Whats Old is New Again, and Whats New is Scary as Hell!
The first Silent Hill was amazing because it was unique, sort of taking Survival Horror to a new level and that in itself was awesome.
Silent Hill 2 was good, more then anything I was pleased to have a second title to the series. It went in a similar direction but was still very well done,
The third Silent Hill was perhaps the low point of the series,
Silent Hill 4 really does a lot to keep the elements of the series true, but adds some new gameplay aspects which really do lend themselves very nicely to the game, its a very nice bounce up from three.
In terms of gameplay the game is what it is, very much holding true to what most gamers love about the series, although there is a little more importance placed upon how you manage your inventory this time around which tends to be annoying but makes the game more challenging so that that however you want. The first person aspects are interesting but I would say really did not add or take away from the overall gaming experience in my opinion, but could interest gamers who have not been a fan of the series in the past.
One thing that I found to be interesting was that there is one save point and one storage bin in the whole game and that is back in your apartment, now there are plenty of oppertunities to return to your digs, but as the game moves forward home ain't the safest place to be.
Graphically I am impressed,
This series never really set benchmarks for graphic quality, simply because it never really had to, its not different but the little details are very clear and there are a lot of small things that you have to appricate in terms of cracks in the walls, the lighting effects do a lot to set the mood which in a game of this sort is very important.
I found the enemies to get tiresome after you have blasted through the 20th one that looks the same, but that does not take away from the shock value that you face the first time you deal with these things.
Its a nice overall improvement from the third one, but that being said the third one was also soley on PS2.
From a sound standpoint I can never say enough about the quality of the sound in the Silent Hill series, soundtrack (or in some cases the lack there of) is very well done the small details are done to a T its what sound sould be in a survival Horror.
From a value stance, again I have to break it down to Play Value and Replay Value,
From a Value standpoint its a great game to work your way through, it took me just over 12 hours on standard difficulty mode, and I have replayed some sections to get one of the different endings overall I got a good 18-20 hours out of the game it was a good story and worth playing through
In terms of replay value, I just don't see myself playing this again nor is there a moment in the game that was just so awesome I would have to show my friends when they came over, all and all with the titles I have collecting dust on the wall I could not do it again.
But for those who like to do EVERYTHING in a game you may get a solid 30+ hours out of the game, and for the price it is now thats not bad.
-Z