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.