Silent Hill 4 review:4 stars (The scariest Game I have EVER played!) - My girlfriend bought me this game last year, so naturally I was impressed with her knowledge of video games. But that aside, I popped "Silent Hill 4: The Room," into my PS2. After watching the opening cutscene for the game, I already felt scared s***less. Beginning the game on the hard setting (though I was skeptical of playing a game like this on such a high setting), I found myself in 1st person mode standing in a really screwed up apartment, which was a very nice addition to the whole Silent Hill Experience. Playing this game in the dark also adds to the whole feeling of fear and tension in the game, and playing in the day detracts from the experience as a whole. In short: if you're a wuss (like I may have been from time to time), open the curtains and look at the pretty roses and trees outside.

So, continuing forward, you play Henry Townshend, a rather introverted and Grungy looking guy who is inexplicably trapped in his apartment. At first, you are dumbfounded, but you later discover a hole that has opened up in your bathroom wall (right on the mirror too, dammit!) And, as most people would do if a strange hole materialised in their haunted apartment, you decide to climb through it. Why would anybody DO THAT? Ok, sorry. So you wind up in some kind of cockamamie otherworldy Subway with nothing but bad fashion sense and a lead pipe. Then the real s*** starts when you meet Cynthia, who is also trapped in this world, assuming it's a dream of hers. After a short while you are attacked by your first enemies, "Sniffer Dogs," blind, stupid animals but with acute hearing and um...smell. Oh, and incredibly huge tongues and grotesque features. And so it goes, and you battle various otherworldly abominations throughout the game, but more about that later. 5/5 for storyline and ingenuity.

Now here's where the game falls a bit - Gameplay. The guys at Konami STILL haven't fixed the rigid attacks and dynamicity of the movements. When enemies attack, sometimes they bump into you and run straight past! And you can seemingly hit something and miss!? Look, as soon as you use guns it's alot better, but hand-to-hand combat is awkward, rigid and downright frustrating sometimes. But that's the only real problem as such, just battling enemies with strength alone is generally exhausting and annoying. 2.5/5 for gameplay I'm afraid.

Graphics wise "Silent Hill 4: The Room," is fantastic. The ambient lighting is wonderful, and there are instances where areas appear grainy or misty or clear etc. which really adds to the otherwordly atmosphere. When ghosts attack you, the screen distorts and lines appear (like in those old movie reels), which can really make you p*** your pants. The environments are beautifully rendered (if death and human body parts are your piece of pie) and the textures are phenomenal, and plenty of little polygons give the characters a smooth appearance. The characters are also chillingly lifelike, which is a big bonus. 5/5 for Graphics!

Weapons-wise, there aren't that many. You'll fight with melee weapons like pipes, axes, pick-axes, baseball bats, golf clubs and even a very useless paper knife (which I discovered in the Hospital level, which is particularly good for DYING!) Then your guns are a standard 9mm and then a more powerful Colt Revolver. So no big guns or stuff like that, but that's what makes Silent Hill 4 appealing. So weapons-wise, for a game like this, "Silent Hill 4: The Room," scores 4.5/5 for weapons.

There are many enemies, including a particular variety that don't die. These are "Ghosts," or "Victims," which if they even get near you will give you a rather nasty headache. They need Disprin of Panado's in this game I think. Oh yeah, them not dying is cool but REALLY sucks! These are the worst enemies sheerly because they refuse to f*** off. Then there are "Moth-bats," little black insect type-things that are really fun to kill! These little guys will keep you busy for hours, stepping on them and whacking them out of the sky! Then there are "Double-Heads," which are nasty, but kill-able. Just smash em with an axe and step on their ugly asses. Then there are "Patients," which wield fiersome golf clubs and burp when you hit them. In groups they are formidable and you should do the smart thing and run the hell away. There are also "Monkey-men," (I think) which either have no weapons or wield various melee weapons, and like patients, are deadly in groups. "Greedy worms," are just lame leech type things that are good for getting your frustration out. Not hard to kill. Then "Whitestools," are just wierd ass things that come out the floor. Hit em once and they go away. Finally, "Wall Men," um...come out the wall and smack you around. Use a pistol or an axe on them, or just run away. They aren't going anywhere! 5/5 for enemies, however silly or dumb.

Other than the poor gameplay in certain instances, "Silent Hill 4: The Room," is a very good game, filled with fear, controversy, action and gore. If you like your games scary and rather nasty, this will be your cup of tea. 5/5 for the Fear Factor!

