Konami
Silent Hill 4 The Room

I really enjoy picking up old titles and replaying them, and recently, this happened with the fourth installment of the Silent Hill series. This series has always been my favorite, and every single step has always excited me, except for Silent Hill 4 The Room.

Probably if I had played it without having previously finished the first three installments several times, I would have been able to appreciate this product more, but having played them in sequence, I can't help but consider this chapter as the misstep of the series, the first misstep. I admit that the tension, although less pronounced, was quite high, and the storyline captivated me. I also really liked the graphics. What I did not appreciate was the game's excessive difficulty, with puzzles beyond any rational logic (some are extremely complicated, but not because they are inherently difficult: they simply lack logic!) and also the enemy level is really very low. I can't stand those monsters that mimic monkey sounds. They can't be taken seriously!

Furthermore, the constant transition from the house (where you move in the first person) to the world of Silent Hill makes the game too fragmented and does not justify the transition from some locations to others. Moreover, the title sometimes becomes truly frustrating because either you don’t understand what to do, or there are those ghosts that prevent you from thinking and moving. Probably the ghosts are a good introduction to the game because they manage to set the right tension, but in some parts, their number is disproportionate and only serves to waste the player's time. Despite this, the product is not to be completely dismissed because if it weren't the fourth chapter of my favorite series, I might have viewed it more favorably, as, already mentioned, the title has many merits such as graphics, storyline, new inventory system, and good playability. Some enemies are also very nice, such as the twins and the ghosts.

Unfortunately, despite this, I can't help but fail the game, but only because it is part of the Silent Hill series. I give it a two, but I admit that if the game's title were different, it might have deserved a higher rating. I have yet to play the fifth chapter of the series (Silent Hill Homecoming) and well, I hope the title has returned to its former glory. Now I can only bid you farewell, hoping that the review, aside from the opinions, you liked it :)