat instead of puzzle solving. It does take away the dreadful sense of exploration that the others have, but it makes up for being its own consistent thing. And with it, comes a touch up in the combat sytem. I mean, it's still not perfect and, quite frankly, dated, but it's the best one. Even the camera works a little better. Pack that up with great visuals and some disgusting enemy designs and you have a very creepy challenge ahead of you.
The story is also great!
Definitely not better than 2 and might not be as horrifying as 1, but I love how the mystery slowly unfolds. The pacing feels just right, characters are memorable, there's an eerie sound to the voice acting, the main villain is good and the pay off felt satisfying, in most of the 4 endings you can get. The tone set by your interactions inside the room and the frightening things happening outside of it helps a lot in building up tension and curiosity.
The only thing I did not enjoy so much was Henry, but you get used to him.
And I won't even take too much time talking about how The Room handles sound. I've said it before in past reviews and I'll just say it again: Akira Yamaoka is a god! If it wasn't for him, I don't think Silent Hill would've been as memorable as it is and this is not different in this game. Again, the best one since 2.
I do have to point out a few things that I definitely agree in relation to this game's negative criticism. And that's the 2nd half of it.
I was not happy when I figured out that a lot of things changed when Eileen comes into play. As I played, I figured out that it isn't horrible to deal with her, but depending on the type of player you are, she can ruin your journey, because she is an unquestionable nuisance. Protecting her can be challenging even on easy, especially when you enter rooms filled with ghosts. I don't understand why the devs turned the game into a giant escort mission.
The 2nd half aso brings hauntings into Henry's room. And while I did find the concept very engaging, it got old soon and some of them can be very frustating if you do not correctly manage your items.
There's also the fact that the inventory just sucks. It is unapologetically bad. Some items are useless, the way it handles ammo and guns makes no sense, you can't discard items and it encourages mindless backtracking, which can totally break immersion. And the level design just doesn't help, since it's mostly linear, with some rooms FILLED with enemies. And this is coming from someone who actually prefers linear games.
I really don't understand why the devs made such weird decisions about how the final half of the game would roll. But while it could have ruined the experience for me, it just didn't. I could not dislike Silent Hill 4. In fact, it became my 2nd favorite out of the ones that I played.
If you have a chance, play Silent Hill 4. Especially if you're a horror fan. This is a very unique game, with a wicked mystery and some very off-putting imagery that, while definitely not perfect, shines in its strange design.
What won me over is how unique and lightly experimental it is compared to the previous ones. The concept of Henry locked in an ever-changing apartment fascinates me. It messes with your sense of safety, because if the protagonist isn't safe in his own house, anything else can happen. This makes SH4 one of the most disturbing and intriguing out of the 4, even if it's not the scariest.
I also prefer the focus on melee combat instead of puzzle solving. It does take away the dreadful sense of exploration that the others have, but it makes up for being its own consistent thing. And with it, comes a touch up in the combat sytem. I mean, it's still not perfect and, quite frankly, dated, but it's the best one. Even the camera works a little better. Pack that up with great visuals and some disgusting enemy designs and you have a very creepy challenge ahead of you.
The story is also great!
Definitely not better than 2 and might not be as horrifying as 1, but I love how the mystery slowly unfolds. The pacing feels just right, characters are memorable, there's an eerie sound to the voice acting, the main villain is good and the pay off felt satisfying, in most of the 4 endings you can get. The tone set by your interactions inside the room and the frightening things happening outside of it helps a lot in building up tension and curiosity.
The only thing I did not enjoy so much was Henry, but you get used to him.
And I won't even take too much time talking about how The Room handles sound. I've said it before in past reviews and I'll just say it again: Akira Yamaoka is a god! If it wasn't for him, I don't think Silent Hill would've been as memorable as it is and this is not different in this game. Again, the best one since 2.
I do have to point out a few things that I definitely agree in relation to this game's negative criticism. And that's the 2nd half of it.
