Henry as a bland character is the perfect representation of a "hikikomori" theme. A complete self isolation where your life is as empty as you can get. You literally got nothing special going on in your life & there is nothing more scary then loneliness to many people, especially in this modern era. Re-playing SH4 while I was in COVID Quarantine time is such special kind meta. I also think this is why we have an emergence of good appreciation to SH4 in the first place. Depression from loneliness has become a major epidemic in big cities, despite on the contrary that in theory there are more people in cities than in a town or villages. Controversially, I would argue that SH4 was ahead of its time.
Not to mention the obvious connecting factor to Walter... both Henry and Walter are anti-social, even their speech is awkward in comparison to... literally every other character in the game. It's interesting that it's Henry, someone as anti-social, and definitely not as messed up and psychotic, that gets to foil Walter's plans. I'd like to think prior residents were just like Henry as well
yeah i think that's definitely the theme with sh4, even more so when you notice all the mother and fetus symbolisms that can be linked to that wish to stay in one's comfort zone. even towards the end before the final boss fight we see henry in a fetal position with a red filter on. i think saying sh4 is lacking in symbolisms is complete bs
SH4 in general is just too japanese for people in the west to "get" compared to previous entries mostly inspired by western fiction writers, psychoanalysis and alchemy.
SH4 is the scariest to me. A lot of the levels have this surrealist feeling to them. The Water Prison, a panopticon isolated in the middle of the sea where there is only pain and despair. A world where buildings have meshed into each other to form a nearly incomprehensible brutalist nightmare. It's a shame the later half is just so infuriating to actually play
I think it has the greatest otherworld level designs alongside 3. I wish the textures were uncompressed with patches to play in 4k like 3 was. Just imagine these designs with better gameplay and higher poly counts, or rebuilt in a new engine like iD tech 7 or other good ones.
@weylandpunanigaming I really didn’t find it all that scary either, however the latter half of the game is very infuriating due to the girl that you have to babysit for the entire second half of the game and she will constantly fall back and get left behind where you will have to keep returning to where she stopped at to regroup with her just to continue on, all while having enemies to contend with and trying to not be killed?!?!? After about 2 1/2 hours straight of dealing with Eileen’s bullshit, I was literally trying to kill her with the hatchet myself- Other than that, it is still a very awesome game and one of my favorite silent Hills!
I think Henry has alot of unfulfilled potential, he is very bland but with how desolate his apartment is (Very little personal stuff, seems to only eat take out food) it feels like he's just kind of lost and maybe even depressed. If they focused on this idea of a broken person locked in his apartment only escaping by exploring someone else's nightmares could have alot of thematic potential. There's also parallels between Walter and Henry in terms of their isolation from the world, which if expanded upon could make Walter Henry's pyramid head.
I think he is perfect as he is. Henry is just a random person involved in something much bigger than him, it's a nice contrast to Harry, James and Heather, and considering the team in charge of SH4 wanted to change things up, Henry is a really nice change of pace. It tells you that anyone can be brought into Silent Hill shenanigans, you don't need some past trauma, you don't need someone to save, you don't need a valid connection to the cult or the town itself, and Henry is living proof of that. Not to mention Henry fits perfectly to Sh4's true main character... Walter. This is his game, it's his story, his childhood, his adulthood, his trauma, his connection to the cult, his everything. Silent Hill lives through Walter and Henry is just the person that will end up walking in Walter's own twisted world. Maybe Walter Sullivan's character doesn't work as well if Henry has more personality, or isn't just your common guy. Considering the vision of SH4, I think Henry being dull is 100% what they wanted to go for and the contrast between him and the previous 3 character is probably enough proof.
I like the theory that he's a shut-in hermit. It plays into the mechanics of The Room itself and how it starts off helping you, only to hurt you when the escort phase starts. Unfortunately, there's not much to give this idea weight.
Henry, I think, is one of the most misunderstood characters in gaming as a whole. Maybe I read into the game way too much, but I feel like the subtext in the game gives Henry a much more well-rounded psyche than most other protagonists when you start diving deep. It's very easy to miss a lot of the smaller details since it comes from examining items throughout the house multiple times over the course of the game. For one, consider Henry's occupation and general attitude. He's a photographer, so he's used to examining the world through a lense, which can be a form of separation from reality. We see this through his almost stunted conversational skills with those he meets, giving context that he might not actually interact with others on a frequent basis. Instead, most of his interactions over the course of the game is him observing from afar, almost living through others vicariously. I think this is because Henry could possibly have a form of agoraphobia and fear of the outside world. I think there's a reason why the entire fear that The Room plays into is a corruption of places thought to be safe, and the only way to escape that hell is to face it head-on (metaphorically facing reality). This also gives us insight into Walter's character, because I believe him and Henry are very similar in many ways. They both want the safety and security of the "womb", and we see the consequences of a person who refuses to let go of that in Walter, and a person who confronts the uncomfortable outside world in Henry. I don't want to ramble on too long, but I just think Silent Hill 4 as a whole is a lot more subtle with its themeing than any of the other games in the series, and I'd love to see it get more appreciation on that front.
