After much hesitation, I finally decided to bite the bullet and play Silent Hill 4. It was always the most interesting game of the Team Silent games for me due to its polarizing reception. This game is like the middle ground between good and bad according to the community. However, now that I have finally finished Silent Hill 4. I can give some of my thoughts.
First and foremost, Silent Hill 4 is not as good as its predecessors in my opinion. The minds of Team Silent took a slightly different creative approach to the game. This can mostly be seen within its gameplay. Silent Hill 1-3 allowed you to use both guns and melee weapons. However, as you keep playing 4, you'll notice that the game is more melee focused. There are a ton of melee weapons to be found since there are only 2 guns within the game. Taking a page out of Resident Evil, Silent Hill 4 features a limited inventory. Now personally, I never found the limited inventory to be an issue. The only thing I can really complain about the inventory is that handgun/revolver ammo no longer stack, so you have to carry individual stacks. The same also applies to health items.
The combat in Silent Hill games haven't always been the greatest. Like I mentioned earlier, Silent Hill 4 takes a slight departure from the original 3 games and goes more melee focus. You can perform normal attacks and charged attacks with any melee weapon you find. The gauge for charged attack vary depending on the weapon. Charged attacks is the norm for when doing combat since you're given i-frames during the attack animation. You also have the option to dodge in combat, but I never did it too much. If you want to have a more solid time with this game, then use the Rusty Axe once you find it. It's charged attack is absurd and it eliminates the need of having other weapons in your inventory. It's just that good and it gets rid one of the biggest problems people have with the game.
One of the biggest things against Silent Hill 4 is the 2nd half of the game where you have to escort Eileen through your world revisits. Eileen, herself, doesn't particularly have the greatest AI in the world. There are times where she'll either get stuck at corners and you have to wait for her. Genuinely, the only hindrance Eileen does is make you slow down for her. Henry easily outruns her and you'll be waiting for her to catch up. She can't access the next room unless she's within a certain proximity of Henry, so you have to wait on her. The only time this can be annoying is if you're traveling through a room with hummers which only happens a handful of times. One slight thing I want to add here is that she can help in combat if you give her one of her weapons. Although, there's a risk of her taking damage or getting in the way. Anyways, the escorting itself isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's like an overblown exaggeration similarly to Ashley in the original Resident Evil 4.
Presentation is one of Silent Hill's strongest suites and I think 4's overall tone is good. The titulary room, Room 302, is an interesting concept. It acts as a safe haven while also imploring that there's something else more menacing going on as you collect red notes. Speaking of the red notes, the story in Silent Hill 4 is really good and interesting. You won't understand the overall narrative at first, but as you collect more memos it's quite interesting. The characters featured within the game aren't really all that interesting outside of one person. That one person being Walter Sullivan. The entire game centers around him as you explore his manifestations, learn his background, and understand his motives to why he's performing the 21 Sacraments. Walter is potentially the best antagonist within the Silent Hill games. The worlds that you do get to explore are fine. I didn't find any of them to stand out personally on a visual level excluding Room 302. However, I do find the Water Prison to be the most interesting in terms of aesthetic and lore. It's also the first time you encounter the Twin Victim. Speaking of enemies, Silent Hill 4 doesn't have a memorable enemy lineup except for the Twin Victim. The most memorable thing about the enemies are the stock sound effects that play you fight and kill them. An interesting thing that Silent Hill 4 does take from is Japanese horror with the introduction of ghosts. The ghosts aren't exactly all that threatening, but rather impose themselves as annoying enemies. Although, they didn't feel that annoying. The only annoying ghosts are the victim ghosts.
I want to talk about the soundtrack here for a moment. It's interesting because Silent Hill 4's soundtrack is good. Not as memorable as the first 3, but still good with its own selection of memorable songs. I'm really huge on Tender Sugar, Room of Angel, Nightmarish Waltz, and Pulsating Ambience. I think the only reason I really wanted a short paragraph here is to mention the official soundtrack that you can listen to on music services. It's quite interesting that Silent Hill 4's official soundtrack is comprised of both music heard in-game, but also music that's just not even featured within the game itself. I don't know why, but it kind of intrigues me. Anyways, just know that Silent Hill 4 has a good soundtrack but isn't as strong as Silent Hill 1-3.
Although, my thoughts are quite scattered on Silent Hill 4. I find the game itself to be interesting conceptually. In fact, it somewhat feels generic in a way, yet also maintains that feeling of being a Silent Hill game. I'm somewhat relieved to have finished this game because now I don't have to doubt whether the game is bad or not. It's good just not as good as what came before. I do implore that any doubters of this game do give it a chance because there is something here.
