Boy, this game is rough, gameplay was nuh uh...this is a hard game to love,I didn't mind the gameplay being eh on the first time, it was decent enough and I wanted to play it, it can be argued that the gameplay changes makes it more tense, therefore more challenging and scary..I kinda felt that and perhaps someone out there truly likes it. But most of it feels clunky and easy to abuse in a video game way, still its decent enough for me, I've played much worse, dealt with much worse feeling gameplay and seen much worse. Now...why doesn't my items stack up is something I can roll with, whatever but things like the Jaguars (oh I'm sorry, "Dogs") being literally warped to you as they attack in front of your eyes or how about...COME THE FUCK ON EILEEN, THERE ARE ABOUT 5 GHOSTS COMING AT ME THAT I CAN'T HURT IN ANYMORE WHO CAN HURT ME BIG TIME AND WE GOTTA GO TO THE NEXT DOOR, MOVE YOUR ASS! I also said this on that review and I'll say it here...if anyone ever complains about escort missions with Ashley on Resident Evil 4 (2005) make them play either this or Dead Rising 1, then they'll understand escort missions that truly suck, would you prefer one dumb escort over a shorter yet tough game? Or multiple idiots you have to escort over a bigger yet relatively easier game? Atleast the idiots going "FRANK! FRANK!" aren't mandatory though...anyway, this is a rough game to play...
But now, presentation! That's where the game stands on as it's legs in my opinion, cuz holy fuck this is a scary game, the presentation is scary, uncanny, chilling and in a way that mainstream titles don't often do it enough I imagine, atleast back then, I consider the intro to be a masterpiece on it's own for how unusual and strange it is, I love the mix of gameplay footage, cutscenes and some dedicated animations? used in it, it just hits the right notes for me. And yeah in my opinion this is the scariest and most disturbing of the Team Silent Hill games, that alone kept me going atleast. Also my theory on why Henry sounds "phoned in" or "distant" is because he's in a hazy state due to being locked in the room for so long, if you examine the kitchen he will say that he doesn't feel hungry even though he should, I got the implication is that he wasn't hungry since the room locked up on him, so why wouldn't this put him in a hazy half sleepy state too? Like he's here but also not here at the same time, atleast mindset wise, y'know? Of course this could not be intentional, maybe the guy just did phone in or direction did a poor job (tho I find that hard to believe especially after SH3) but considering how he looks, moves and acts, it feels quite intentional to me. And anyone else imagine Henry just being a blood covered corpse warped back to his bed whenever you get a Game Over screen? Also Walter Sullivan looks like Kurt Cobain
But now, presentation! That's where the game stands on as it's legs in my opinion, cuz holy fuck this is a scary game, the presentation is scary, uncanny, chilling and in a way that mainstream titles don't often do it enough I imagine, atleast back then, I consider the intro to be a masterpiece on it's own for how unusual and strange it is, I love the mix of gameplay footage, cutscenes and some dedicated animations? used in it, it just hits the right notes for me. And yeah in my opinion this is the scariest and most disturbing of the Team Silent Hill games, that alone kept me going atleast. Also my theory on why Henry sounds "phoned in" or "distant" is because he's in a hazy state due to being locked in the room for so long, if you examine the kitchen he will say that he doesn't feel hungry even though he should, I got the implication is that he wasn't hungry since the room locked up on him, so why wouldn't this put him in a hazy half sleepy state too? Like he's here but also not here at the same time, atleast mindset wise, y'know? Of course this could not be intentional, maybe the guy just did phone in or direction did a poor job (tho I find that hard to believe especially after SH3) but considering how he looks, moves and acts, it feels quite intentional to me. And anyone else imagine Henry just being a blood covered corpse warped back to his bed whenever you get a Game Over screen? Also Walter Sullivan looks like Kurt Cobain