This entry gets a really bad rep, but I'm not completely sure why. The atmosphere and new mechanics in the apartment really hit me, and while there were some downsides i.e. pointless combat changes to make it "better," and a few tedious or needlessly difficult bits, this has imagery and characters on par with the rest of the series. The music is obviously phenomenal, but the art direction is incredibly underrated, and Walter is a stand-out character even for "just being a guy," comparative to the previous antagonists. There's so much cool symbology and experimental tricks that stick out even next to SH2 and 3, and a lot of little things that make an apparent bridge between classic SH and what Kojima wanted to do with his addition to the series. I'd say easy mode is the way to go here, the puzzles are more fetch-quest than riddle and so higher difficulties may make some sections tedious, but otherwise I highly recommend sticking through and seeing the story in full.
2 Comments
@Septns totally agree! I loved the hauntings, even just from a "haunt of the day" perspective they're super interesting, and taking away all the safe spaces for the player really adds to the tension in the second half, especially if you've been careless with your healing items up until the shift happens. It's cool seeing games of this era take advantage of the "fun isn't always better" rule. Pathologic and No More Heroes take it a step further and arguably succeed more by making The Point of the tedium more blatant, but especially with the SH revival I think it's important to highlight just how good the "bad mechanics" in old Silent Hill games are, as I doubt we'll see any more of that in the triple-A scene
Septns
9 months ago