YEAH YOURE TOTALLY RIGHT !!! i tried to talk about all those things you said on another comment here, maybe youll like to read it, or not it doesnt really matter but, it made me very happy to see someone else pointing out how great the symbolism and lore of SH4 is , and how good of a character henry is once you... begun to think of him as a human being and not just a "bland character" because youre biased by other people reacting harsh to the game simply cuz they rushed it asf and did not even checked any item on his appartment or at least enjoyed the game, because they were too busy on finding things to compare with other SH games lol.... which im sure its the main reason SH4 was not suposed to be a SH from the very beggining, so people dont distract themselves, but anyway... KONAMI sucks xD, but still and hopefully, the game its a gem for a few of us who see it as a standalone work of art and not just... huh... a marathon in order to spot the most differences with other silent hill entries : P
though , i dont agree that very much on the fact that SH4 express everything about henry through subtext alone, because i honestly think that every major designing choice over mechanics its heavily based around what the game its trying to convey to us about henry's psychological state. even the whole "losing your only safe place" and the look-around-your-house sections, and the escorting missions and the different scenarios and camera angles, idk, almost EVERYTHING thats different to other SH's to me, seems like a conscious artistic choice to better serve henry character study : ), but still... it has a lot of subtext and subtlety too... and thats what i found the most fascinating of SH4 over any other SH, that it trascended the fact of copypasting a pre-existent game genre, but instead it employed the genre to its fullest extent in order to express whatever the devs wanted to express about an specific health issue, and idk, to me thats as far as games can go in order to be pure art... employing techniques to express feelings and not the other way around (something SH2 excelss as well anyway : ) but i think SH4 has an even deeper use of that concept)
I recognize that SH2 is the best game in the series, but SH4 is still my favorite. The various themes and events in SH4 connected with me on a deeper level. Just one example of several was the idea of the room being invaded by dark or destructive forces. When I was a small child I remember moving a small dresser in my room and discovering an ugly hole in the wall that the dresser was hiding. I also remember crying when I found it because I got the idea that it was a bad thing that was disturbing the sanctity and security of my bedroom to the point where my young mind was afraid of it and even thought monsters might be able to enter through it. Finding the carved out section of the wall behind Henry's cabinet that showed Eileen's bedroom reminded me of this childhood fear. When monsters literally started entering into Henry's apartment in the later half of the game, it was like this childhood fear was accurately manifested within the game.
Silent Hill 3 is my Favorite over SH2, Silent Hill 4 will always have a special place in my heart because it was my first silent hill game I seen back in the day
Another thing I love about SH4 that I dont hear people talk about enough is the attention to detail on the other tenants. When you watch them through the windows and go to their rooms. They all have unique distinctions from one another and one of the tenants is an artist who has drawn just about everyone. Adds to the lore of the apartment building and references to silent hill 2.
Walter is one of the coolest villains ever! Also I love the concept of Silent Hill spreading further and further. I cant choose between 2 and 4 but they are both masterpieces
He's a unique villain with very tragic back story, but at the same time deserves to get punished for what he's become and done. Not many games or movies are able to do such.
But it only spread because of Walter and now that he’s dead and the cult is pretty much done for after 3, Silent Hill should be peaceful again. We don’t need another SH 2 style story, unless it involves another cult corrupting the town’s spiritual power again. The only reason why the events of Silent Hill 2 happened in the first place is because it occurred in between Silent Hill 1 and 3, when Heather and Harry were in hiding and the remnants of the cult were still operating in Silent Hill. Hence why, every other game that happens after 4 doesn’t fit the story that Team Silent established. All of them including Homecoming and Downpour should have occurred when the cult was still active.
I think this one has the most potencial for a proper remake amoungs all other silent hill games. A proper remake can make silent hill the benchmark of horror
I can imagine that playing Silent Hill 4 during covid quarantine time probably hit different for some people. While I think Henry could've had a bit more going on, I like how calm he is and doesn't let his feelings show all too often due to his introverted nature. It almost seemed like he struggled to connect to people until he had to help Eileen.
