I am going to have to assume you’ve played the previous games, or at least 1 and 2. There are some minor spoilers that are unboxed, but nothing you really wouldn’t pick up from reading reviews or designer interviews (i.e., strictly public info already).
Since its inception with Silent Hill, I have been a huge fan of the series. I believe they are the zenith of survival horror, not only for their ability to create legitimate (i.e., non-“gotcha”) scares, but for Konami’s ability to create a complex, puzzling story that is really worth exploring in its own right and is not simply handed to the player on a dialogue platter. Silent Hill discussions are almost a pasttime in themselves, especially surrounding the release of the first two games.
During the creation of SH3, Konami apparently had a separate team get to work on Silent Hill 4. SH4 was apparently what I simply call a “concept game”, that is, “We have this pretty neat idea we’re almost sure would make a playable video game.” (Reference: Black & White, and (I tremble with fear) the upcoming Fable.)
Let’s take a look at the idea. The protagonist, Henry, finds himself trapped in his own apartment, receiving cryptic letters from nowhere, and finding a strange hole in his bathroom wall. Eager to leave his apartment, he enters, only to find himself in some alternate reality fans of the series will somewhat quickly identify with. As much as he’d like to leave the apartment, which has windows that can’t open (or apparently break) and a front door chained from the inside (“Don’t go out! ~Walter”), it becomes a safe haven for him where all his energy is restored, where clues surface, where the progress can be saved, and where an infinite storage box awaits his currently and perhaps permanently useless inventory items.
But there’s a problem. The hole in the bathroom is getting bigger. Blood fills the bathtub and explodes out of the dryer. Strange marks appear on the wall…
So, as you can see, a concept game. Fairly good idea, at that, given the series with which they exercized it. After all, did not Harry Mason originally find his serene vacation town changing before his eyes? Granted, it was not so subtle, but the point of SH1 wasn’t subtlety, at least, not in that manner.
Create a safety net, and pull it away. Great idea that perfectly fits in with the series.
So here are my problems with the game:
[ol][li]Ten inventory items? What is this, Resident Evil? If I wanted realistic events I wouldn’t be playing a survival horror game about alternate realities for Eris’s sake! There is simply no reason for this switch other than as a ruse to get you back to your room. But there are far, far better ways of acheiving this, as any player will find out when they get to explore the apartment building itself (fairly ingenious trick they found there). So basically they created backtracking for the sake of a) backtracking or b) laziness. Silent Hill’s terror was a psychological, under-your-skin terror. Backtracking to dump items accomplishes this how, exactly?[/li][li]No flashlight? (note: I am just about halfway through the game; if it hasn’t appeared yet, and I hear no mention of it in any review or FAQ, I’m pretty sure it ain’t going to pop up) The flashlight was one of the best things about the SH series. Their use of lighting in such grim arenas was, IMO, simply unparalleled. Konami: I wasn’t sick of the flashlight![/li][li]No radio!? Radio static was one of the things that, for me, heightened the tension of walking into a long hallway, much like Resident Evils’ zombie shuffling and moaning. You knew something was there. But where RE usually stuck with hiding them behind corners, SH used the flashlight and lack of much ambient lighting to help this create a very real tension. Until now. When I think of the raw panic I got into when I’d open a hospitol door to stare a nurse in the face with the radio blasting at me, and I think of the huge lack of panic I get in SH4, I have to think that the subtleties of the radio were missed by these particular designers, though I can’t imagine why.[/li][li]No radio and no flashlight? Yeah, it deserves a unified mention. The bottom line is that these two things not only worked in unison to heighten the scare, they were almost like a staple of the series. Some “tricks” can become overused, like cheap scares where things leap through windows etc, but other “tricks” can define a series for its fanbase. The radio/flashlight combo was this for me (along with rust/blood and steel grating). Its absence is very disappointing, and as far as I can tell completely unnecessary.[/li][li]Why the shift to an emphasis on combat? The terror Silent Hill has been known for is the kind of terror that takes time to develop. Combat isn’t scary, it is the threat and potential for combat that is scary. Furthermore, previous games encouraged dodging and avoiding combat, which heightens the tension by putting you on the run. In this game, I’ve not found any encouragement to try and run. Is this survival horror or action adventure?[/ol][/li]
I intend to disparage the game, but only with respect to the previous games in the series. On its own, it is still enjoyable so far, and my dreams last night were a little uneasy. So the game is still working its mojo on me. Most reviews I’ve seen put it at the 7-8 range, and I think I’d agree with that (though more on the conservative 7). As a reference, Silent Hill 1 and 2 would easily be 9-9.5 games for me, and 3 would be 8.5-9 (if only because the story wasn’t obscure enough for me).
Any other fans of the series played this yet? What are your impressions?