First and foremost, Silent Hill 4 is not as good as its predecessors in my opinion. The minds of Team Silent took a slightly different creative approach to the game. This can mostly be seen within its gameplay. Silent Hill 1-3 allowed you to use both guns and melee weapons. However, as you keep playing 4, you'll notice that the game is more melee focused. There are a ton of melee weapons to be found since there are only 2 guns within the game. Taking a page out of Resident Evil, Silent Hill 4 features a limited inventory. Now personally, I never found the limited inventory to be an issue. The only thing I can really complain about the inventory is that handgun/revolver ammo no longer stack, so you have to carry individual stacks. The same also applies to health items.
The combat in Silent Hill games haven't always been the greatest. Like I mentioned earlier, Silent Hill 4 takes a slight departure from the original 3 games and goes more melee focus. You can perform normal attacks and charged attacks with any melee weapon you find. The gauge for charged attack vary depending on the weapon. Charged attacks is the norm for when doing combat since you're given i-frames during the attack animation. You also have the option to dodge in combat, but I never did it too much. If you want to have a more solid time with this game, then use the Rusty Axe once you find it. It's charged attack is absurd and it eliminates the need of having other weapons in your inventory. It's just that good and it gets rid one of the biggest problems people have with the game.
One of the biggest things against Silent Hill 4 is the 2nd half of the game where you have to escort Eileen through your world revisits. Eileen, herself, doesn't particularly have the greatest AI in the world. There are times where she'll either get stuck at corners and you have to wait for her. Genuinely, the only hindrance Eileen does is make you slow down for her. Henry easily outruns her and you'll be waiting for her to catch up. She can't access the next room unless she's within a certain proximity of Henry, so you have to wait on her. The only time this can be annoying is if you're traveling through a room with hummers which only happens a handful of times. One slight thing I want to add here is that she can help in combat if you give her one of her weapons. Although, there's a risk of her taking damage or getting in the way. Anyways, the escorting itself isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's like an overblown exaggeration similarly to Ashley in the original Resident Evil 4.
Presentation is one of Silent Hill's strongest suites and I think 4's overall tone is good. The titulary room, Room 302, is an interesting concept. It acts as a safe haven while also imploring that there's something else more menacing going on as you collect red notes. Speaking of the red notes, the story in Silent Hill 4 is really good and interesting. You won't understand the overall narrative at first, but as you collect more memos it's quite interesting. The characters featured within the game aren't really all that interesting outside of one person. That one person being Walter Sullivan. The entire game centers around him as you explore his manifestations, learn his background, and understand his motives to why he's performing the 21 Sacraments. Walter is potentially the best antagonist within the Silent Hill games. The worlds that you do get to explore are fine. I didn't find any of them to stand out personally on a visual level excluding Room 302. However, I do find the Water Prison to be the most interesting in terms of aesthetic and lore. It's also the first time you encounter the Twin Victim. Speaking of enemies, Silent Hill 4 doesn't have a memorable enemy lineup except for the Twin Victim. The most memorable thing about the enemies are the stock sound effects that play you fight and kill them. An interesting thing that Silent Hill 4 does take from is Japanese horror with the introduction of ghosts. The ghosts aren't exactly all that threatening, but rather impose themselves as annoying enemies. Although, they didn't feel that annoying. The only annoying ghosts are the victim ghosts.
I want to talk about the soundtrack here for a moment. It's interesting because Silent Hill 4's soundtrack is good. Not as memorable as the first 3, but still good with its own selection of memorable songs. I'm really huge on Tender Sugar, Room of Angel, Nightmarish Waltz, and Pulsating Ambience. I think the only reason I really wanted a short paragraph here is to mention the official soundtrack that you can listen to on music services. It's quite interesting that Silent Hill 4's official soundtrack is comprised of both music heard in-game, but also music that's just not even featured within the game itself. I don't know why, but it kind of intrigues me. Anyways, just know that Silent Hill 4 has a good soundtrack but isn't as strong as Silent Hill 1-3.
Although, my thoughts are quite scattered on Silent Hill 4. I find the game itself to be interesting conceptually. In fact, it somewhat feels generic in a way, yet also maintains that feeling of being a Silent Hill game. I'm somewhat relieved to have finished this game because now I don't have to doubt whether the game is bad or not. It's good just not as good as what came before. I do implore that any doubters of this game do give it a chance because there is something here.