The Silent Hill series has been scaring the gaming community circa 1999 when the first game debuted on the Playstation console. Since then the franchise has been a cult classic amongst horror fans, but is still brooding in Resident Evil’s shadow—even though Silent Hill is nothing like the mighty Capcom invention.
The Room is the fourth game in the series and even if they are already this far, this game proves that the franchise isn’t slowing down at all; it’s just building momentum.
Henry Townsend lives in South Ashfield, a town close to Silent Hill, and he’s been having horrible nightmares. For the past four days he’s been unable to leave his apartment. With his door bolted shut seemingly from the inside he knows not what to do…until a man-sized hole appears leading to an alternate universe full of horrors that you can’t even begin to imagine. As he tries to escape from apartment #302, he learns about some history behind his apartment that he never knew existed about a religious cult and a murderer named Walter Sullivan. Now the question is how he’s going to get out of his apartment—dead or alive.
After last year’s terrifying episode in the series, I never thought that the next game would come this soon and be even scarier, but needless to say I was wrong. The Room enhances everything you loved about the series. If you thought the franchise couldn’t be any more disturbing or horrifying then you are wrong. With the story centering on a guy trapped in his evil apartment while everything is normal outside the windows and walls, you get a feeling of cabin fever and frantic thinking that you’ve probably never experienced in a game before.
Along with the magnificent story come a lot of new ideas to the series. While inside your small apartment you are in a first person view point. This is very interesting because you can look out the windows, through peepholes, and see the horrors coming out of the walls with realistic intensity. Also new is the new combat technique at your disposal, which is a gauge that lets you build up power to each blow you give with any of your weapons.
Speaking of weapons, this game also has a good selection of them when compared to past games. There are the really cool ones like aluminum bats, chainsaws, golf clubs, but also ones to target certain enemies like bug spray and the like. Each of these weapons has certain lengths and has a set amount of hits they can take before breaking. While the power-up gauge is a welcome addition to the series proving the developers listen, it’s still far from polished. Battling monsters is mindless fun and is simply just button mashing without strategy. And the controls force you to lock onto certain creatures and moving around while targeting is clunky. Hopefully in the next game they will improve everything.
Yet another new addition to the series is a lack of puzzles and while this is plus for some parts of the game, other parts certainly lacks the finesse of puzzle solving. You will gain weapons and keys to go further into the game by just coming across them. There isn’t any challenge at all on how you obtain them. There are some puzzles found throughout the game like finding five parts of a doll through lighting torches and investigating wells, but there really aren’t any puzzles to be found, which dragged the game down a little bit. But it’s good ingenuity.
Something that annoyed me about the game was that towards the end you are joined by a woman character named Eileen who follows you around and also helps you out in battles. While this is a good idea to get some help, the idea falls flat. The Eileen AI is smart when it comes to not getting stuck running at walls, but she’s worthless in battle and she doesn’t run fast so she really drags you down some especially in the final battle, which was only hard because of her. The only other thing that was annoying was that as you progress through the game you’re apartment becomes less of a safe haven. In your apartment you save your game and heal yourself, but once demon and ghost infestations start appearing out of your walls and you have to get rid of them through holy candles (long story) it can easily get tiresome. And you have to get rid of these infestations to get one of the good endings.
Yes, endings. Some games only have one ending, but these last couple of games in the series has had multiple or more endings. This is a good idea for people who buy the game because then you can get different endings with one character dying and one character living or endings that are bizarre or endings that are happy, but a lot of the key things you do in the game effect your ending and determine whether you get one of the good ones or the bad ones. I got an ending that was fantastic and one of the most shocking endings to a game I have ever experienced. On the flip side the game doesn’t offer any real replay value besides the different endings. And the game is short. Six hours short, but that’s if you stop to smell the flowers like I did.
One thing the developers have been getting right since
Silent Hill 2 is the sound design and Silent Hill 4: The Room doesn’t fail in that aspect. The voiceovers really differ depending on the situations and the characters. Henry Townsend, the guy who you play as, has a great vocalist for a majority of the game, but other times he lacks emotion and is more of a robot. The music is very appropriate with some techniques that really reflect the style of music heard in
The Blair Witch Project like the tapping and scraping sounds. But there is also some simple piano stuff as well as some orchestral pieces that are total ear candy. The sound effects, in short, are
phenomenal. The groans of disturbing monsters are terrifying as hell especially when you can’t see them yet. The sounds creep through every corner and with growling creatures, blood curdling screams in the distance, and scraping of knives you can really get scared easily.
Another area where the developers excel is the graphics department. In
Silent Hill 3 the graphics were terrific and I never knew that they could improve on them, but I was wrong. Although some textures in the last game such as metal grates left something to be desired, they made everything better in The Room. Since the second game, the staff has been experimenting with lighting techniques and they finally achieve lighting greatness in this game with some of the best lighting I’ve seen in a game ever. With shadows licking off the walls giving you hallucinations and eerie lights lighting your every step you will learn to appreciate the graphics.
The landscapes you come across such as a twisted hospital level and a dark forest setting really play tricks on your mind and your imagination will mostly be the only thing eating at you besides the ghosts that jump out at you. The developers take small subtle graphical techniques that you wouldn’t think about and make them possible in the game. Blood smeared on the floor in patterns, the texture of the gravel, the stubble of Henry’s face, all of these things were created with precision and care and that’s something I can definitely value. The abominable monsters you come across are surely terrifying enough as well as grotesque, disturbing, and some of the creepiest things you will ever see. Shapeless two-headed bodies, ghost rednecks with knifes chasing you, umbilical cord swirling maniacs, and similar creatures are sure to test your courage.
As if all of the stuff I’ve just listed isn’t enough, the storyline is worth the money all by itself. It’s one of the most interesting and engaging ones in the series. The story is slowly told by a mysterious person shoving notes under your locked door and by picking up journals and pieces of paper in the levels you visit. While I wouldn’t recommend this game as a buy, it should be at the top of your list as a rental because it’s more than worth it. With the impressive graphics and well thought out story you have nothing to lose with giving this game a try. The controls have been worked on so that you can use the analog stick to control your character leaving the Resident Evil-style controls in the dark so you won’t be as frustrated. I’ve told you many great things about this game. What are you waiting for? Are you scared?
© Jason Haskins, 2004
“JiggyJay”
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