Silent Hill 4: The Room

I like this game a lot, especially when I played the PS2 original all these years ago. Unfortunately, the version on GOG is very broken for me. The intro FMV displayed glitchy colors and the sound was broken. Given the positive reviews, I'm assuming I'm in the minority with this issue. Still disappointing.

SH4 was never my favourite. It wasn't most people's favourite. Of the original Silent Hill games it feels the least polished, with its disjointed world, a total slog of an opening hour, and trademark tedious combat. It does, however, showcase the talent that Team Silent had for creating a chilling atmosphere, gruesome enemy design, and a writing a captivating story. At its best, SH4 presents unsettling imagery that freightens and intrigues, but for every 'water prison' world there's a 'subway' world; you gotta tolerate the boring to get to the good. As for the GOG version, it needs patching. Cutscenes often look wrong, with a bizarre 'seeing double' effect (I don't think this is intentional'. Additionally my PC freezes if I minimise the game without exiting from the main menu (not even task manager works).

A lot of people seem to have misgivings about this game, and whether it's a "true" Silent Hill. Ultimately, I don't think there is such a thing, as this series is best when it's a horror anthology and less about one foggy town. All the ties to the main series, like James's father and the cult, are fun. But ultimately, this game stands well on its own merits of being a cool, weird, supernatural story. The combat isn't great for an action game, but for a Silent Hill it's honestly the best. Where this game shines is in its story and atmosphere. If you're looking for a solid horror game, I can't recommend too many games more than this one. This PC version has some issues, but they're failrly minor. *NOTE* As of this review, there was a windows update that ruined certain cutscenes in the game. The only fix I know is to roll back to before the August 2025 KB5064081 update for Windows. Hopefully a fix is coming.

I absolutely adore Silent Hill 4: The Room, the only thing keeping it from a 5 star rating from me is the slog that is the second half of this game. Even though I personally feel the end is well worth the slog, I could see why someone would be discouraged after you become Eileen's personal escort. Still, if you're a SH fan, definitely worth a playthrough!

the cinimatics are broken. hopfuly gog fixes it.