When it comes to delivering genuine scares and a masterful story--although an often confusing one at that-- Konami’s Silent Hill series will chill you to the bone.  It will play with you psychologically until you can no longer distinguish what is real and what is a dream or a demented figment of the character’s imagination.  It will make you believe that the character has discovered a place that might seem normal at one point and then, at a moment’s notice, become a demented alternate universe where light is swallowed by darkness and horrible things scramble across the streets.  Horrible things like living mannequins or vicious mutated dogs that look as though their skin were turned inside out.  Being the fourth game in the series, Silent Hill 4: The Room wants to show us something a bit new while maintaining the same horrific supernatural/psychological aspect we so love about this series.  For the most part, it does show us something new but the rest is still the familiar dark territory we’ve visited before . . . and that might actually be both good and bad.

Silent Hill 4: The Room tells the tale of Henry Townshend, a young man who moved into an apartment building two years ago in the city of Ashfield.  All was well until Henry discovered that furniture keeps moving around, his disconnected telephone rings with messages from some unknown woman and, oh yes, he has become a prisoner in his own apartment due to the unexplained chains and locks around his door.  His nightmares become more confusing to the point that he can’t tell if what happened was real or just a dream and suddenly a hole in his bathroom wall appears and becomes a portal into some unknown world.  Crawling into the hole, Henry soon discovers the alternate world we’re so familiar with and the cast of characters (that range from his cute next door neighbor Eileen Galvin to a serial killer) that propel the incredible story to its inevitable climax.

Story has always been the Silent Hill series’ strength and The Room has quite a story to tell so, unlike Silent Hill 3, this game is much longer.  The Room is also a game that departs from a few familiar features to introduce a few new ones.  From the very start, you’ll notice that the game strives for something slightly new.  For starters, the game doesn’t place you in the town of Silent Hill . . . it’s only connection to the place is that Henry has once visited the town and had taken pictures of its many beautiful locations.  Secondly, the game begins in a first-person perspective--a perspective that changes to the familiar third-person view whenever Henry ventures out of his apartment but once he comes back to his room we see things through his eyes again.  In his apartment, Henry is able to store items in a wooden chest (Henry can only carry a very limited amount of items), save and peer out his window to view the city in motion.  There is also a hole in his wall that leads to his neighbor Eileen Galvin’s room that Henry voyeuristically peeps every now and then to see what she’s doing.

Outside Henry’s room, though, we’re back to the usual third-person exploration and action of past Silent Hill titles.  It’s still quite a disturbing nightmarish landscape but this time it is no longer covered in a thick fog or complete darkness.  You will still find areas with the blood and rust surfaces but there are more real landscapes this time around and thankfully they are better lit than in the previous games.  Henry has no need for a flashlight nor a broken radio that spews static whenever enemies are nearby (more on that later, of course).  You will come across the usual assortment of puzzles but none of them will have you completely stumped.

Another thing you’ll notice is that the game also quickly introduces a new aspect to the game, a somewhat ICO-inspired escorting of a secondary character.  Henry starts off by escorting a girl named Cynthia who will follow you and run when you run.  Later in the game, Henry runs into Eileen who he must protect while leading her out of the very nightmarish landscape.  In fact, once Eileen joins you she stays with you throughout the rest of the game.  Her survival is often crucial to the story because Eileen does add a lot not only conversation-wise but also story-wise.  Also, on a side note, depending on whether you get Eileen out alive or if she dies along the way plays a role in what kind of ending you get (there are four possible endings).  As you can imagine, protecting Eileen becomes quite a task.

The enemies Henry will face range from savage dogs with their skin turned inside out and a number of grotesque creatures that range from a ghastly malformed monstrosity with two heads to spectral beings that cannot be completely taken down without an important item.  Combat is again the game’s biggest weakness and this is despite the fact that the game sees Henry using his trusty golf clubs (to break them over the heads of the monsters, of course, not to tee off) than using his wits (there are puzzles but they are more of the open-door-by-solving-quick-puzzle variety).  Henry also has a swing meter that if you held the right trigger long enough he would unleash a heavy swing.  He even stomps on his enemy as a final blow.  All of this sounds quite charming on paper but it plays out rather awkwardly thanks to poor targeting system and a delayed response on Henry’s part.   This makes fending off enemies more frustrating than fun but at least Henry is able to shoot a gun a bit more accurately unlike Silent Hill 2: Rest Dreams’ James Sunderland.