I was not happy when I figured out that a lot of things changed when Eileen comes into play. As I played, I figured out that it isn't horrible to deal with her, but depending on the type of player you are, she can ruin your journey, because she is an unquestionable nuisance. Protecting her can be challenging even on easy, especially when you enter rooms filled with ghosts. I don't understand why the devs turned the game into a giant escort mission.
The 2nd half aso brings hauntings into Henry's room. And while I did find the concept very engaging, it got old soon and some of them can be very frustating if you do not correctly manage your items.
There's also the fact that the inventory just sucks. It is unapologetically bad. Some items are useless, the way it handles ammo and guns makes no sense, you can't discard items and it encourages mindless backtracking, which can totally break immersion. And the level design just doesn't help, since it's mostly linear, with some rooms FILLED with enemies. And this is coming from someone who actually prefers linear games.
I really don't understand why the devs made such weird decisions about how the final half of the game would roll. But while it could have ruined the experience for me, it just didn't. I could not dislike Silent Hill 4. In fact, it became my 2nd favorite out of the ones that I played.
If you have a chance, play Silent Hill 4. Especially if you're a horror fan. This is a very unique game, with a wicked mystery and some very off-putting imagery that, while definitely not perfect, shines in its strange design.
I often find myself on the positive end of divisive media's reception. I think this is because I try to see the best in things and always attempt to meet art on its own terms, not mine. Provided the divisiveness is not borne of a reprehensible moral or political idea, then I'm usually happy to go along with whatever experimental, abrasive, confusing idea a piece of art is willing to put forward. It's with this mindset that I found myself diving headfirst into Silent Hill 4: The Room with open arms. Beloved and derided, I was hopeful that I'd once again find myself siding with the game's fans. Disappointingly, I merely liked and respected The Room while not totally loving it, and before the midpoint I actually somewhat disliked it.
The Room's core concept was immediately intriguing to me. Trapped in an apartment in the middle of a bustling city, invisible to the outside world, themes of social isolation, anxiety, and resultant voyeuristic tendencies are expressed wonderfully. There's enough variation to what can be seen and heard, the sound mixing is eerily up-front and non-naturalistic in that classic Silent Hill style, and the room's function as both the only save point and an unlimited health source encourages repeated returns from the nightmare realms, which is an annoying gameplay quirk but one which undeniably bolsters the theme of anxiety, wanting nothing more than to return to the familiar at all times. The idea of being a prisoner within one's own home is made literal then taken to new extremes, and I have no serious complaints with the execution.
The nightmare realms themselves on the other hand... Look, I like to think I've demonstrated, in the example of the overly-incentivised trips back to the titular Room, that if something seems a bit shit I'm not just going to write it off. Especially with something as subtle as Silent Hill, I'm going to take a step back and think "ok, why is it doing this? What's the meaning being produced here?" However, after a frustrating opening subway section where unkillable "ghosts" jankily flew around while occasionally getting in my way, and where men emerged from walls to knock me down an escalator at seemingly random intervals, I found myself in a forest. It's night, but the forest is well-lit. The area is broken up into large square clearings, most of which have nothing to find. The forest is populated with zombie-like dogs, who also appeared as enemies in the subway, and at this stage I'm really starting to notice the stock big-cat-snarl sound effect they produce each time they attack. It's at the point where I'm running door-to-door through a well-lit forest as dogs that sound like cougars nip at my heels that a voice sounds in my head: "this is shit". NO! It's abrasive, it's subversive! "It's not abrasive. It's not subversive. It's just shit".
Unfortunately, while the core concept of The Room is beautifully realised and totally original, the places where standard Silent Hill gameplay occurs are shockingly undercooked, especially at first. Things do improve with later areas, and all areas benefit greatly from their revisits after the midgame switch-up - suddenly, a couple of significant mechanical changes transform the game into a genuinely compelling and challenging survival-horror experience - but the lack of polish in game-design and atmosphere is pervasive, rearing its head even in the game's best areas.
