Silent Hill 4: The Room

Again I delve into the Silent Hill series to pull out the fourth rendition of the classic horror series. I'll save myself the time of explaining the series again and just put it this way: Scary series by Konami, very popular, fourth game in the series. I think that sums it up enough.

Anyway, Silent Hill 4 really dissapoints me. I know that I've lauded the praises of 2 and 3 on this website, but 4 really drops the ball. But first, let me explain the (Actually interesting) storyline, then I'll go in for the kill and explain why it fails so horribly.

Silent Hill 4 is about Harry Townsend, a generic guy, who suddenly realizes something rather important- he can't get out of his apartment. The door outside has chains on it and, written in blood, it says "Don't go out!". All of his windows are stuck. The whole d*** place is like a cage- except for a hole in his bathroom. Of course, being a Silent Hill person, he doesn't just stick his HAND in the hole (Silent Hill 2), he sticks his whole BODY into the mysterious demonic hole. Smart.



So, the story progresses, you going into the hole, appearing somewhere different, achieving goals, figuring out stuff, and going back to your room, which slowly becomes a hellish nightmare. Unlike the other series, Harry can only save in one place- his room, which makes the dynamic more like "Base-and-battlefield" rather than the "Constant Battlefield" of the other Silent Hill games.

Of course, with a base comes some new play rules. First and foremost, Harry, unlike the other Silent Hill Heroes/Heroine, is not a walking talking inventory. He can't hold an unlimited amount of whatnots, so those whatnots he cannot carry must go into a chest in his apartment. The whole result of this is that even though Harry may have all of them, he can't carry a shotgun, a pistol, a pipe, a shovel, and hundreds of bullets to protect himself from enemies. As well, you now have to be much more careful than ever, because, god forbid you run across an item you must carry, you either have to drop something or go back, stick something in the box in your apartment, run all the way back, and grab it.



Now for the issues. First and foremost, the PC port of this game is TERRIBLE. For some myraid reason, Konami decided to TAKE AWAY some of the abilities you had in SH3 graphically, and now forces you to play the game more like a PS2 emulation than a literal port. The graphics look horrible and blurred, the controls (Now camera relative) are near impossible to use, and the new fighting system doesn't feel right on the PC. By the time your standard PC user is done, he will be swearing up a storm. You can't window it, either- an annoyance for those of us who LIKE WRITING REVIEWS WHILE PLAYING THE GAME.

Another issue the game has is that it seems to have a little bit less direction than the other games. I agree that leaving you somewhat lost is an OK thing, but some of the things that Konami added in this game make it plain irritating, let alone ambiguous. Take, for example, the ghosts. Not only can they pass through walls, making it impossible to avoid them, but you can't kill them. Nowhere in the game does it give you any indication that you can't kill them. Therefore, I spent 30 minutes beating a solitary ghost up with a pipe to come to the realization that I couldn't kill it. Oh joy!



Another minor issue is the game just doesn't meet the standards of the other games. While scary enough, I just didn't have the "Feel" that the other Silent Hill games had. Sure, it has the logo on it and is scary enough, but the whole ambiance seems a teensy bit different. Perhaps it's because I was spending half my time dealing with the controls instead of playing the game. In any case, it's important to add that.

But is Silent Hill 4 scary? Yes. This game really hits that "Disturbing" feel that the game tries for. You feel weaker than ever. The enemies are smarter, and I felt like running a lot more than I did fighting. The fact that you can't kill ghosts adds to this (once you figure it out), because you feel a lot less like a killing machine and more of a hunted prey.

Silent Hill 4 is a great game, don't get me wrong. Konami keeps adding to their Silent Hill series and doing well. However, the horrible PC port just left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I can assure you PS2/XBOX owners that you won't have the same problem, and the game will feel much more natural. Regardless, Silent Hill 4 doesn't match the quality of the other games overall, and you'll notice it as well. Konami hopefully will go back to the drawing board on SH5.

3 star(s) out of 5

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