I know Henry gets a lot of flak for being dull or lifeless, but I actually found him to have surprising depth and relatability by exploring his apartment and seeing what he had to say. Henry is a deeply introverted person who struggles with his loneliness and inability to reach out to others, which makes his confinement in the apartment all the more poignant. On top of that, he's been in there, undetectable, for five days and no one has noticed. Eileen is the first person to really take note, not friends, not family. In fact, when you look at his family picture, he comments that he hasn't seen or talked to his parents in a long time. He finds solace in the architecture and loneliness of Silent Hill, of which he has pictures he's taken as large frames on the wall. He spends much of his time observing passively his neighbors, the neighborhood, and the world at large. But there's a deep sense of longing in him. He means to contact his family, he wants to revisit Silent Hill, he wants to get to know his neighbors, but he doesn't know how and it's uncomfortable for him. That's a very relatable inner turmoil to any introvert who has also struggled with social anxiety. He even keeps an ear out for the local goings-on while in his room through his radio (see, it DOES have a radio--it even acts up if there's a haunting nearby), instead of blocking the world out or just grooving to sweet tunes. He's very quiet, very outwardly passive, so it is easy even for the player to gloss over him. But he's quick to help when asked, as with Cynthia, intelligent enough to puzzle together the mystery of Walter, and compassionate enough to brave danger to rescue Eileen. He respectfully let's others reach their own conclusions about the Otherworld and even of him, letting evidence and actions do the talking. And of course, he's the Receiver of Wisdom, for Walter and the player both. But, he also has an obsession with collecting news stories and other bits of information and scrapbooking them. He has a desire to learn and a passion for archiving, even with his photography. He didn't construct the buildings or write the articles, but he takes it in and seeks to understand, and to piece the information together in ways that make sense. And I dunno what anyone else would say if they woke up on an escalator from an abyss, but my first words would definitely be, "What the hell?" I guffawed at that. Super relatable. I don't know, I just always feel the need to go to bat for Henry. Maybe because the protagonist is rarely a character so withdrawn and introverted, and that is a temperament I can identify with. Or maybe it's his chiseled jaw and fantastic hair. Either way. Poor Henry gets way too much hate. (Edit: Took 2 years and finally realized I should demarcate the paragraphs better. Smoooooth.)
I agree. I think that this personality should've been emphasized more and he should've had better voice acting and a bit more dialogue, but I always found him more relatable than the protagonists of the previous games because of this apparent introverted personality.
Perhaps it just wasn't conveyed in the best possible manner, they focused too much on making him a "relatable, sort of blank slate character" to serve as a vessel for the player to connect with the setting, the fact the previous 3 games had such strong protagonists didn't help either. If they had abandoned that idea and instead focused on the hints of character Henry has and developed them it'd have been a lot better. Introverted, depressed and socially anxious characters are a dime a dozen in videogames and this one had the potential to be so much more.
P S Perhaps he just wasn't presented well enough. Your points all connect but you're making more of him than you were actually given. The full depth of Henry's character is characteristically *trapped* in some Japanese guy's head. Henry was kinda lost in transfer from mind to paper.
I was confused too...like, really?!? I think downpour is the worst silent hill game, homecoming isn't much better 🤷♀️ I actually like silent Hill 4, yeah the gameplay and some of the enemies can be pretty annoying sometimes but otherwise I liked the game.
I didn't know that. I've been a fan of Silent Hill and went to most of the SH events and knew a lot of fans and I mean a lot. Most of us think that Silent Hill 4 was a fresh coat of paint to Silent Hill as we feel that the main story was brought down to its closure. And Walter was even teased in Silent Hill 2 which was awesome that he had a main story. When the demo came out, I was terrified with it. It has a tone that the environments would look like that foe everybody unlike Silent Hill 2 and 3 which has environments designed for the main characters only. I can't get immersed in Silent Hill 1 like 4 did as the design of the town doesn't have that sense of familliarity. So having the fans hate Silent Hill 4 than Downpour and Homecoming, I don't think that is true.
As someone who struggles with anxiety, the room affected me in ways the other games didn't.. my room is my safe place and this game turned it into a horror. For that reason, the room is my fav, even with all its flaws
Rii L When one of my friend saw Cynthia ghost he got scared so much and he was like "fuck that i am done, nope nope not playing more." Legend has it, he still hasn't finished beyond that.
I'm in a similar boat, and I always tell people that 4 actually forces you to play as if you have anxiety... finding reasons to avoid leaving the flat, feeling depersonalised outside (camera switch to 3rd), giving you frequent opportunities to go back. It's a great game because it doesn't say 'this is Henry, he has anxiety', it makes you play him as if he does!
Silent Hill 4 made me feel dirty and had moments that haunted my soul The apartment was like an enemy of its own, changing, messing with you.. Eventually making you feel like a filthy, paranoid, shut in antisocial peeping Tom The enemies in general that goop out of the walls and the giant face in the hospital will follow me till death! Infact my blood just ran cold thinking about it
I used to have fear an anxieties due from playing games and watching movies like this. I mean, having that dirty and unclean feeling is definitely a shared experience that I've had as well. I have no idea why I played games like this, perhaps it was just a means to test my courage, knowing that it is fake and just a game. But the reality is that there inner fear of the unknown that I had experienced while playing the Silent Hill games. They really made me start seeking for Heaven because, if Silent Hill is what hell is like, I was afraid to go there. But years after playing the Silent Hill games and being afraid of dying due to not wanting to go to hell (or purgatory), I was led to the truth about death and dying. The sad reality is after reading the Bible, I found myself deserving to go to Hell for my sins against God. I used to believe that my baptism and good works would have saved me from Hell, but those two things don't save us from Hell. That's why I was afraid of dying, because I was putting my trust and faith in myself and not God. Clearly the Silent Hill series (and many other games and movies) has perverted the goodness of God by making Him out to be such a horrible and unloving deity that wants to punish all of us and wants all of us to die in fear and agony...but that is so far from the truth. John3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave us His son.". We all deserve to go to Hell (or a place like Silent Hill) because of our sins against God. We have all made ourselves our own gods and our pride and disobedience had condemned us, but yet, Jesus died to take away our sins!! If you can put your trust and faith in Jesus, Christ to save your soul, you will never have to worry about feeling filthy and dirty for everything that you did in the past. He will cleanse you from within and cover your crimson stains as white as the snow. Jesus will take away all of the fear of the horrible creatures that we have seen in all of these games and movies. Prior to putting my trust and faith in Jesus, Christ to save me from an eternal punishment in hell, I would have laughed at the concept of hell, yet the concept of hell scared me. But it hell is just as real as heaven is, and I want to see you up there. I want you to be cleansed from all the fear and anxieties that you have experienced by playing games like this in the past and also in the present. I don't want my worst enemy to go to hell, after knowing that it is just as real as heaven is....and you are not my worst enemy. That's why I am sharing this with you, because I want you to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus, Christ and for you to know what it is like to be cleansed of everything (like playing this game) that has made you feel dirty on the inside. If you want to know more about how you can be saved from a horrible punishment eternally, and if you don't have a good church to go to; you could livestream my church's Wednesday and Sunday morning and evening services at: www.mukwonagobaptist.org I don't preach over there, but it is the church that helped me see my need for Jesus as my Lord and savior and because of the incredible things that Jesus has done in my life, I want to share that with you...since we have both seemed to share similar experiences while playing this game and others like it. With that being said, I am curious to know what do you think about death and the afterlife?
@@richdelaney9500 Don't make this about your religion please, this is a discussion about an excellent work of art. The game doesn't make you feel dirty because it's scary or because it "perverts the goodness of God", it makes you feel dirty because your character is locked in his apartment and the only way he can interact with the outside world is by spying through people's windows and peeping into his neighbor's bedroom through the hole in the wall. The game is designed to make you feel uncomfortable and put you on edge, to put you in Henry's shoes and force you to experience his plight, and it does that very effectively. "Clearly the Silent Hill series has perverted the goodness of God by making Him out to be such a horrible and unloving deity that wants to punish all of us and wants all of us to die in fear and agony" I don't know how you come to that conclusion. There is no reference to your God in any of these games. There is something that characters like Dahlia and Claudia call "God": the sun god worshipped by the cult, which is clearly supposed to actually be some kind of powerful demon, and not a god at all. These games aren't about religion, they're about people. These games dissect their characters and explore their personalities and ideals and faults through visual metaphor, and that's why they're such fascinating experiences. Pretending that these games are simply about "perverting the goodness of God" is ignoring everything worthwhile about them. Fictional stories like this, whether they're told through a video game, movie, tv show, book, or song, exist to do one thing: allow us to put ourselves in the shoes of the characters, so we can vicariously experience things we wouldn't normally experience on our own. Sometimes this is for the purpose of wish fulfillment or escapism, and other times (as is the case with the horror genre) it's more to allow us to face and deconstruct our fears so we can learn more about ourselves as people. Using video games to safely put yourself in situations you otherwise would never be in allows you to understand how you would react to those situations, and come to terms with why, giving you a better understanding of who you are. This links into self-evaluation and personal development, and people need this kind of thing to be healthy individuals. Psychological therapy is grounded in the practice of facing and coming to terms with things within yourself that you would otherwise hide from, because you associate them with fear or pain, and psychological horror is a somewhat limited microcosm of that idea. The only way to become a better person is to face these problems head-on, and that's easier to do with some kind of help, whether it be a friend, a therapist, Jesus, or a video game. Not to say that all horror experiences are as thoughtful as Silent Hill in this way, but most at least try to push you out of your comfort zone, which is always the first step to self-improvement. I get it, I really do. I used to be a Jesus freak too. I didn't want anyone to go to hell any more than the next guy, and I tried so hard to convince anyone I encountered to accept Christ, because in my mind that was the best possible thing I could do for people. I didn't realize until later how destructive that kind of behavior actually was (and when I did realize it, that was the beginning of what lead to me losing my faith, but that's not what this is about). The point is, even back then I loved these games, and understood what they were trying to do. I understood that just because something is designed to cause fear and anxiety, that doesn't necessarily mean it opposes Christ and should be shunned. I'm a little disappointed that you don't seem to understand that.
@@DarthFennec That was very well said!! I used to play a lot of games and maybe I just misinterpreted how the game made God out to be evil. The stories behind all of the Silent Hill series has always been confusing to me because of all of the detail and the lore behind them. I understand how you feel about losing your faith, because as Christians, we should always be willing to defend and honor what Jesus had done for us! I can't say that I am a little disappointed in you either because I know that you are so well spoken, you have a heart for people, and you obviously care about where they will spend an eternity. I can tell that you are as wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove :) And yes, you are absolutely right about this game being terrifying. I meant that I felt dirty playing this game and watching this documentary/review on it because I sometimes think is this what hell is going to be like? Then, I am reminded of the fact that hell is going be people burning for all eternity....which I don't want even my worst enemy to suffer that kind of punishment for all eternity. I will pray for you to regain that boldness and confidence to start witnessing to the lost souls again. And if you could please pray for me to gain more wisdom while I witness to people, that would be a huge blessing. I, too, sometimes feel like giving up on witnessing to other people; and sometimes on living the Christian life, but the thing is that eternity is on the line. Just like the apostle Paul did, we must put on the whole armor of God and continue in this spiritual battle until the end. You have so much to offer the world and to God, if you just give it all to Him! The world needs more Christian witnesses like you, who are as empathetic, as they are knowledgeable and wise!! You have such an amazing gift with communication and I really appreciated everything that you had written down. I learned alot from you and I hope to be able to learn more from you as well. Thanks for expressing your comments and views constructively, as it is very much appreciated!!!!
@@richdelaney9500 I am not myself religious nor never have nor will be, because I find myself at wits with religious thought at an intellectual level we don't need to go into here, but I think @DarthFennec raises an important point, though in an overly convoluted way, that what makes games such as Silent Hill, despite the obvious grotesque nature of these games, appeal to so many people, is that ultimately the characters and the plights these characters go through, touch on very universal human struggles and feelings. The common theme this has with religion is that religion does the same thing through metaphors told by stories about god and worship. Fundamentally speaking, the Exodus is not about a group of people holding onto their faith though there is that aspect to it as well, but it is about a group of people who had to struggle when they were ostracized from the place they previously called home. The importance faith plays in this story has more to do with how it helps these people keep together and find meaning in their estrangement, despite it being needlessly cruel and unfair. It shows them that through faith, they can overcome this obstacle. I also want to bring up that it is important to remember that Silent Hill originally took heavy inspiration from Freudian psychology and the notions of psychoanalysis, obviously the most explored in Silent Hill 2, but remains as a general theme in all of the games, though one can of course discuss how well done it is in later installments past 2. Regardless, the purpose of psychoanalysis is to create an introspective moment with the patient/client where they are freely able to express their deepest fears, motivations and feelings by not suppressing them into unconsciousness. The therapist is then supposed to help analyze or make sense of this content either with the patient/client, or in private. It is important to remember that at the time of inception, psychology was not considered an actual science like the natural sciences were, so Freud, Jung et al. tried to frame the subject heavily from the perspective of quantitative analysis just like one would analyze a natural phenomenon. This is why Freud for example spent a lot of time trying to connect various themes with the themes often found in dreams, because he thought there was an analytical (logical) relationship between dream experiences and the inner workings of a person. We now know that this is of course not always true, as not every dream has deeper meaning, but he was not completely wrong, either. Anyway, what I am trying to say with all this is that the thematic or structural roots of Silent Hill goes back to trying to link the overall game experience to universal themes that most people can at some level relate to. "You have so much to offer the world and to God, if you just give it all to Him! The world needs more Christian witnesses like you, who are as empathetic, as they are knowledgeable and wise!! You have such an amazing gift with communication and I really appreciated everything that you had written down. I learned alot from you and I hope to be able to learn more from you as well. Thanks for expressing your comments and views constructively, as it is very much appreciated!!!!" I honestly believe that you would find far more meaning to speak less about your experiences about your relationship with religion and god, and more try to actually analyze why you find this poignant to preach about to strangers online, even when they have clearly expressed a disinterest in the subject. It shows a complete disregard of their wishes and is outright disrespectful. If you care about other people and about your religion and god, you need to actually take its lessons to heart and understand the nature of submission, where the first step is to listen to what others think and say, even when you do not understand them. Doing otherwise is actually incredibly selfish and shows that you only care to express your own feelings at the behest of others'. Which is actually what DarthFennec said they realized they were doing, and why they also fell out with their religion. We all understand you feel passionate about the subject and there is nothing wrong to share something you're feeling passionate about, but it does become incredibly wrong and selfish the one moment a person implicitly or directly states that they have no interest in this, and yet you continue with your actions. Who are you trying to convince, in actuality? Certainly not DarthFennec, because if you truly tried to take in what they had to say, DarthFennec has arrived at their own conclusions and they are very contrary to yours. Why does it bother you to such an extent that you must preach, despite claiming you do not intend to preach, to those that do not share your experiences? Do you truly feel that lonely and in need of a group identity to share those experiences with? You need to accept and respect that not everyone can, nor want, to experience things the same way you do. Just like gamers come here to watch videos about video games, you need to turn your eye to your own religious community when you wish to share your passion about religion. Because if I were to rant to someone who has no interest in games why Silent Hill fascinates me so much, do you think they'd care? Of course they wouldn't, and if I were to keep that up, I would certainly push that person away. Why? Because I did not listen to them and showed them proper respect. The same thing holds true, here.