I find Silent Hill 4 to have my favorite premise of them all. I used to be a massive shut in myself around 10 years ago (to the point where the thought of going out for even the basic things filled me with dread) so being stuck in a room you feel the most comfortable and safe in only to be trapped... yeah. In an odd way, I still felt comfy being in Henry's room in the first half of the game - before shit hits the fan - just looking around, looking out the window to see the outside world, turning on the radio and checking out everything. Maybe that was on purpose? Of Henry, I think he's a huge shut in himself which makes it even more ironic that he no longer can leave his room. Might explain why he's the way he is because even before the events of the game, the man was probably anti social as hell and now that he's meeting people for the first time in a long time, he has no idea how to act. If you examine his room he will point out he apparently didn't have much of a happy childhood or any real connection with anyone. Kinda like Walter. So maybe they were going for a Ying and Yang thing. Both anti-socials with bad pasts but one fights to save others while the other one kills. I wish I can play this game again.
Henry has a lot of untapped potential. *HOWEVER* he's fascinating to view through a neurodivergent perspective. He's awkward, quiet, introverted, and hints to have quite bit of family drama, but it's never really explored. A big problem is that SH4 is Walter's story; Henry ends up being an observer of it.
But he was supposed to be the observer. He was the 'reciever of wisdom' if I remember correctly. He must witness everything and then give his life for Walter's rituel to work.
I recently watched another video about SH4 and said the same thing there: I personally find this entry to be one of the scariest in the series. Taking places that are generally considered a "safe space", (like a home) and making them not safe is terrifying on another level. The degradation of the apartment as the game goes on, with it becoming increasingly dangerous, creates this feeling of dread that builds as you play. The ghosts were kind of random but the general feel was still very much on brand for SH. My cousin and I rented this back when it first came out and stayed up all night playing it, and it gave me nightmares off and on for years. I visited a house once years ago that was being worked on and it had a hole in a wall, and I legitimately got freaked out without even realizing it was because of the damn hole in the wall from this game. 😅
the thing about the characters is 100% true. this is Walters story, in the same way 2 is James's etc. it's just the one game we don't actually play as the protagonist
@@mr.sinjin-smyth there's something beautiful and probably unintentional in the message "even if you feel like the most useless, boring, unimportant bumblefuck that ever lived, if you find yourself in the time and place to do the right thing, you can still make all the difference in the world"
Thanks Max for covering this game! I loved all of the 1st four Silent Hill titles, but The Room sits with me the longest still because of how freaky, surreal, and interesting it was! The levels were like fever dreams, and the neighbors of Henry were just as disturbed as himself! I really liked Walter's story and especially the music, even caring for Eileen while frustrating made me want to protect her from the monsters. It was a wild ride even playing it 3 different times to get different endings :)
I think this is a very well-researched and thought provoking video essay on SH4, but personally I think the main problem with this game is not its "lack" of creepy locations, or the lack consistency between closed and open spaces as you mentioned, as much as the original 3; on the contrary, I think SH4 is perhaps the most depressing and downright terrifying of the classic SH games, given that there literally no silver lining or any shred of of hope in any of the storylines nor the characters. In SH 1 to 3, as you perfectly explained, you have protagonists who are basically going through this nightmarish experience, hoping to reconnect with their loved ones (Harry with his daughter, Heather with Harry and James with Mary). In other words, there's a heart in the story. Hence, the horror is balanced by the hopeful aspect. However in 4, Henry is basically a victim of Walter's plan, and he spends most of the game clueless about the situation, reading the last tenant's diary and experiencing Walter's life step by step. That alone, imo. adds to the hopelessness of the situation. And the individual who is longing to connect with someone, happens to be Walter, looking for his "mother", but of course he happens to be a psychopathic serial killer whom you won't root for. All in all, SH4 is very grim in atmosphere imo. The problem, however, I think lies in the structure of the game and how it connects to the plot. That is, in the 2nd half of the game you'll basically have to retread all previous stages, with the added burden of a companion that you have to take care of, and Walter after you (basically, the Pyramid Head hospital encounter in SH2, but repeated again and again). In this sense, it reminds me of the 2nd portion of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, where you have go through stages where you have been, with an added difficulty of your life running out. Not to mention that your only safe place in the game (i.e. The Room) is constantly getting haunted by ghosts that damage you. All this makes the 2nd portion of the game very exhausting and frustrating. And of course there are other annoying gameplay features, such as the un-killable ghosts throughout the game, your inventory and the chest, etc. . And as far as the story aspect, I agree with you, Henry might not be a very compelling protagonist and someone whom you root for or sympathize with such as James or Heather. In short, I agree with you about Henry being an unfeeling empty protagonist, however that reason alone is what makes me terrified of this game, and at the same time makes me not love it as much as the original 3. Sorry about my long rant. I really enjoy your channel. Great work and cheers from Iran.
