Silent Hill 4: The Room, refreshing or ridiculous?

[GAMBIT]

Heya! Well, this is only my second post on this site (Looking good so far! ) however, I thought I might get 'down to business'. I want to know your opinons on SH4, do you like it or do you loath it? I personally think that the Silent Hill series started to go off on a bit of a tangent at this point which, thank goodness, has been redirected in SH5.

But enough from me, I want to know YOUR opinons!

[iodinesky]

I personally find "The Room" to be one of the most beautiful games out there.

I'm glad it broke away from the whole "OH GOD I HAVE REPRESSED MEMORIEZ :(" thing—the game would've been quite formulaic or possibly even a product similar to "Ørigins" or "Homecoming".

But it was refreshing, yet I could have personally done without the shitty gameplay. If it were as smooth and as well crafted as Silent Hill 3's gameplay, then that'd be fine. In Silent Hill 3, there's a strategy for every monster, you can control Heather very well although and she maintains a realistic "weight" to her—as in...she's not too fluid or all over the place or anything.

In "The Room" you just sort of skip all of the monsters until you get your trusty Rusty Axe and use that for the rest of the game. The 2D/3D control mode hybrid wasn't too flattering, either. No biggie, though, I can get over that.

I've never had a problem with Eileen. I don't understand all of the Eileen hatred; in Resident Evil 4, at best, you could use your escort as bait, but in "The Room", your escort is capable of kicking ass. The monsters in "The Room" are stunned whenever they are hit by just about anything; save for the Sniffer Dogs and some bosses, so Eileen can kill/help kill any regularly occurring monster in the game even if she's only equipped with her handbag.

Otherwise, everything else was done so beautifully. I didn't care if I had to repeat the worlds, the design was much more open and organic as opposed to roaming the typically claustrophobic hallways and rooms in the past games. There was nothing wrong with that the first couple of times around, I'm just glad "The Room" had another idea in mind. This game also didn't have to rely on the darkness to conceal its unsightliness either—the environments were so ethereal and beautifully detailed; unique, and it still maintained that overbearingly eerie atmosphere.

I know it's cool to hate "The Room" and everything since it's not the "TYPICAL SILENT HILL GAME", but I'm glad it wasn't.

[Ratiocinator]

I'll get around to giving a longer, more precise response but is "different" a choice in describing SH4? My quick summary:
Didn't love it, didn't hate it, it was just "different." While some of the ideas in the "different" where a nice addition to the franchise it was the bad "different" ideas that really put a damper on it for me.

[Piece0fSheet666]

I will be quick : I liked SH4. It had many different elements than the previous games and it was ok standing on its own. It was a bit repetitive but I liked the different take mostly at the environments and quite hated the immortal zombiez. Other than that, pretty much what iodinesky said.

[twistedsynergy]

I actually liked silent hill 4, tho some parts kind of felt like they didnt quite fit into the silent hill series (which makes sense since the game was not originally intended to be a SH game). One thing I couldnt stand was the damn ghosts! I like my enemies to stay on the ground after I kill them! I can see if they werent frequent in the game, but some areas have tons of the things! But like others have said, SH4 was different but I still feel it was a respectable chapter in the series.

[Ratiocinator]

I've been re-playing SH4 early today and while the health bar and limited items isn't something I love I've become used to them. Still can't stand breakable weapons, get frustrated with unkillable ghosts and I'm only half way through which means I'll have to backtrack every level I played after the half way point. I have a love-hate relationship with SH4. The story is extremely interesting and I commend them on the innovations they tried to implement. I am not keen on the points I mentioned above.

Then again it's been nearly 5 years since I last played this game so we'll see near the end how my impressions, if any, have changed.

[iodinesky]

The breakable items aren't wholly useful since one usually finds themselves utilizing the Rusty Axe throughout the game, which is neat since it is indestructible apparently, but there's really no fun or strategy when it comes to fighting monsters with it—whack, whack, charge attack, whack whack, etc.

And you never are really forced to deal with a ghost, and even if you are it's usually only the "familiar" victims that you have to deal with; so you can usually just bypass them entirely or equip a Saint Medallion and the fights become really short and effortless, even on Hard Mode.

I do see where you're coming from and I agree to quite a point; I figure if the emphasis was going to be on action this time around it at least should have retained the gameplay style of the last three games where there were really no glaring faults. I would enjoy the game much further.

...but the whole bent golf-club thing is understandable but at the same time perplexing; after a while of whacking things I'd bet that it'd become a little bent, but not unusable.

[Ratiocinator]

Damn iodinesky...
I wish I knew about the axe and such before hand. I used the golf clubs twice and after they broke I used nothing else besides the steel pipe for my melee weapon. If I had known the rusty axe or the Pick of Truth/Hope (can't remember the name) doesn't break that would've made my experience much more enjoyable.

So... I'm going to describe my impressions after nearly 5 years since last playing.

First off, by paying extra attention to all the notes, diaries, memos, etc. I became even more enthralled with the story this time around. If you think about it, the overall synopsis of Walter and Room 302 is kind of "out there" but it was the outlandish story and all the memos you could find that explain it further that got me hooked.

I remember I was displeased completely with the on-screen HUD but this time around it didn't bother me. I must have forgotten that the HUD disappears shortly after not using it.

The limited items idea, as I said, was a noble effort to add a new game mechanic to the series. It was new for SH and probably new all-around for any game during its time. I mention that because I disliked the fact that I couldn't drop an item anywhere I want but instead had to go back in my room to put it in a chest. Since this was a new feature I can forgive it but when you have a busted golf club, pick up a can of insect repellent as a weapon (thinking it was instead to be used a an item), etc. you have to make the extra trip back to your chest to make room.

Guarding Eileen wasn't as bad as I remembered it and was a nice, different change of pace and added another level of challenge. Although having to re-trace every level with here was a let-down simply because, no matter how you present it, it is backtracking.

The voice acting seemed a lot sillier then I remembered. And I forgot how many times Henry says, "What....... the..... hell?"

About the unkillable ghosts: I remember why I hated them the first time I played: Because I never used the Sword of Obedience on them. This playthrough, I used the sword on Cynthia, Richard, Andrew, Jasper and the ghost with the overalls and my playthrough was a lot more enjoyable and felt less "rushed."

REVEAL SPOILER: About the ending I got

When Eileen is following me I usually leave her in a room whilst I go about my business. I accidentally left her with Walter at the Wish House and when I came back to get her to finish the level she was all f*$^ed up. Needless to say, she was sacraficed at the end and I got the bad ending. Even though I got the bad ending the ending itself was pretty weak. I got a transmission on my radio of a news report saying she died in the hospital and that was it. Weak closure overall.

A lot of the things I originally disliked I didn't mind this time around. Didn't mind the limited items but wish I could've dropped items on the spot. Breakable items was a no-no and as such I used only the steel pipe for the remainder thus frustrating my experience. Using the Swords of Obedience this time made the unkillable ghosts much more tolerable. Wish they didn't recycle sound effects for monsters and play the same ambience every time you enter a certain room continuously. The story, while a bit out there, was pretty engaging. I may post some threads asking SH4 fans more detail about Walter and his childhood soon.

[Whitney]

It's been a couple years since I've played SH4...maybe I should give it a replay?

*remember the back tracking and Eileen NOT keeping up*

on second though I think I would rather watch someone else do it *loads a LP on youtube*

[iodinesky]

It's funny that you point out the fate you received for Eileen, Ratiocinator; I think that the final boss fight in "The Room" is possibly one of the most tense ever.