Funny thing is that SH4 was the only SH game that I wouldn't touch because I found it too scary. The thought of something unkillable chasing you and having your own safe haven slowly deteriorate into something twisted was incredibly uncomfortable to think off. But now that I've grown up, it's a very interesting take on SH horror. It's sad how SH4 never gets much credit for all the cool stuff it did and how it's story showed how the cult in silent hill affected people outside the town.
Never actually put together the fact the cult WAS involved. I remember reading in-game about it too. Then again I was a teenager when i played so thinking things through wasn't exactly a priority for me. Lol
While I had heard of Silent Hill from the near-beginning, 4 was the first game I played in the franchise. I did not get far, mostly from what you described. I was not at all prepared for the unparalleled sense of dread and discomfort 4 has. Especially since I had no idea what's going on.
I'm sure tons of people like homecoming but its just like... the design direction appeals to a completely different set of tastes than the franchises fanbase up to that point. I just dont understand why you'd make that shift? People looking for more of SH 1-4 are going to be disappointed. People that dont like SH 1-4 are likely to not even try it. So inevitably, homecomings fans are this odd fringe of taste that seems puzzling to the rest of us.
All of the western, “the other four titles” are completely irrelevant and complete trash, homecoming especially 😂 They don’t even exist when compared to the actual and real SH games. The first four.
That girl couldn’t die and could defend herself. What else did you want? Her to cast magic spells? Other prominent and well known games had similar mechanics. Maria in SH2 was way more vulnerable. Ashley in Resi 4 was useless as a game’s asset and meant to make the game way harder than it already was. Who even complains about those things? Gameplay-wise, nothing in SH4 felt broken or unfair, just a bit hard at times. But it wasn’t the problem. The problem was that it felt way more Japanese and psychedelic than any other released and future SH title. People absolutely hate being forced to leave their comfort zone, which is a shame.
I love the story, and no problem "leaving my comfort zone" when it comes to video games. The biggest issue I had with the game where it's my least favorite (I don't hate the game) are the hard-to-deal-with ghosts that appear everywhere and unless you have the sword you have to run from the same ghost over and over when you repeated the same area (it got tedious in my opinion), and keeping Eileen safe. The story and psychological horror of the game I adored. Not to mention the soundtrack, as always, is amazing
"The biggest issue I had with the game where it's my least favorite" - people are different, they have different tastes and I respect that. Peace. To me personally, SH4 is my third favourite. As for your criticisms... "the hard-to-deal-with ghosts that appear everywhere" - actually, they don’t appear everywhere, only in specific areas. The game was designed so that the player learns how to outmanoeuvre certain enemies instead of systematically relying on weapons. In other words, the player was not always in control, and that was a major problem for many people. To compensate for that, creators gave the player infinite health for the first half of the game, plus plenty of healing items. So I’d say it’s fair. "Eileen can die in the ending" - Eileen doesn’t automaticaly die in the end, the only thing that changes is how much time you have to kill Walter. And why exactly is this relevant? Not keeping her safe does not prevent you from finishing the game. It was designed so that if a player puts an extra effort, (s)he receives an extra reward (a lovely custscene you can watch on RUclips). Back then, Eileen was one of the rare characters who made comments about what was actually happening. I’d say she was one of the better designed side characters back then.
I agree people are different and we all enjoy different things. It's been years since I played but I never noticed the infinite health on my play through, but I'll see if I can notice whenever I try to play again. I still find the ghosts tedious even though I do understand why they are there. I have no problems with running from my enemies. I've enjoyed similar mechanic games (such as Clocktower, Haunting Ground, Amnesia: Dark Descent, etc.). I personally just find the ghosts tedious.to have to deal with over and over in the same exact way. Others may enjoy it, that's fine, but personally I just don't care much for the ghosts. It's relevant because you said that she cannot die, which she can at the end for those that want to achieve a particular ending. No one says you can't finish the game if she dies, I said "she can die in the ending if you let her take so much damage during the game". Her damage count (for lack of better term) is what determines the speed she walks to her death at the end. Most people want to achieve the good ending than a bad ending when they play. So keeping her safe is priority depending on what ending you wish to get. I do agree with her being a great character. I loved listening to her talk when she commented on things. I do wish I got her to comment on her huge head that was in one of the rooms lol.
As much as I despise Konami's lack of work ethic and will not let their blame be shifted, part of it is just Japanese corporate culture. After WWII, the fervid nationalism that the emperor Hirohito had stirred up by commanding the nation to consider the military their "family," was shifted to the toppled postwar economy, with the now-undeified emperor telling the Japanese to consider the company their "family." This is how Japan's economy had risen from an abyss to an international presence as early as the 1970s. However, the remnants of that situation leave Japanese salarypeople underpaid for too many hours and no vacations, about to die from overwork/exhaustion, or from poisoning by the alcohol they turn to to get them through it. Meanwhile, the executives are often entitled, privileged slavedrivers who take advantage of the leverage the pro-corporation sentiment of postear Japan has given them, and work their employees to the bone without giving them a second thought. Konami is just an example whose greed, pettiness, and shamelessness have been demonstrated to the general public well enough to hurt their sales.
They cancelled silent hills which would’ve been a guaranteed classic with Hideo Kojima, Junji Ito, and Guillermo DelToro, it would’ve been so good and they shut it down. Honestly fuck Konami
@@thiskid990 it's because of that very reason that they manage to keep losing to other gaming companies. They threw away what made them good and adopted things that puts them in direct competition with others who do things better than them, while the consumer gets shat on for absolutely no reason.
I love Henry. He's so cool in a bland way. He didn't have deep issues like the past protags, though they were amazing too. I just appreciate the change in pace. He was a normal guy caught up in a freaky, demonic situation
"cool in a bland way" is honestly the perfect way to describe him, lol. Out of all the SH protags, Henry is the one I'd want to be friends with the most. He just seems like a really nice guy, just socially awkward.
@@acak5449 .... James murdered his wife with a pillow, how is that bland but cool? It's like turning on a lofi chill playlist and hearing Darude Sandstorm.
Yamaoka's "Resting Comfortably" made this game for me. Nothing made me feel the way I did when you are wandering the empty apartment complex while you hear a young Walter calling for his parents after he is abandoned by them in room 204. While not without it's problems, the atmosphere really is it's one true strength.
That particular song really stuck out for me for some reason. Even though the game had great atmosphere and interesting music before Resting Comfortably even showed up, that was the song that made one of the biggest impressions. The constant short loop of the same chord and melody being played over and over and over while you run around the apartments created this weird melancholic and uneasy feeling that just dug its way into your head. Especially since the oppressive visuals of the level itself kinda contrast with the calmness of the song, it definitely made that whole section memorable.
Agreed. I think I actually shed a tear while playing that part. Hearing Walter's dad say those things was heartbreaking - and I don't even particularly like children, lol! This part got me, probably in my top 5 moments of the entire series.
Silent hill 4 was insanely scary because the ghosts start invading your safe place. The creatures just as terrifying as the first 3, some more so. Thanks for this video
The apartment isn't about loneliness and entrapment. It's about social anxiety, isolation, and paranoia. Think about what you do when you come back to the safety of your apartment. Once you notice something has changed in your safe place you begin searching every time you return, you check all the windows and peepholes. The game turns you into a peeping Tom shut in.
Also I should add that the town of Silent Hill doesn't doesn't punish people like some believe. It's purely an evil that feeds off the emotionally damaged. James and Angela are not bad people who need to be punished. Eddie you could make an argument against. So if Henry is a socially anxious, paranoid shut in like the game seems to imply it would make sense that the game doesn't take place in silent hill but instead in his apartment. Turning his safe space into a living hell. It may not be the same town but it is the same evil.
I think you should have further touched on Walter Sullivan's story and background. To me it is the most interesting and heart breaking story in the series beside Angela and Alessa. All he wanted was motherly love and he tried to get it the only way he believed he could in the 21 Sacraments. His story, or tragedy depending on who you ask, is a great addition to the SH lore because it tells so much about the cults evils towards their members.
Silent hill 4 is so underrated. The room hub wolrd was so different. Yes the game had flaws like the inventory system for example. But gets BIG points for bringing something new to the table imo. Also, idc what any one says, hideo kojimas pt was heavily influenced by sh4! The hauntings was very similar
I'm going one step further and say Kojima took tips from Forbidden Siren as well, another game directed by a Team Silent member. The concept of getting players to cooperate in order to beat a single-player game through info sharing is not new.
SH4s story and especially atmosphere and art design were nothing short of brilliant, though a bit poorly executed graphically at times. But that is why the gameplay is considered bad and annoying - it draws you away and distracts you constantly with unkillable ghosts and frustrating creatures so that you can't focus on the atmosphere and get invested in it properly.
I feel this game would be so relatable this year. Like the amount of people who are locked in doors, only allowed to leave for certain reasons (Like in Australia right now.) I kind of want to play it now
@@andrecarvalho6691 Oh I'm in Australia, we just went back into lockdown haha, might try to find the game and play it. Currently playing Death Stranding now, its also the perfect game to play while trapped in an apartment.
@@traviscue2099 seems they thought the same thing, never played Silent Hill 4 because I had a gamecube as a child, not a PS2 or xbox. Good old games (GOG.com) just re-released it for 10$, with 1080p support too. Really liking this game a lot, not sure what the hate was for. Maybe people really just wanted to walk around the bland, dead-end ridden streets of Silent Hill (even though we all know the outdoor segments could have been so much better)
@@XxsuperstudlyxX I think 4 has issues, but the concept is so cool. I remember playing it as a teen, and some scenes back in your appartment. But so many gems are misunderstood at launch. But have fun with it!
On the topic of whether or not SH4 was ever meant to be a Silent Hill to begin with the fact of the matter to me is that, outside of the devs mentioning the name "Room 302", documentation on what that game was ever supposed to be has never surfaced in over a decade. This to me means one of two things. Either A). Silent Hill 4 was always meant to be a sequel, or B). Room 302 changed into a Silent Hill game so early in development that the argument is pretty much useless out the gate.
The reason I bring it up is because it's still an argument for some reason, and much bigger channels still think its origin is a debunked rumor when the director himself flat-out says that it wasn't intended as such. They also said right when development started, their direction was to make it completely different from Silent Hill 1 and 2.
One thing I can definitely appreciate about SH4 is how it intentionally presents itself as dreamy in terms of atmosphere and soundtrack. I mean, the very first scene is a dream sequence. I can't put my finger on it, but like you said: the game uses contrast by being both comfortable fear-inducing, instilling doubt in the player. Each different world is a distorted perception of a past memory from Walter, with him associating these characters that we meet with these areas because they are people Walter has met in these places (the real-world version of them--not the distorted version of these areas that we play through). Each character is symbolic in their presentation, but I'd be typing paragraphs explaining what each one represents. If the flaws were perfected with this game, I honestly think this could be in the same rank as Silent Hill 2. The writing, atmosphere, soundtrack, and certain area designs are definitely worthy of praise.
honestly, I rank this higher than 2. 2 was too bland for me, it wasn't just boring. but 4 just kept you alive with everything. it also has the best antagonist in any game, any genre I have ever seen. the gameplay is uneasy and annoying. but it just contributes to the creepiness imo. it's a masterpiece for me.
Props for bringing up SH4's intro. When I first played the game that alone gave me nightmares, particularly the crawling build-up to a jumpscare that never happened.
I kinda disagree with that too. The problem is that if you put horror imagery too early, then you put someone in that mindframe. That sort of negates the slow creep of horror. You expect horror then. Or you see more horror than you do at the start. It's also not really emotional.
