darwin's Official Quickie Review of Silent Hill 4: The Room

[popstandards]

Ok, so now it's out and I've been playing it all week. I haven't finished it yet,but what do I think so far?

Bottom line: I like it, and... it's very different from what I've come to expect from a Silent Hill game. But it's still a really interesting juxtaposition from the others before it. Not to give away plot details, but it actually ties the previous three games together in a really unique way, but you better have been paying attention in the other games to get the most out of it. It has a great story that keeps me playing longer than I normally would on most games because I keep trying to guess what's really happening. Even though it succeeds in wrapping a storyline about claustrophobic entrapment, a long-dead serial killer and a cult together, it's actually a bit more coherent than the other games. That's sort of hit and miss with me because I personally always appreciated the whole "what-the-fuck-is-going-on" aspect of the others. A real oddity about the game is that it doesn't even take place in Silent Hill. Instead, you're trapped in an apartment in a town called South Ashfield that's about half day's drive away, at least in reality. The controls are great, nothing to whine about there, although the camera has fucked me a couple of times. Overall, it's not an especially scary game, but it is creepy in a disjointed and strange sort of way. It's almost like getting the shit scared out of you wasn't the order of business this time around. I really like the Alice in Wonderland meets Being John Malkovich fantasy aspect though, since you spend a lot of your time travelling between areas using a hole in your bathroom that keeps getting bigger and bigger. Oh, and I have a crush on Eileen, the neighbor, and that's a video game first for me. I have a feeling she's going to meet a bad end though. This IS a Silent Hill game, after all.
Definitely worth it, I'd say.

[Mercenary Drago]

Well I'm gonna rent it sometime...

[MachineHeadRFM]

i didn't get to play SH3, will i be confused if i skip that and go to SH4? i probably should play SH3 anyway.

[Mercenary Drago]

I'm gonna play both sh2 and 3 as soon as I can.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

I'll take a quickie [img]redface.gif[/img]

[Mercenary Drago]

[img]mad.gif[/img] It's EVERYWHERE! oh thats oh oh eewww!

[popstandards]

To answer Tony's question... No, you won't be confused if you skipped 3, or even if you didn't play any of them. However, IF you did, the game successfully links all 3 stories together in a pretty neat way, but it's not neccessary to know that while playing it.

[Mercenary Drago]

Interesting...