More entertaining than I imagined...
Silent Hill 4: The Room, is a survival-horror video game that makes us remember why things as ghosts and demons scared us when we were little. This game contains many enemies and places that you will never forget, as well for dangerous situations that will probably lead you to consider this title as one of the most exciting among the series. You play the role of Henry Townshed, a photographer that thanks to a turn of life he will be involved in something that he never imagined... In the following sections, I will write my little review about this game, giving a more positive look of this than others have given to it.
Gameplay:
Instead of always having this third-person view that we've always seen in the past games, The Room gives us the chance of playing in first-person view too. Each time you go to Room 302 or wake up there, you will encounter yourself in a first-person view, letting you examine more things around the rooms, and knowing better what Henry is thinking about the different situations, objects and events. Henry will be able to stock many of the items he will encounter during his journey in his room, while also finding new things and clues that will help him to understand better his situation and what to do next. Yes, he needs to stock because we are in the bad luck of only having the chance to carry 10 items, and each one of them counts as a single one. So, if you encounter 10 bullets, and then other 10, it will count as two spaces in your inventory. This is one of the little bad things of the game...
In the first parts of the game, the room will be a safe place for Henry, where you will be able to recover life if wounded and to look through different holes around your apartment that will be able to tell you what's going on outside the building or inside it. Yet, as the game advance, the room will start to be haunted by spirits and ghosts, which will take your life if you stay near for too long, and most times you will prefer to keep traveling instead of returning to the room. There are a few things that can eliminate those ghosts, but they waste quickly and for some reason there appears to do not be enough of this items to make all of them disappear because they keep appearing each time you get in the room.
When Henry goes through the big hole that was suddenly made on his bathroom, he goes to a different place or dimension, in which he encounters himself with the pure style of Silent Hill. The camera changes its view to a first-person view, and also letting the character equip different weapons and use different objects through those places. Of course, you will find monsters too, and in this game they attack in group instead of going one by one, something that sometimes is not very good for you. There are several kind of weapons melee weapons, and many of them can be broken if one uses it for too long. The amount of firearms is low, but there are plenty of bullets all around the place.
Story:
The story if this game is great, making you always want to continue the game in order to know what is going to happen next. It is basically the story of our character Henry Townshed who is involved into a matter of life or death when strange events suddenly start happening in his new apartment, Room 302. A strange hole will appear in his bathroom, which will transport him to different dimensions and places. Through his journey around these places, he will meet different people, and know what is really happening in that strange room...
I really don't want to say anything more because it would ruin you the fun.
I would say that the only replay value that this game has is to achieve each of the four endings that you can get through the game. There is really nothing more to do besides that...
This game will scare you in many different parts because you will encounter many enemies that you will not be able to kill with anything, and that will bother you all around the game. They can appear anywhere, they don't have any loud sound that can prevent you from far if they are waiting for you, and the worst thing is that they can hurt you without even touching you... Is scary to think about facing more than one at the same time, I assure you.
Finally, I must take as a point that Henry is the only main character of Silent Hill that has no psychological problems at all, and he got involved in this problem not for things of the past or encounters, but it was only because he chose the wrong apartment to live in...
Music and Sound:
This game has little amount of soundtracks, yet the ones that you can hear are really good and would not be any problem for the players or people watching/hearing at it. This game has something special, having a different sound for each character that dies, being played when this certain character dies. Monsters and Creatures have each one unique sound and howls, making this one of the best characteristics of the game.
Graphics:
The graphics are OK. I can't say they are awesome because they aren't, but they are not bad. Faces and bodies are built very well, and monsters have good design and quality. The landscapes seem to have been worked a lot too, for what one can see.
Finale:
In my personal opinion, this game was great and deserves more respect than it currently has. People often look only the bad things, without even looking at the good things and barely even noticing the details that makes this game unique on the series.
And, let's admit it, it is good to have this little change on the game's structure.