The difference between Silent Hill 1-3 and Silent Hill 4 is that the first 3 games scared me... ... Silent Hill 4 fucking TERRIFIED me. It was the only game where, as a kid, I was so stressed by the visual stimulus I was receiving and the odd, fever dreamish atmosphere, that I shamefully chose to turn the console off as a quick escape. It is not conventional, but that's the beautiful thing about this game. I feel all four of the first titles, bar 3, do something completely unique to draw me into their world. The first game really does feel like this dive into a mysterious, abandoned town. Silent Hill 2 is this poetic dive into the human psyche. 3, while I don't hate it and certainly maintains elements of past games, benches a little bit too much on legacy for me; I feel it would have been an infinitely weaker game without its correlation to Silent Hill 1 and 2. The same cannot be said about 4. The Room went in a brave and bold new direction for better and worse, but created an experience unlike any of the past games while still making frequent nods to the universe it exists in. Rather than trying to follow up the story of 1 or do the in depth character analysis of 2, Silent Hill 4 ran in the opposite direction of both of the first two games and showed how the fucked up reality of Silent Hill could fundamentally corrupt a completely innocent bystander and turn them into a horrifying villain. I have zero reservations in saying that Silent Hill 4 has the best story out of any of the original games; whether or not you like the combat or various other mechanics, they all tie back to this deeply disturbing narrative that not only scares but capitalizes on every element introduced in the franchise in subtle ways. People don't like it and I think that primarily boils down to Team Silent's willingness to take things in a different direction. It'll forever remain the black sheep of the franchise, and in many ways mirrors Resident Evil 7 in the unnecessary hate it garners from the franchise's fans. But when you set everything else aside and appreciate it simply for what it is, it is a god damn marvel.
It's a tie for first between SH2 and SH4 for me. I couldn't understand the hate for it. The concept if being trapped in an apartment while the world changed around you, while being stalked by a spirit serial killer, was horrifying.
Silent Hill 3 is my favorite entry in the series, and one of my fave games of all time. It's a brilliant experience. Silent Hill 4 on the otherhand, is an underrated gem. It deserves more respect than it gets. Though derivative, it's the LAST proper entry in the series.
I hated this game 10 years ago but it was my fault. I played it 4 times straight to get all the endings. The first time I liked it but I played the other runs like a chore. I despised the second half and never returned until this year. I replayed it and man this is a good game. I think the main issue is ironically the best aspect of The Room. This game is a nightmare, literally. You repeat scenarios and no matter how much you run, you are in the same place. Maybe my opinion is pretentious, but my enjoyment for this game skyrocketed with this mentality.
Yes, but I like SH a lot and at that time I didn't want to "cheat". In other words, im a fucking idiot lol. romeostruedude you are right! The nostalgia train hit me because I replayed all 4 games with friends this year and I was excited until we got to sh4, then I saw my friends reactions and remembered the scares. They were a little frustrated with the Eileen crap but surprisingly I was thinking "uh... it wasn't that bad after all" and when they left my house, I replayed the entire game by myself and oh boy it was a ride.
Weirdly I felt that way about SH3 getting all 3 endings and achievements, not all throught the game but certain areas felt like a chore like the subway level but like all 4 games its worth it
I've been in many Silent Hill Forum discussions... Some people might not like SH4, but I've never heard anyone say that they think it's worse than Homecoming or Origins. if anything, I would say that the unfair hatred of Silent Hill 4, based solely on the fact that it's different, is why all the western developers all took the safe route by following the archetype of Silent Hill 2. Whether you like Silent Hill 4 or not, it should definitely be praised for at least attempting to try to do something different, as opposed to mimicking the archetype of the first three games. I personally love Silent Hill 4 - it's one of my favorite games in the series! I also like all the other games as well, even the newer ones. they obviously don't compare to the first four, but they're not that bad.
I think the issue people have with 4 is that the first 3 were so good and then you have 4 as the weird child that doesn't really fit in with the previous 3 but still hits commendable notes from time to time. This can get fans to start blaming it for the series fall and so they direct their hatred onto it. In reality, it was the breaking up of Team Silent and Konami's corporate meddling that has killed Silent Hill as a franchise.
Man oh man this takes me back. I was just getting out on my own when I was just 18. I had got this game. I also stayed alone at my apartment. It gave me the heebie jeebies. I always found myself looking at my front door.
It’s my second favourite Silent Hill game. Mainly because it goes back to a “real” mystery plot. You’re trying to figure out what was going on. With Silent Hill 2, James never cared about what happened to the town, and his story conclusion was sad, but predictable. And with Silent Hill 3, it’s more of a revenge story, with a lot of the backstory explained to you. Both didn’t have the same mystery that the original Silent Hill offered, where you’re trying to figure out what’s going on. It was a game where the story was also a puzzle that needed to be put together. Silent Hill 4 captures that.
What a coincidence, I'm actually an indie game developer who is working on his next horror game, and one of the games that I'm looking into to get some inspirations from is Silent Hill 4: The Room
Alex Olinkiewicz Well you said you're looking for inspiration so I just thought I'd somewhat convince into emerging into this.. sick world of a game. Maybe it wouldn't suit your preferences or expectations but for me, this is one of a few which I will never forget. I played almost all of the other sh games too, but this particular one, however bad people say it is, will never leave my memory.
Diamond Seeker Oh, well I have already played SH4 (the entire series) and seen many videos about the game, I'm just re-looking into the series and some other Horror games for reference and inspiration uses.
Lucas Martins But at least that history of Silent Hill really worth to watching I completely forget what I coming for until I minimize the screen and see the title lol.
Honestly its my favorite game in the series. Its a wonderful subversion of various SH tropes and horror games as a whole, which were booming and formulaic up to that point. Its just wonderfully weird and unique, and people that hate it are WEAK fools that will not survive the winter
The Silent Hill games were so great because of the limitations. It would be so hard to recreate that with modern technology. Residents Evil 2 did it so who knows
There's already people commented how they're glad to hear your thoughts on Silent Hill 4 and relief to know someone else thought the game wasn't that bad. So I say props for you on making this. This is actually my favorite Silent Hill.
Someone validated you opinions, great. I don't think people said it was entirely bad, first they mostly said that it was less than the other game, on its own, it's not great either.
Thank you so much for making this video supporting this underrated gem of a game! I will never understand the hate that this game gets, it was truly the last amazing Silent Hill game. But I will admit that Shattered Memories was pretty interesting, though.
The silent hill 4 intro scarred me as a kid. that game really hit different, prob because it was the first horror game i played but still, the newer horror games i played arnt even as close to creepy like Silent hill 4. The way you would just walk around the environment without any background music like the newer games, and when you would open a door and the screen goes dark and silent, scared of whats on the other side, its just so creepy. and being a kid, not knowing much about games and how to progress, it took me FOREVER to complete that game and when i did, it was such a relief and just a crazy adventure. idk why i wrote this cause i know no one is gonna read this but yea i love the game, and the music too but thats a whole different story cause that music is something else.
I love this game. I was going through a very low point in my life when it came out that mirrored the theme of this game, so I connected with it on a very deep level. Out of all the Silent Hill games this is the one I revisit the most. The theme song is beautiful and still invokes strong emotions in me.
Silent Hill 4 is my favorite probably due to I relate to it since I have lived in small New York City apartments my entire life. Perfectly captured the feeling of social isolation, loneliness, and paranoia of such living quarters.
I think 2 wins, only due to how more subtle and deflective it is. The horror is about a man who lies to himself about the murder he committed fairly recently, not some cult and an eldritch demon god and their antics. That slight touch of realism.
SH4 for the young me was the scariest of the SH games. I always have had a soft spot for this game and frankly its my favorite SH game right after 2. Its an amazing spook romp and got me very interested in J-horror in general.
@Rando I enjoyed Shattered Memories overall, but it's weighed down with some odd choices. The devs obviously took the combat in Homecoming a little to close to heart because you don't fight a single enemy in the game. You run from them. There's like 2 or 3 times where I think it's warranted, but other times are pretty forced and anger inducing. I remember some of the chase scenes having objectives. Yeah, it's so cool to run down this path in the corner of your eye and take pictures while these fleshy humanoids screech and deteriorate your screen. That being said, I got the most out of the exploration bits and the decisions you make can make the game a little more different because the game tries to psychologically profile you. Definitely a little too ambitious for a Wii game.
While not being my favorite of the series it has absolutely my favorite soundtrack of them all. It feels like Akira is full force and there's so many tracks that I adore.
Although I don't like SH4, you do bring up very fair points. I also agree with The Room belonging with the classics, regardless of it's original conception, made by the "B Team" of Team Silent, or the fact it's not traditionally Silent Hill. I do love the trailer, the image of the chained doors are simply iconic, and Walter as an antagonist is on par with Claudia, in my opinion. It's a shame it had to be developed during the same time as SH3, if it had a bit more polish on things like the sound design, it could've been a decent game, even if people wouldn't have accepted it as a Silent Hill title. Here's hoping for a 1-4 remastered collection.
*Spoilers ahead* The moment you realize that Walter's body had been rotting away just beyond your bedroom's wall the whole time, is still one of my favorite moments in this game. The idea that your safe place in the game had been tainted from the start by containing that dark secret so close to you without ever suspecting anything. On a similar note, that final scene in the movie Hereditary, where they find out the cult leader grandma's ritualistically decapitated corpse had been in the attic the whole time was equally horrifying and instantly made me think of SH4.
I'm 3 years late, but yes, I agree so much. I think it was the first time I had personally seen a "It was there the whole time" plot-twist, and I also like the comparison to Hereditary.
I didn't even finish Silent Hill 4 when I played it. Too stressful and I got stuck in a section of the game not knowing what to do. But dang, they were very bold and really experimented new concepts that could make even more history in gaming. I would be far happier if companies kept trying to experiment and create unique games than just recreate the same zombie games a thousand times. The problems the game had were mostly due to mechanics, it could have been an ace on the series with that world and story design.
coverandoacasa It's called opinions. Everyone doesn't have to like something just because you do. So again, let me help you be able to understand the hate SH 4 gets; someone else has a different opinion than you, kiddo.
I’m a huge Walter Sullivan fan, he’s really an interesting character and antagonist, even I don’t think silent hill four is a good game but I still like the idea behind it
Problem was that it was a bad entry. As a horror game,4 is fucking PHENOMENAL.Its dark,has an amazing lore,deaths that arent cheesy,and a complex and disturbing plot. Its just way out of touch with the rest of the series.Hell if memory serves me correctly,you dont even vist the titular town once.Not to mention that silent hill,while a horror game,wasnt solely about the distubing aspects it gave.Its purpose was to give insight on how people view their darkest thoughts brought reality,rather than demonic horror.
Then SH4 was just released, there was already this weird "SH4 Bad" bandwagon forming, and i remember me and other ppl i know automatically jumping to this bandwagon simply because all big name review sites said so and at the time they still had some authority, so their words meant more. It took a few years after release to forget all their bullshit and just sit down and play the game proper.
@@buckovens6706 homecoming had to come out so idiots had something new to hate on and actually appreciate the game before it. That's a cycle we've noticed MANY times in many fandoms, like say, the Zelda series.
Honestly, this is arguably my most favorite game of all time. For me, Silent Hill 4 was like a gateway drug, it changed my tastes in gaming and got me addicted to survival horror. Not only was this the first Silent Hill game I ever played, but the first real horror game I ever played for that matter. I never realized how scary video games could be until a friend told me about the Silent Hill series. I was just an impressionable young teenager in those days, and when I got my first taste of survival horror after renting Silent Hill 4, I was immediately hooked. I fell madly in love with the whole series, and since this was in late 2004/early 2005, the first four games were the only ones in the series, so every Silent Hill game I played in those days was just an absolute masterpiece. The impact this game had on me as a gamer was just astounding, even to this day I celebrate this game and consider it one of the great classics of Silent Hill and survival horror gaming, despite its obvious flaws that I've come to realize as I got older. I can understand why the fans give the later games so much hate, but I never understood why the fourth entry got so much negative feedback! It was still developed by Team Silent, and most of all, it was legitimately scary! I honestly think that should be the main factor for how good any survival horror game is. Whatever the case, this was an excellent video, and I sincerely appreciated you giving this gem of a horror game the praise it truly deserves. :)
Wow, what a great analysis, i greatly enjoyed, i watched the entire video! ^-^ I really love the SH franchise and i definitely agree that #4 is just as amazing as the first three, there's just so much creativity and depth and analysis into so many things, truly captivating! Thank you for this video :D
That is so fascinating, amateurs at horror going into a project with new eyes, studying the genre from the ground up, and creating something beautiful. ;_;
Great video, though in my opinion the influence of the game design and backtracking is dismissed too easily and even defended too much. The backtracking complain is not necessarily that you go for a second round, it's also that you have to travel back and forth between worlds because you might have missed a key item, ran out of inventory space and similar scenarios. The consequence is that the game becomes "gamey" in the process. You freely move around familiar areas in order to overcome game mechanics. The previous Silent Hill installments gave you a feeling of being led forward by an invisible force instead, which completely vanishes with this item chasing. It's not really helping either that you have invincible ghosts chasing you all the time while you want to discover and explore - to be honest, the concept of running away from enemies rather than defeating them always sounds good on paper, but usually they turn out to be annoying and distracting from the experience. It usually just works in sequences where you actually want to move away from an area quickly. But in this case, you want to look out for things and explore. Instead, you get poked forward constantly. The comparison to P.T. here was kind of mindblowing to me honestly - the design of this demo would have fit perfectly for Silent Hill 4! Not making use of darkness, however, led to the room never feeling that creepy in my opinion. Things are just grey all the time in 4, and this led to me never being really scared to be honest. The trailer still played around with vision and was super scary because of that, but it was never used like that in the actual game. I did like the room sequences nevertheless though because it had the most interesting exploration, it was just never as scary and unsettling to me as it seemed to want. Last but not least, I feel like it failed on the emotional level. It never really played with the melancholy that especially made Silent Hill 2 my favorite game. When the Resting Comfortably track set in, I actually thought it might happen, but then the Walter soundloop just didn't stop and even that turned out to become annoying. There was just always something missing. It's definitely a great and interesting concept, but the execution didn't work for me at all.
