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Yet another reason not to leave your apartment.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 86 / 97
Date: July 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Silent Hill 4 is some scary scary stuff, but that is nothing that years of therapy cannot fix. That being said, you must now obtain this game. This review is of the Japanese Import of the came, but the US release will be identical in almost every aspect (All the in game dialog is in English, and the menus are multi-language).

It must be mentioned that this game is a departure from the first three of the series, but everything it does different it gets right. The bosses have been removed, but don't worry there is still plenty to back you into a corner and make your cry for mommy. The removal of the bosses has added to the overall fluidity of the game. It seems less like the structured chapter based plot and more like a constant downward spiraling nightmare. The puzzles are a bit more straight forward (not nearly as cryptic as some of the earlier puzzles) and the enemies have become a bit more organic. The skinned dogs are still roaming around but new enemies such as the creepy yeti-babies and ghost/zombies will defiantly keep you on your toes and loosing sleep. I considered the more human of the monsters to be the scariest (Pyramid Head, The Nurses, Blood Soaked Alessa) and this game capitalizes on this.

All of the aesthetic changes are well received like the new health bar and power gauge. The first being so you no longer have to guess at your health via limping or hemorrhaging and stop the game for a inventory check; the second is used for swinging weapons to charge from a moderate THUMP to a full blast body-hurling home-run style WHACK. Two of the biggest departures are the first person perspective mode and the limited inventory. Gone the way of the dodo is the Resident Evil rip-off inventory screen and introduced is the Resident Evil inspired limited inventory. This adds a whole new level to the game being that what items you carry now matter in the sense that you can no longer pick up any more if your inventory is full (and in some parts, what you carry affects the level). No need to worry being that the portal/hole system that traverses you from your room to different `worlds' allows you to go back to your room and store unneeded items in a stylish ottoman/chest placed next to your possessed television. Also to please your inner voyeur, the frist person view allows you to peek out your window to see into your neighbors' apartments and to spy on the single white female living next to you.

Returning SH fans will find that this new addition has much to offer with it's tentacles embedded in plot from all previous Silent Hill titles bringing new light to old events (What was the outcome of James Sunderland's trip in SH 2, What really happened at the Wish House from SH3, etc.). New players stepping up to the challenge will not be disappointed with beautiful detailed graphics and a story line that drives you to dig deeper and deeper until it all makes sense. Konami once again has created an audio/visual attack on the sensed that is truly designed to scare the living crap out of you.

A new Silent Hill formula to keep you awake...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: September 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I love all Silent Hill games. I love everything about them, from the music, to the graphics, to the storylines intricately woven into each one. Now comes Silent Hill 4 The Room, which is a new story that revolves around the events in all the other games. Well, I shouldn't say that, but the other games have something to do with this one, in one way or another.
I have just beaten this game, and I was quite impressed. The story was good, the graphics were good. But wait, something is missing. Actually, make that three things are missning.

For anyone who have ever played any of the Silent Hill games, you should have noticed certain reoccuring items in 1 through 3.
One, the fog. Two, the radio. Three, the flashlight. None of which make an appearance in the new game. Sure, it is set in the town of Ashfield, near Silent Hill, but still, that only compensated for the missing fog. But what about the other two items? I mean, what's a Silent Hill game without your radio freaking out and your crappy flashlight barely giving you any visibility? I'll tell you what it is, it's a new survival horror game that is never really dark (light-wise).

In fact, it is quite possibly the brightest of all the games. I mean sure, the other games were bright when you were outside, but still. They also had some pitch black areas too. Almost throughout the entire game, everything is well lit. Which won't hurt the games score, but it's just something that i've grown to love in these games. And as for the radio, well, the only thing that comes close is the ghosts making your screen start to mess up and then there's a bit of static, but there's no explanation for it. Well, I guess it makes his head hurt whenever they are near, so it does make sense in that way. But still, even then, he's still lacking that small appliance from his person.

