LogFAQs > #945807211

82. Silent Hill 4: The Room (game) (16 points)
Nominated by: v_charon (2/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADkPTbGzJBA

Importance: 4
Fear: 5
Snake: 7

Silent Hill 4 is a game that's wildly misunderstood, rightfully disliked, and a flawed gem all in its own right. You play as Henry Townshend, a main protagonist not as held in high regard as those that came before him. He doesn't have the goofy memorability of Harry Mason, the deep characterization of James Sunderland, or the strong emotional core of Heather Mason. People dislike him as this sort of blank slate, but it's by design. Henry Townshend, and the main concept of Silent Hill 4: The Room, is a fantastic examination of someone with social awkwardness and agoraphobia. When you think of Silent Hill 4, you probably don't think of Walter Sullivan, umbilical cords, or annoying subway ghost wall enemies, but that image of the chained door, locking you inside, FROM the inside, disallowing any idea of leaving, seeing anyone else, running errands, anything like that. It's a perfect metaphor for social anxiety, and I speak on this from experience. Chains or not, sometimes the idea of going out and facing the world is just so overwhelming we just retreat in ourselves so much that we might as well have those chains on our door. This would be the true genius of Silent Hill 4, BUT it also manages to have an amazing antagonist in Walter Sullivan.

I often consider the true main character of Silent Hill games to be the one that manifests their desires, fears, & flaws into the monsters you encounter. For Silent Hill 1 & 3, it's Alessa/Heather who conjures her inner nightmares on to to the town of Silent Hill, and really, you as Harry in the first game are just caught up in it all. It's the same here, as Walter Sullivan, a serial killer raised by the Order, manifests his total hatred of humanity, abandonment & lack of real love, & sadistic tendencies on to the deformed monstrosities you see before you. It's Walter's goal to complete the 21 Sacraments, his twisted way in resurrecting his "mother" (which is really the room) by performing 21 murders/sacrifices. Walter sees himself as totally justified and in his interactions with the player, he's always calm & holds a weirdly, non-threatening demeanor, just seeing you as another stepping stone in achieving his goal. Despite his actions, he's an antagonist you can almost feel sorry for though. A total product of his raising, pathetically attempting to get something even approaching a loving relationship for him, but really he's just another lost victim of Silent Hill, and no amount of murders or sacrifices will fill that gaping hole inside him. As Henry, you piece all of this together with some amazing file storytelling and experience first-hand the despair & violence of Walter, but it's really Sullivan himself that shines as the star of this game.

Now, though the writing is just as incredible in this game as it is in past Silent Hills, gameplay falters extremely. Where to even begin? Silent Hill 4 is the first and only game in the series to feature a limited inventory, and this was done in order to get the player back to the apartment to experience its hauntings and receive lore deliveries. The hauntings are some of the most memorable scares in the game, but having to constantly shuffle back through constant loading screens because you only carry bullets in stacks of 10 becomes quickly tedious & tiresome which will have the effect of greatly reducing the influence of the hauntings in your mind. Couple that with breakable melee weapons, a weird stamina system that feels way to arcadey for Silent Hill, and annoyingly aggressive enemies that cannot be killed by traditional means, and you can see why Silent Hill 4 is as derided as it is. You can argue this breaks the player down mentally and thus increases the effect of its horror, but no, in my opinion it is as bad as people say and clearly not as tightly designed as past Team Silent excursions into the foggy realm. Enemies popping out of walls at unpredictable paces while you lack control on escalator, or ghost enemies that constantly drain your health through no fault of your own is just a cheap shortcut for seemingly "challenging" gameplay. Never mind the escort mission you undertake with Eileen which is so slow-paced it makes you pull your hair out.

Sure, gameplay was not this game's strong-suit, but what is here, the great storytelling and character building, is what makes it so worth it to play. I don't think the casual player would like this game very much though. Hell, as a survival horror buff, I used to loathe this game, before I truly examined its in-depth themes and appreciated its characters. You can rarely say a game is truly divisive, but I think Silent Hill 4: The Room is one of those rare examples, and that's far more interesting than just having a game everyone loves unconditionally or hates to their core. It's games like this that truly keep the medium running, and you have to at least give it some credit for that.

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Is this girl the cat or is she the canary?
https://imgur.com/1e1e70S - https://imgur.com/XObpAjw