Silent Hill 4: The Room

The game has an interesting story and very cool other-worldy atmosphere to it. The first half of the game has you teleporting from your room to the main level through a hole in your wall, with the only way to heal being going back into your room. The second half it gets switched up where "hauntings" can happen in your room that you need to purify, and you now have to rely on healing items because your room no longer heals you. However, aside from this interesting twist, the game really drags out in the second half. It starts off what looks like to be a rescue mission in a new level, but then you essentially have to go through all the locations you went to in the first half and it just felt like a way to give the game a longer playthrough without adding much substance. Fortunately, it does pick up again the climax. Some other things worth noting is that the combat is really clunky, which is apparently supposed to add to the tension but it just feels like bad combat. The "sword of obedience" which is supposed to pin down ghosts never worked for me except for the one level where you're required to pin a certain ghost. But other than that, the feature seems to be broken. As far as horror goes, it's not scary aside from a few story moments, but the atmosphere is pretty cool. Overall I'd say it's ok. It's got a cool theme and interesting story, but if it didn't drag out in the 2nd half I would've probably given it 4 stars. The combat and mechanics feel outdated (not in a good way) but this is an older game so I won't count it against it, but it's something you should be aware of.

Silent Hill 4, regarded as the worst entry in the series, did well in establishing a dreadful atmosphere where safe spaces are haunted. It was the last title created by team Silent and no longer directed by Masahiro Ito, instead Akira Yamaoka took the leading role in the development of the project. It was meant to take the franchise in a different direction, while still retaining the horror elements know in previous titles. With mixed receptions as a result. Story: We play as Henry Townshend, a man in his late 20's that moved into room 304 2 years ago. One fateful day, he finds himself in the middle of a tragedy yet unbeknownst to him. As he leaves his bedroom, he suddenly finds his front door covered in chains, preventing him from leaving his apartment. Worse yet, a strange hole appeared inside the bathroom, leading into what many consider the "otherworld". Gameplay: Unlike previous titles, the use of weaponry becomes much more common. Enemies can deal a significant portion of damage to the player. Ghosts for instance cannot be directly killed, instead, they only fall to the ground and will get up again. Healing items are scarce and it is recommended to save them for much later. Gripes: Eileen isn't very useful and serves as a plot device to advance the game. She's slow, does poorly in combat and overall can be a nuisance to deal with. However, she's also somewhat of a sympathetic character, where the player is meant to feel empathy towards her. Positives: The character designs are simple, yet feel like a step-up from previous protagonists. There's almost a cathartic feel to them. Henry being a stoic man unfazed by the horrors he witnesses, while Eileen reacts with anxiety and fear, a much more human and emotional display. I've always felt they're akin to parents concerning the gender dynamic between the two. They're in no conflict, almost complimentary to each other. It gives a soothing feeling, given the circumstances. Overall, I do recommend this game!

Instant buy, now give us 2 & 3!

As soon as I found out this game was back on the market I flew to the gog store, something I haven't been on in years, and downloaded it immediately. Thank you for bringing this game back, Silent Hill is my all time favorite video game series and I'd buy any SH game in a heart beat. They're impossible to play now that PSNow has hoarded them and the others are completely out of reach so you can imagine my excitement upon discovering it's back out there again. 5/5 love this game.

Technical review ahead... SH4 is a decent port, first thing to mention is that its missing a few content that was originally in the console versions, this can thankfully be easily modded in. Second, second controller support is there but for whatever reason the game will not recognize the right analogue stick, again there is a fix for this issue as well. Some other quirks, The game holds up well graphically for the most part, but I feel the cleaned up look on high resolution hardware, as is the nature of PC platform; makes the game show its blemishes more, I did notice the film grain isn't there or subdued.