While we’re discussing faults, I must add that while it might seem interesting to escort and protect Eileen, it’s more of a chore thanks to the fact that she often becomes stuck and so you must go back to lead her out before she’s savagely killed.   There is also a lot more backtracking in this game than in previous games, something that will no doubt frustrate gamers that want to move along with the story.  Adding to the frustration are the specters that become a nuisance.  I compare the ghosts to this scenario: Imagine you’re on a picnic in the woods and a bothersome fly keeps buzzing around your head . . . now try to imagine yourself swatting at that fly for over an hour.  Yes, it is that annoying.

The Silent Hill series uses visuals to drive the tension far better than the sound and Silent Hill 4 is not any different.  Yes the character models are beautifully detailed both during the cut scenes and during the game’s third-person perspective and yes the environments in both alternate realities look amazing.  It’s the lone swinging lamp that conceals something lingering in the half darkness or the sudden flash of something pale moving around the corner of a hallway that will get your heart thumping.  The new first-person view of your apartment is unsettling, making you feel truly trapped in a small box that is gradually transforming.  The creatures you encounter move frighteningly and the sight of the living corpses that come out of the walls will unnerve anyone.

As for the sound, it’s just as good as the visuals with the exceptions of a few sounds that come from the creatures.  The Room plays with you psychologically, using sound to make you pause to consider where you’re going next.  At one point you’re exploring a lone restroom, checking out the empty stalls when the sound of something wooden hits to tiled floor.  That sound alone made me stop dead in my tracks, wondering if there was something inside with me or if that was just some audible figment of my imagination.  The voice acting is good, although there are times when characters speak awkwardly slow.  There’s also a running soundtrack that is beautiful and scary at the same time.  I had no idea a lone flamenco guitar can sound so . . . unnerving.

Silent Hill 4: The Room, with all its minor and major faults, is still a frightening roller coaster ride you should ride at least once.  It’s poor combat control scheme does make fighting a lot cumbersome but it’s new features and excellent story will hook you in quickly to see the game to the very end.  Rent or buy, this is a game fans of the series will certainly enjoy. 

Gameplay: 7.5
The Room is filled with more action than its predecessors are and this would have been great had the controls not been awkward or unresponsive.   While the combat still consists of the hero whacking enemies with crowbars and rusty pipes, there is a swing control that allows Henry to make forceful blows.  The problem is that the movements are still more rigidly Resident Evil than the more responsive The Suffering.  First-person view is a nice touch, though.

Graphics: 9.5
Much like Silent Hill 2 on the Xbox, The Room is one beautifully detailed game.  Even those who say they don’t care about a game’s graphics will come to realize that when detailed character models, gorgeously rendered background and fluid animation come together so perfectly as it does in this game the gameplay and story will just seem all the more enriched by it.  The heavy fog and extremely dark areas of the previous games are gone and replaced with dimly lit areas that are more effective in producing chills.

Sound: 9.0
Gamers no longer depend on the static of the broken radio to alert them of the presence of something dangerous approaching, now you’ll just know enemies are around by the surreal sounds they make before you even catch a glimpse of them.  Although many of the areas you’ll encounter are a bit more illuminated than the previous games, gamers won’t help but feel genuinely freaked out by the littlest sound effects.  The voice acting is occasionally slow-paced but done well enough thanks to the good dialogue.

Difficulty: Hard
Henry faces much more hideous and intelligent creatures that have different attack patterns and some of which have the common sense to know when they’ve been beaten to a pulp and back off.  You’ll face a very few bosses but they aren’t hard to beat.  Still, with little health and little ammo you will certainly be ripped apart in this game even in the Normal difficulty setting.  Dealing with the gun-totting maniac is also quite the challenge and he does make several appearances throughout the game.  He’s a seriously demented bloke that adds more intensity to already tense situation.

Concept: 8.5
The multiple ending scenarios (four in total) will have you playing the game a second time around.  I must say that with its few evident flaws I do see gamers playing this again at least once for another ending and the new weapons you unlock the first time around.  And while the game doesn’t put you in the town of Silent Hill, the terrifying forest and prison will make you forget all about the nightmarish hospital of the last games.  The first-person perspective is an interesting choice but its novelty runs out quickly. 

Overall: 8.0
Fans of the Silent Hill series will enjoy many of the things this fourth outing has to offer but those looking for an altogether new experience will feel greatly disappointed.  The Room is a frightening and disturbing jaunt even with its number of flaws you’ll encounter along the way, but it is definitely a jaunt well worth taking.