I decided to give this game a go after seeing all the mixed reviews surrounding it, I am very glad I did

User Rating: 10 | Silent Hill 4: The Room PC
By kingnothing47 | Review Date:
I have been a fan of horror games for a very long time, something about the bleak, hopeless atmosphere and, more often than not, mature storyline has always been very appealing to me. That said it can be rather difficult to find a truly horrifying experience. Many games are gruesome and full of dark imagery and blood, ie Doom 3, Jericho, The Thing, but those games do not stick in terms of substantial fear. Silent Hill 4, on the other side of the pulsating, tumorous hand, is a VERY frightening game.

Japanese horror centers around subtlety and brooding tension rather than giant monsters popping out from corners and in your face scares, and this is what makes this game so disturbing. You explore otherworldy realms through a strange hole that appears in your apartment, an apartment from which you cannot escape, forcing you to travel somewhere you are unfamiliar with and remain there until you cannot stand it any more. The game does have strong emphasis on combat, evidently older entries in this series did not, but the focus is all on the story, and supporting characters are interesting and you will find yourself vested in their fates, hoping they do not perish to the great evil surrounding you.

"Levels" connect back to your room at certain segments in the game, making it a bit of a hub between levels, wherein you can save and seek respite from the darkness. However, even back in the room I always felt a creeping sense of dread and isolation, emotions I rarely feel in other games, where my fear was always abated by the presence of huge weapons and health. This game has few frills, supplies are limited in quantity, and it forces you to get up close and personal with your foes quite often, a nice divergence from other games where you could attack from afar. There is an interesting twist towards the middle half of the game, and it has a very nice length to it, considering most console games are around 6 to 8 hours, the room clocks in at around 9 or 10 hours, depending on how well you explore the worlds, and there are 4 endings possible, enabling a decent amount of replayability.

This game is quite old by the time I am posting this review, but as I mentioned I have just come across it and am very glad I did so, it is incredibly unique and I would say a joy to play, but it will leave you drained and feeling sickened after long hours, due to the nature of it. This is of course a great thing, survival horror at its best.

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