While I've praised the thematic elements as expressed through The Room's titular concept, I'm less convinced of the interaction between them and the core story, which once again explores the cult of Silent Hill. Silent Hill 3 simultaneously explored the personal psychological horror of its teenage protagonist and the cult horror of the first game, and successfully synthesised them by aligning the cult's goals with the protagonist's fear of burgeoning fertility. The connection between the protagonist and antagonist of Silent Hill 4 seem more superficial to me. There's definitely something there, but it's not really landing as it should.
Overall I liked Silent Hill 4: The Room. It succeeds in treading new ground for the series, all while fucking up in areas prior games had totally nailed. The second half has it fucking up a whole lot less, and took the game from like a 5/10 to a 7/10, but the damage done in those early areas keep Silent Hill 4 well outside the realm of quality the first three titles achieved.
The Room's core concept was immediately intriguing to me. Trapped in an apartment in the middle of a bustling city, invisible to the outside world, themes of social isolation, anxiety, and resultant voyeuristic tendencies are expressed wonderfully. There's enough variation to what can be seen and heard, the sound mixing is eerily up-front and non-naturalistic in that classic Silent Hill style, and the room's function as both the only save point and an unlimited health source encourages repeated returns from the nightmare realms, which is an annoying gameplay quirk but one which undeniably bolsters the theme of anxiety, wanting nothing more than to return to the familiar at all times. The idea of being a prisoner within one's own home is made literal then taken to new extremes, and I have no serious complaints with the execution.
The nightmare realms themselves on the other hand... Look, I like to think I've demonstrated, in the example of the overly-incentivised trips back to the titular Room, that if something seems a bit shit I'm not just going to write it off. Especially with something as subtle as Silent Hill, I'm going to take a step back and think "ok, why is it doing this? What's the meaning being produced here?" However, after a frustrating opening subway section where unkillable "ghosts" jankily flew around while occasionally getting in my way, and where men emerged from walls to knock me down an escalator at seemingly random intervals, I found myself in a forest. It's night, but the forest is well-lit. The area is broken up into large square clearings, most of which have nothing to find. The forest is populated with zombie-like dogs, who also appeared as enemies in the subway, and at this stage I'm really starting to notice the stock big-cat-snarl sound effect they produce each time they attack. It's at the point where I'm running door-to-door through a well-lit forest as dogs that sound like cougars nip at my heels that a voice sounds in my head: "this is shit". NO! It's abrasive, it's subversive! "It's not abrasive. It's not subversive. It's just shit".
Unfortunately, while the core concept of The Room is beautifully realised and totally original, the places where standard Silent Hill gameplay occurs are shockingly undercooked, especially at first. Things do improve with later areas, and all areas benefit greatly from their revisits after the midgame switch-up - suddenly, a couple of significant mechanical changes transform the game into a genuinely compelling and challenging survival-horror experience - but the lack of polish in game-design and atmosphere is pervasive, rearing its head even in the game's best areas.
While I've praised the thematic elements as expressed through The Room's titular concept, I'm less convinced of the interaction between them and the core story, which once again explores the cult of Silent Hill. Silent Hill 3 simultaneously explored the personal psychological horror of its teenage protagonist and the cult horror of the first game, and successfully synthesised them by aligning the cult's goals with the protagonist's fear of burgeoning fertility. The connection between the protagonist and antagonist of Silent Hill 4 seem more superficial to me. There's definitely something there, but it's not really landing as it should.
Overall I liked Silent Hill 4: The Room. It succeeds in treading new ground for the series, all while fucking up in areas prior games had totally nailed. The second half has it fucking up a whole lot less, and took the game from like a 5/10 to a 7/10, but the damage done in those early areas keep Silent Hill 4 well outside the realm of quality the first three titles achieved.
Walter Sullivan alone is enough
É um jogo digno de carregar o nome de silent hill. Tem uma ótima trilha sonora, criada pelo maravilhoso Akira Yamaoka, e tem ótimo design de ambiente e de criaturas. Ele é o mais experimental da franquia principal.