I remember trying to play this when I was a kid and I was absolutely terrified when I got followed by the ghosts in the subway I couldn’t continue. The intro video started playing on my tv and I was absolutely paralyzed by fear and I couldn’t get up to turn it off. Truly awful experience. This was a great game and probably my favorite in the series
Though I disagree with a few things said. For the most part, I'm glad more and more people are recognizing this game as one to be talked about. Well done.
GhenryPerez I'm super keen on it. I'd even say I like 4 more than 3, with respects to both. The first one is my very favorite, and always will be. While I like 2 as a form of art, I feel replaying it over and over has made it a tad stale over the years. Each of those games has things I like and don't like about them. But that's what reminds me that they were made by people, and not a batch of soulless husks trying to grab cash rather than grab at our attention to detail. Your video was good. And you released it around the time I started looking back into these games for inspiration in working on my own projects. 4 especially, given how strange it is on many terms. Maybe someday I'll be able to demonstrate a similar passion to making something that's unique and does specific things in it's own way. Who knows.
I really wish that more people talked about silent hill 4, it’s such a weird and unique game not just in the series, but compared to any other horror game I’ve played, and it’s my personal favorite game in the series.
Before playing Silent Hill 4, I was also one of those who thought it was too different and more of a spin off. After playing it, I now believe it definitely fits into the Silent Hill series. It has a charm and eeriness that only Team Silent could have produced. How I wish they got together to go another one...
The second part has a greater bias in matters of love, family relations, the most common types are “I am so fat”, “Nobody loves me”, “Dad touched me”, and other ordinary cliches. Everything is fixed on specific characters that have no clear relationship to the city. There Silent Hill is presented as a decoration, nothing more. Compared to the 4th part, it's just a soap opera, not a Japanese horror movie.
I don't know man, having a character directly related to Silent Hill kinda makes it corny and yes Cheryl/Heather is somewhat corny. Silent Hill from what I gathered is an extremely mysterious town with a dark past and you get glimpses of that in 1,2,3 Silent hills. It's a character in it's own right a Horror Character and like many many horror characters removing the veil and revealing their faces, figure and motives kinda kills the actual Horror. I like a lot of things about 4, but I just think a lot of it is super corny. My main gripe about Silent Hill 4 is the monsters and the over all symbolism in the game. It isn't that heavy at all.
@Baron BarrabanaHorse Everything is a cliche if you boil them down to a 4-word summary. What made SH2 so good was how it presented its individuals and their issues, not just having them in the first place. Also, Silent Hill was absolutely not a decoration in the game - it was the personal purgatory that brought their inner psyches to life.
When a horror franchise has a few sequels under its belt, there comes a risk of the audience being a little too familiar with "the rules" of the world and being able to take comfort in that familiarity. By throwing away conventions, you run the risk of the audience feeling cheated, but the reward, if done well, is that you take away the feeling of safety that comes with knowing the conventions. Resident Evil 4 and 7 both exemplify this philosophy at work, and you can definitely see SH4 aiming for the same thing.
I feel like Henry's acting is realistic given his scenario. He's been trapped in his apt. for weeks. Humans being naturally social being deprived of that has his emotion and reactions distant. His only escape from being trapped is through his nightmares and fears causing him to lose even more of his mind the further you get into the game. For example examinejng things in your room makes him say different things about them the further you get. He starts becoming cloud minded and just unable to concept certain things.
Correction: SH4 does actually have the radio mechanic but its exclusive to the room in order to detect if there's any hauntings which is helpful if you're unable to see them. I'm not sure why Team Silent didn't explain or even mention that mechanical change but it exists nonetheless.
IMO the best SH ever. I play horror games to experience sensations, there's no other game that made me feel so claustrophobic like this one. They did a awesome job
I recently learned how distracting stock sounds can be to a game. I've put 680+ hours into Dark Souls 3 and there's an enemy type in the game called Thralls which make a very ditsinct sound to give you a heads up about them as they tend to ambush you. I recently got a little game called Pit People (made by the same people as Castle Crashers) and have had a ton of fun with it but I was sucked out of the game the moment that I heard the sounds the Spider like enemies make for the first time (don't remember their actual name) as it's mostly the same sounds that the Thralls make in DS3. I've since gotten used to it as the sounds make sense, but it was super distracting the first few times.
What I liked was that you had brand new enemies that when you first encountered them were scary. The two headed girls scared the crap out of me, as did the subway ghost girl with her typical Japanese girl ghost hair. Then as you progress in the story, your room gets scarier too. I still remember when I saw the shoes in front of the door, it gave me chills. And of course the ghosts coming out of the walls. It just gave me new scares that I didn't expect.
Reminds me of Nightmare on Elm Street, with the terrible paranormal entity trying to kill you both inside and outside the dream, and if you die inside the dream, you're dead in real life.
I remember playing this game when I was pretty young. I didn't even want to walk down the hallway in the initial nightmare, lol. Beating the first half of the subway level was a milestone back then.. I believe it belongs with the first 3 titles though, it's psychologically worthy.
This was the second silent Hill game I ever played. The first one was silent Hill 2. I loved it! Then I played silent Hill 4 And honestly I loved it. It freaked me out and I love the story and everything about it. I personally find all the games to have something enjoyable about them. I try not to judge them by each other and just as their own individual thing. I like all their stories.
In all media I tend to prefer something unique and flawed over something polished but generic. making something unique is hard and I respect that a lot.
SH4 was very much a mixed bag. I loved the various settings, the apartment hauntings, and the general feel of the game. I enjoy everything about it, really, until I have to escort Eileen through maps I've already done. That, to me, was the major stumble. To me it would've been a superior title if Eileen was a fully controllable protagonist in the second half of the game. While this would be taking a leaf from the Resident Evil playbook switching back and forth between Henry and Eileen would've been more interesting, at least to me, than just dragging Eileen from map to map.
Easily my favourite of the Silent Hill games. I absolutely loved the plot, and the main antagonist, or rather the ideas behind him, his origins, his powers. Great video, enjoyed it a lot!
Sh4 was the first silent Hill I've ever played and it's by far my favorite of all. I was totally immersed when playing this game. There is a weirdness surrounding this game but in a good way, a weirdness that will make you feel despair, sadness, loneliness , and the music ... it's really that good.
I actually REALLY liked silent hill 4. (my fav) It's disturbing, uncomfortable, and ultimately religion based - very much like silent hill (the first) I loved the elements and the genuine terror i felt at times. The gameplay itself... well, yeah it WAS different than the last 3 iterations. Maybe it was SO different it hurt Silent hill fans' feelings. (fast forward to silent hill PT, and the promise that was never kept for a new game... makes me wonder if maybe The Room was the beginning of the end for the franchise JUST bc fans became way too harsh in their criticism regarding an overhauled system? I mean regarding gameplay there is NONE in PT and you are trapped in a hallway - not even a room! BUT it was played and loved, and cloned countless times...) But i am going off track. I never played another silent hill game after the Room (well technically PT), and I LOVED it so much. I have always been a person that appreciated a compelling story over a buggy game mechanic - to a POINT! (rule of rose, I'm talking to you). Not to mention, it didn't depend on jumpscares. I loathe jumpscares these days. "Cheap&EZ scares" - the hoe of the horror device. I have always been in the minority over this game. But maybe, after all the years of horror evolution, a new set of vintage game gamers can pick it up and appreciate it for what it was... now that they have so many choices in horror - not JUST resident evil or silent hill!.
I always get shit for saying 4 is my favorite. It's clearly not perfect, but I still love it. Being trapped in your safe place and having it slowly fall apart around you was so interesting to me that I can ignore the faults. That giant head in the hospital is one of the scariest thing I've encountered in horror games. It wasn't a jump scare, but real horror. The twins pointing at you without moving... there is just so much to like about the game if you can ignore at least some of the bad.
SH4 wasn't that bad, it just didn't have the same flow as the other silent hill games before it. If someone hasn't played the other silent hills, this game would feel like an amazing horror game!
I think what people really don't like and what really kills SH4 are some bad gameplay and design decisions more than anything else. Making the combat clunkier than 3 and then making it the primary focus of the game was an interesting move too lol.
In SH4 just like in 3 you can run away from most of the monsters, and most ppl do exactly this so the combat complaint is not that important. SH1-4 are not action oriented games, monsters are there to cause tension while you're wandering around but they're not worth killing in the end.
but really, none of the silent hill games became unique because of their graphics or their combat. I think you have to think in depth how clever the developers were in applying the storyline and fusing it with the fears and nightmares you'd dare dream of. In this case, the inescapable room... terrifying..
My ranks for same group: Silent Hill: Most Daring Silent Hill 2: Most Whole Silent Hill 3: Scariest Silent Hill 4: The Room: Most Original Silent Hill: Homecoming: Bleakest
This game is a really good game. I don't know why people hate the 4th game, it's one of my favorite because of how....different....it was... It's really well made and confuses me as well.
I know Henry gets a lot of flak for being dull or lifeless, but I actually found him to have surprising depth and relatability by exploring his apartment and seeing what he had to say.
Henry is a deeply introverted person who struggles with his loneliness and inability to reach out to others, which makes his confinement in the apartment all the more poignant. On top of that, he's been in there, undetectable, for five days and no one has noticed. Eileen is the first person to really take note, not friends, not family. In fact, when you look at his family picture, he comments that he hasn't seen or talked to his parents in a long time. He finds solace in the architecture and loneliness of Silent Hill, of which he has pictures he's taken as large frames on the wall. He spends much of his time observing passively his neighbors, the neighborhood, and the world at large. But there's a deep sense of longing in him. He means to contact his family, he wants to revisit Silent Hill, he wants to get to know his neighbors, but he doesn't know how and it's uncomfortable for him. That's a very relatable inner turmoil to any introvert who has also struggled with social anxiety. He even keeps an ear out for the local goings-on while in his room through his radio (see, it DOES have a radio--it even acts up if there's a haunting nearby), instead of blocking the world out or just grooving to sweet tunes.
He's very quiet, very outwardly passive, so it is easy even for the player to gloss over him. But he's quick to help when asked, as with Cynthia, intelligent enough to puzzle together the mystery of Walter, and compassionate enough to brave danger to rescue Eileen. He respectfully let's others reach their own conclusions about the Otherworld and even of him, letting evidence and actions do the talking.
And of course, he's the Receiver of Wisdom, for Walter and the player both. But, he also has an obsession with collecting news stories and other bits of information and scrapbooking them. He has a desire to learn and a passion for archiving, even with his photography. He didn't construct the buildings or write the articles, but he takes it in and seeks to understand, and to piece the information together in ways that make sense.
And I dunno what anyone else would say if they woke up on an escalator from an abyss, but my first words would definitely be, "What the hell?" I guffawed at that. Super relatable.
I don't know, I just always feel the need to go to bat for Henry. Maybe because the protagonist is rarely a character so withdrawn and introverted, and that is a temperament I can identify with. Or maybe it's his chiseled jaw and fantastic hair. Either way. Poor Henry gets way too much hate.
(Edit: Took 2 years and finally realized I should demarcate the paragraphs better. Smoooooth.)
I agree. I think that this personality should've been emphasized more and he should've had better voice acting and a bit more dialogue, but I always found him more relatable than the protagonists of the previous games because of this apparent introverted personality.
is henry hikikomori?
Perhaps it just wasn't conveyed in the best possible manner, they focused too much on making him a "relatable, sort of blank slate character" to serve as a vessel for the player to connect with the setting, the fact the previous 3 games had such strong protagonists didn't help either. If they had abandoned that idea and instead focused on the hints of character Henry has and developed them it'd have been a lot better. Introverted, depressed and socially anxious characters are a dime a dozen in videogames and this one had the potential to be so much more.
@@alanvitorj.b.fragamoreira7668
I can't think of any introverted, depressed, socially anxious video game characters.
P S Perhaps he just wasn't presented well enough. Your points all connect but you're making more of him than you were actually given. The full depth of Henry's character is characteristically *trapped* in some Japanese guy's head. Henry was kinda lost in transfer from mind to paper.
*WAIT* , People ACTUALLY think Downpour & Homecoming are better than *4* ??? 🤨
complete insanity. i just don't understands these silent hill "fans".
I was confused too...like, really?!? I think downpour is the worst silent hill game, homecoming isn't much better 🤷♀️ I actually like silent Hill 4, yeah the gameplay and some of the enemies can be pretty annoying sometimes but otherwise I liked the game.
For an outside company homecoming was pretty good even downpour was nice.
I didn't know that. I've been a fan of Silent Hill and went to most of the SH events and knew a lot of fans and I mean a lot. Most of us think that Silent Hill 4 was a fresh coat of paint to Silent Hill as we feel that the main story was brought down to its closure. And Walter was even teased in Silent Hill 2 which was awesome that he had a main story. When the demo came out, I was terrified with it. It has a tone that the environments would look like that foe everybody unlike Silent Hill 2 and 3 which has environments designed for the main characters only. I can't get immersed in Silent Hill 1 like 4 did as the design of the town doesn't have that sense of familliarity. So having the fans hate Silent Hill 4 than Downpour and Homecoming, I don't think that is true.
