User Reviews
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 Awesome! |  5.0
0 comments |
by  Jak66
from , NE, | Jun 18, 2005 |
THE GOOD:
Graphics, gameplay, weapons!THE BAD:
A little tougher than the others, but still too easy SUMMARY:
Silent Hill 4 is the final SIlent Hill game for now, I believe they are working on a 5th. You can expect a lot of good things to Silent Hill 4 incuding:
An all new Silent Hill Storyline and adventure with new plot twists, much much harder riddles and monsters, some of them just won't die! New monsters are added in number 4, including ghosts. There are new transition with 1st and 3rd person views!
You can explore new enviormaents including, a Forest, a prison and many more new levels! You play as a 20 year old male main character and your stuck in your apartment room and you have to go through levels to get out... This game is rated M for mature, and is one of the worst games you can get, I don't recommend anyone get thisif they are under 17, if ya want it though, then buy it! You'll love it! |
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| Stop it! Please! |  3.0
0 comments |
by  SepheroT
from 2d floor of hot, , damn Hell | Dec 2, 2004 |
For me, Silent Hill has always been a very special series. Whereas its `influence`, Capcom`s Biohazard (Resident Evil) series resorted to highly obvious monster-pops-out-of-nowhere tactics to scare its players, Konami`s take on the so-called survival horror genre offered a far different way to terrorize gamers. During the early days of the original Silent Hill`s development, I distinctly recall an interview whereby the team admitted that their goal was to depict hell itself; they had asked various individuals what their ideas of the devil’s playground were, and proceeded to use them. Furthermore any number of inspiration sources were consulted as well, books, movies, stories, etc. (In my own opinion, watching the late 1980`s movie Jacob’s Ladder offers a great deal of where the Silent Hill team got their ideas, especially in the DVD version’s deleted scenes).
Silent Hill 4: The Room troubled me from the very first press announcement; Silent Hill 3 was still fresh in everyone’s minds when Konami brings word of yet another installment in the series, one which would be released not even a year after the last. The fact that very little in terms of graphical changes and techniques would be changed from Silent Hill 3 annoyed me, as well as the fact that (in my honest opinion), Silent Hill 3 was a truly horrible game through and through. Living in Japan, I am able to quite easily read the magazines here and thus see game reviews and such and unfortunately all of them for this game were rather mediocre. Though I went into the release week of Silent Hill 4 with little hype, I obviously decided to give the game a chance hoping it would prove my pre-conceptions wrong. Perhaps the first issue to take note of was the non-existent lines to purchase the game in Tokyo’s Akihabara of all places, the Mecca of electronics where it is not uncommon to see queues of hundreds for even a `stupid` computer game. Stores were overstocked with copies of the game and the people I saw inside were hardly helping to deplete those supplies. I guess the thing is that, here in Japan, no one really cares about the Silent Hill series and hence the release are generally quite calm periods of time, unlike say, a Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or Super Robot Wars game. To my great displeasure, everything I feared about Silent Hill 4 was indeed true if not worse, and makes for one of the most disappointing and downright annoying games I have ever played in my life.
Before I begin the review most proper however, a brief bit of background information for all those new to the series: Silent Hill is, in theory, a quaint little town somewhere in North America. It has gorgeous scenery, historic buildings, and eccentric people which serve as an excellent spot for tourism. The problem is that this picturesque facade bellies a world of evil and Satanism which a number of characters have now regrettably found themselves thrown into. Eternally covered in a thick sheet of fog, one can sometimes hear obscene noises coming from thin air (or are they) as they walk around, perhaps a hint at what really lies inside. Interestingly enough however, the world of Silent Hill-the evil side at least-seems to be influenced by the individual; no two people will have the same experience there and hence some believe the town actually reflects what is inside a person’s soul.
Silent Hill 4 is quite a fitting sequel for the series which basically offers players more of the same, but with some new spins on things to spice up the content; as with Konami`s PS2 Castlevania game, some ideas worked though most did not. Visually, Silent Hill 4 (hereafter referred to as SH4) is at the top of its game; it runs on basically the same engine that last year’s Silent Hill 3 used, which means almost photo-realistic environments and highly detailed characters. As most of the game does not take place on the streets of Silent Hill, this finally means that the excessive fog (which some had charged got implemented to deal with pop-up issues) is nowhere to be seen. The noise filter can be turned on or off at the player’s desire thus allowing for the clearest possible viewing of the action. As can be expected, the PC and Xbox released will most likely offer higher quality visuals, however the PS2 does an ample job for the task.
