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Terrifying... only because of how horrible this game is...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 21
Date: June 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Okay, I'm a fan of the Silent Hill series. I have been for quite some time. When a fourth installment for the series came out, with such an enigmatic title as "The Room", and truly disturbing cover art that seems to be characteristic of the Silent Hill games, I was quite interested. I heard about the changes, and though I like change every now and then, I was skeptical, especially the Resident Evil-like inventory layout. To save money, I rented the videogame. I am so glad I did.

Saying this game is terrible is an insult to the phrase, not the game. Okay, a guy is trapped within his appartment for no apparent reason, he can't leave the room because a whole bunch of chains and barricades and padlocks were slapped on his front door while he was sleeping or something by nothing at all, he spies on his neighbors to find a girl sweeping the floor (how exciting and kinky, don't you think?), finds a gun underneath his furniture, and discovers a magical hole in his bathroom that teleports him to different areas inhabited by ghosts and downright stupid demons... and a rather obnoxious prostitute who thinks this is a dream and she has to shadow you all over the place later on in the game for the rest of this pointless experience. Sounds like a cheesy fantasy game to me. One of the greatest setbacks of this game is its inventory, as previously stated. Okay, if I wanted to play a Resident Evil game, I WOULD BUY A FRICKIN' RESIDENT EVIL GAME!!! BUT I DON'T WANT TO PLAY RESIDENT EVIL BECAUSE IT'S HORRIBLE AND I WANT TO PLAY FRICKIN' SILENT HILL!!!
... sorry about that...

Anyhow, back to this monstrosity of videogame fecal matter. I'm sure when people heard you can spy on your neighbors they automatically bought the game, just to see if they could get a glance at any nudity... those pervs. Too bad they're disappointed and regret buying this thing at all. Now, onto a different topic: graphics (I've never seen so many people obsess over a single thing than graphics). The graphics for it are okay, but I honestly don't care about the graphics in the videogame (yes, blasphemy, I know, but I'm not an X-box or Gamecube fan, so piss off), or the amount of time it takes to complete it (this applies to you, anti-Silent Hill 3 critical brats), I care about how it gets my attention, and how enjoyable it is to play. The storylines in the Silent Hill series have been top-notch, and all you wimps complaining about the control scheme are too picky to pay attention to the plot, so no wonder you don't like the game, pansies. Anyway, the sad excuse for a plot in SH4 (plot? WHAT plot?) does not save my interest from the frustration of the obnoxious gameplay, the main key faults being the inventory (once again), the innovative but failing camera system, and those FRICKIN' GHOSTS! BLAH!!!

I'm not going to bother explaining the plot in-depth, because if you wanted that, you should either read the product description, or read the other reviews from the losers who blindly praise this game (it's amazing how many feel the need to stress the same plot facts over and over again, i.e., the entire premise of the story and the whole beginning). Instead, I'll just continue my lunatic ranting and raving. Now, one of the irritating aspects in this game are the addition of the "ghosts". These are perhaps the most infamous videogame bad guys... just because they're so annoying beyond all reason. They start out early on in the game crawling out of the walls, looking like floating zombie-lookalikes from any RE game. They fly fast at you, and at first they can be pretty startling, but when you find out there is no way to kill them (all you can do is pump them full of enough hot lead or bludgeon them until they stay suspended in the air for a couple of seconds, which doesn't give you any time to move on because the ghosts suddenly come to consciousness in no time flat, rendering any and all attempts to fight them futile and a waste of bullets [and health]) the scare factor plummets and the irritation level skyrockets (something you think you'd find in a Resident Evil game, not a Silent Hill game). Later on, you can get magical swords to stall the ghosts for a short while, to keep them away... but you still can't kill them. They try to plunge their hand into your chest to rip out your heart, or something, which is cool, but also gets old after a while. Like I said before, you'll be too busy cursing your head off at those ridiculous and persistend buffoons you won't care about stuff like that; all you care for is to somehow get them away. They're not creepy, they're morons, like those of you who love this game like your life mate.

