god i want to like this game so much more but i just cant. i love 2 and 3, and so was looking forward to this one but im a bit disappointed by it. i found it extremely frustrating, and not in a way which made it more scary or anything like that.
the entire second half is an obnoxious escort mission with a girl who has all the AI intelligence of a spoon combined with you basically just revisiting areas that youve already seen in the first half over again. but now you have a handicap. whoopee.
enemies arent nearly as frightening or symbolic as they are in the other games (twin victims are pants shitting and very tragic tho, gj there lads). fuck the ghosts, such a consistent annoyance to deal with. the levels are kinda cool, but constantly going back and forth between them and the room isnt that great. storywise, its just a generic serial killer plot with elements of the silent hill cult kinda taped onto it. bit of a let down after the beautiful emotional potency of 2 and the legitimately terrifying coming-of-age of 3. the characters in this story are ok, and henry is a particularly relatable protagonist. theres a bunch of bells and whistles attached to the inventory system making inventory management a nightmare, plus the weird ass advanced combat system feels a bit out of place. if nothing else, i respect team silent for experimenting.
ok enough negativity, i think the concept of the room is really cool. watching it slowly change over time from a safe haven to a nightmare is legitimately really disturbing. its especially relatable after lockdown, good grief. because i liked the characters, i found the good ending a very pleasant reward for what is otherwise such a disheartening game. the bad end is also particularly depressing.
graphically SH4 looks amazing, and the soundtrack is also great, although not including the full version of tender sugar is a crime. general sound design is noticeably a lot quieter than other entries which i appreciate. big fan of how the room ties into certain puzzles, too. although such things are criminally underused.
in conclusion i kinda feel torn, because there is a lot to like here, but at the same time i think if SH4 didnt have the silent hill name attached it would be kinda forgotten about and not as critically acclaimed.
i know this game was not quite the vision team silent wanted to release, and we can only blame konami for that. i suppose the take away from this game and silent hill in general is screw konami. hard.
the entire second half is an obnoxious escort mission with a girl who has all the AI intelligence of a spoon combined with you basically just revisiting areas that youve already seen in the first half over again. but now you have a handicap. whoopee.
enemies arent nearly as frightening or symbolic as they are in the other games (twin victims are pants shitting and very tragic tho, gj there lads). fuck the ghosts, such a consistent annoyance to deal with. the levels are kinda cool, but constantly going back and forth between them and the room isnt that great. storywise, its just a generic serial killer plot with elements of the silent hill cult kinda taped onto it. bit of a let down after the beautiful emotional potency of 2 and the legitimately terrifying coming-of-age of 3. the characters in this story are ok, and henry is a particularly relatable protagonist. theres a bunch of bells and whistles attached to the inventory system making inventory management a nightmare, plus the weird ass advanced combat system feels a bit out of place. if nothing else, i respect team silent for experimenting.
ok enough negativity, i think the concept of the room is really cool. watching it slowly change over time from a safe haven to a nightmare is legitimately really disturbing. its especially relatable after lockdown, good grief. because i liked the characters, i found the good ending a very pleasant reward for what is otherwise such a disheartening game. the bad end is also particularly depressing.
graphically SH4 looks amazing, and the soundtrack is also great, although not including the full version of tender sugar is a crime. general sound design is noticeably a lot quieter than other entries which i appreciate. big fan of how the room ties into certain puzzles, too. although such things are criminally underused.
in conclusion i kinda feel torn, because there is a lot to like here, but at the same time i think if SH4 didnt have the silent hill name attached it would be kinda forgotten about and not as critically acclaimed.
i know this game was not quite the vision team silent wanted to release, and we can only blame konami for that. i suppose the take away from this game and silent hill in general is screw konami. hard.