O que traz até sua gameplay, aonde escolheram tirar o controle de tanque, o que é um absurdo. Prejudicou o combate corpo a corpo e toda a movimentação em lugares com criaturas.
Algumas escolhas da direção também não foram satisfatórias, como: Deixar o Henry um protagonista quase vazio, pouco uso de cutscenes que trouxessem importância a história, não fazer uso de puzzles e não ter mais de uma considerável boss battle.
O que traz até sua gameplay, aonde escolheram tirar o controle de tanque, o que é um absurdo. Prejudicou o combate corpo a corpo e toda a movimentação em lugares com criaturas.
Algumas escolhas da direção também não foram satisfatórias, como: Deixar o Henry um protagonista quase vazio, pouco uso de cutscenes que trouxessem importância a história, não fazer uso de puzzles e não ter mais de uma considerável boss battle.
This review contains spoilers
SILENT HILL 4: THE ROOM IS A NIGHTMARE
I had heard people often say that Silent Hill 4 was the black sheep of the family. The family being the first four Silent Hill games made by Team Silent. I went into this game really hopeful, thinking that it would be a sort of..."Flawed Masterpiece". That people had just been too hard on the game and found too many flaws by directly comparing it to the iconic first three games.
Well, now that I have played as much as I could bear, I would say that I don't think people are hard ENOUGH on it.
As far as I had played, there were exactly four things I enjoyed about this game: the intro video, the apartment sections, the story (it was fairly intriguing), and the twin victims enemy (probably the most terrifying designs by Masahiro Ito).
Everything else was less than mediocre. The level design fluctuated between bland and flat to waaaay too overly complicated and frustrating. The water prison was a fucking nightmare to navigate and re-navigate. And then re-navigate two more times.
The puzzles were soul fracturing. I think exactly all of them made my eyes glaze over like I was in the middle of a lecture on advanced ASTROLOGY. Like I was required to look up my time of birth and how much the stars had shifted since ancient Greece to figure out my moon, sun, Mars, etc. Just to open a god damn lock on a fence. I shit you not, there's a section where you have to enter numbers on a keypad. But Henry (the protagonist) cannot input these numbers because "it's too dark and he can't see them very well".
And compared to James Sunderland and Heather Mason, protagonist Henry Townsend felt like a bowl of bread with some ketchup. Silent Hill has long been iconic for it's Lynch-esque stilted dialogue that invokes the surreal nightmare world in which the characters inhabit. Henry Townsend takes it too far to the point where honestly it's just garbage line delivery. I do not know who is "mostly responsible" for this, but the absence of any human being-like inflection or sentence utterances aside from "What the hell?" made me actively dislike him. Plus he looks like Zach Braff and it's really off-putting for a Silent Hill game.
Silent Hill 4: The Room had some really interesting conceptual stuff going on with the Rear Window apartment sequences. But everything else feels like some fan-made game that is in its EARLY STAGES.
I had heard people often say that Silent Hill 4 was the black sheep of the family. The family being the first four Silent Hill games made by Team Silent. I went into this game really hopeful, thinking that it would be a sort of..."Flawed Masterpiece". That people had just been too hard on the game and found too many flaws by directly comparing it to the iconic first three games.
Well, now that I have played as much as I could bear, I would say that I don't think people are hard ENOUGH on it.
As far as I had played, there were exactly four things I enjoyed about this game: the intro video, the apartment sections, the story (it was fairly intriguing), and the twin victims enemy (probably the most terrifying designs by Masahiro Ito).
Everything else was less than mediocre. The level design fluctuated between bland and flat to waaaay too overly complicated and frustrating. The water prison was a fucking nightmare to navigate and re-navigate. And then re-navigate two more times.