Which is something else, you have a limited amount of items you can carry on you at one time. You have a chest back in your room that you can drop things you don't need at the moment into, but if you accidentally pick up something you didn't really mean to pick up, you have no way of dropping it until you find a hole to get back to your room. So sometimes you'll have to waste a full clip of pistol ammo or use a nutrition drink to clear up a slot so you can pick up the key item you need to take with you. This is probably my only complaint, and it really isn't worth whining about. I do like the on-screen health bar and swing meter, which thankfully fade away after you're out of combat, as does the item selection menu. Because I would be really pissed of if I had to have some freaking crap cluttering up my screen and blocking the gorgeous graphics.

If I can I'd like to add a little here on the new main enemies, ghosts. These apparitions come through the walls and float around chasing you. If they get too close, without even getting their hands on you, you will recieve damage. The coolest one is that of a main (semi-main) character, who, when in ghost form, kind of resembles the little girl from The Ring, you know, the one that crawls out of the television. What I really found cool about this character is when you knock her down, she doesn't always get right back up, sometimes she'll use here arms to pull her around all crazy like on the floor toward you. Pretty creepy.

I know that I don't talk much about the story or the characters in my reviews, maybe that's because I like to sprawl out the rest of the stuff in the game that nobody else talks about. But if you want to know, you play as a man named Henry Townsend. And at the beginning of the game, you have already been trapped in your apartment for five days. The front door is covered in chains and locks and none of the windows open. While in your apartment, you can listen to the radio, if anything is on other than static, look through the peephole to the hallway outside and watch people walk by or have an arguement, look through the hole in your wall in the living room to see into the room next door where a very special girl spends time watching t.v. or painting her nails. But one day, you find a gaping hole in your bathroom wall and decide to ivestigate, upon doing so, you get a steel pipe (i'm glad they atleast left that in there, I sure do like beating things with my steel pipe), and the story begins to unfold. And on the story, while good, it wasn't what I expected. Sure it was twisted and insane, but it just didn't have that punch at the end. No real shocking twist. But oh well, if you liked or loved the other games, buy this one immediately. But I would just like to warn you, this game is totally different from the others. It's not so much Silent Hill 4, it's either The Room or Ashfield Heights.

All in all, a great game, just not a real Silent Hill game. Still spooky though. If it does one thing better than anything else, it's the sense of claustrophobia you get from spending so much time in your room, which you won't want to stay in for too long later in the game...one word: haunted.

The best in the series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: October 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

OK
I have played all four series numerous times. Let me say that number three sort of sucked and I think that taht is why 4 is better. It is different from the others, although it does relate to Silent Hill, it breaks away from the Soap Opera type of continuation of the series. There are new monstors and better endings. The game starts in First person which can be hard for some people to handle but soon it goes in to third person limited view.

I also have to say that in 4 you do visit places that you have in the previous games, however, it is not exactly the same. Like a person can not say hey I remember this from 2, and go through the exact same scene from 2.

There are ghosts in this game that you can not kill at all but only keep them from not attaking you by using certain swords found in a few places of the game. You do have to help a girl in the game, and I made mistakes by letting her try to fend for herself, she got hurt and I got a crappy ending.

the shottiest thing about the game is some of the camera angles. At times they are looking at the character from above his head and at other timesfrom behind only to later have the camera "skip" into another angle.

Hint*** Every time you are in the room look through the peephole in the door and to Eileens room.

Off the Silent Hill beaten path...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Silent Hill 4 is, truely, a game made for Silent Hill fans. More info is delivered on the Hope/Wish House, Dahlia's involvement and just about any other point in the Silent Hill series that seemed confusing. I look forward to the next two reported games (Silent Hill 5 is already in production, it's said) as more background games than anything. The first three were to leave us wondering about just what Silent Hill really is ... and I hope the next three will clarify it all.
That said, this game /is/ different from the last Silent Hill games but just as well-crafted and adept at keeping one walking the thin rope between ease and wracked-nerves.
I also recommend that anyone looking to this game play the other three - or, at least, Silent Hill 2 and 3. A good plot guide also does wonders in understanding just what is happening in this delightfully mixed-up game.

WOW.. A highly suggested game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: November 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If you are a fan of Survival Horror video games, this is right up your alley. This game is packed with scares that you'll be sure not to forget. The graphics are amazing and so is the gameplay. This game would make the perfect Christmas gift, but keep in mind parents this is rated M for Mature for a reason. This a highly entertaining and exciting game that you can't stop playing. I DEFINATLEY RECOMEND THIS GAME!!!!!! IT IS SUPER SCARY!