Downpour was bad and beyond frustrating
As someone who struggles with anxiety, the room affected me in ways the other games didn't.. my room is my safe place and this game turned it into a horror. For that reason, the room is my fav, even with all its flaws
Rii L When one of my friend saw Cynthia ghost he got scared so much and he was like "fuck that i am done, nope nope not playing more." Legend has it, he still hasn't finished beyond that.
Dude same my room never felt the same after 10 minutes into the game
I'm in a similar boat, and I always tell people that 4 actually forces you to play as if you have anxiety... finding reasons to avoid leaving the flat, feeling depersonalised outside (camera switch to 3rd), giving you frequent opportunities to go back. It's a great game because it doesn't say 'this is Henry, he has anxiety', it makes you play him as if he does!
welcome to the club
Exactly. The scariest thing in the game is the apartment itself.
Silent Hill 4 made me feel dirty and had moments that haunted my soul
The apartment was like an enemy of its own, changing, messing with you.. Eventually making you feel like a filthy, paranoid, shut in antisocial peeping Tom
The enemies in general that goop out of the walls and the giant face in the hospital will follow me till death! Infact my blood just ran cold thinking about it
I used to have fear an anxieties due from playing games and watching movies like this. I mean, having that dirty and unclean feeling is definitely a shared experience that I've had as well. I have no idea why I played games like this, perhaps it was just a means to test my courage, knowing that it is fake and just a game. But the reality is that there inner fear of the unknown that I had experienced while playing the Silent Hill games. They really made me start seeking for Heaven because, if Silent Hill is what hell is like, I was afraid to go there.
But years after playing the Silent Hill games and being afraid of dying due to not wanting to go to hell (or purgatory), I was led to the truth about death and dying. The sad reality is after reading the Bible, I found myself deserving to go to Hell for my sins against God. I used to believe that my baptism and good works would have saved me from Hell, but those two things don't save us from Hell. That's why I was afraid of dying, because I was putting my trust and faith in myself and not God.
Clearly the Silent Hill series (and many other games and movies) has perverted the goodness of God by making Him out to be such a horrible and unloving deity that wants to punish all of us and wants all of us to die in fear and agony...but that is so far from the truth.
John3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave us His son.".
We all deserve to go to Hell (or a place like Silent Hill) because of our sins against God. We have all made ourselves our own gods and our pride and disobedience had condemned us, but yet, Jesus died to take away our sins!! If you can put your trust and faith in Jesus, Christ to save your soul, you will never have to worry about feeling filthy and dirty for everything that you did in the past. He will cleanse you from within and cover your crimson stains as white as the snow.
Jesus will take away all of the fear of the horrible creatures that we have seen in all of these games and movies. Prior to putting my trust and faith in Jesus, Christ to save me from an eternal punishment in hell, I would have laughed at the concept of hell, yet the concept of hell scared me. But it hell is just as real as heaven is, and I want to see you up there. I want you to be cleansed from all the fear and anxieties that you have experienced by playing games like this in the past and also in the present. I don't want my worst enemy to go to hell, after knowing that it is just as real as heaven is....and you are not my worst enemy. That's why I am sharing this with you, because I want you to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus, Christ and for you to know what it is like to be cleansed of everything (like playing this game) that has made you feel dirty on the inside.
If you want to know more about how you can be saved from a horrible punishment eternally, and if you don't have a good church to go to; you could livestream my church's Wednesday and Sunday morning and evening services at:
www.mukwonagobaptist.org
I don't preach over there, but it is the church that helped me see my need for Jesus as my Lord and savior and because of the incredible things that Jesus has done in my life, I want to share that with you...since we have both seemed to share similar experiences while playing this game and others like it. With that being said, I am curious to know what do you think about death and the afterlife?
@@richdelaney9500 Don't make this about your religion please, this is a discussion about an excellent work of art. The game doesn't make you feel dirty because it's scary or because it "perverts the goodness of God", it makes you feel dirty because your character is locked in his apartment and the only way he can interact with the outside world is by spying through people's windows and peeping into his neighbor's bedroom through the hole in the wall. The game is designed to make you feel uncomfortable and put you on edge, to put you in Henry's shoes and force you to experience his plight, and it does that very effectively.
"Clearly the Silent Hill series has perverted the goodness of God by making Him out to be such a horrible and unloving deity that wants to punish all of us and wants all of us to die in fear and agony" I don't know how you come to that conclusion. There is no reference to your God in any of these games. There is something that characters like Dahlia and Claudia call "God": the sun god worshipped by the cult, which is clearly supposed to actually be some kind of powerful demon, and not a god at all. These games aren't about religion, they're about people. These games dissect their characters and explore their personalities and ideals and faults through visual metaphor, and that's why they're such fascinating experiences. Pretending that these games are simply about "perverting the goodness of God" is ignoring everything worthwhile about them.
Fictional stories like this, whether they're told through a video game, movie, tv show, book, or song, exist to do one thing: allow us to put ourselves in the shoes of the characters, so we can vicariously experience things we wouldn't normally experience on our own. Sometimes this is for the purpose of wish fulfillment or escapism, and other times (as is the case with the horror genre) it's more to allow us to face and deconstruct our fears so we can learn more about ourselves as people. Using video games to safely put yourself in situations you otherwise would never be in allows you to understand how you would react to those situations, and come to terms with why, giving you a better understanding of who you are. This links into self-evaluation and personal development, and people need this kind of thing to be healthy individuals. Psychological therapy is grounded in the practice of facing and coming to terms with things within yourself that you would otherwise hide from, because you associate them with fear or pain, and psychological horror is a somewhat limited microcosm of that idea. The only way to become a better person is to face these problems head-on, and that's easier to do with some kind of help, whether it be a friend, a therapist, Jesus, or a video game. Not to say that all horror experiences are as thoughtful as Silent Hill in this way, but most at least try to push you out of your comfort zone, which is always the first step to self-improvement.
I get it, I really do. I used to be a Jesus freak too. I didn't want anyone to go to hell any more than the next guy, and I tried so hard to convince anyone I encountered to accept Christ, because in my mind that was the best possible thing I could do for people. I didn't realize until later how destructive that kind of behavior actually was (and when I did realize it, that was the beginning of what lead to me losing my faith, but that's not what this is about). The point is, even back then I loved these games, and understood what they were trying to do. I understood that just because something is designed to cause fear and anxiety, that doesn't necessarily mean it opposes Christ and should be shunned. I'm a little disappointed that you don't seem to understand that.
@@DarthFennec That was very well said!! I used to play a lot of games and maybe I just misinterpreted how the game made God out to be evil. The stories behind all of the Silent Hill series has always been confusing to me because of all of the detail and the lore behind them.
I understand how you feel about losing your faith, because as Christians, we should always be willing to defend and honor what Jesus had done for us! I can't say that I am a little disappointed in you either because I know that you are so well spoken, you have a heart for people, and you obviously care about where they will spend an eternity. I can tell that you are as wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove :)
And yes, you are absolutely right about this game being terrifying. I meant that I felt dirty playing this game and watching this documentary/review on it because I sometimes think is this what hell is going to be like? Then, I am reminded of the fact that hell is going be people burning for all eternity....which I don't want even my worst enemy to suffer that kind of punishment for all eternity.
I will pray for you to regain that boldness and confidence to start witnessing to the lost souls again. And if you could please pray for me to gain more wisdom while I witness to people, that would be a huge blessing.
I, too, sometimes feel like giving up on witnessing to other people; and sometimes on living the Christian life, but the thing is that eternity is on the line. Just like the apostle Paul did, we must put on the whole armor of God and continue in this spiritual battle until the end.
You have so much to offer the world and to God, if you just give it all to Him! The world needs more Christian witnesses like you, who are as empathetic, as they are knowledgeable and wise!! You have such an amazing gift with communication and I really appreciated everything that you had written down. I learned alot from you and I hope to be able to learn more from you as well. Thanks for expressing your comments and views constructively, as it is very much appreciated!!!!
God is gay
@@richdelaney9500 I am not myself religious nor never have nor will be, because I find myself at wits with religious thought at an intellectual level we don't need to go into here, but I think @DarthFennec raises an important point, though in an overly convoluted way, that what makes games such as Silent Hill, despite the obvious grotesque nature of these games, appeal to so many people, is that ultimately the characters and the plights these characters go through, touch on very universal human struggles and feelings. The common theme this has with religion is that religion does the same thing through metaphors told by stories about god and worship. Fundamentally speaking, the Exodus is not about a group of people holding onto their faith though there is that aspect to it as well, but it is about a group of people who had to struggle when they were ostracized from the place they previously called home. The importance faith plays in this story has more to do with how it helps these people keep together and find meaning in their estrangement, despite it being needlessly cruel and unfair. It shows them that through faith, they can overcome this obstacle.
I also want to bring up that it is important to remember that Silent Hill originally took heavy inspiration from Freudian psychology and the notions of psychoanalysis, obviously the most explored in Silent Hill 2, but remains as a general theme in all of the games, though one can of course discuss how well done it is in later installments past 2. Regardless, the purpose of psychoanalysis is to create an introspective moment with the patient/client where they are freely able to express their deepest fears, motivations and feelings by not suppressing them into unconsciousness. The therapist is then supposed to help analyze or make sense of this content either with the patient/client, or in private. It is important to remember that at the time of inception, psychology was not considered an actual science like the natural sciences were, so Freud, Jung et al. tried to frame the subject heavily from the perspective of quantitative analysis just like one would analyze a natural phenomenon. This is why Freud for example spent a lot of time trying to connect various themes with the themes often found in dreams, because he thought there was an analytical (logical) relationship between dream experiences and the inner workings of a person. We now know that this is of course not always true, as not every dream has deeper meaning, but he was not completely wrong, either.
Anyway, what I am trying to say with all this is that the thematic or structural roots of Silent Hill goes back to trying to link the overall game experience to universal themes that most people can at some level relate to.
"You have so much to offer the world and to God, if you just give it all to Him! The world needs more Christian witnesses like you, who are as empathetic, as they are knowledgeable and wise!! You have such an amazing gift with communication and I really appreciated everything that you had written down. I learned alot from you and I hope to be able to learn more from you as well. Thanks for expressing your comments and views constructively, as it is very much appreciated!!!!"
I honestly believe that you would find far more meaning to speak less about your experiences about your relationship with religion and god, and more try to actually analyze why you find this poignant to preach about to strangers online, even when they have clearly expressed a disinterest in the subject. It shows a complete disregard of their wishes and is outright disrespectful. If you care about other people and about your religion and god, you need to actually take its lessons to heart and understand the nature of submission, where the first step is to listen to what others think and say, even when you do not understand them. Doing otherwise is actually incredibly selfish and shows that you only care to express your own feelings at the behest of others'. Which is actually what DarthFennec said they realized they were doing, and why they also fell out with their religion. We all understand you feel passionate about the subject and there is nothing wrong to share something you're feeling passionate about, but it does become incredibly wrong and selfish the one moment a person implicitly or directly states that they have no interest in this, and yet you continue with your actions. Who are you trying to convince, in actuality? Certainly not DarthFennec, because if you truly tried to take in what they had to say, DarthFennec has arrived at their own conclusions and they are very contrary to yours. Why does it bother you to such an extent that you must preach, despite claiming you do not intend to preach, to those that do not share your experiences? Do you truly feel that lonely and in need of a group identity to share those experiences with? You need to accept and respect that not everyone can, nor want, to experience things the same way you do. Just like gamers come here to watch videos about video games, you need to turn your eye to your own religious community when you wish to share your passion about religion. Because if I were to rant to someone who has no interest in games why Silent Hill fascinates me so much, do you think they'd care? Of course they wouldn't, and if I were to keep that up, I would certainly push that person away. Why? Because I did not listen to them and showed them proper respect.
The same thing holds true, here.
Funny thing is that SH4 was the only SH game that I wouldn't touch because I found it too scary. The thought of something unkillable chasing you and having your own safe haven slowly deteriorate into something twisted was incredibly uncomfortable to think off.
But now that I've grown up, it's a very interesting take on SH horror. It's sad how SH4 never gets much credit for all the cool stuff it did and how it's story showed how the cult in silent hill affected people outside the town.
I agree it like the only one I still get goosebumps when I replay it
Never actually put together the fact the cult WAS involved. I remember reading in-game about it too. Then again I was a teenager when i played so thinking things through wasn't exactly a priority for me. Lol
this!!!!!!!!!!!!
While I had heard of Silent Hill from the near-beginning, 4 was the first game I played in the franchise. I did not get far, mostly from what you described. I was not at all prepared for the unparalleled sense of dread and discomfort 4 has. Especially since I had no idea what's going on.
Yeah me too!. Specially when ghosts get into your apartment and even worse you couldn't kill them.
Im just laughing at the idea of people hating this one and liking homecoming
just lmfao
Why
I'm sure tons of people like homecoming but its just like... the design direction appeals to a completely different set of tastes than the franchises fanbase up to that point.
I just dont understand why you'd make that shift? People looking for more of SH 1-4 are going to be disappointed. People that dont like SH 1-4 are likely to not even try it.
So inevitably, homecomings fans are this odd fringe of taste that seems puzzling to the rest of us.
Bro have you seen your nickname and profile pic?
I know right. Homecoming is hands down the worst one. They really fucked up an awesome franchise I’ll never forgive them either
All of the western, “the other four titles” are completely irrelevant and complete trash, homecoming especially 😂
They don’t even exist when compared to the actual and real SH games. The first four.
Thanks for defending this game! I can understand why people didn't like it but there was some genuinely cool stuff in it.
