01. Silent Hill 4: The Room || PlayStation 2 || 01.03.23
With only one numbered entry left to play in the Silent Hill franchise, I began playing Silent Hill 4 as soon as I could after finishing the third entry. As the final numbered entry in the series, I was greatly looking forward to experience what the game offered.
Much to my surprise, Silent Hill 4 (SH4) does not actually take place during any point of the game in the town of Silent Hill. Instead, the game's setting chiefly resides in Room 302 of the South Ashfield Apartments, where players take on the role of Henry Townshend. As the unfortunate recent resident of his apartment, Henry has been trapped inside by all means for several days, with attempted phone calls being unsuccessful, windows unable to be opened, and his front door being heavily chained, which is where the story of the game begins. Despite any and all attempts, none of his neighbors are able to hear Henry's pleas for help. When players take control, a large hole in the wall has recently formed; with no other means of possible escape, Henry climbs inside and traverses through the connected tunnel.
While the game excludes Silent Hill itself as a locale, it instead introduces several notable locations that relate to the story's past events which all take form as part of the series's otherworld. Throughout Henry's journey of escape, he begins following murder investigation notes from the apartment's previous tenant that periodically appear at his doorway and which nearly exclusively serve to providing the game's backstory and events to follow. The notes regard a series of killings dubbed the eponymous Walter Sullivan murders that began around ten years ago and ended upon Sullivan's suicide. However, years later, it seems that a copycat killer has risen and continued the same pattern of murders despite all of the details regarding the events being unknown to the public. We come to learn that Sullivan pursued his murderous spree as a requirement to perform one of the Order's ritual practices in the hopes of uniting with his deceased mother, as he was orphaned and taken in by Silent Hill's cult as a young child.
To be brief, the plot of SH4 felt quite different from past narratives, as it neither takes place in Silent Hill nor relates to any of the established cast. Following more in-line with Silent Hill 3's story, the story presented with SH4 instead presents a situation where an individual possessing power fueled by their trauma is able to transform the world surrounding them to bring out the otherworld and its manifestations. With no solid association to previous entries, I found it difficult to connect with SH4's cast and the events unfolding. Now thinking of the plot after finishing the game, it was interesting to witness how an individual, desperate for their goals turns to the Order although this is entirely experienced by way of findable memos. Conversely, the actual protagonist Henry serves even more so than before the game's everyman, as he just happens to be living at Ashfield at the wrong time and is learning the situation in real-time as players do.
Unlike with previous entries, SH4 does not follow a confined setting. While the game is still linear, there is now a travel system which allows players to freely move to and from the otherworld through the tunnel back to Room 302. To me, I simply did not like this design choice as, without a doubt, player immersion is so easily broken when needing to travel. For the first half of the game, players will frequently go back-and-forth between the otherworld and Room 302, as restorative items are minimal while the apartment also serves as a safe space which Henry may rest to replenish health. Because of this, players will be forced to retreat as their health levels dwindle, which is made easy as the travel system is accessible every few rooms or so.
That being said, it is difficult to talk about this feature without also mentioning the game's limited inventory space, as I felt the two are closely interconnected. As another new feature, SH4 is the first to impose a 10-item maximum inventory. In a lot of ways, it felt that the travel system was implemented with the inventory limitations in mind, although it is impossible to know which element was designed first. In theory, there is nothing wrong with imposing a set inventory space amount, but it feels quite unnecessarily tacked on without good reason as the travel system is always near. Early on, there is a puzzle which requires the player to immediately travel to-and-from the apartment, as one item needed fully bars the player from entering a specific room with it in-hand. This kind of puzzle design (which I say lightly) simply comes off as an annoyance.
However, I will admit that these problems mostly affect the game's first half, which is the time when the game discards one very crucial gameplay element: Room 302's ability to heal Henry. In fact, the apartment does not just omit this beneficial feature but even becomes detrimental, as over a dozen of possible otherworld hauntings that inflict damage may appear, even in conjunction with another. At this time, if a player had relied upon using any restorative items instead of Room 302, survival would become a lot more difficult. Quite soon after this gameplay change, I was almost always on the verge of death until I so thankfully found a stray nutrition drink which still left me without being fully healed. While I can understand the reasons why the safe space element was incorporated at all, I will admit that it lasted just a little too long, as the survival capabilities required later on offered a much more challenging experience and was much more enjoyable to play.
Throughout his attempts to escape, Henry is forced to guide his neighbor Eileen, who too unfortunately has become stuck in the otherworld. While trapped, Eileen has become heavily damaged which results in her being a huge responsibility in keeping safe. Eileen moves about and can even attack of her own volition if equipped with a weapon, although I never actually did utilize such feature. As she is already weakened, Eileen repeatedly is attacked by enemies due to her vulnerability which results in her gradually losing her sanity more and more which can eventually pose as a threat to Henry.
A positive aspect which I will briefly mention is being inside Room 302. Here, the gameplay perspective is from a first-person viewpoint. As the game's opening starts with this change, I did feel unnerved to a degree—certainly apprehensive, at least. Beginning my playthrough with no foreknowledge, I had no idea if this was to be the standard perspective while playing. With the viewpoint only implemented while in Room 302, I found the first-person approach more personal and vulnerable to surroundings, and its implementation was done well to surprise first-time players. Unfortunately, this is perhaps the only favorable element that is a major change from previous titles.
As SH4's otherworld is a result of Walter Sullivan, areas and enemies naturally take on their form as they relate to his trauma. With this understanding, I can report that enemies are underwhelming in presentation. While there is nothing wrong in featuring new enemies—as it only makes sense—their design is poor. Floating ghosts, dogs which emit a cougar's cry, haunted wheelchairs, and burping women (yes, you read that correct.) These are the sorts of monsters which threaten Henry. In regards to their behavior, enemies are largely non-threatening too and, at times, more annoying that problematic. However, a huge disparity lies in the ghosts, as they are aggressive and unable to be defeated, and were a huge concern to me when moving around a tight environment. While it is possible to halt their movement entirely, I had a lot of difficulty in successfully implementing that action.
More so than before, there is nearly zero investigation required in finding items to progress through locked paths. Rooms will even often be empty, serving no purpose at all. Unfortunately, the time spent in each of these otherworld environments is minimal, although this may be an impression resulting from the travel system. Coupled with the minimal puzzle-solving, areas felt as if they had little depth or personality. Again, at a much higher degree, rooms are often traveled as a short pathway, never to be experienced again. On the topic of the game's environment, it too felt disconnected from previous entries. In earlier titles, the otherworld was dark, threatening, and, well, a little otherworldly; but in SH4, they seem no different than the actual world.
Overall, SH4 sets itself apart from previous entries in a lot of different ways, although I find many of them to be for the worst. Arguably, the game plays out more as a murder mystery with questionably spooky visuals than a horror game. I may be taking a break from the series now, although that may change. Silent Hill: Origins is next to play, although I will be needing to emulate it, which is something new to me.