For me, one of the key aspects of the Silent Hill series is the music, no joke. I have actually played through Silent Hill 2 (my personal favorite of the four games) close to a dozen times now, mostly because I enjoy the music so much; I am even listening to its OST as I type this. Silent Hill 4`s music is quite fitting though sadly nothing special at all. Just like the last game, there are a few songs interspersed with the music. Unfortunately, most of the game is spent with music that basically serves as generic background noise; hardly anything memorable and hardly any reason to even think about buying the OST. There are some good tracks to be heard, but they are so far and in-between, and quite short as well, that the music side of the game is really just a so-so experience which is truly a shame as I KNOW that Akira Yamaoka has far more talent than this.
In my personal opinion, the Silent Hill series has always had fantastic voice acting, and hence I am happy to say that SH4 does not let down in this department. Each of the characters has a voice that suits them quite well, and is acted by talent quite well selected for their parts. Granted that nothing here is special or such, but the voice acting is world’s above the garbage to be heard in Final Fantasy X or such.
Part of what drags SH4 down is actually the dynamic of the game itself, or rather they way in which Konami opted to use it. The main character, Henry Townshed, is trapped in his apartment mysteriously. His door is chained shut from the inside and what’s worse, no one on the outside can hear or see anything inside. For five days Henry lives in such a state, each night having horrible dreams, until finally he wakes up and finds a hole burrowed into his bathroom wall. With nothing to loose, he climbs inside to see if it will take him anywhere but home.
The plot then begins to unravel through a series of so-called `Pocket Universes`. Each day Henry travels through the hole and completes a seemingly random area (some of which indeed exist in the town of Silent Hill itself) and then solves one mystery, only to wake the next day to find an entirely new environment. Scattered throughout these micro-worlds are holes, all of which will allow Henry to return to his apartment. This format both works and does not at the same time:
The Good: By making use of the various portals between the various worlds and Henry’s apartment, Konami has introduced a new spin on problem solving. There are numerous puzzles and problems that arise in the worlds whose solutions can only be found in Henry’s apartment. For example, one character you will meet wants to help you out, but is so thirsty he simply can not think of anything else but chocolate milk. Naturally Henry has this `delicacy` in his refrigerator and hence a quick side trip is needed to solve the problem at hand.
The Bad: The problem is that despite the times when you will have to return to the apartment to advance further in the game, there are just to many occasions when returning to the apartment is nothing more than a bothersome chore which quickly spoils the freshness of this dynamic. For one thing, the only place to save the game is in Henry` living room area; thus whenever you feel something big may be coming up, you will have to spend about 2 minutes making the trip to the apartment and back before you can progress. Another problem, and this one even more bothersome than the last, is that healing items in the various worlds are essentially non-existent. While in the apartment however, Henry’s health gradually recovers. As if any guess work is needed, players will constantly be returning to the apartment whenever their health gets low either to keep from dying, or to circumvent using one of the scarce restorative items they may have actually found along the way. Of course Konami opted to stop this feature about half way through, and hence returning to the apartment is really just a chore to save and exchange items.
The Ugly: Perhaps the most problematic flaw in the world-apartment dynamic stems from the last reason provided, and is dually coupled with the fighting system/enemy design. Unlike any of the three previous games, there is an uncanny number of dog-monsters in SH4. Anyone familiar with the series, the Biohazard series, or basically any action game in general knows instantly that dog monsters are fast moving, hard to kill, and a royal pain in general. This goes even more so with Silent Hill 4 given the quantity encountered. Unlike seemingly all other games however, where quick reflexes and fast sprints will get you through an area unscathed, in SH4 the dogs will seemingly always make contact with you when fleeing from them. I lost over half my life bar mid-way through the game trying to run through a screen filled with dogs, as each proceeded to pounce on me, some grabbing my legs and hence taking away even more life. What is the solution to this problem? Why going back to the apartment of course, so the life bar can be refilled. Now I am not sure about anyone else, but the process becomes a huge chore when it must be done so frequently.
