Silent Hill 4: The Room
by Konami
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List Price: Category: Video Games See more product details |
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Video Game Reviews of Silent Hill 4: The Room
Customer Review: The Room, the One Place I Really Want To Leave
Summary: 2 Stars
I am a die hard Silent Hill fan, way before there was ever an idea of a movie. Since I was 9 years old, when the first Silent Hill game came into my little hands, I have had a fear of what is encoded in these discs. Suffice to say, I have played all of them, some ranging from excellent (1 - 3) to mediocre (Homecoming, Origins) to almost unbarebale (4: The Room). This game failed on a few major levels, and I will go into further detail below.
1. This Should Not Have Been a Silent Hill Game:
When this game began production it was not intended to be a Silent Hill game at all. Team Silent had taken some relative techniques from their past masterpieces and tried to do something different. Now, that's not a bad thing. I'm all for change. But when you have such a deep franchise with so many different mythos and a huge cult following, don't spit on us. If this game didn't have the Silent Hill name tagged to it, I think it would have worked so much better. But seeing as the title is there, it comes with expectations having previously given away years of my life to the preceding 3 titles. Not that I didn't enjoy every second of them. There are very few references to Silent Hill in here at all. In fact, you go places that are not even in the town I so longed to go back to. You go to a hospital, like every single title (and given there is much to be desired in this hospital, given the back story to the importance of Brookhaven Hospital). The company that came in after Team Silent was Climax, the people responsible for Origins, and they put this game in it's place. Like I said, this shouldn't have been a Silent Hill title, it's just a stain on an otherwise beautiful franchise.
2. The Ghosts:
Yeah, I hate the ghosts. Sure, it's creepy when you got the lights off and the walls begin to corrode and a giant ghost starts pulling itself out and running towards you. But there is no way to kill it. Instead, I have to run around and miss valuable opportunities to explore a jaw dropping environment. Unlike the past titles where I spent hours just roaming around admiring the detail that had been put into the world of Silent Hill, this one I found myself running constantly. At least Clock Tower 3 let us use forms of water to "kill" the ghosts. And it's not just one level they are in either, they are everywhere, and later in the game they even come into your room, the one place of refuge. It's absurd. And after the first few heart pounding encounters, they become incredibly annoying. The ghosts alone make me not want to pick this back up for the third time (I've played the other 3 so many time I could write a book on them).
3. Bosses? Where Did You Go?:
So you've just spent the past few hours exploring a pretty creepy level, killing enemies and solving puzzles. You are emotionally invested into your surroundings and all of a sudden you open a door and in front of you is gigantic worm with rows of razor sharp teeth, and what's more he has several holes both in front and behind you to move freely while your stuck wondering where to turn and shoot. But wait, that didn't happen in the room, that happened in Silent Hill 3. In fact, there isn't a single boss battle at the end of any level in Silent Hill 4: The Room. Well, if you count the weak battle at the end of the game, but honestly I was too disappointed to even count that. The crowning achievement of any level you've just put time into is the boss battle, you use the skills you've acquired throughout the level just so you could take down the big guy at the end. Well, think again when you put in this game. Nothing, one final boss, and nothing in the middle. My first time through I was so excited because I had gone through these levels at least twice and couldn't wait to meet the boss, only to find out I had beat the level with almost no challenge (excluding the lame ghosts). Hey, Team Silent. That was a really stupid move on your part. Especially seeing as you made some of my all time favorite boss battles in your past 3 games.
4. Connections, Continuations:
This is almost laughable. The one connection I pinpointed was Walter Sullivan, a serial killer mentioned a few times in Silent Hill 2. Not a major factor, or a factor at all in the story. In fact, the most we heard about this guy was in a newspaper clipping and a bonus question to get you some serious goodies in the Nightmare Hospital. What was great about Silent Hill 3 is that it's a direct sequel to the first. It followed up 17 year after the original. Silent Hill 2 was a completely different game all in all, but it still had some tie ins from the first game, and gave us a broader view of town. The water prison? Seriously? Where was there an above water prison in Silent Hill? Where? Silent Hill 2 gave us the prison under water, beneath Tucula Lake.
There are plenty more flaws with this title. I really don't feel like indulging further in them, seeing as I had to suffer through them while playing through.
I'm giving it 2 stars for the graphics and because in my heart I can not rate a Silent Hill game 1 star. Maybe it just didn't fit my expectations, but you may enjoy it. I just thought I'd warn you before hand not to think of the past Silent Hill games when you play this.
