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Topic: Silent Hill 4: The Room (X-box)
Posted: 2004-09-13 @ 20:29:19
Warning, unmarked Spoilers. Read at your own risk.
The Story:
Henry Townshend has lived in room 302 in the Ashfield Hieghts apartments for 2 years. Henry is a photographer who fell in love with the town of Silent Hill, and decided to move nearby. Five nights ago Henry began to have strange dreams. And one more thing. He couldn't leave his apartment.
(Above, your main Menace)
The Gameplay:
When you are in Henry's apartment, you view things as he would VIA a first person perspective. This is not just for experimentation, it actually helps set the feeling of desolate and being trapped. You can see your neighbor through a peephole, see what's going on outside your window, and even check your peephole in the door to see who's there. But alas, no matter how loud henry screams, no one can hear him. The controls while in the first person mode are a little slow and dull, but kind of add to the atmosphere. You can inspect various things around henry's room, to advance the plot. Henry's room is also home to the ONLY SAVE SPOT IN THE GAME. Henry leaves VIA the hole that appears in his bathroom wall. Through this hole, you traverse all over the place. When outside of his apartment, the game shifts to a third person perspective. The controls here are similar to previous Silent Hill games, but with a twist. Combat is now more heavily focused on. If you hold down the attack button with a melee weapon, you can prepare for a really hard strike that Henry will use all his might to beat the enemy down with it. Guns are scarce and on the first playthrough I only saw two kinds. Handgun, and Revolver. On that note, there are more enemies. They range from simple enemies you beat down (Dual baby heads, Ape-men like things, and blood tenticles.) to Ghosts that will follow you around in certain areas. Ghosts can't be killed, but they can be downed temporarily, or pinned to the ground with the 'Sword of Obedience'. There is no boss up until the end, but the fights can get challenging... Since, however, that the combat is the main focus, the puzzles are dulled down and almost fetch-questish in nature. Kind of lame, considering most Silent Hill games have violent, disturbing poetry to give clues to where everything is.
Audio/Video:
The sound is top notch. Inhuman screams, weapon impact sounds, and ambience is clear and outstanding in quality. The Voice acting is less than what you'd expect from the Silent Hill team. Henry's voice is low and often times drowned out by the music or sound effects. My suggestion, keep subtitles on. Music is of course, a powerful mix by Akira Yamaoka. Should you have been wise and pre-ordered, you could have gotten the Soundtrack for free with the game. If not, go buy it. NOW.
Graphics are beautiful. Backgrounds are surreal and disturbing, often times highly detailed. Pulsating blood walls, blood stained tiles, and grimy bathrooms. Character models are very detailed, much more so than from Silent Hill 3. The typical Silent Hill film grain effects are light, but show up when you take damage from spirits, when you die, and during certain events. A few graphical quirks show up, such as a mysterious red patch on Walter's (yes, walter's) arm after he is hit. Also, in once cutscene, Henry's shirt cuts into the floor. That kind of took me out of it for a moment, but I was immidiatly rushed back in.
This game is VIOLENT, as stated on the ESRB ratings box. Maybe not as violent as, say, Doom 3 (some consider Doom 3 to be the most violent game ever, I beg to differ), but still very very violent. However, the Silent Hill team got away with what they wanted to show in this game. And damn, does it catch you off guard. Some slightly sluggish controls and shallow voice acting don't really scrape the surface of this masterpiece. If you are a fan, then this game is a must have. If you are of weak consititution or pregnant...or just don't like horror games, Silent Hill 4 might put you in a shock.
Score: 9 out of 10(5)Comments
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