And part of the frequency comes from the fact that Konami finally managed to address the issue of endless monster/re-spawning. Basically, the monsters do not come back so once you kill them, that is that. Thus, the solution to the game is no longer to run past everything possibly but to kill it instead. (Those who miss running need not fear too much as the game does still present you with various reasons to run, such as the brand new ghost/spirit-type enemies). When confronted by 3 or 4 dogs in addition to half a dozen flying beetle monsters, it becomes near impossible to effectively deal with them, especially given the game’s weapon system. Unlike previous games in the series where the melee weapons were basically for more skilled players, there is a great emphasis placed on using them exclusively. For starters, Henry only gets a standard gun for the entire first half of the game. What more, there is a severe lack of ammunition for it. As one can therefore deduce, the projectiles must be saved for tough spots rather than dealing with the normal riff-raff thrown at you. Most of the monsters can be easily killed via the pipe/golf club/bat/whatever else you find, however the actual use of these weapons makes things a bit harder.
Instead of using the generic `push button X to swing at Y` format which seemingly every survival horror game makes use of, Konami instead decided to add a golf-type swing meter system to the game. Depending on how much power is `stored up` in Henry’s attack charge, he will do greater damage. If you charge too much however, he will do a wild swing that will send monsters flying if they come in contact, but will leave Henry rather vulnerable for attacks if he misses. The system is quite refreshing and does indeed help to make melee attacking more enjoyable, however at the same time there is a halting way of attacking which makes it rather unnatural and somewhat sloppy.
Fitting into the whole idea of Henry’s apartment is the dynamic of items, namely their storage. For the first time in Silent Hill history, there is a cap on the number of items which can be carried at any given time. In Henry’s apartment is a large storage box which serves as a placeholder for all the items which you have no use for, do not want to carry, or do not know what to do with. While I respect the development team’s decision to use a limited inventory feature, I must admit that it just does not work at all. Whereas the Biohazard series has item boxes scattered around everywhere (and for whatever reason your items will always be in the next one), SH4 has only one, and hence using it requires making trip upon trip back to the apartment. The problem is emulsified by the fact that each item takes up a place in the inventory, be it papers, golf clubs, or ammunition cartridges. As you can imagine, this becomes a problem when opting to use a projectile weapon as if you want to take 50 bullets with you, there goes 5 spots in your item inventory (each clip holds 10 bullets and they can NOT be combined). The same goes with healing items-when you actually find them that is. Silent Hill is a game about mood and fear, and in my honest opinion, the need to constantly make trip after trip to the apartment for even the most menial tasks is just plain not fun.
The next major issue with SH4 stems from something which both games 2 and 3 equally had fault with: the sheer repetitiveness of environments, While others may not have any complaints, personally I find it just absurd that every Silent Hill game need make use of either a hospital, a prison, a subway, etc. Where is the creativity here? Sure the locations themselves look somewhat different (which makes sense considering they are suppose to be new places) but there is a severe lack of originality and freshness missing when the player constantly finds themselves returning to these places time and time again with otherwise new characters and scenarios. SH4 unfortunately proves to not only offer an unimpressive number of environments, but actually goes above and beyond what would be normally tolerated by making players go through them more than once. (To avoid spoilers, I will not reveal more, however rest assured I am NOT referring to the `Evil World` environmental incarnations seen in the past; this is something far more uninspired). For me this is a huge issue: I like to think that as a game progresses the interest level does as well; oddly enough however, I found that the end of SH4 could not come fast enough by the time I was not even half way through it.
Plot wise, SH4 is just terrible and only affirms my conviction that Konami is incapable of hiring competent writers to staff their game development teams; as if the absolute garbage plots of the Castlevania games were not bad enough, so too must be those in the Silent Hill series as well. Great ideas quickly turn to lame premises if they are not utilized efficiently. The real problem with the entire Silent Hill series is that there is so much emphasis put into making the nightmarish world seem real (and therefore truly horrifying) and yet the plot-the entire reason for playing the game- is completely ignored; there is no reason the actual content of a game should take a backseat to everything else. SH4 had quite amazing potential for a truly remarkable story filled with plot twists and shocking events, and yet suffers from the same banal, uninspired drivel which has plagued the series from the onset, especially the third game. Wake up already Konami, no one gives a crap about the religious cult of Silent Hill anymore; stop flagging a dead horse and think of something new for a change; furthermore, while you are at it, how about using an outline board or something similar to actually plan out a game before making it. There is no reason whatsoever that the player should be able to see the plot `twists` (if they can even be called such) coming WAY before they happen, and this only serves to further the transparent nature of effort put into this department; seriously Konami, stop making these games until you get a clue how to make them interesting past the first ten minutes of game play.
