There is nothing better than a game that sucks you in right from the beginning, makes you uncomfortable from the start, and along the way sends chills down your spine and makes you jump. Silent Hill 4: The Room is just like that.
I never really played any of the previous titles; usually my husband played them while I watched. I normally don’t play this type of games because I tend to lose track of what I have to do and I don’t pay enough attention to little things that usually are important. Not to mention I suck at it when I have to use two analogs, one for moving and one for looking around…
But this was different; somehow I really had to play it. So we went to our friendly neighborhood Blockbuster and there was a copy waiting for me, just screaming out “Take me!” And I did. And I loved it.
Although you can see pictures of the town all over the room, the game doesn’t take place in Silent Hill but in a city a few miles away. In fact, you can’t leave your room, you can’t remove the chains on the door, you can’t open the windows, the phone doesn’t work and no one can hear you scream. You find yourself travelling between dream worlds and your apartment though a hole in the bathroom wall.
From the beginning, the well-known Silent Hill disturbing feeling is present in the room. Just knowing you have no contact with the outside world is enough to make you feel uneasy. And if it isn’t, your nightmares with things creeping out of the walls will certainly do it.
An innovation in the Silent Hill games series is the use of first-person mode while controlling Henry in the room. This is where my “newbieness” came into play by trying to control both analogs, ending up in a bunch of “walk first, look around after” type of exploration. It’s not hard to miss things in the room, since while in first person an eye icon will pop when there is something to look at. It does get a little annoying when you’re trying to look through the peephole and keep reading the message on the door or checking the chains instead, so you might want to change the head movement sensitivity.
As you progress in the story, the apartment will change and things will happen. You will find objects moved, writing on the walls, the TV turned on, the phone ringing (but the cord has been cut…) and notes will mysteriously appear under your door.
TIP: always explore the apartment after returning from one of the alternate worlds. Check the peephole, look under the chained door, check the furniture, listen carefully for any sounds or voices and of course, save your progress.
Another new concept is the limited carrying capacity. Unlike the other games, now you are allowed to carry only 10 items at the time, so make sure you store everything you don’t need in the storage box in the room. Carrying a gun and two bullet reloads means using up 3 spaces. Add a healing item and another type of weapon and you’ll have only 5 slots left for whatever you find. Well, four if you count that you have to carry Eileen’s weapon later on.
You can’t drop anything either, so you’ll find yourself coming back to the room to store or take something a bit too often.
The room is also the only place where you can save your game, so save often!
Exploring becomes a not-so-easy task when the third-person mode still suffers from bad camera angles, limiting your field of vision or turning you around unexpectedly. You can choose to avoid monsters like in the previous titles, but most of the time you’re better off fighting them. You can’t really dodge them if you’re stuck on a narrow passage and there’s more than one. But if you find yourself surrounded by freaky ghosts remember you can’t kill them, so either run or use a Sword of Obedience to keep them in place. These ghosts can hurt you without even touching you, and you know they’re near when the screen turns red and you hear a sort of static noise (I assume it’s the representation of Henry’s headaches, of sorts).
TIP: When you defeat a monster, make sure you stomp on it to really kill it, or it will just get back up and attack you again. If it’s a spirit, beat the crap out of it until it falls down, then use a Sword of Obedience to keep it impaled to the ground.
There are many alternate worlds to explore: a subway station, a spooky forest that at first made me think I was actually in Silent Hill, the very creepy water prison, your own apartment building, another building and a hospital. Later on you revisit most of them, so on your first visit to each world try to explore and do everything you possibly can.
Later in the game, things slow down and get really difficult. Since Eileen can’t go through the hole with you, you’ll have to find another way out of the nightmarish worlds. You end up escorting her (in walk mode since she can’t run) and doing a lot of running around, trying to find alternative paths (because she can’t climb ladders) and even more going back and forth through the hole to get puzzle-solving items.
You will also need to save your health drinks, since you won’t be able to heal in the room anymore after the Hospital level. Yep, that’s right, your apartment soon won’t be safe to rest in anymore and ghosts will gradually invade it. You will need to exorcise these ghosts by equipping a Saint Medallion or lighting a Holy Candle. You need to stay near while the candle burns, but in the meantime they’ll hurt you considerably.
Make sure you read all the red notes and diaries. You will learn about the past of your apartment, about who lived there before, about a strange cult in the forest, about the murders taking place and finally it will all make sense.
There are four different endings based on the outcome of the last fight and the number of exorcised ghosts in your room, and there are at least 25 hours of gameplay to get to an ending on Normal difficulty.
So grab yourself a copy, turn the lights out, turn up the volume and enjoy the thrills and chills of The Room.