That girl couldn’t die and could defend herself. What else did you want? Her to cast magic spells?
Other prominent and well known games had similar mechanics. Maria in SH2 was way more vulnerable. Ashley in Resi 4 was useless as a game’s asset and meant to make the game way harder than it already was. Who even complains about those things?
Gameplay-wise, nothing in SH4 felt broken or unfair, just a bit hard at times. But it wasn’t the problem. The problem was that it felt way more Japanese and psychedelic than any other released and future SH title. People absolutely hate being forced to leave their comfort zone, which is a shame.
a550077 ever hear Michael Jones talk about Ashley?
I love the story, and no problem "leaving my comfort zone" when it comes to video games. The biggest issue I had with the game where it's my least favorite (I don't hate the game) are the hard-to-deal-with ghosts that appear everywhere and unless you have the sword you have to run from the same ghost over and over when you repeated the same area (it got tedious in my opinion), and keeping Eileen safe. The story and psychological horror of the game I adored. Not to mention the soundtrack, as always, is amazing
"The biggest issue I had with the game where it's my least favorite" - people are different, they have different tastes and I respect that. Peace. To me personally, SH4 is my third favourite.
As for your criticisms...
"the hard-to-deal-with ghosts that appear everywhere" - actually, they don’t appear everywhere, only in specific areas. The game was designed so that the player learns how to outmanoeuvre certain enemies instead of systematically relying on weapons. In other words, the player was not always in control, and that was a major problem for many people. To compensate for that, creators gave the player infinite health for the first half of the game, plus plenty of healing items. So I’d say it’s fair.
"Eileen can die in the ending" - Eileen doesn’t automaticaly die in the end, the only thing that changes is how much time you have to kill Walter. And why exactly is this relevant? Not keeping her safe does not prevent you from finishing the game. It was designed so that if a player puts an extra effort, (s)he receives an extra reward (a lovely custscene you can watch on RUclips).
Back then, Eileen was one of the rare characters who made comments about what was actually happening. I’d say she was one of the better designed side characters back then.
I agree people are different and we all enjoy different things.
It's been years since I played but I never noticed the infinite health on my play through, but I'll see if I can notice whenever I try to play again. I still find the ghosts tedious even though I do understand why they are there. I have no problems with running from my enemies. I've enjoyed similar mechanic games (such as Clocktower, Haunting Ground, Amnesia: Dark Descent, etc.). I personally just find the ghosts tedious.to have to deal with over and over in the same exact way. Others may enjoy it, that's fine, but personally I just don't care much for the ghosts.
It's relevant because you said that she cannot die, which she can at the end for those that want to achieve a particular ending. No one says you can't finish the game if she dies, I said "she can die in the ending if you let her take so much damage during the game". Her damage count (for lack of better term) is what determines the speed she walks to her death at the end. Most people want to achieve the good ending than a bad ending when they play. So keeping her safe is priority depending on what ending you wish to get.
I do agree with her being a great character. I loved listening to her talk when she commented on things. I do wish I got her to comment on her huge head that was in one of the rooms lol.
I also personally think that Henry doesn't really have much of a personality because the game really isn't his story, it's Walter's.
That's a very good point, I wish the devs themselves made this claim, but it's certainly worth considering. Thanks!
It doesn't excuse objectively bad acting though. Good actors could have pull up this. And we wouldn't fight about it.
Henry is just the little sacrament offering that could
@@lasarousi lmao
@@Kabodanki pfft, like the acting in silent hill has ever been objectively good
That situation with sato honestly makes me wonder if konami just hates its employees
Konami hates humanity.
I hate how Konami always put so much focus on Americanizing/westernizing things and treats the best-of-the-best Japanese employees like shit
As much as I despise Konami's lack of work ethic and will not let their blame be shifted, part of it is just Japanese corporate culture.
After WWII, the fervid nationalism that the emperor Hirohito had stirred up by commanding the nation to consider the military their "family," was shifted to the toppled postwar economy, with the now-undeified emperor telling the Japanese to consider the company their "family." This is how Japan's economy had risen from an abyss to an international presence as early as the 1970s.
However, the remnants of that situation leave Japanese salarypeople underpaid for too many hours and no vacations, about to die from overwork/exhaustion, or from poisoning by the alcohol they turn to to get them through it. Meanwhile, the executives are often entitled, privileged slavedrivers who take advantage of the leverage the pro-corporation sentiment of postear Japan has given them, and work their employees to the bone without giving them a second thought. Konami is just an example whose greed, pettiness, and shamelessness have been demonstrated to the general public well enough to hurt their sales.
They cancelled silent hills which would’ve been a guaranteed classic with Hideo Kojima, Junji Ito, and Guillermo DelToro, it would’ve been so good and they shut it down. Honestly fuck Konami
@@thiskid990 it's because of that very reason that they manage to keep losing to other gaming companies. They threw away what made them good and adopted things that puts them in direct competition with others who do things better than them, while the consumer gets shat on for absolutely no reason.
I love Henry. He's so cool in a bland way. He didn't have deep issues like the past protags, though they were amazing too. I just appreciate the change in pace. He was a normal guy caught up in a freaky, demonic situation
"cool in a bland way" is honestly the perfect way to describe him, lol. Out of all the SH protags, Henry is the one I'd want to be friends with the most. He just seems like a really nice guy, just socially awkward.
havent played 4 yet but that sound similiar to james
@@acak5449 .... James murdered his wife with a pillow, how is that bland but cool? It's like turning on a lofi chill playlist and hearing Darude Sandstorm.
You shouldn't spoil anything even if most of the people here are already caught up with the series.
@@reese8050 People who haven't played shouldn't be watching a video that describes the entire plot of the game and then reading the comments, maybe.
Yamaoka's "Resting Comfortably" made this game for me. Nothing made me feel the way I did when you are wandering the empty apartment complex while you hear a young Walter calling for his parents after he is abandoned by them in room 204. While not without it's problems, the atmosphere really is it's one true strength.
That particular song really stuck out for me for some reason. Even though the game had great atmosphere and interesting music before Resting Comfortably even showed up, that was the song that made one of the biggest impressions. The constant short loop of the same chord and melody being played over and over and over while you run around the apartments created this weird melancholic and uneasy feeling that just dug its way into your head. Especially since the oppressive visuals of the level itself kinda contrast with the calmness of the song, it definitely made that whole section memorable.
Agreed. I think I actually shed a tear while playing that part. Hearing Walter's dad say those things was heartbreaking - and I don't even particularly like children, lol! This part got me, probably in my top 5 moments of the entire series.
agreed
Silent hill 4 was insanely scary because the ghosts start invading your safe place. The creatures just as terrifying as the first 3, some more so. Thanks for this video
The apartment isn't about loneliness and entrapment. It's about social anxiety, isolation, and paranoia. Think about what you do when you come back to the safety of your apartment. Once you notice something has changed in your safe place you begin searching every time you return, you check all the windows and peepholes. The game turns you into a peeping Tom shut in.
Yeah... even the yellow color of the apartment.... my bad or sad memories often have a yellow tint over them.... strange...
@@markokecman1177 The color of a dingy yellow can be also symbolic of sickness, or some caution.
God that’s eerily cool
Very true
Also I should add that the town of Silent Hill doesn't doesn't punish people like some believe. It's purely an evil that feeds off the emotionally damaged. James and Angela are not bad people who need to be punished. Eddie you could make an argument against. So if Henry is a socially anxious, paranoid shut in like the game seems to imply it would make sense that the game doesn't take place in silent hill but instead in his apartment. Turning his safe space into a living hell. It may not be the same town but it is the same evil.
I think you should have further touched on Walter Sullivan's story and background. To me it is the most interesting and heart breaking story in the series beside Angela and Alessa. All he wanted was motherly love and he tried to get it the only way he believed he could in the 21 Sacraments. His story, or tragedy depending on who you ask, is a great addition to the SH lore because it tells so much about the cults evils towards their members.
Silent hill 4 is so underrated. The room hub wolrd was so different. Yes the game had flaws like the inventory system for example. But gets BIG points for bringing something new to the table imo. Also, idc what any one says, hideo kojimas pt was heavily influenced by sh4! The hauntings was very similar
Resident Evil r3make low key seems to reference this in the first part. I know RE8 will draw inspiration from it.
I'm going one step further and say Kojima took tips from Forbidden Siren as well, another game directed by a Team Silent member. The concept of getting players to cooperate in order to beat a single-player game through info sharing is not new.
@@andrecarvalho6691 interesting
SH4s story and especially atmosphere and art design were nothing short of brilliant, though a bit poorly executed graphically at times. But that is why the gameplay is considered bad and annoying - it draws you away and distracts you constantly with unkillable ghosts and frustrating creatures so that you can't focus on the atmosphere and get invested in it properly.
The Adventures of Henry "What the Hell" Townsend
Henry is just really good at practicing social distancing.
I feel this game would be so relatable this year. Like the amount of people who are locked in doors, only allowed to leave for certain reasons (Like in Australia right now.) I kind of want to play it now
@@traviscue2099 just played it during this time, although no longer in quarantine. Still though I found Henry oddly relatable
@@andrecarvalho6691 Oh I'm in Australia, we just went back into lockdown haha, might try to find the game and play it. Currently playing Death Stranding now, its also the perfect game to play while trapped in an apartment.
@@traviscue2099 seems they thought the same thing, never played Silent Hill 4 because I had a gamecube as a child, not a PS2 or xbox. Good old games (GOG.com) just re-released it for 10$, with 1080p support too. Really liking this game a lot, not sure what the hate was for. Maybe people really just wanted to walk around the bland, dead-end ridden streets of Silent Hill (even though we all know the outdoor segments could have been so much better)
@@XxsuperstudlyxX I think 4 has issues, but the concept is so cool. I remember playing it as a teen, and some scenes back in your appartment.
But so many gems are misunderstood at launch. But have fun with it!
On the topic of whether or not SH4 was ever meant to be a Silent Hill to begin with the fact of the matter to me is that, outside of the devs mentioning the name "Room 302", documentation on what that game was ever supposed to be has never surfaced in over a decade. This to me means one of two things. Either A). Silent Hill 4 was always meant to be a sequel, or B). Room 302 changed into a Silent Hill game so early in development that the argument is pretty much useless out the gate.
The reason I bring it up is because it's still an argument for some reason, and much bigger channels still think its origin is a debunked rumor when the director himself flat-out says that it wasn't intended as such. They also said right when development started, their direction was to make it completely different from Silent Hill 1 and 2.
One thing I can definitely appreciate about SH4 is how it intentionally presents itself as dreamy in terms of atmosphere and soundtrack. I mean, the very first scene is a dream sequence. I can't put my finger on it, but like you said: the game uses contrast by being both comfortable fear-inducing, instilling doubt in the player. Each different world is a distorted perception of a past memory from Walter, with him associating these characters that we meet with these areas because they are people Walter has met in these places (the real-world version of them--not the distorted version of these areas that we play through). Each character is symbolic in their presentation, but I'd be typing paragraphs explaining what each one represents. If the flaws were perfected with this game, I honestly think this could be in the same rank as Silent Hill 2. The writing, atmosphere, soundtrack, and certain area designs are definitely worthy of praise.
honestly, I rank this higher than 2. 2 was too bland for me, it wasn't just boring. but 4 just kept you alive with everything. it also has the best antagonist in any game, any genre I have ever seen. the gameplay is uneasy and annoying. but it just contributes to the creepiness imo. it's a masterpiece for me.
Props for bringing up SH4's intro. When I first played the game that alone gave me nightmares, particularly the crawling build-up to a jumpscare that never happened.
I kinda disagree with that too. The problem is that if you put horror imagery too early, then you put someone in that mindframe. That sort of negates the slow creep of horror.
You expect horror then. Or you see more horror than you do at the start. It's also not really emotional.
The difference between Silent Hill 1-3 and Silent Hill 4 is that the first 3 games scared me...
... Silent Hill 4 fucking TERRIFIED me. It was the only game where, as a kid, I was so stressed by the visual stimulus I was receiving and the odd, fever dreamish atmosphere, that I shamefully chose to turn the console off as a quick escape. It is not conventional, but that's the beautiful thing about this game. I feel all four of the first titles, bar 3, do something completely unique to draw me into their world. The first game really does feel like this dive into a mysterious, abandoned town. Silent Hill 2 is this poetic dive into the human psyche. 3, while I don't hate it and certainly maintains elements of past games, benches a little bit too much on legacy for me; I feel it would have been an infinitely weaker game without its correlation to Silent Hill 1 and 2. The same cannot be said about 4. The Room went in a brave and bold new direction for better and worse, but created an experience unlike any of the past games while still making frequent nods to the universe it exists in. Rather than trying to follow up the story of 1 or do the in depth character analysis of 2, Silent Hill 4 ran in the opposite direction of both of the first two games and showed how the fucked up reality of Silent Hill could fundamentally corrupt a completely innocent bystander and turn them into a horrifying villain.
I have zero reservations in saying that Silent Hill 4 has the best story out of any of the original games; whether or not you like the combat or various other mechanics, they all tie back to this deeply disturbing narrative that not only scares but capitalizes on every element introduced in the franchise in subtle ways.
People don't like it and I think that primarily boils down to Team Silent's willingness to take things in a different direction. It'll forever remain the black sheep of the franchise, and in many ways mirrors Resident Evil 7 in the unnecessary hate it garners from the franchise's fans. But when you set everything else aside and appreciate it simply for what it is, it is a god damn marvel.
This is my favorite Silent Hill game. I love surrealism in my horror and the dreamscape of this one's setting delivers that in spades.
