Silicon Fusion >> Reviews >> Silent Hill 4: The Room

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Review:

20th September 2004:
Silent Hill 4: The Room
There is no place like home. Pity poor Harry Townshend as his home becomes nothing like the place he moved into two years ago.
Posted by Chris Snook - PlayStation 2,Xbox,PC - UK and Europe

Right from the very first frame of the intro, Silent Hill 4: The Room sets the tone of quiet, understated horror. With its grainy, film like visuals and ethereal score it places things into an instant perspective. As does the stark warning about the depiction of violence and cruelty within the game.

The main character is Henry Townshend who for the last five days has been suffering from a recurring dream, more nightmares and the rather awkward proposition that someone has not only locked him in his apartment, somehow closed and jammed all the windows and to cap it all has chained his door closed. From the inside. Cut off from the outside, his phone has been cut - yet still gets a few calls and the power to his TV and Video has also been removed. Slowly the apartment that has been his home for two years is turning into a prison. Then in his bathroom a hole is blasted through the wall...

The Room is a break of sorts from the previous entries into the series. Originally set to be separate series and in production since the third Silent Hill, Silent Hill 4 eventually emerged as the two lines were melded into one, as such it allows new players to the series a way in without playing any of the prior three yet has enough connection to keep long term fans happy with what is being presented. Done mostly through nice touches such as pictures of locations from "the town of Silent Hill, half a day's drive from here". It all adds to the feel of being a part of but apart from the rest.

In a departure however there is a split way of viewing things. For scenes in the rooms of his apartment it is in the first person viewpoint and presents the most freedom of movement and exploration. In other areas things are restricted to the more traditional third-person view and this makes up the bulk of things as Henry moves around and interacts with the environment, often predictably but occasionally not-so. This environment at times could tax Sherlock Holmes, with having to look at things more than once or even twice to find everything.

In time he meets with Cynthia who is certain she is in a dream and Henry is merely part of it and together they begin to move through the area of the local subway. Facing various forms of seeming demonic beings, including dog like creatures and floating zombies and the like. Luckily there are a bundle of weapons that can be picked up throughout the game the first three weapons found are within the living and bathroom.

Then things start to proceed at quite a pace, with the atmosphere keeping a steady level of tension with the occasional spike of psychological horror, this is not a beat things until they bleed fest but a game where you do have to think and look and learn. Everything can have a meaning, numbers, images, even the way furniture is laid out.

The look is stylish, everything is detailed and depending on where you are in the game harness a more than sinister quality to things. Everything is done to either give a quality of safety or hazard and despite almost everything being in sight, it coveys a sense of fear and worry without devolving into the standby of flashlight and pitch black rooms. That you can change the colour of the blood to green or even Klingon purple is another deft touch. Effects such as fog and steam work well and again add to the creepiness when things ramp up a notch or four. Animation is for the most part smooth, at times too smooth within some of the cut scenes.

Music is wonderful, haunting, melodic and appropriate. The themes as they drift in and out do not as some can detract from what is happening on screen and they deliver poignancy in one or two of the scenes. Effects are also just about right, footsteps happen when they should things clank and grind and feet crunch on gravel and the like. There are also occasional sections of voice and they again slot in where they should, with no overly clunky dialogue.

One of the big differences, already mentioned, is the use of two types of perspective unfortunately this is where the one real flaw in the mechanics of SH4 occurs. The first person just does not respond well, there is a faint lag and whilst it does give more scope to discover details and clues it is also an annoyance to have to scan everywhere both vertically and horizontally, sometimes you loose things you are supposed to pick up. Once in the more familiar territory of the third person things improve with the exception of the camera, which is meant to be by the use of L2 to be reset behind the head of Henry, often it does not as walls get in the way, often loosing a few seconds when attacked as you try to move to find a spot where the limited camera movement allowed to yourself can see what is happening. Otherwise the controls are crisp and responsive, with combat being a two stage process but with an evade manoeuvre it can be more tactical than normal. One nice element is that real life and your apartment whilst distinct do have an impact, even as you begin to question what is real, what is illusion and what is dream. Finally the use of a safe area - that 'cursed' set of rooms Henry calls home to recover and refocus helps. Yes things are unrelenting but if you can find the right hole then there is a chance.

There is a lot to do also, quite a few hours to be lost whilst trying to discover what is going on with hints of cults and rituals and deaths and spiritual corruption and redemption. There is always more as the segments or worlds are large and fairly open to exploration in your quest to solve the puzzles given as Harry delves deeper into what is going on. However there is a problem that many who are not normally attracted to this genre will find this to be just another survive the zombie game.

Silent Hill 4: The Room is well crafted, solid and slick in the way it tries to scare various things out of you with a coherent if at first obfuscated plot, characters that hold a mature, adult attitude to things often hinting more than it shows. However there is the problem that it does delve deeply into the genre and suffers from its greatest strength, that is the latest Silent Hill in the series. Still worth grabbing a hold of if you know the prior form or are looking to give such a game a go.

Chris Snook

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Review Summary:

Konami's latest action/adventure horror title that uses two points of view to provide two different but flawed ways to control how things are seen. With the trademark psychological horror a high content of gore and a break from the usual style of sequel Silent Hill 4: The Room is a welcome addition.

Related Games:

Silent Hill 4: The Room
for PlayStation 2

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