As if everything aforementioned was not bad enough, Konami stupidly decided to revive one of THE worst ideas in the series, thanks to incompetent AI programming. Those familiar with Silent Hill 2 will recall the brief periods of time when the main character, James Sunderland, had the mysterious Maria follow him around. It was a royal pain to be sure, but thankfully the limited time this lasted for, coupled with the generally wide open spaces which made it possible to avoid monsters entirely made this only a minor issue with game two. Silent Hill 4 however, is just an atrocity beyond words; what begins as nothing more than a seemingly brief stint with a tag-along soon turns out to be a nightmare worse than Silent Hill itself. To avoid any kind of spoilers, let me just say that someone will be tagging along with Henry for basically HALF THE GAME. To make matters worse, the character can actually attack monsters which opens up an entire new dimension of flaws, namely because Konami had no idea how to properly implement a second non-playable character.
If Capcom`s lackluster Biohazard Zero for the Gamecube accomplished anything at all, it was a terrific AI system whereby the second character in the game never became a real nuisance. SH4 is just appalling however, offering the same crap job programming used in the 2nd game unfortunately. This means that the second character can never keep up with you, is constantly open to attacks, gets in your way CONSTANTLY, never stands where you want them to (usually to avoid damage) and just proves to be an all around nuisance in general. But alas, it gets worse as recall I mentioned that the second character can actually attack as well. Along the way Henry will find various weapons for his companion; when they are equipped with them, the game will automatically have the second character attack nearby enemies. At times this proves to be a huge help, but in reality only by serving as a scapegoat to avoid damage to you/take the monster’s attention off from you. Of course by doing this the character is constantly in harm’s way, constantly stands where they can get hit, constantly does the wrong thing, constantly gets in your way, constantly whines, etc. I simply do not know what the hell Konami was thinking in making such a POOR decision. There is one specific `boss` encounter that is made unimaginably taxing on the patience simply because of the second character’s presence. (I use the term boss with hesitation as SH4 basically has only one actual boss). Rest assured that by the end of SH4, you will not give a crap what happens to the second character one way or another it is THAT bad.
Another area where SH4 lacks is in character development in general. The game features a larger cast than any previous installment, however they are all basically cookie-cutter personas with little to no back-story to them and hence the player could care less about their plight. Despite tagging along for half the game, Henry`s friend is rendered nothing more than a poorly developed plot device who serves no real purpose other than to make sure all the pieces of the puzzle connect. Even Henry is not developed; the only real character with any kind of development is the antagonist, and after the first hour of so the player has basically unraveled that at all provided they can see the obvious. When I was a kid, before a game came out I would often make little comic books or such in an attempt to guess what the plot would be. Before I could understand Japanese I relished being able to play through imported games and make up the plot as I went along. Do you know what I learned over the years? My own versions were almost always superior to the actual product. The same thing could not be anymore true about Silent Hill 4. Though I have long since stopped in making comic books and inventing my own plots, I had expected FAR more from Komani, FAR more. Silent Hill 3 and especially 2 had such fantastic character development that is it an atrocity to play SH4. Just what team DID make this game; I will not accept for a minute the Silent Hill 2 staff is behind it.
Though I chose to play through the game on the Normal difficulty, the only difference is in terms of enemy damage and such; the puzzles are a joke regardless of the difficulty level and in fact there is not even an option to select the puzzle difficulty. The Silent Hill series had always required a bit more brain power than the `piece X goes in door Y` mentality of the Biohazard series, and yet for whatever reason, SH4 decided to adopt Capcom-eqsue problem solving skills. Put a volleyball in the bin, call this number, put that under the door. What a joke. What happened to the cryptic clues, the hidden meanings, and the challenging nature of the game’s puzzles?