I love this game so much because it gives me this feeling of 'dissociation' when playing it. Everything about the vibes, graphics, wonky controls, weird stock sounds, weird animations, unkillable ghosts that just kinda fly around, cool otherworldly locations, akward dialogue between characters - just everything together gives me this special dissociation-type vibe that I don't think I experienced in any other game. It really feels like playing someones dream, especially because of in-game locations. It is not the same as the other entries of course, but I don't believe that it is worse because of it. It's just so weird in a special way, I love it. Also I really like the plot twist and what The Room really is. Very unique (and tragic) stuff.
I would honestly love a remake of SH4 , polishing the rough edges ( especially the combat ) and the voice acting especially if they can add a good voice actor for Henry. This game was a love of mine and just something that just was so different yet so familiar to silent Hill I loved it.
the entire game feels like just barely escaped alpha. it was definetly very rushed and the ideas poorly executed due to this. howrever the design in mind and theory of the game its masterful
I don’t really play survival horror, but I really enjoyed silent hill 4. I discovered it during the COVID lockdowns and kind of got attached to it due to the parallels between Henry being locked in his flat and me kind of being stuck in the house. I remember being so bored and fed up that I thought “yeah, if a hole appeared in the house and it was going to take me to a subway/forest/whatever that was filled monsters I’d probably still head down it just to break the monotony”
I appreciate how every Otherworld level is a memory of Walter's, but heavily distorted. Like the Water Prison having a torture room where the kitchen cooks would allegedly take the meat from the dead and feed it to the living inmates--it didn't exist in real life and was just a rumor Walter heard other prisoners talking about. I think the main thing that draws me to this game is that the Otherworld is more horrifying but also dreamier than previous installments. It's like if David Lynch made a movie with the feel of the first Manhunt game.
It has the most artistic merit for me, personally, but it is undeniably held back by a needlessly frustrating gameplay loop. It's themes are FAR more resonant in a post-pandemic world and I would kill to see a remake with fixed gameplay in the vein of Bloober's SH2 remake. There's SO much more room for improvement in this game.
Walter Sullivan sure has taken a most stuff ritgh out of Frank Reynolds playbook, hangin out in delapidated environments, living in a s%//& appartment with a younger lost guy, and he also has his " and I started blasting" mantra. There probably is a rum ham somewhere in there as well! I did like Shattered Memories too, it is judging you and it has those creepy environments that are eerie, the monster parts(chase sequences) aren't that great but as an experience I found it pretty cool.
To me, SH4 was always a game that ended up less than the sum of its parts. There are a lot of very cool ideas and set pieces, the whole thing with the apartment is pretty genius, and I really like the *idea* of Walter's story, but it just doesn't all come together for me. I know Henry isn't supposed to be the focus, but they could have given him *something* to make the game feel a little less flat (yeah I know the argument that he's neurodivergent/introverted. Even then, he could do a little more than just saying "what the hell" and "what is thaaaat" all the time). As for Walter, I do like what they were going for, but I can't help but feel something's missing that keeps it from hitting as hard as it should. Kinda wish they'd done like SH2 did and downplayed the whole cult/ritual stuff maybe a tiny bit to distract less from the very real horror of what he went through. That, and certain aspects of his abuse and his reaction to it (what he feels the apartment is to him.....) just felt too over the top that they become a little bit silly and take me out of it pretty hard, where the abuse situations in SH2 were more grounded but still led to big fallouts. But that's just my personal preference. I am glad that it worked better for a lot of others than it did for me. SH4 is still good, it just didn't do it for me as much as the first three did. EDIT: Also, the ghosts are just bad and I will die on this hill. They're way more obnoxious than they are scary. I think they could have worked, but they should have made them waaaaay less common, maybe even limiting them early on before bringing them in full force as they appear later in the game. As they are now, they are an active distraction from the otherwise excellent atmosphere.
I don't think Silent Hill's influence can just happen anywhere. It happened to Heather cause she had a the god fetus in her and Claudia was hunting her and Harry down. It happens in Ashfield because Walter is doing the sacrament. Hell even in Homecoming it was because the town dynasties were a splinter group of the cult.
It's interesting to think that in games 3 and 4 the influence of Silent Hill spreads outside of town for very specific reasons. And now with the next new Silent Hill F set in Japan I wonder what will be the explanation for the influence of Silent Hill to reach the other side of the world lol
The reason why Henry is so bland of a character is that the main character of this game isn't him, it's Walter Sullivan. Henry is just a third perspective on that.
