Silent Hill 4: The Room

PlayStation 2 (Konami 2004)

The big G-S-G-S-G

General opinion: Decent horror game, but not perfect
Story: Pretty good
Graphics: Great
Sound: Good
Gameplay: Again, good, but not without critique

Total:

The Review

So... the fourth instalment in the best survival horror series? This is not an easy review to write, as there are many issues I would like to address, both good and bad. I only finished the game late last night, and it still seems a little hard to digest it all... After three games that were very similar, especially in gameplay, the team has tried to make the fourth game something entirely new. Partly they have succeeded. Partly I would have hoped for better.

Let us start with the obvious: story. You play as Henry Townshend, a young man living alone in an apartment building. You find yourself trapped in the apartment, unable to draw the attention of neighbours or passers by. If that isn't enough, there is a hole in a wall which leads to strange, haunted worlds! You must travel through these worlds to find out why this is all happening, and how to put an end to it. Naturally, when a series has lived to its fourth instalment, the story is what worries us the most. Will they be able to make it fresh and interesting? In this case, the answer is yes. The plot is both imaginative and well written, maybe even stronger than some earlier Silent Hill games... But that is a matter of taste. Also, it seemed somewhat clearer than the plots of some of the other games. There's plenty of explanation and background given, mainly through notes and diaries you find along the way. The story isn't directly tied to earlier titles, and it can very well be enjoyed without any former knowledge of the series. However, there are lots of references to, for example, the cult of Silent Hill.

The apartment is what ties the game together. You keep returning to the apartment all the time (it is the only place where you can save). It is also one of the most interesting elements of the game. You can move about the apartment, look out from the windows or the peephole at people going by, listen to your radio... Standing behind the door listening to neighbours talking about what's happening in your apartment, unable to make contact with them, is really spooky. You also frequently need do stuff inside the apartment in order to solve puzzles in the other worlds, which is a great idea. Sadly, the nature of the apartment changes a lot about halfway through the game. You still need to come back to save, solve puzzles etc., but the apartment has become a hostile place, and there is no more interesting activity in the surroundings.

So the apartment ties the game together, but the main game progresses through several little worlds you travel to that have little to do with each other. Well, at least gameplaywise. Plotwise, they have a great deal to do with each other. In effect, the game progresses through stages. You don't get the feel of a whole you get in the earlier games, as you roam around the town of Silent Hill. Instead you have isolated places through which you progress one by one. It's not bad, as such, but the game doesn't progress as well as the first three, and in the long run the worlds become rather repetitive, and the area of the game world seems very small.

Technical side of the game then? Graphics are good, which is not a surprise. The visual style of the earlier games has been retained, and is as disturbing as ever. Throughout the series, the atmospheric, ambient soundscape has been one of its most important elements. The sound environment is good, but it doesn't feel quite as strong and weird as in the previous games, as if there's more silence and quiet background sound (although there was a fair share of silence in the earlier games as well). Controls have always been one of the most trickiest elements in the survival horror genre. Silent Hill 4, however, has abandoned the traditional survival horror turn/forward -style controls in favour of more ordinary, screen relative controls (which was included in Silent Hill 2 & 3 as the optional "2D" control mode). This has always been my preference, so I was happy. Still, it seems strange that the traditional controls haven't been retained even as an option... The apartment is viewed in first person view. I don't quite see the point of it, but I guess it works ok. After getting used to the controls, that is...

Another element which has been changed is the inventory. It is now a sort of real time menu in one corner of the screen. The menu is called up and items used with one button reserved only for that purpose. I never quite got used to this. I kept trying to use items with the normal action button, and several times used curative items by accident, even at the very end of the game. But what is most annoying about the inventory, is that it is limited! You can only carry about ten items at once, others you need to store in a chest in the apartment. It wouldn't be so bad if consumable items and ammo only took up one slot per type, but you can only store one clip or health drink in each slot. This means that the inventory is constantly cluttered up, and you need to return to the apartment to make room for new items... This is one of the features in the game I did not like at all.

Gameplay in general? It is pretty much the same as any other Silent Hill. You run around, bashing monsters on the way, gather items in order to solve small puzzles. The puzzles aren't very hard (I had to look at a walkthrough only once during the game) or innovative, but are still entertaining. There's less of them than in the previous games, though, especially in the early parts of the game. Fighting is similar to the previous games. It is a little clumsy, maybe, but so it is in all survival horror games...

The biggest problem in the game, though, I think, is the balance between action and adventure in different parts of the game. I think it is the hardest Silent Hill so far. This is mainly due to some very annoying monsters that can't be killed! I didn't actually die very many times (playing in easy mode, as I usually do first time around, when available, as I enjoy a smoothly progressing story more than action), but I spent too much time running around in panic to feel comfortable. Ok, so it's supposed to freak you out and get your adrenaline running, but at times I felt it was more frustrating than entertaining, even on the easy difficulty setting. The truly freaky atmosphere and sound, as well as the grotesque, surreal imagery have always been the strong point of the Silent Hill games, not so much panic. There's also a clear division in the game into two parts in this respect. The first half of the game is rather quiet (both in sound and in action, as well as puzzles) and easy, apart from those annoying immortal ghosts, while the second half, while more interesting on the side of puzzles, is much more difficult, in the way described above.

The game is also quite long, for a Silent Hill game. According to the game clock I played it in about 12 hours, but I am certain that the clock showed much less than the real time, even many hours. This would be ok if it weren't for the repetitive levels and frustrating last half of the game, as discussed above. For the same reason, despite the many good features and interesting story, I wouldn't want to replay the game right away. Although being prepared for it would probably make it a much less frustrating experience.

All in all, despite several little problems in gameplay, structure and difficulty, Silent Hill 4: The Room is a pretty good horror game. As a Silent Hill game, it is a worthy addition to the series, although it could have been much better. It is no less freaky and disturbing than its predecessors, and just as intelligent (and even moving) in plot and characters, a fact which clearly separates the series from most other survival horror games. Naturally it is a must for Silent Hill fans, and I would say it should be interesting for horror fans in general, although I feel that Silent Hill 2 or 3 might be a better introduction to the series.

Ben B. Bainton, 15 October 2004