Astroid_Andy
Customer Review: how disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
i cant even finish playing this game, its too boring. silent hill 1-3 are my favorite games ever. this game is just...not good.
the biggest problem with it is that the fog/darkness is now gone. as a result you can see everything around you. this makes the whole experience not scary at all. the first 3 silent hills had me sweating, shaking, or standing frozen at times in freight. thats not the case at all with this game. with the first 3 silent hills, i would sometimes get so scared i had to stop playing. with this game i have to stop playing because i get too bored. no fog/darkness completely wrecks the experience.
another reason why its not scary at all is the creature design. i have no clue what they were thinking. did they really expect people to be scared of leeches, bat things that looks like moths, and wheelchairs? come on. as its been stated plenty of times, the ghosts are just annoying too.
horror games that arent scary can still turn out fun though. unfortunately this isnt one of those games. this game is way too straightforward and repetitive. first off, the puzzles are gone. secondly, traveling back and forth to and from "the room" gets so very old. going back to worlds you already went through earlier in the game gets old fast too. i decided to stop playing once i had to go through worlds i already beat again.
i also have to mention that the main character is boring too. he has a monotone voice, no real personality, and his response to everything is "what the hell?" i wish i kept track of how many times he said that, id really like to know. id guess he says it over 20 times by the game is over. oh, im locked in my room? "what the hell?" oh, a dead person? "what the hell?" oh, my shoelace is untied? "what the hell?" exciting stuff.
on the plus side, the graphics look great compared to silent hill 3. the music is still solid as well. theres also a new combat system thats kind of improved.
in conclusion, this game is no fun because it is not scary, it is extremely straightforward, and it is too repetitive. i cant talk much about the story since i didnt even finish the game, but for the first half of the game it was nothing special.
Customer Review: May not be the BEST Silent Hill game, but its the SCARIEST
Summary: 4 Stars
Okay I went back and forth with this game. First let me say this game DOES NOT SUCK as some people say. It does have its cons but its not a bad game at all. Now that I've played through it I think this game is VERY good!
Most of the arguments against it usually have to do with character development and escort mission and going back to the room, etc. Or some just say, "oh this wasn't supposed to be a Silent Hill game". Well that still doesn't mean they didn't make a good game and a story line to fit it into the Silent Hill series. Also, if you really pay attention, they do develop the characters and everything, even the ghosts fit into place.
This was the first Silent Hill game I played and let me say, I had to put it down for a while because it just freaked me out too much. Then I got Silent Hill 2 and was addicted to playing it til I beat it. I loved that game and still do but then I saw what people meant when they said SH4 veered away from the SH formula.
I then went on to get SH3 and SH1 and Origins. After playing them all now, I must say that though I absolutely LOVE SH1 and SH2, SH4 is definitely one of the most scariest to me. I think they really managed to make a very creepy atmosphere and story that is hard to get out of your mind. This game is full of "WTF was THAT!" moments.
The graphics are good in this game. But again, I believe the reason we play these games is not so much for the graphics but for the atmosphere it creates and to get scared or freaked out. Resident Evil doesn't do that for me (ie RE4), but Silent Hill does and Silent Hill 4 has a lot of PSYCHO moments.
Also, the ghosts that some complain about can get annoying if you don't know how to handle them or have a weapon to pin them down. But once you know what to do, then they are not an issue.
The only thing I didn't like was the need to keep going back to the Room to change weapons, but at the same time that gave you an opportunity to see some freaky stuff happening... I don't want to give any spoilers! XD
Also the escort mission is not that bad, in fact, it is a WHOLE lot better than Resident Evil 4 where Ashley, the president's daughter, doesn't even help you fight! In this one Eileen HELPS you fight even though she is injured! Also you watch her from the very beginning through a hole in the wall which helps you start to actually care for her.
Everything fits together well in this game if you let it and give it a chance. It gives some background to SH2 and the history of Silent Hill as a whole. Anyway, I suggest if you want a good scare then pick this up used. It is an awesome game.
Customer Review: Worst of the series....
Summary: 1 Stars
I thought this game was pretty cool at first, but It then slid way down the hill of awsomeness meaning it sucked. No flashligh, ghosts drain health as you stand near them, and they dont die! Worst of all, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TOWN OF SILENT HILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They just took all the worst Ideas of silent hill and combined it into a game and called it SIlent Hill 4. DO NOT BUY!!!!!!!!! IT IS THE WORST, MOST BORING GAME EVER, DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!! I ALREADY MADE THAT MISTAKE!Customer Review: Something new isn't necessarily bad..
Summary: 5 Stars
..So, don't listen to the hardcore fanboys/girls who are trashing this game simply because it strays from the original SH formula. First off, this game scared the [...] out of me. Floating ghosts, creepy two-headed baby monsters, and those hairless ape things are the stuff nightmares are made of. Oh, and the water prison..O_o..yeah, disturbing. Secondly, the graphics are awesome. You can tell a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into the making of this game. As you explore you'll notice the little details that tell you that the people who worked on this game were really trying to pull out all the stops. The character design is wonderfully detailed and realistic (especially for a PS2). The characters themselves are likeable. You sympathize with them and you want to protect them. As a long time SH fan I was at first hesitant to play SH4 because of all the bad things I'd been hearing about it. "It wasn't even originally meant to be a SH game!" *Le GASP* I'm glad that I decided to give it a try, because if I hadn't I'd have been depriving myself of an awesome experience. From the beginning SH4 [...] in. The story was so engrossing that the hours flew by. SH4 is now one of my all time favorite games (I even went and bought the soundtrack). I've beaten it several times, and I'll probably play it again in the future. So, don't let the fanboy hissy-fits turn you off. If you enjoy uber disturbing horror survival games then SH4 is well worth your time.