And, as a side note, if Konami wanted to make the game more realistic by copying the inventory screen off of another game (that was inferior to them until this steaming pile of uncreative crap) which you can only carry so many items, then why have Silent Hill in the first place? The whole series was about bridging the gap between reality and your worst nightmares. There IS no reality. That's what made the games so intriguing and terrifying. Well, I guess that smidget of realism explains those magical swords, then?

This game isn't scary whatsoever. It's annoying. For me, it was like, pop in the game, play for a couple of hours, get frustrated at the stupidity of everything in it, turn off the console, and shake my head. That was my whole playing experience. Great job, Konami! You really put forth one great leap in ineptness with this. Impressive... I wish.

Yet another fault in it's frail structure of absolutely nothing, there were NO NURSE DEMONS! They were instead replaced by psychotic wheelchairs with an anger problem and some freak shemale amazon demons that burped when you hit them. Yes, burped. I'm not talking about a grunt that sounds like a burp, but a full-blown release of gaseous vapor out one's oral orifice. And when they die they unleashing a hilarious scream sounding like a stoned grandma dying, which is actually kind of cool, but considering this is supposed to be a dark and serious game, it doesn't fit. They quickly turn from being some of the most intimidating bad guys/girls (hard to tell because they're shemales) into the most unintentionally laughable. All the disturbing elements you got from the demons of the previous games are lost with the newest additions - fresh from a freak show, and a cheap one at that.

And, for one more shot at the plot (or lack thereof) of SH4: It wasn't Silent Hill. This game has nothing to do with the town. It has you visit a city a couple of miles away from Silent Hill, but you never actually go to the city that THE GAME WAS NAMED AFTER!! Why the heck call it "Silent Hill" when you never even see the bloody place (no pun intended... actually, there was a pun intended)! Answer: no point whatsoever, but that doesn't stop the capitalist game developers from doing so. I think they're laughing at us, or at least, those with enough of an I.Q. (i.e., with at least two digits) to see through the facad of fake disturbing creepiness meshed together with the glue of pure stupidity. Ah, I love using metaphors...

I heard there is some connection in the plot between this and the other Silent Hill games, but I got so bored to death and angered over the dolts buying into this bulls**t I stopped playing entirely. I wasn't hooked or interested in finding out how the story ends. I could care less. It probably didn't have much of a resolution to it either. At least, not one I'd like to see.

So, to sum it all up: this game isn't worth any amount of money, even in the one-digit range. If you're curious just to see how bad it is, rent it instead. You'll save yourself the funds you could use to donate to charity or help those in need or do something constructive for the world but want to waste it away on trivial diversions like videogames (cannot you just see the double-standard I'm pulling here? YAY! I'M A HIPPOCRITE, JUST LIKE ALL OTHER HUMANS!). Blah. I like saying that... blah... it seems to fit perfectly with my closing statement. In short: don't buy it, you'll only regret it (unless you are a gulible dolt like most and are easily bribed into buying all the crap this game is full of, shoving it down your throats, oblivious as to the true nature [or taste, in a metaphorical sense] of it, only to mindlessly buy it to keep Konami's profit margin high enough so its executives can take vacations in the bahamas). Man, I hate people...

Silent Hill 4: I Got Stuck In This Room And Died of BOREDOM

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: October 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Like fox mulder, I wanted to believe. While I'd enjoyed the previous entries in the series on many levels, I could see that there was resident-evil-esque stagnation looming on the horizon. Team Silent took a chance, and decided to mix up the game play.

Now, I'm all for innovation, but this game is a wonderful study in how to take a great concept, rush it, and make it, at best, mediocre.

The protagonist sounds like he's spent all his free time shooting up thorazine, as his emotional reactions are limited to a weakly uttered, milquetoast "what the hell?". Since this character is our conduit to this world, there's almost no emotional attachment to what happens to him on screen.

