Others say...

"This game sucks!"
Boring, boring - be prepared to waste hours retracing your steps and running into dead ends. The pace is slow, the story is twisted, or non-existant. After playing it a few days I got stuck and spent a lot of time re-playing several scenes. You'll have more fun lighting your foot on fire. For a good sci-fi horror game, get Doom3. For a bad one, get this game - I'd be happy to give it to you.

"Come On Eileen..."
I had some major high hopes for the latest in the Silent Hill franchise, it sounded great, and after watching the truly chilling pre-title sequence to the game, I cranked up the surround sound, and dived in.. And overall I have to say that I was really disappointed.

Silent Hill 4 continues in effectively the same tradition as the previous installments. A third person action/adventure game using the same fixed angle cameras, grainy filtering, and a bizzarrely unsettling collection of characters creatures and demons. It centres around a guy called Henry, who awakes in his appartment one day to find it totally sealed up from the inside, a note painted in blood on the inside warning him not to go out, and after some poking around discovers a small hole in the bathroom, which takes him to strange alternate worlds beset with ghosts, demons and curiouslyt interwoven with reality. Henry soon finds himself embroiled in the work of a serial killer, somehow related to his own appartment, and must battle to uncover the truth about Walter, and set himself free from the room.

The big plus point really is the inclusion of the first person section in the room itself, and the sometimes unsettling use of the peepholes, sounds, and other effects in the appertment. In fact I would say that all of the decent scares actually come from this mode. The actual main game itself was very disappointing. It plays exactly the same as it's predecessors, but whilst the story is engaging, the monotany of getting from one part to another really starts to take it's toll. Essentially from start to finish, the game is nothing more than a collect-these-objects-and-put-them-here type of game, which is pushed along by the insultingly horrible device of people leaving reams of notes and diary entries everywhere which act as nothing more than a list of instructions for you to carry out. That said, the hard difficulty level offers you less help in this way, but there are no Silent Hill 3 style sliders to adjust the difficulty of the arcade sections, so the game becomes very difficult in all regards.

Also and probably more importantly, the Room just isn't really that scary. After a very short while, I just found myself plodding on through it like a normal third person game, it just didn't manage to evoke that same sense of foreboding as previous games that would make you tread slowly, spin round at strange noises, and have you totally on edge at what was lurking in the darkness. The creatures were a let down too on the whole, just seemed nowhere near as inventive or downright disturbing as previous games, although the ghost victims were great and offered an extra dimension to the gameplay.

But probably, above all, the most criminal thing about Silent Hill 4 is the fact that it re-uses every single location that you travel to in the other realm. So you basically end up trudging round the same place two completely different times with different aims, where only a handful of things have changed. This was a dreadful move on the part of the developers. After spending an hour or so exploring the prison world, reading notes, and working your way out of it, the last thing I wanted to do was have to do it all over again in a very sligtly different way a few levels later - it absolutely ripped the soul out of the game.

So who is Silent Hill going to appeal to? Well definitely to hardcore fans of the series, or the survival horror genre in general. Also, the story is strong, and intruiging enough to keep you going - if you're interested in the unravelling of a mystery, it'll also not let you down. But if you love Silent Hill for the scares, creepiness and atmosphere, I wouldn't recommend this particular one in the series, because it falls way short. Also it is really not gonna appeal to you if you're more interested in the adventure side of action/adventure because there are simply no puzzles to solve in this game - merely things to collect, and places to stick them. To people wanting the ultimate Silent Hill experience, Silent Hill 2 is by far and away the best of the series. I don't know if they are going to do a fifth in the series, but if they do I hope that they learn from the mistakes of the Room.

"Silent Hill 4-Gains and Loses"
Having a deep seated desire for the games which can scare the buggers out of a person, The Silent Hill series of games is just the ticket.

The audio and graphics have been much improved throughout the series (recently completed Silent Hill 3). This is truely a game that will have some hairs standing up on the back of your neck. Plus some extra audio effects which the dolby audio makes full use of. Gameplay however? Could stand improvement. The control method was a little "odd" to say the least. The game offers decent control over your person, however some functions did need to be setup in the custom section. The main drawback to this game? Haveing to deal with the same "bad guy" (as I'm trying not to spoil any of the fun) repeatedly as some will not remain "down" for very long. All in all however I feel the game has made decent improvements in graphics and audio. If you are really into "things that go bump in the night" this one's a classic for the collection.

Pros:
Audio quality is excellent: Dolby Surround makes the game come to life
Graphics: Again, quality and attention to detail is outstanding. One could actually count the 5 o'clock shadow stubble on the main players face.
Storyline: Good/fair. In many ways a typical "horror story"..and in other ways very unique.

Cons:
Controller system: A bit on the chunky side. At times hard to stop player exactly where he belongs to interact with items/people
Enemys: Most very scary, graphics again well done..however one 'type' will not stay down after being defeated...annoying, and it gets old fast.

Have a great day!

"It has to be said...."
It's obvious that many people writing reviews haven't played much of the game. To say nothing noteworthy happens when you spy on the girl next door or out of your peephole proves this. I first felt that this game was rubbish as well, until I finish the first two "levels". The game playes out like a movie in the sense that the first couple of "levels" gives you a foundation for the plot and how the game works. After that the game does indeed get very frightening, but more so disturbing in my view. It just keeps building and building. But you have to stick with it...don't expect it to get really interesting as soon as it starts.
The downsides of the game...1) it's starts off slow..which seems to be the cause of most of the negative reviews. stick with it though.2) for some it will seem very repetitive. It is..but it makes sense to the storyline. Still some people won't like this. 3) It gets really frustrating towards the end.


--- to people writing reviews..If you haven't gotten very far in the game..don't write one until you really know what you're talking about. You're giving false information because of it. Stop.

"A total classic! Not a knock-off of Resident Evil."
This is a spectacular game. It is horrific, but it's not so much "OH, my god! Im gonna die!" scary, it's more like, "If that was me, I dont know what I'd do!" scary. It kinda gives you that chills. Resident Evil was slightly more "BOOM!" scary. It scared you right then and there with no expectations. But Silent Hill, the story unwravels. It's more like a mystery, which makes it so scary. It is a game of which you are able to veiw your character "3rd Person", but at your apartment, it is "1st person". When you begin the game, you wake up in your apartment and figure out that you were locked in and the clues that the ? has left in your apartment leads you to different worlds that test you skills. The first is the train station. It is very confusing, but try to cut through the two trains as quickly as possible. It is okay if you loose Cynthia, the girl you meet earlier, but you'll find her later. I can't tell you anymore, but the game has a great story, and you later figure out after the subway world that you are not dreaming, you were sucked into hell's reality after you visit at Silent Hill, and others have too (Cynthia). The game is nothing like Resident Evil, it is more scary and has the scariness of the first time you see "The Grudge" and the mysteriousness of "SAW". Spectacular game. It really should be put into a movie. I would reccomend this game for advanced players. It is tough, so get some of your Xbox knowledge stuffed in your brain, because your going to have to use it in "Silent Hill 4: The Room".