The puzzles were soul fracturing. I think exactly all of them made my eyes glaze over like I was in the middle of a lecture on advanced ASTROLOGY. Like I was required to look up my time of birth and how much the stars had shifted since ancient Greece to figure out my moon, sun, Mars, etc. Just to open a god damn lock on a fence. I shit you not, there's a section where you have to enter numbers on a keypad. But Henry (the protagonist) cannot input these numbers because "it's too dark and he can't see them very well".
And compared to James Sunderland and Heather Mason, protagonist Henry Townsend felt like a bowl of bread with some ketchup. Silent Hill has long been iconic for it's Lynch-esque stilted dialogue that invokes the surreal nightmare world in which the characters inhabit. Henry Townsend takes it too far to the point where honestly it's just garbage line delivery. I do not know who is "mostly responsible" for this, but the absence of any human being-like inflection or sentence utterances aside from "What the hell?" made me actively dislike him. Plus he looks like Zach Braff and it's really off-putting for a Silent Hill game.
Silent Hill 4: The Room had some really interesting conceptual stuff going on with the Rear Window apartment sequences. But everything else feels like some fan-made game that is in its EARLY STAGES.
I've really learned to appreciate what this game does and the best of this game is some of my favorite from silent hill
not perfect but still pretty amazing in my opinion
not perfect but still pretty amazing in my opinion
Ótima história porém não curti muito as repetições de cenários e não tem tantas músicas igual silent hill 2, Walter Sullivan poderia ter sido mais aproveitado
Es el mas experimental de los titulos de ps1/ps2, y aunque a veces no se siente como un Silent Hill, siento que sus ideas y especialmente el villano hace que valga la pena jugarlo aunque sea una vez.
Çok zor şartlar altında oynamaya çalıştım ve yer yer sıkıntılar çeksem de sonunda bitirmeyi başardım... Her ne kadar ikinci oyun kadar iyi olamasa da, (serideki hiçbir oyunu değil zaten.) Oynamasının ikinci oyundan çok daha zevkli olduğunu söyleyebilirim. Yer yer oyundaki teknik hatalar bile zevkli hale geliyor ve oynarken oldukça eğleniyorsunuz. Ayrıca oyunun konsepti ve ikinci oyuna göre çok daha fazla olan gizemli havasını aşırı beğendim, o yüzden de genel olarak Silent Hill 2'den daha fazla beğendim ve aklıma kazındı diyebilirim. He ama boss fight'lar diğer SH'lerde de olduğu gibi yarrak gibi... O konuda yapılabilecek pek bir şey sanırım henüz, güzel boss figtlar'ın darısı serinin yeni çıkacak olan oyunlarının başına deyip konuyu sonlandıralım en iyisi.
I never want to touch this piece of shit ever again.
I really enjoyed Silent Hill 4s gimmick of being stuck in the titular room, and having to go through mysterious otherworlds to try and get out. The room is such a great central theme for the game, being both a safe space to catch your breath, solve puzzles, organize equipment, and get lore scraps about the game, yet is still haunting being inescapable and especially in the second half with it starting to be become literally haunted. If the games second half wasn't a forced escort mission this might have overtaken SH2 as my favorite.
Terra meter: 72%
Story/narrative - 4/5
Gameplay - - 4/5
Sound/music - 4/5
General presentation - 3/5
Overall enjoyment - 3/5
Story/narrative - 4/5
Gameplay - - 4/5
Sound/music - 4/5
General presentation - 3/5
Overall enjoyment - 3/5
The ghost enemies are some of the creepiest they've ever come up with but the extended escort mission is one of the worst they've ever come up with.
might just be the worst game of all time
This is gonna be one of those games that I hated playing through but I'm probably gonna look back at my experience with it fondly. I recommend AT LEAST giving it a try. If you don't like it just watch a walkthrough.
it was boring at start , i felt like it was a proper silent hill game , I thought to myself i should continue to play maybe it's gets better and guess what?
it gets even more than better.
such a underrated game from franchise fans
it gets even more than better.
such a underrated game from franchise fans