One of the brilliant points of the previous games was the plot, which led us from the mostly plausible (if not only slightly off-kilter), gradually into the creepy, macabre, frightening, and genuinely disturbing. Silent Hill 4 eschews this, and basically heads full tilt, yee-HAW, into just wierd stuff... which again, removes a subtle, but effective (and important) connection to our on-screen character.

While the graphics are techincally impressive (as is the engine they use), they have a mostly sepia-toned and washed-out feel. The lack of vivid colors leaves you feeling as if you're looking at a painting, and not a window into a world.

The sound design, sadly, is more miss than hit. The lack of any creepy atmospheric music, along with wretched sound effects (the cougar-screams of the dying dogs, or the just-plain idiotic belching of the nurse-demons udnerscore this well). The creature design is sorely lacking as well... the one-hit bean-sprouts are pointless, and the killer wheelchairs just made me think that i was being assaulted by monopoly game pieces.

Finally, the game is far more linear than past entries. The ability to roam a game full of strange and interesting nuances helped us to fully realize the world that these characters inhabit... something sorely lacking here. And they use one of my most loathed tricks to "extend" the length of a game: having you run through virtually every level twice (ghost and goblins anyone? this was just a clever illusion by lucifer!).

Overall, the entire effort feels like a rushed concept, almost like a pilot for a series. All the nuances that made the previous entries so wonderful are simply missing. And it's a sad blotch on what has become, justifiably, one of the finest horror franchises out there.

Silent Hill Fans Stay Away

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 15
Date: February 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you are a true Silent Hill fan, stay away from this game. Everything you loved about the previous games are gone. No character development, no attachment to the character, no scare factor, utter lack of puzzles, level reuse, and a poor camera make this game a horrible choice.

Let me start off with the character development. The character that you play as seems to be an idiotic surfer sort of a guy that halfway through you wish he would die, or be indifferent to him dying. The scare factor for this game is nonexistant. Ghosts have to be one of the single STUPIDEST ideas to place in a Silent Hill game. Not only can you not kill them, they are nearly impossible to pin down with this infernal sword. It is so difficult to pin them down that I had to look online to figure out how to actually use it. It turns out that you have to supposedly knock them on their back (which practically never happens) in order to actually use the sword to pin them down. Though people have described the "nurses" as making a belching sound, I think it sounds more like a fart. At one point, I knocked one down the stairs and it farted all the way down. The demonic wheelchairs I thought were more cute than anything else. The scenery wasn't scary, the enemies were annoying, and it just doesn't hit anywhere near the caliber that Silent Hill should. Unlike the previous Silent Hill games, there were no puzzles. The most complex puzzle involves dropping off a key into the storage container so you could continue. I have to agree with what someone else had said, that being able to carry everything blurred the lines of reality and illusion. Not only is it more convenient to play the game through, but it keeps you from backtracking back and forth and back and forth to that same infernal room. Want to pick something up that you needed? Head back to the room. Want to save? Head back to the room. Want to get more details? Head back to the room. Though an interesting concept, this jumping back and forth takes you out of the game. In the previous games, you felt like the person, you were absorbed into their reality. By jumping back and forth, it takes you out of this reality. As well, half the game is replaying where you've already been. This time, though, you have someone you have to protect tagging along the entire way. The camera angle is particularly awful, there were times when I was trying to fight an enemy and I couldn't see myself OR the enemy. As well, the targeting system is terrible. There were times when a creature was trying to attack me and I was targeting a darn leech on a wall. Priorities here, people. I think a giant creature with two babyheads and no legs charging at me is a bigger threat than a leech on a wall. Having the girl in tow is an even bigger hinderence because she will charge at enemies and attack them. This means that you can hit her as well, even if you still hit the enemy. The title is misleading when it calls it "Silent Hill". In fact, you never enter Silent Hill. This game is better left unplayed.

And WHAT happened?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: September 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The set up sounded interesting enough. Man trapped in apartment, which showed more signs of decay as the time passed. Man finds hole in wall, and--in his desperation to get out--decided to go inside, and into a hellish adventure. Game, START.