Surprisingly good!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: October 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Ive played all the Silent hill games, and I Loved 1&2, but I was so disturbed by the difficulty and bad storyline and bloody graphics of Silent Hill 3, that I passed over Silent Hill 4. By chance I ran into this game and I LOVED it. Not too hard, plenty of saves, interesting story and I am now hoping there is a Silent Hill 5.

Scary

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Great, reminds me of the mood of the Silent Hill from my early high school years. Amazing graphics, moody and frightening. Yeti-Babies are f***ing terrifying!!

The perfect game for spying on your neighbors!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: May 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This Silent Hill 4 game gave me mixed feelings about it. When I first watched my friend play it, it really bored me and made me not want to play it all. It was nothing like Silent Hill's 1 through 3 and that's not a good thing! But then when I first played it myself, I started to like it a little but it still wasn't even close to being as good as the first 3 Silent Hill games.

The thing that really made me not like it was that the ghosts can harm you even though they don't even touch you and those Saint Medallions didn't last very long so after a while, it got very frustrating. I did buy the game and actually found a way to enjoy playing it without the stress of ghosts taking away life: using cheats with infinite health!! I know that it defeats the purpose but I actually do like this game as far as storyline goes and the fact that you can't leave your apartment. Some areas in the game are very interesting like The Prison and The Subway with that umbilical cord and The Hospital with those wheelchairs. And the fact that you can see all these hauntings and spy on your neighbors is cool. I definitely like this game now a lot more than at first and it's the hardest to play because of the ghosts. It's not a scary installment but a very interesting and sometimes cryptic game.

I also like how you can look out the windows in the apartment, listen to different things on the radio once in a while, and see different thoughts about the paintings in Henry's apartment after each level or so. Throughout a lot of the game, Henry is with the neighbor Eileen and when you bring her to The Forest World, she'll read all these passages written on rocks and buildings mainly about someone named Bob, and I wonder, who the heck is Bob?

You'll want to be trapped in a room with this game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

"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.

best of the series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: March 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I accidentally made the mistake of playing SH 4 The Room before any of the other SH games, so I went in reverse. Personally, I feel this is the best in the series, and I will explain why.
Yes, 2and 3 have the awesome, fog-smothered town of Silent Hill, with cool buildings and a radio to detect enemies. I also like the holes you can jump through in 2, and the many dungens you can reach and say, wtf?. But, you know what? Pyramid head, a guy that follows you around and that many SH fans adore, wasn't all he was hyped up to be. On top of this, the whole plot for Silent Hill 2 is really good in the beginning, but loses itself as the game progresses.
James is lured to the town by a letter he receives from his wife... Who is dead. Cool, right? So he goes looking for her in Saint Hill. But, as you find out, Mary, the wife, was ill and stayed at a hospital in Silent Hill for a while. How could that be possible if it was a cult run town with intricate torcher chambres and a supposed orphanage that actually brainwashes children? You mean that no one noticed? There was virtually no mention of the cult, just that Mary found the town peaceful and that it was founded onsacred grounds or something. So, three doesn't really explain the cult aspect of the town as much as it should of and just made you kind of accept that people never noticed the torturing or new about it.
Then, 3 had great graphics and a good voice over for the main character, but again, sketchy plot. They made the cult this time seem like it was actually catholic and had good intentions-to let gods eternal paradise shine on mankind- but had one or two fanatics that went about it the wrong way.
Silet hill4 was just scary as hell. You play a man who cannot leave his apartment accept via a wierd hole in the bathroom wall that believe me, you wouldn't enter except if you had to. And he HAS to. No one will here him scream, so he has no choice. Though the voice over is appalling, the game has horrifying characters, and it portrays the cult from silent hill as being really twisted, dark, and evil as all hell. Everone keeps dying that you run into; man, are you praying that at least one person will stay alive to keep you company!
I actually have not played the original Silent hill, but am about to buy it. I have enjoyed the series, but this one, by far, is the best for sound track, graphics, plot, and for being terrifying!!!!!!!

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