Overall, "Silent Hill 4: The Room," scores a solid 4/5. A good buy for fans of the series and fans of Horror games. 5 stars (You'll want to be trapped in a room with this game.) - "Silent Hill 4: The Room", Konami's latest addition to the Silent Hill series, is one of the best Survival-Horror games ever. However, avid fans of the Silent Hill series turn it down. Why? Because it's different. I, honestly, like this game better than 3. This game has an amazing story, one that will have you entranced for months. The gameplay is much easier to follow than previous Silent Hill games, due to the "Weapons Selection" being at the touch of a button. The addition of ghosts really adds a new portion to the game, seeing as how all the ghosts have story lines, and most of them, you meet before they die. Now, even through all the "ghosts" and "monsters", don't be fooled. This is one scary game. Especially if you are afraid of little children. Like me. Anyway, this is an excellent game that I'd recommend to anyone...anyone who doesn't feel the need to sleep.5 stars (An Epitome Of Video Game Horror, Awe, Tragedy And Mystery) - Possibly the 'just-plain-freakiest' game to come out of the video game field's horror contributions, often called the 'horror/survival' genre. This label can be quite misleading because it implies that all you're trying to do in a game is stay alive with no other goals, and no rhyme or reason or story. That may be the case in some titles, but it's certainly not here. Along the way of all the aforementioned freakiness, there's a labyrinth of mystery to unravel and understand (and as always in these kind of games, it's so much better if you actually take the time to enjoy and Experience the
revelations and the turning points, as you would with a book or movie, instead of just blazing through to try and finish in record time. At least the first time you go through it - I guess later on it might be fun to go for some kind of speed record, but the first playthrough you've just got to take it all in as you play) and a cast of characters to try and help and save, and in some cases rely on for help yourself, instead of just trying to keep your single character alive. I think this aspect of the game is going to appeal to those who, like me, like the teamwork thing in "Resident Evil: Outbreak", although it's not developed to that point here - this is more story-oriented while Outbreak is more team tactics/team strategy oriented.

There's so much more to this story than having your character try to find your way out of a mysteriously locked room, which is what some early reports seemed to suggest. That's just the beginning of a more complex game that seems to run longer than a lot of its peers in playing time. It's a great opening, the seeming irrationality of the character's situation (locked in a room where time seems to have stopped despite the fact that it's still moving on the outside world as seen through the windows, the occasionally operational radio, etc.; the way you can hear sounds outside your door but people out there can't hear you no matter what; and so on) working to the game's advantage rather than hindering it by serving as a harbinger of how completely bizarre and mindbending things are going to get later.

A high point is the characters. The lead character, Henry, is admittedly a rather blank slate but this works very well in video games (in my opinion) because it allows the player to insert themself into the lead role more easily. Eileen Galvin, sort of the game's secondary protagonist is, despite her non-lead role, one of my favorite heroines in the video game field, and has a personality that is developed more through subtle implications - the way she reacts to the things in the graveyard and other places through body language and subtle changes in the tone of her voice (she's got a great actress doing her lines by the way) than in immediately obvious ways. I found the parts of the game where she's in danger to much more frightful than when you're playing Henry alone; I guess she's a character I became attached to, like so many of the cast of "Clock Tower 3". And then there's Walter Sullivan.

Not to give too much way, but "Silent Hill: The Room" manages a feat that would be difficult in Any medium, by taking Walter (who many fans will remember had a brief mention earlier in the series) and creating this unmitigatedly evil, uncomfortably 'real-life/out-of-the-headlines' feeling character (at least in the game's early rounds) and then adding in these empathisable and understanding traits Without derailing how monstrous he was portrayed to be from the get go.
That's all I'm going to say on that front.

There are other characters involved too, but these are the three where you know enough about them in the fairly early going to really talk about without giving away the game's twists. Other random points: great graphics highlight some of the most darkly imaginative and disturbing imagery of any medium - some of the seemingly less horrific things are the most unnerving, like when you're moving through this big factory-like boiler room where everything's run down and dark and broken but not unnatural and then you suddenly come to this Massive door (right
where a regular-sized door would normally be) where the huge handle is like eight feet off the ground. Just sitting there like it was the most natural thing on Earth that you'd find in any building. That is so eerie and so cool. And the monsters - unbelievable and disturbing, twenty times more disturbing once you begin to gather clues as to their origins.

Oh, and by the way, they've found a nifty little solution to the question of how DO the characters carry so many weapons and equipment without falling over, without severely limiting all the stuff you can gather and have access to. Requires a bit of suspension of disbelief when you've got more than one of the few large, heavy items but that's about it. An innovative and workable solution.

I've only reached the first ending and am taking some time off to make it fresh again before plunging back in and going for the other endings indepth (I have played some, and it seems harder the second time around) but the first one is one of the most dramatic and nerve-wracking I've ever seen. Amazing.

If you can imagine the feels of movies like "The Eye" and "In The Mouth Of Madness" flawlessly wed to the more direct/action-intensive likes of "From Dusk Til Dawn" and the new "Dawn Of The Dead" with plenty of "Hellraiser" thrown in, you may have an idea of where this game is going to take you. Is as much one of the toppers of horror games as the above are of horror movies, recommended for those who've enjoyed game series like "Clock Tower", "Fatal Frame" and "Resident Evil". One of the best.
Silent Hill 4 Features:
Playstation2 (Play station2)
Action
Adventure
Video Games
PS2 (PSX2)
Sony Playstation (Play station) 2
A cast of mysterious new characters -- some of whom will try to block your way
Stranger creatures are waiting for you, as you unravel a horrible story
Face giant mutant wasps and dogs as you navigate through horrific, alien dimensions
Terrifying and more powerful new zombies that can walk through walls and float through the air

Silent Hill 4 is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 20.95USD.