Never before in my life of gaming has a release disappointed me like Silent Hill 4 does. The game had so much going for it, yet because of idiotic development decisions, poor implementation, and downright appalling AI, the game is an utter failure as far as I am concerned. Silent Hill 4 is by no means a bad game; it features some of the best looking graphics seen on the PS2, has voice acting on par with the other games in the series, provides a relatively new plot with enough ties to the previous games for fans to relish over, has a slew of new monsters, various new environments (or takes on old ones), etc. Really what prevents the game from truly shining through is its tedious, repetitive game play dynamics which serve to decrease interest levels while artificially extending the playtime, and the asinine decision to have an NPC tag along for so long. It is such a shame that Konami continues to defile this series, especially by making new games annually when it refuses to fix the actual problems we gamers have with it in the first place. Here is a little suggestion Konami: stop making these games until you get a clue how to do so.
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| Totally Immersive! |  3.5
0 comments |
by  Miller
from Sutton in Ashfi, Nottinghamshire, England | Nov 2, 2004 |
THE GOOD:
The deep, twisted and disturbing plot
The hellish monsters
Great audio and VO's
The visuals
Melee weapons all the way
The freakish room changes
New swing power barTHE BAD:
The first person view can be hard to control
The ghosts
Less fear inducing than the others SUMMARY:
Silent Hill 4: The Room has you control Henry Townsend - A regular person who moved into "The Room" two years before the game takes place. The room is situated in a regular apartment building, in the town of South Ashfield next to the dreaded town of Silent Hill.....
The game opens as Henry wakes after a nightmare, of which he has been having for the past few days, the same time he has been stuck in his room. But soon he finds a hole in his bathroom and decides he has nothing to lose and enters. He is shocked as he awakes on an escalator going down to the subway. From here the game unfolds into a brilliantly twisted, action packed, survival horror with the most freaky monsters I have ever had the pleasure of beating to death with a lead pipe, pickaxe, baseball bat, golf clubs and a whole slew of other blunt objects.
Unfortunately the Guns in this game are quite a disappointment, the addition of the power metre for the melee weapons gives them the over the guns.
The series is known for its disturbing creatures and The Room is no exception. Prepare to do battle against giant moths, two-headed giant babies, haunted wheelchairs and some near-indestructible ghosts, named victims that can only be stopped with a nice stab in the chest with an ancient sword which only keeps them down until it is removed. Which was a highlight giving the game a more on edge especially with two or more around but this can also really be annoying, due to the fact victims hurt just being near you.
The games visuals are brilliant; the game still has the trademark fog at times, accompanied by film grain and cigarette burns making it look like an old movie more than a game. The character models are extremely well drawn and animated and Henry doesn't run like a lady....With all these visual effect the death scenes look brilliant, I was very impressed especially with the death in the apartments, no spoilers here....
One of my favourite points was the way the room changes, the room changes each time as you return from the hole and eventually sprits start to affect your room in very freaky ways although both I and my girlfriend had a laugh at shoes walking along the kitchen floor.
In all this game is a huge survival horror with an excellent plot, my only quibble was it wasn't as scary as the other even with the more freakish enemies. If it had a few more bits to make me jump I would have gave it at least an extra point.
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| very good, though does feel different |  4.0
0 comments |
by  FANFUNDY
from , , | Sep 9, 2004 |
THE GOOD:
graphics
story
creepiness
variety of weaponsTHE BAD:
short levels
feels more like resident evil
SUMMARY:
I've always been a big fan of the SH series. What I like about it, above gore and violence, is the feeling that goes with gameplay. You're immersed into a trapped world, desperately tring to find a way out. This latest installment is no different. Trapped in your apartment, with no where to go but a hole in the wall. The frustration of not being able to leave is an excellent level of the game, and the first person view makes it feel very personal. The worlds, I feel, could be a bit longer and more in depth, and the new fighting takes a little getting used to. Monsters charge at you now RE style, instead of their usual waddle. The progressing neighbor visits and concerns only adds to what may be the creepiest and most bizarre SH yet. Some have given it bad reviews, but individual actions and elements isn't what this series is about. It's about the gamer's overall whole experience. True fans will be pleased. Let the mental tortures begin! |
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3.88/5.0