When actually playing the game, though, suddenly you wish that the main character, James Townsend, would just succumb to the monsters, ghosts, and other unnamable creatures trying to kill him. Why? Because nearly everything is wrong with the game.

First, the good stuff: The graphics and the creepy atmosphere is on par and above when compared to its Playstation 2 predecessors. Someone mentioned the graphics is brigher than before, which is a great welcome since I wasn't too much of a fan of the too dark to play atmosphere. The music is on key, providing an appropriately somber welcome during the introduction and an ant-crawing-up-your-spine chills during gameplay. This makes the bonus soundtrack included with pre-orders a gem to own.

Now, the bad stuff. I do not like the new inventory system one bit. You can only carry a small amount of items, and when you accidentally pick up useless ones, you have to trek back to your house (I'll talk about why that gets tiring later) and put it in your magic infinite box. But you can't risk NOT picking up the item, because you MIGHT need it and you need to pick up it up to read the description of it. This limited inventory system is made even worse by the fact that each CLIP of 12 bullets for your first gun (this goes for later firearms, too) takes up one space in your iventory by itself! Sure, in your magic infinite capacity box they take up only one space for all the bullets, but in your pocket, yes, one space per clip. This makes guns a very unreliable source of protection... or you can run home everytime you run out of bullets...assuming you HAD any. Ammo is terrible scarce, even on easy mode. You can rely on your trusty melee weapon near the beginning, but later on, the enemies are too tough, one big healing resource is taken away from you and turned into a source of hp depletion, and you have concerns other than your own life (such as, getting a good ending) to risk just bashing the enemies brains in with a shovel.

Adding to even more trips back to your pad is that fact that the only place to save is on a notebook in your apartment. So yes, you have to go there everytime you want to save. Horrible! When I'm in the middle of the story, I don't want to make an extra special trip back to my apartment just so I don't lose an hours worth of play.

Healing items are also scarce, so in the first half of the game, anytime you needed to heal up your HP, you run home and wait for your HP to fill back up.

The trip back to and from the apartment through the hole in your wall gets tiresome around the fifth time to do it. Leaving the apartment, you get the same animation for "warp speed into the depths of despare through a stone pipe" everytime, and no matter how many buttons I press, I can't skip that movie. Same thing with returning to your apartment, you have to endure the annoying "James is not a morning person" ritual of getting out of bed that takes WAY too long for it to be fun when you're on a routine trip back to your place for a save or to drop off some items.

The ghost enemies are the most annoying enemies I've ever encountered. At first I was scared, since I couldn't kill them and their mere presence depletes your HP, but soon they just grew into a pain in the rear. In a certain level, there were a lot of narrow passageways. If a ghost were to approach (and they approach fast), you would have to take it down (you can stun them) before proceeding... that would have been fine, if its undead body doesn't block your walkway! So you find yourself in a hopeless situation that causes you to find the nearest exit, leave, and come back into the room, hoping you can outrun the ghost this time before it blocks your path.

Okay, so this could be made up with a great story. Silent Hill 3 wasn't the most innovative in gameplay, but the GREAT backstory made up for the small number of flaws and made it a fantastic horror experience. This time, the story could not overcome all the problems with gameplay. Bits of the story is revealed as you play, but it just doesn't happen fast enough for is not riveting enough to keep me interested. James seems like a nice enough guy, but since you mostly encounter the dead, or people who aren't key to the story for the first half of the game, you don't find out too much about James at all.

I've been a big fan of the Silent Hill series since the first game came out, but this one is just utterly dissapointing. I know they didn't rush it, but the problem might be they tried too many things that just didn't work. I'm a fan of creative innovation, but just because it's new doesn't mean I'll praise it. Back to the drawing board with you, Konami!

Disappointing for three reasons

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: February 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The fourth installment of the Silent Hill series was a complete let-down. It included three specific factors that were unbearably frustrating and made me feel like I had wasted my time.

