Whilst Silent Hill 2 is an eerie masterclass in precise unnerving, Silent Hill 4: The Room is an exercise in chaos and instability.
I have a strong feeling Hideo Kojima's now-mythical Silent Hills project would've taken inspiration very much from this title. Not only does the legendary PT owe a great deal to the first person segments in the titular room, but the way in which this game messes with the player would've greatly informed Kojima's incorporation of his games' usual self-awareness (allegedly, Silent Hills would make use of sending messages to the player outside of the game and was intended to 'curse' the Playstation console).
The same cursed quality can be found in the polarising, jagged roughness of The Room. The game feels unfinished, almost dangerous, making virtue of glitching (the 'Braintree' ghost), screen distortion and even stock sounds such as monkeys, tigers and, most uncanny of them all, burping.
The game also consciously tortures the player: the safe room that restores your health becomes cursed with horrific apparitions that can kill you; some enemies can't be killed, forcing you to run away or rush through an important segment; you can pick up certain items which cause bad or strange things to happen, such as moving through the same outdoor space over and over again until you drop the item.
All of these things are truly frustrating but arguably vital - the first Silent Hill is oppresive in atmosphere, whereas the fourth is oppressive in gameplay, giving sense that you have no control over the grim supernatural serial killer story (The Frighteners, anyone?).
I could very well be an apologist for such loathsome gameplay mechanics, but it just wouldn't be the same horror experience if it were any cleaner. Since when did horror have to be clean, anyway?
I have a strong feeling Hideo Kojima's now-mythical Silent Hills project would've taken inspiration very much from this title. Not only does the legendary PT owe a great deal to the first person segments in the titular room, but the way in which this game messes with the player would've greatly informed Kojima's incorporation of his games' usual self-awareness (allegedly, Silent Hills would make use of sending messages to the player outside of the game and was intended to 'curse' the Playstation console).
The same cursed quality can be found in the polarising, jagged roughness of The Room. The game feels unfinished, almost dangerous, making virtue of glitching (the 'Braintree' ghost), screen distortion and even stock sounds such as monkeys, tigers and, most uncanny of them all, burping.
The game also consciously tortures the player: the safe room that restores your health becomes cursed with horrific apparitions that can kill you; some enemies can't be killed, forcing you to run away or rush through an important segment; you can pick up certain items which cause bad or strange things to happen, such as moving through the same outdoor space over and over again until you drop the item.
All of these things are truly frustrating but arguably vital - the first Silent Hill is oppresive in atmosphere, whereas the fourth is oppressive in gameplay, giving sense that you have no control over the grim supernatural serial killer story (The Frighteners, anyone?).
I could very well be an apologist for such loathsome gameplay mechanics, but it just wouldn't be the same horror experience if it were any cleaner. Since when did horror have to be clean, anyway?