Posted on: February 19, 2024

A.G.B.
Games: 822 Reviews: 84
The only interesting entry after 1-3
The original Silent Hill did not need a sequel, but with games 2-3, they did both of the perfect ways to do it. After this one they tended to just do the same thing with a little variation over and over. This was not originally meant to be part of the franchise; it feels like an experiment which is largely successful but definitely not what people expected based on the trilogy preceding it. If for you those three represent ideal Silent Hill this might seriously put you off; if you are okay with something that goes in a different direction than this has a lot to love. One of the biggest things is that while this is often creepy it is not anywhere near a scary as the trilogy. The tank controls are changed so now no matter what directional key you press you actually do immediately move in that direction. This can get annoying when the camera abruptly shifts. Some really hate how this changes some of the lore and certainly it does show that this was not the original plan. The player character is a charisma black hole with no personality - he lacks a personal connection to the supernatural phenomena unlike the trilogy and this of course means that you don't care as much about him and he feels slightly divorced from what's going on. The inventory system now resembles Resident Evil’s and provides a different kind of challenge to the trilogy. If gun use is very important to you for Silent Hill, this is not for you. This has some of the most mind-blowing puzzles. Multiple levels clearly seek to get the player invested in what happens to certain characters and frequently it just does not quite succeed in this despite how well the trilogy did at accomplishing the same thing. The story itself is good; throughout I found myself really wanting to learn more about what was going on and be part of resolving the conflicts set up. A significant chunk of this is one of the dreaded escort missions and it definitely could easily have been avoided with a rewrite early in development.
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