Yeah it's kind of "Lynch-ish"!
My favorite is SH2 but I loved SH4 as well
It's a tie for first between SH2 and SH4 for me. I couldn't understand the hate for it. The concept if being trapped in an apartment while the world changed around you, while being stalked by a spirit serial killer, was horrifying.
agreed!
Silent Hill 3 is my favorite entry in the series, and one of my fave games of all time. It's a brilliant experience. Silent Hill 4 on the otherhand, is an underrated gem. It deserves more respect than it gets. Though derivative, it's the LAST proper entry in the series.
Hi that's great, how did you beat the alternate Heather on the merry go round? she is so strong
I hated this game 10 years ago but it was my fault. I played it 4 times straight to get all the endings. The first time I liked it but I played the other runs like a chore. I despised the second half and never returned until this year. I replayed it and man this is a good game. I think the main issue is ironically the best aspect of The Room. This game is a nightmare, literally. You repeat scenarios and no matter how much you run, you are in the same place. Maybe my opinion is pretentious, but my enjoyment for this game skyrocketed with this mentality.
You can easily get all endings in 2 playtroughs by reloading last save before ending battle.
Yes, but I like SH a lot and at that time I didn't want to "cheat". In other words, im a fucking idiot lol. romeostruedude you are right! The nostalgia train hit me because I replayed all 4 games with friends this year and I was excited until we got to sh4, then I saw my friends reactions and remembered the scares. They were a little frustrated with the Eileen crap but surprisingly I was thinking "uh... it wasn't that bad after all" and when they left my house, I replayed the entire game by myself and oh boy it was a ride.
Repeat scenarios? Thats how PT was supposed to be
Weirdly I felt that way about SH3 getting all 3 endings and achievements, not all throught the game but certain areas felt like a chore like the subway level but like all 4 games its worth it
Achievement and trophy hunting is a surefire way to make gaming a complete chore. I’ll never fully understand it.
It's the only Silent Hill game that made me quit at multiple points out of pure fear and insanity. I genuinely felt perturbed while playing this one.
Same
I've been in many Silent Hill Forum discussions... Some people might not like SH4, but I've never heard anyone say that they think it's worse than Homecoming or Origins. if anything, I would say that the unfair hatred of Silent Hill 4, based solely on the fact that it's different, is why all the western developers all took the safe route by following the archetype of Silent Hill 2. Whether you like Silent Hill 4 or not, it should definitely be praised for at least attempting to try to do something different, as opposed to mimicking the archetype of the first three games.
I personally love Silent Hill 4 - it's one of my favorite games in the series! I also like all the other games as well, even the newer ones. they obviously don't compare to the first four, but they're not that bad.
I think the issue people have with 4 is that the first 3 were so good and then you have 4 as the weird child that doesn't really fit in with the previous 3 but still hits commendable notes from time to time. This can get fans to start blaming it for the series fall and so they direct their hatred onto it. In reality, it was the breaking up of Team Silent and Konami's corporate meddling that has killed Silent Hill as a franchise.
Nothing is worse than Book of Memories. Nothing.
@@HareHaruhi Should that even be considered part of the canon? 😂
Right i never heard anyone put it lower then homecoming
It's not that it's different, Part 2 was different.
It was lazy. Flat out, linear, blank, lazy development.
Man oh man this takes me back. I was just getting out on my own when I was just 18. I had got this game. I also stayed alone at my apartment. It gave me the heebie jeebies. I always found myself looking at my front door.
It’s my second favourite Silent Hill game. Mainly because it goes back to a “real” mystery plot. You’re trying to figure out what was going on. With Silent Hill 2, James never cared about what happened to the town, and his story conclusion was sad, but predictable. And with Silent Hill 3, it’s more of a revenge story, with a lot of the backstory explained to you. Both didn’t have the same mystery that the original Silent Hill offered, where you’re trying to figure out what’s going on. It was a game where the story was also a puzzle that needed to be put together. Silent Hill 4 captures that.
Very well-put.
@Salty Lolita Oh stop it, yall act like it's the real deal cuz it's not.
This was actually my introduction to the franchise, it has a special place in my heart. I love this game
What a coincidence, I'm actually an indie game developer who is working on his next horror game, and one of the games that I'm looking into to get some inspirations from is Silent Hill 4: The Room
Highly recommend headphones and playing alone at night
Diamond Seeker - That is pretty much a staple for all Horror games, though what does this have to do with my game project?
Alex Olinkiewicz Well you said you're looking for inspiration so I just thought I'd somewhat convince into emerging into this.. sick world of a game. Maybe it wouldn't suit your preferences or expectations but for me, this is one of a few which I will never forget. I played almost all of the other sh games too, but this particular one, however bad people say it is, will never leave my memory.
Diamond Seeker Oh, well I have already played SH4 (the entire series) and seen many videos about the game, I'm just re-looking into the series and some other Horror games for reference and inspiration uses.
Alex Olinkiewicz From your original comment I understood you haven't played it. Anyway good luck with your project!
Fantastic video filled with fair and well-constructed points. Great work! :)
Hi
"In defense of silent hill 4" 24 minutes into the video, checks the title again
Lucas Martins But at least that history of Silent Hill really worth to watching I completely forget what I coming for until I minimize the screen and see the title lol.
Man if only he provided a time stamp to skip to that point 🤔
He was beating the shit out of SH4 for 24 minutes xd imagine if he wasn't defending it
😂😂
@@lucasmoreirasantos8377 fala mano, jogava mto no meu ps2 desbloqueado hahahaa
SH4 just needed more polish. It was far from bad.
What a valiant hill to die on my friend
Omg you hearted it you’re one of my favourite youtubers, this made my day haha
The Room is a masterpiece, and P.T had a plan to do the same, to screw your mind completly. It took me about 16 hours to finish in first walktrough.
Honestly its my favorite game in the series. Its a wonderful subversion of various SH tropes and horror games as a whole, which were booming and formulaic up to that point.
Its just wonderfully weird and unique, and people that hate it are WEAK fools that will not survive the winter
Illuvial now now, we all know you can’t survive outside the basement 😏
@@SolomonRasputin :(
In which way does it subvert the tropes?
My favourite games in the series are:
1. SH2
2. SH4
3. SH1 and SH3 equal
4. SH shattered memories
Add up raisin Silent Hill that way it won't be so terrible
To me it doesn’t need defending. It was an amazing game and I loved it
KONAMI is a lost cause. Though, personally I still dreaming about MGS games & Silent hill games get a remake with FOX Engine. Oh well . . .
A Metal Gear 1 and 2 remake would be the missing link in the series.
would love a proper SH1 remake and a remaster of this awesome game too
The Silent Hill games were so great because of the limitations. It would be so hard to recreate that with modern technology. Residents Evil 2 did it so who knows
There's already people commented how they're glad to hear your thoughts on Silent Hill 4 and relief to know someone else thought the game wasn't that bad.
So I say props for you on making this.
This is actually my favorite Silent Hill.
Someone validated you opinions, great. I don't think people said it was entirely bad, first they mostly said that it was less than the other game, on its own, it's not great either.
Thank you so much for making this video supporting this underrated gem of a game! I will never understand the hate that this game gets, it was truly the last amazing Silent Hill game. But I will admit that Shattered Memories was pretty interesting, though.
The silent hill 4 intro scarred me as a kid. that game really hit different, prob because it was the first horror game i played but still, the newer horror games i played arnt even as close to creepy like Silent hill 4. The way you would just walk around the environment without any background music like the newer games, and when you would open a door and the screen goes dark and silent, scared of whats on the other side, its just so creepy. and being a kid, not knowing much about games and how to progress, it took me FOREVER to complete that game and when i did, it was such a relief and just a crazy adventure. idk why i wrote this cause i know no one is gonna read this but yea i love the game, and the music too but thats a whole different story cause that music is something else.
I love this game. I was going through a very low point in my life when it came out that mirrored the theme of this game, so I connected with it on a very deep level. Out of all the Silent Hill games this is the one I revisit the most. The theme song is beautiful and still invokes strong emotions in me.
Silent Hill 4 is my favorite probably due to I relate to it since I have lived in small New York City apartments my entire life.
Perfectly captured the feeling of social isolation, loneliness, and paranoia of such living quarters.
in my opinion I think Silent Hill is the best horror game ever made
That is a fact.
I think 2 wins, only due to how more subtle and deflective it is. The horror is about a man who lies to himself about the murder he committed fairly recently, not some cult and an eldritch demon god and their antics.
That slight touch of realism.
I agree.
SH4 for the young me was the scariest of the SH games. I always have had a soft spot for this game and frankly its my favorite SH game right after 2. Its an amazing spook romp and got me very interested in J-horror in general.
Silent Hill 4 is the last good game.
Qwerty Z yep 👍
Couldn't agree more with you
Real talk!
Rando I hear shatter memories is pretty good actually, mostly for its story and puzzles though. Not very scary.
@Rando sm was interesting, but still too weird.
@Rando I enjoyed Shattered Memories overall, but it's weighed down with some odd choices. The devs obviously took the combat in Homecoming a little to close to heart because you don't fight a single enemy in the game. You run from them. There's like 2 or 3 times where I think it's warranted, but other times are pretty forced and anger inducing. I remember some of the chase scenes having objectives. Yeah, it's so cool to run down this path in the corner of your eye and take pictures while these fleshy humanoids screech and deteriorate your screen.
That being said, I got the most out of the exploration bits and the decisions you make can make the game a little more different because the game tries to psychologically profile you. Definitely a little too ambitious for a Wii game.
While not being my favorite of the series it has absolutely my favorite soundtrack of them all. It feels like Akira is full force and there's so many tracks that I adore.
Although I don't like SH4, you do bring up very fair points. I also agree with The Room belonging with the classics, regardless of it's original conception, made by the "B Team" of Team Silent, or the fact it's not traditionally Silent Hill.
I do love the trailer, the image of the chained doors are simply iconic, and Walter as an antagonist is on par with Claudia, in my opinion. It's a shame it had to be developed during the same time as SH3, if it had a bit more polish on things like the sound design, it could've been a decent game, even if people wouldn't have accepted it as a Silent Hill title.
Here's hoping for a 1-4 remastered collection.
I highly doubt konami will remaster them. Thats why the ps2 versions are expensive now.
Jack Spedicy 2 That's why I said "hope". Even a straight port would be OK with me, as long as it's made more readily available for everyone.
But put back the original audio in 2
Matthias Bartley Definitely! :)
Matthias Bartley I used to hate the voice acting in 2 until I learned there's more to art than realism
*Spoilers ahead*
The moment you realize that Walter's body had been rotting away just beyond your bedroom's wall the whole time, is still one of my favorite moments in this game. The idea that your safe place in the game had been tainted from the start by containing that dark secret so close to you without ever suspecting anything.
On a similar note, that final scene in the movie Hereditary, where they find out the cult leader grandma's ritualistically decapitated corpse had been in the attic the whole time was equally horrifying and instantly made me think of SH4.
I'm 3 years late, but yes, I agree so much. I think it was the first time I had personally seen a "It was there the whole time" plot-twist, and I also like the comparison to Hereditary.
Love the epic sh4 intro music
I didn't even finish Silent Hill 4 when I played it. Too stressful and I got stuck in a section of the game not knowing what to do. But dang, they were very bold and really experimented new concepts that could make even more history in gaming. I would be far happier if companies kept trying to experiment and create unique games than just recreate the same zombie games a thousand times. The problems the game had were mostly due to mechanics, it could have been an ace on the series with that world and story design.
thank you.
SH 4 was very good and i enjoyed it, i never understand the hate it gets
coverandoacasa It's called opinions. Everyone doesn't have to like something just because you do. So again, let me help you be able to understand the hate SH 4 gets; someone else has a different opinion than you, kiddo.
The combat is pretty repetitive
@@jyatsko89 tough guy
Justin Yatsko r/toughguys
Andrew Killen *douche bag
I’m a huge Walter Sullivan fan, he’s really an interesting character and antagonist, even I don’t think silent hill four is a good game but I still like the idea behind it
4 is really scary, its well done. It was just different to the others and that gave people a reason to call it bad.
Problem was that it was a bad entry.
As a horror game,4 is fucking PHENOMENAL.Its dark,has an amazing lore,deaths that arent cheesy,and a complex and disturbing plot.
Its just way out of touch with the rest of the series.Hell if memory serves me correctly,you dont even vist the titular town once.Not to mention that silent hill,while a horror game,wasnt solely about the distubing aspects it gave.Its purpose was to give insight on how people view their darkest thoughts brought reality,rather than demonic horror.
It really shouldn't have been a Silent Hill main entry. It felt more like a spin-off with some relation to the originals.
Then SH4 was just released, there was already this weird "SH4 Bad" bandwagon forming, and i remember me and other ppl i know automatically jumping to this bandwagon simply because all big name review sites said so and at the time they still had some authority, so their words meant more. It took a few years after release to forget all their bullshit and just sit down and play the game proper.
@@buckovens6706
homecoming had to come out so idiots had something new to hate on and actually appreciate the game before it. That's a cycle we've noticed MANY times in many fandoms, like say, the Zelda series.
they calling it bad,bcs you had to REPEAT HALF OF THE GAME.
