Let me preface this review by saying I think SH1 and SH2 are much better games overall. However, something about this game managed to burrow itself so deep into my mind that ever since I first beat it I don't think I went a single day without thinking about it at some point.

Firstly, there's the main character, Henry Townshend. He's a huge downgrade from the previous protagonists since you can't latch onto his character. He's not a father trying to rescue his daughter like Harry or a relatable teenager like Heather. Instead he's this isolated weirdo who creeps on his neighbour and has pretty poor voice acting. However, I believe this can be forgiven as his role in the story is the "Receiver of Wisdom". He's simply there to witness the events while Walter steals the spotlight so as a protagonist, I think he's ok.

As for the music, I really loved it. The music here has almost a dead, desolate quality to it which does a good job of reinforcing the theme of isolation in the game. Standouts for me would be Room of Angel, Cradel of Forest, Nightmarish Waltz and I listen to Waiting for You almost every day since I first heard it. As for the sound effects, they're pretty poor on their own and for a Silent Hill entry they're atrocious. Burping Nurses, tons of stock sound effects. It takes away from some of the scare factor, but it does have its moments like the radio static being used when a Ghost is in the room. With that said, it's still the weakest aspect of the game imo. As for the voice acting, Henry sucks, but everyone else does a good job for the most part.

As for the gameplay, it does a lot to change the formula with most of it not paying off. Firstly, a greater emphasis has been placed on combat which is clunky as always but I believe its easier to get the hang of than in the previous entries. Melee weapons have received a big boost since you can now charge up an attack that will give you tons of invincibility frames when winding up the attack. This means the easiest way of dealing with enemies is to fight them rather than run away, which does make normal enemy encounters grow stale and not feel very scary after a while. There's also an inventory system, Henry is only able to carry a couple items on him at all times so you'll have to move in and out of the apartment constantly to sort your stuff out. While this can be viewed as a needless limitation, I never had much problems with it, It encourages the player to visit your apartment and it serves as a nice break in the middle of a level as you save and heal up. Another major change was the lack of traditional Silent Hill puzzles, SH4 instead opts for having you go in and out of the apartment to gather items/information that helps with the actual levels and I prefer this approach, sure it adds backtracking but it's way less confusing and tedious than it was in the previous games. Overall, all these changes have downsides to them but I admire SH4 for being ambitious enough to change up the formula so drastically since I felt like 3 played it too safe with trying to be a mish mash of the personal horror of SH2 and the cult horror of SH1.

As for the Scare Factor of SH4. I find this to be the scariest one in the series by far and I'll explain why. To start off, the monster design, SH4 is largely hit and miss with it's monster design with the dogs, wheelchairs and bats being really lame but others like the Patients, Bottoms and of course the Twin Victims being some of the best designed enemies in the series. I said before that the emphasis on combat makes enemy encounters grow stale which you'd think would kill the horror, but SH4 dodges this issue by introducing Ghosts, unkillable enemies that stalk you through an entire level and some even, through the entire game. These things are a big reason of why I find SH4 to be as effective as it is to me. Another reason why I find SH4 effective in the scare department is just how chaotic everything is. Instead of exploring a town, SH4 throws you into a possessed version of your apartment in which you die, you go through a hole that leads you from your apartment to a subway, you get chased by unkillable ghosts, the person you met 5 minutes ago dies right as you're about to save them and suddenly you're back to the apartment. All this within the 1st hour. So many random events happen without any explanation it just left me in this sense of unease over not expecting what would come next or what anything means and it's like that for the entire first half and before you know it, the apartment which was the place you could relax in is suddenly taken away from you. The second half for me was an adrenaline rush of trying to escape while protecting both yourself and Eileen from Ghosts that chase you for the entire game as well as Walter himself who pops up without any sound cue usually. Sure, the escort mission can be frustrating a lot of the time but I never found it to annoy me to the point that I stopped being scared.

Lastly, there's the story which is the thing that kept me engaged throughout the entire game despite all of the games shortcomings. For the first 3-4 hours you barely get answers on anything. It's just one question after the other and the game really requires you to think about what the notes are saying, almost like a detective trying to figure out a mystery. I love the way the story is told and I also really like Walter who is always at the center of the plot. Sure, crazy murderer who seems like a gentle guy has been done before but I just love the concept of an innocent kid being so desperate to have a mother figure in his life that through the cult's influence, ends up thinking an apartment room is his mother and is willing to murder several people just to hopefully feel a mother's love. It's equally bizarre as it is sad and by the end I was rooting for Walter. So yeah I love the story.

I never write pretentious reviews like this for anything but I can't help it. I tried being as objective as possible in this review but ultimately none of the flaws I mentioned do much to make me feel different about the game. I don't care that the game repeats it's levels for the entire second half, I don't care about the poor sound design, I don't care about the game not taking place in Silent Hill, I don't care about the numerous clunky gameplay changes, I don't care about the game having a 4 hour long escort mission because I just adore so much about this game that none of these issues bogged down the experience for me. This game has so many elements that should ruin the experience for me but I don't know if it's the story, Walter's character, the scare factor, the several memorable moments this game has like the Giant Eileen Head or the reveal that Walter's corpse was right next to you this whole time or a culmination of these elements but regardless, I am obsessed with this game.