2.5/5 ★ – Cewens's review of Silent Hill 4: The Room.

Alright Silent Hill 4, probably one of the more polarising titles in the franchise and I can see why. Let's talk about what I liked before I rake this over the coals. Whilst SH3 came up short in the plot department, this game surely did not. I thought the story was fantastic and every ounce of this game is laced with the code of SH2 without actually ever taking place in Silent Hill, kind of. There are references and direct lines between this game and previous titles and I thought it was an incredibly engaging story. The premise itself is creative too, being stuck in a room but being able to access a portal to these other worlds. It is very interesting. This game excels at the details in typical SH fashion. The soundtrack and musical elements are chilling and the small changes in environment are clever and satisfying to pick up on. For example, looking out of your window whenever you return to your room and noticing any changes to the outside, or spotting NPCs before you formally meet them. Its all good stuff. The premise, the story, the vibes, the ideas. There is a lot of great potential here and ultimately that is the biggest crime of this game. Wasted potential. All of the enjoyable things about this game are redundant because the gameplay FUCKING sucks. There is no way to sugar coat it. I did not have fun playing this game ever. I hate the argument I've heard saying "this game is supposed to be depressing and it isn't supposed to be fun". That is extreme levels of cope. The gameplay is depressing but not by design, because it is poorly designed. Having a limited inventory does suck but I understand the choice to make it harder/more stressful. However, it is a stupid inventory system. Fixed at 10, there is mo way to boost it and items don't stack. 20 handgun ammo = 2 slots of 10. That is bullshit. Unless you are efficient, you will be making several backtracking trips for abandoned items or just returning to your room. Tank controls suck, but SH1-3 found a way to make them tolerable and use the fixed camera to their advantage. That is not present here. You will find yourself circling a door or an item over and over, especially if you are in a rush being chased down by whatever is in your vicinity. Do you like boss fights? Well unlucky because this game only has 2 and neither of them are pretty great. The first is actually more of a puzzle than a boss. The final boss is solid. No I am not counting the victim ghosts because they are not mandatory for the most part. Ghosts as enemies is an interesting concept, poorly executed. They very quickly become less of a spooky entity and more of a persistent pain in the ass, especially in the final half of the game. Oh the final half of the game. So, you spend the first half of the game traveling from your room and 6 other worlds and learning lore as you go. Then, you rescue one of your neighbours and now you must retread your way through 4 of those areas and survive the onslaught of ghosts & monsters with your new followers. Yep, the final half of this game is a fucking escort mission that heavily influences the ending of the game. Enjoy your companion being stuck behind ghosts, accidentally left behind in other rooms and taking it upon themselves to stop following and attack a random enemy. The player character is lame who only really says "what the hell?", the level design is mostly dull. The escalator segment SUCKS. The programming of enemies and your companion is bad. There is a lot of flaws that cannot be ignored. I cannot be bothered to write much more but I think I've made my point. The Room is a great concept that clearly had a lot of thought, but the coinciding gameplay was forgotten about and uncooked. A shame really, I think this would really benefit from a remake. I doubt that will ever happen.