Perfect description of the intro. Filled with fear, yet comfort. Honestly made me smile lol
Honestly, this is arguably my most favorite game of all time. For me, Silent Hill 4 was like a gateway drug, it changed my tastes in gaming and got me addicted to survival horror. Not only was this the first Silent Hill game I ever played, but the first real horror game I ever played for that matter. I never realized how scary video games could be until a friend told me about the Silent Hill series. I was just an impressionable young teenager in those days, and when I got my first taste of survival horror after renting Silent Hill 4, I was immediately hooked. I fell madly in love with the whole series, and since this was in late 2004/early 2005, the first four games were the only ones in the series, so every Silent Hill game I played in those days was just an absolute masterpiece. The impact this game had on me as a gamer was just astounding, even to this day I celebrate this game and consider it one of the great classics of Silent Hill and survival horror gaming, despite its obvious flaws that I've come to realize as I got older. I can understand why the fans give the later games so much hate, but I never understood why the fourth entry got so much negative feedback! It was still developed by Team Silent, and most of all, it was legitimately scary! I honestly think that should be the main factor for how good any survival horror game is. Whatever the case, this was an excellent video, and I sincerely appreciated you giving this gem of a horror game the praise it truly deserves. :)
Wow, what a great analysis, i greatly enjoyed, i watched the entire video! ^-^ I really love the SH franchise and i definitely agree that #4 is just as amazing as the first three, there's just so much creativity and depth and analysis into so many things, truly captivating! Thank you for this video :D
Amazing video and esp the way you talked about the intro how it pulls you in and disturbs you and then quickly eases you with it's amazing OST.
That is so fascinating, amateurs at horror going into a project with new eyes, studying the genre from the ground up, and creating something beautiful. ;_;
Great video, though in my opinion the influence of the game design and backtracking is dismissed too easily and even defended too much. The backtracking complain is not necessarily that you go for a second round, it's also that you have to travel back and forth between worlds because you might have missed a key item, ran out of inventory space and similar scenarios. The consequence is that the game becomes "gamey" in the process. You freely move around familiar areas in order to overcome game mechanics. The previous Silent Hill installments gave you a feeling of being led forward by an invisible force instead, which completely vanishes with this item chasing.
It's not really helping either that you have invincible ghosts chasing you all the time while you want to discover and explore - to be honest, the concept of running away from enemies rather than defeating them always sounds good on paper, but usually they turn out to be annoying and distracting from the experience. It usually just works in sequences where you actually want to move away from an area quickly. But in this case, you want to look out for things and explore. Instead, you get poked forward constantly.
The comparison to P.T. here was kind of mindblowing to me honestly - the design of this demo would have fit perfectly for Silent Hill 4! Not making use of darkness, however, led to the room never feeling that creepy in my opinion. Things are just grey all the time in 4, and this led to me never being really scared to be honest. The trailer still played around with vision and was super scary because of that, but it was never used like that in the actual game. I did like the room sequences nevertheless though because it had the most interesting exploration, it was just never as scary and unsettling to me as it seemed to want.
Last but not least, I feel like it failed on the emotional level. It never really played with the melancholy that especially made Silent Hill 2 my favorite game. When the Resting Comfortably track set in, I actually thought it might happen, but then the Walter soundloop just didn't stop and even that turned out to become annoying. There was just always something missing. It's definitely a great and interesting concept, but the execution didn't work for me at all.
I remember trying to play this when I was a kid and I was absolutely terrified when I got followed by the ghosts in the subway I couldn’t continue. The intro video started playing on my tv and I was absolutely paralyzed by fear and I couldn’t get up to turn it off. Truly awful experience. This was a great game and probably my favorite in the series
Though I disagree with a few things said. For the most part, I'm glad more and more people are recognizing this game as one to be talked about. Well done.
All part of the discussion! As much as I defend it, I can see why people are not too keen on the game itself.
GhenryPerez I'm super keen on it. I'd even say I like 4 more than 3, with respects to both. The first one is my very favorite, and always will be. While I like 2 as a form of art, I feel replaying it over and over has made it a tad stale over the years. Each of those games has things I like and don't like about them. But that's what reminds me that they were made by people, and not a batch of soulless husks trying to grab cash rather than grab at our attention to detail.
Your video was good. And you released it around the time I started looking back into these games for inspiration in working on my own projects. 4 especially, given how strange it is on many terms. Maybe someday I'll be able to demonstrate a similar passion to making something that's unique and does specific things in it's own way. Who knows.
I really wish that more people talked about silent hill 4, it’s such a weird and unique game not just in the series, but compared to any other horror game I’ve played, and it’s my personal favorite game in the series.
Before playing Silent Hill 4, I was also one of those who thought it was too different and more of a spin off. After playing it, I now believe it definitely fits into the Silent Hill series. It has a charm and eeriness that only Team Silent could have produced. How I wish they got together to go another one...
Silent Hill 4 is my favourite game, character, story, and ost in any silent hill ever it-s my personal favourite.
Sillent hill 4 was actually the best story line in the frenchise in my opinion
It is definitely up there with 2's, that's for sure.
The second part has a greater bias in matters of love, family relations, the most common types are “I am so fat”, “Nobody loves me”, “Dad touched me”, and other ordinary cliches. Everything is fixed on specific characters that have no clear relationship to the city. There Silent Hill is presented as a decoration, nothing more. Compared to the 4th part, it's just a soap opera, not a Japanese horror movie.
I don't know man, having a character directly related to Silent Hill kinda makes it corny and yes Cheryl/Heather is somewhat corny. Silent Hill from what I gathered is an extremely mysterious town with a dark past and you get glimpses of that in 1,2,3 Silent hills. It's a character in it's own right a Horror Character and like many many horror characters removing the veil and revealing their faces, figure and motives kinda kills the actual Horror. I like a lot of things about 4, but I just think a lot of it is super corny. My main gripe about Silent Hill 4 is the monsters and the over all symbolism in the game. It isn't that heavy at all.
@Baron BarrabanaHorse Everything is a cliche if you boil them down to a 4-word summary. What made SH2 so good was how it presented its individuals and their issues, not just having them in the first place. Also, Silent Hill was absolutely not a decoration in the game - it was the personal purgatory that brought their inner psyches to life.
I'm proud to say I've always loved this game.
When a horror franchise has a few sequels under its belt, there comes a risk of the audience being a little too familiar with "the rules" of the world and being able to take comfort in that familiarity. By throwing away conventions, you run the risk of the audience feeling cheated, but the reward, if done well, is that you take away the feeling of safety that comes with knowing the conventions.
Resident Evil 4 and 7 both exemplify this philosophy at work, and you can definitely see SH4 aiming for the same thing.
SH4 is GOLD compared to what came after. I will die on that hill kicking and screaming.
I feel like Henry's acting is realistic given his scenario. He's been trapped in his apt. for weeks. Humans being naturally social being deprived of that has his emotion and reactions distant. His only escape from being trapped is through his nightmares and fears causing him to lose even more of his mind the further you get into the game. For example examinejng things in your room makes him say different things about them the further you get. He starts becoming cloud minded and just unable to concept certain things.
Correction: SH4 does actually have the radio mechanic but its exclusive to the room in order to detect if there's any hauntings which is helpful if you're unable to see them. I'm not sure why Team Silent didn't explain or even mention that mechanical change but it exists nonetheless.
IMO the best SH ever. I play horror games to experience sensations, there's no other game that made me feel so claustrophobic like this one. They did a awesome job
Silent Hill 4's introduction is a masterpiece, and arguably the most terrifying and unnerving moment in any Silent Hill game.
I recently learned how distracting stock sounds can be to a game. I've put 680+ hours into Dark Souls 3 and there's an enemy type in the game called Thralls which make a very ditsinct sound to give you a heads up about them as they tend to ambush you.
I recently got a little game called Pit People (made by the same people as Castle Crashers) and have had a ton of fun with it but I was sucked out of the game the moment that I heard the sounds the Spider like enemies make for the first time (don't remember their actual name) as it's mostly the same sounds that the Thralls make in DS3. I've since gotten used to it as the sounds make sense, but it was super distracting the first few times.
Unless the comment was edited, they never said that they quit either game, just that it was distracting.
What I liked was that you had brand new enemies that when you first encountered them were scary. The two headed girls scared the crap out of me, as did the subway ghost girl with her typical Japanese girl ghost hair. Then as you progress in the story, your room gets scarier too. I still remember when I saw the shoes in front of the door, it gave me chills. And of course the ghosts coming out of the walls. It just gave me new scares that I didn't expect.
the nurses falling down the stairs was one of my favorite moments haha glad it was on ur outro
They are actually patients,Walter deformed them then stitched them back.
My mom passed away 5 days ago, this was her favorite silent hill game, I just ordered it, can’t wait to experience it myself
Reminds me of Nightmare on Elm Street, with the terrible paranormal entity trying to kill you both inside and outside the dream, and if you die inside the dream, you're dead in real life.
I remember playing this game when I was pretty young. I didn't even want to walk down the hallway in the initial nightmare, lol. Beating the first half of the subway level was a milestone back then.. I believe it belongs with the first 3 titles though, it's psychologically worthy.
This was the second silent Hill game I ever played. The first one was silent Hill 2. I loved it! Then I played silent Hill 4 And honestly I loved it. It freaked me out and I love the story and everything about it. I personally find all the games to have something enjoyable about them. I try not to judge them by each other and just as their own individual thing. I like all their stories.
SH4 is great and one of a kind. People can hate it, but they have to admit that its not some ordinary or generic throwaway game.
In all media I tend to prefer something unique and flawed over something polished but generic. making something unique is hard and I respect that a lot.
Buck Ovens exactly
SH4 was very much a mixed bag. I loved the various settings, the apartment hauntings, and the general feel of the game. I enjoy everything about it, really, until I have to escort Eileen through maps I've already done. That, to me, was the major stumble.
To me it would've been a superior title if Eileen was a fully controllable protagonist in the second half of the game. While this would be taking a leaf from the Resident Evil playbook switching back and forth between Henry and Eileen would've been more interesting, at least to me, than just dragging Eileen from map to map.
Easily my favourite of the Silent Hill games. I absolutely loved the plot, and the main antagonist, or rather the ideas behind him, his origins, his powers. Great video, enjoyed it a lot!
Awesome video man. Love your content, you clearly care a lot and are really passionate about these incredible horror games and stories.
I never played 4 until very recently it might just be my new favorite in the series I enjoyed it a lot. Nice video man!
Sh4 was the first silent Hill I've ever played and it's by far my favorite of all. I was totally immersed when playing this game. There is a weirdness surrounding this game but in a good way, a weirdness that will make you feel despair, sadness, loneliness , and the music ... it's really that good.
I actually REALLY liked silent hill 4. (my fav) It's disturbing, uncomfortable, and ultimately religion based - very much like silent hill (the first) I loved the elements and the genuine terror i felt at times. The gameplay itself... well, yeah it WAS different than the last 3 iterations. Maybe it was SO different it hurt Silent hill fans' feelings. (fast forward to silent hill PT, and the promise that was never kept for a new game... makes me wonder if maybe The Room was the beginning of the end for the franchise JUST bc fans became way too harsh in their criticism regarding an overhauled system? I mean regarding gameplay there is NONE in PT and you are trapped in a hallway - not even a room! BUT it was played and loved, and cloned countless times...)
But i am going off track. I never played another silent hill game after the Room (well technically PT), and I LOVED it so much. I have always been a person that appreciated a compelling story over a buggy game mechanic - to a POINT! (rule of rose, I'm talking to you). Not to mention, it didn't depend on jumpscares. I loathe jumpscares these days. "Cheap&EZ scares" - the hoe of the horror device. I have always been in the minority over this game. But maybe, after all the years of horror evolution, a new set of vintage game gamers can pick it up and appreciate it for what it was... now that they have so many choices in horror - not JUST resident evil or silent hill!.
I always get shit for saying 4 is my favorite. It's clearly not perfect, but I still love it. Being trapped in your safe place and having it slowly fall apart around you was so interesting to me that I can ignore the faults. That giant head in the hospital is one of the scariest thing I've encountered in horror games. It wasn't a jump scare, but real horror. The twins pointing at you without moving... there is just so much to like about the game if you can ignore at least some of the bad.
I think we can all agree on one thing:
Walter was not circumcised.
Thanks for an in-depth video with solid arguments!
SH4 wasn't that bad, it just didn't have the same flow as the other silent hill games before it. If someone hasn't played the other silent hills, this game would feel like an amazing horror game!
Silent hill 4 was my first silent hill game that I played when i was a kid so the game has a special place in my heart
Not sure why I have this in my recomendations but it was entertaining :)
Great analysis, and the guy reading the quotes was excellent!
Great video! I appreciate the effort put into your content and hope to see even more!
a masterpiece criminally underrated,that suffocating atmosphere! pretty damn good
I think what people really don't like and what really kills SH4 are some bad gameplay and design decisions more than anything else. Making the combat clunkier than 3 and then making it the primary focus of the game was an interesting move too lol.
In SH4 just like in 3 you can run away from most of the monsters, and most ppl do exactly this so the combat complaint is not that important. SH1-4 are not action oriented games, monsters are there to cause tension while you're wandering around but they're not worth killing in the end.
but really, none of the silent hill games became unique because of their graphics or their combat. I think you have to think in depth how clever the developers were in applying the storyline and fusing it with the fears and nightmares you'd dare dream of. In this case, the inescapable room... terrifying..
Im gonna rate based on what their excels
SH1 - originality
SH2 - story
SH3 - atmosphere
SH4 - scary experience
SH HC - difficulty
My ranks for same group:
Silent Hill: Most Daring
Silent Hill 2: Most Whole
Silent Hill 3: Scariest
Silent Hill 4: The Room: Most Original
Silent Hill: Homecoming: Bleakest
This game is a really good game. I don't know why people hate the 4th game, it's one of my favorite because of how....different....it was... It's really well made and confuses me as well.