1. The way Eileen follows you around for a greater part of the game. True, she can defend herself a bit, but that AI gets annoying quick when you're trying to run from a Ghost and she just keeps hacking away while getting hacked at herself. You become a babysitter for an pathetic AI system that constantly gets in the way, and if you just ignore it you can't get a good ending.

2. You can only hold ten items at a time. Each clip of ammo takes up a separate space, so carrying and using guns (a resource that is scarce anyway) is too irritating to be of any real use. Silent Hill 4 emphasizes melee weapons way too much. This rule also makes you have to take constant trips back to your apartment to organize and use important things like healing items.

3. You can finish the game and still lose. I suppose there's an appeal of a scary game without a happy ending, just like a scary movie. But spending 18 hours fighting to escape, defeating the last guy, and still losing because of things that qualify more as side quests, left me very unsatisfied.

Finally, some minor pros and cons.
Pros: The power up trait of the melee weapons is extremely useful and well done. The basic concept of escaping your apartment is intriguing, and creates a great eerie atmosphere comparable to Silent Hill 2. And the player has more freedom to move the camera than in previous Silent Hill games.
Cons: The minor role of guns and lack of ammunition makes you feel like you have to conserve such little resources so you end up never using them. And the hardest and most frustrating monsters in the game are one of the first monsters to appear: the ghosts.

This game was horrible!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: April 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm a big fan of the "Silent Hill" series, so when this game came out I was very excited......until I played it. I thought the concept sounded cool and that the changes would be an improvement. Boy, was I wrong. It is extremely slow, repetitive and where the other games in the series kept me on the edge of my seat, this one put me to sleep.

The inventory system is a total pain, because if you don't have the right item at the time, then you have to travel back to the apartment, then back through the hole. Then if you ever want to save, once again you have to travel back through the hole to the apartment, then back through the hole again. I was soo sick and tired of traveling through the hole.

And to top it off, I found myself extremely happy whenever I got through one idiotic world after another, only to discover there's only about five worlds and after you go through them once, guess what, you have to go through them again, as if the first time wasn't painful enough. Talk about a lack of originality.

I also thought the villain was stupid, two dimensional and stereotypical (at least in appearance).

They also lost elements that made the earlier games so good....for one Silent Hill itself. The plot of the story takes like one little news clipping from Silent Hill 2 and tries to turn it into a full-blown twisted story, which is neither interesting or remotely plausible, even for Silent Hill.

Also, I'm sorry, but what is with the shemale burping(or I should say belching) nurse things? Or possessed wheelchairs trying to tackle you??? I mean, c'mon!!

I read somewhere that this game wasn't originally intended to even be a Silent Hill game (and it shows), but they figured they'd make more money if they turned it into a Silent Hill game. Why mess with a good thing? The previous Silent Hill games had a formula that worked, why change it? Had it been marketed as something other than Silent Hill, it would have still been a bad game, but putting it in the same category as Silent Hill, made the fall even bigger.

All I can say is that change isn't bad....except in this case. I wouldn't even waste my time renting this one.

Silenthill?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 23
Date: October 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I dont think im even shure that is from the silenthill series.This game is confusing and it gets sortof boring.You might like this one if you like walking around never finding any thing realy diferent from the same floating in bodyments that hurt you when they touch you?i rented it and hated it.

That giant sucking sound....

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 18
Date: September 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

You hear is Konami destroying this once proud franchise. I suffered through this game out of my dedication to the series alone, and the only thing that horrified me was that I continued to play it. Damn you Konami. Damn you.

Konami W T F ?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 23
Date: January 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

SH 4 the worst in the series if you want a good survival horror game go out and buy RE 4 that game is worth 100 if not 50 bucks Sh 4 is only worth a measly penny...

you have 4 choices

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 15
Date: January 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

amazon.com lists four choices and i would have to say dont buy it from target i wasent satisfied get it from the other 3 they are much better choices. i repeat, dont buy it from target!

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