I think 4 is way more cohesive and scarier than what came before, staying behind only of 2. For a game that does not have the SH town as location, they do a very good job of being connected to that world and building up on lore stablished before.
Ya and at least it didn't try to retcon the original lore by adding what the live action movies did(adding the iconic monsters just coz, and it didn't match the lore of that story).... Such a sin.
This game have a special spot in my heart. I like it's story and atmosphere and I also tried to look for realism in graphics during PS2 days especially in character rendering. Silent hill 4 ended my search for it because it have the most realistic and beautiful human characters on the PlayStation 2.
I think that sh4 was supposed to be more surreal and dreamlike. the previous games were also very surreal and dream like but I feel like sh4 was more focused on this concept a little more
The most important things for a Silent Hill game are, unsettling atmosphere, music and creepy monsters. Silent Hill 4 has all these things and does them really well.
The best part about SH4 is all the people just giving Henry absurdly specific psychological profiles when the reason he's bland is simply because he's supposed to be a random poor outsider drawn into the whole thing and the story is Walter's. Good to see how his blank-slate-ness let people just juxtapose whatever they are onto him and "identify with him".
At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I have my own video on Silent Hill 4 that I made explicitly with the intent of broadening the scope of discussion surrounding the game by introducing what I felt to be, new and fresh talking points. I think SH4 is a flawed, but fascinating entry and I don't think it gets nearly enough credit for what it uniquely brings to the table.
that's good to hear, i think a lot of people like max derrat didn't understand the subtlety silent hill 4 offers when it comes to their characters. i actually think the game has more depth than sh2.
@@blunderless I dunno if I would go quite that far, but SH4 absolutely has way more going for it than most give it credit for. It is extremely thematically rich and its commentary has gnawed at my brain for over a decade.
For me, the main issue with SH4 stands with 2 gameplay choices: the escort part and the frustration tied to the undying enemies. I really enjoyed the story, locations and overall artistic direction. Even the first person perspective while exploring the room.
The only thing that I hate form SH4 was backtracking. We all know this is Konami's fault because they did not give Team Silent enough time to cook, and it shows. But honestly do you remember the trailers made for the game? Cinematograph perfection, they were unbelievable made in a music video fashion. I hope SH4 will get a proper remake, game deserves it and really needs it.
The first Silent Hill game I played was this one. Don't ask me why, I don't remember. At the time, I was the loneliest I've ever been, stuck by myself in a one room apartment and I had no human connection for months. As empty and uninteresting as Henry was, seeing that god awful apartment resonated with me immensely.
At risk of sounding like I am gatekeeping horror, or even more gatekeeping mental disorders: you will never understand Silent Hill 4 unless you are an introverted with severe depression. You see Henry as a bland guy. I see someone that shelves himself in his apartment, with boxes in his closet and few clothes. Someone that has trouble starting conversations and reacts nerviosly when someone approaches him. The way he reacts with Cynthia when she offers herself to him, the way Richard looks and dismisses him, how he looks down and away from Eileen when she becomes trapped with him and wants to seek him. You see a guy that is bland and has no character. I see myself. As you explore the rest of the world you learn much more about not just Walter Sullivan, but also about Eileen and her relationship with Walter, how all of the victims end up being related to him. It is not a game that tells you everything like Silent Hill 2, it is a game that you have to play and pay attention and actually read the stuff that you see around the world. While I can understand why people don't like the world and repeating the levels, it is more akin to a Metroidvania than any other Silent Hill. TL;DR: you wouldn't get it.
People should not connect SH 4 with Silent Hill 2. Henry doesn’t need a detailed backstory. The story is about the cult’s original plan to birth God. Henry just so happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and so does everyone in the apartment. He’s every way the same as Harry Mason, he wasn’t supposed to be there, Cheryl could have been picked up by any other passerby.
The best way to summarize my feelings playing SH4 is analogous to Frodo carrying the One Ring to Mount Doom. It was that mentally taxing on my psyche. This is boosted by the game's take on the traditional zombies in the form of ghosts that just plain creep you out with the way they move, their moans and the psychic damage they inflict on Henry by just being present. It is also how the game presents its cutscenes in a sort of low quality found footage format which really adds to its baggage. SH3 for me was the scariest experience out of the OG 4 games, but SH4 had the most consistent barrage of insanity to the point that finishing the game made you feel like you're, as mentioned, Frodo who just finished throwing the One Ring into the pits of Mount Doom, freeing you from the torment.
One of the reasons the main protagonist is awkward is due to the direction in development. They were told to keep him with minimum emotion showing since they wanted him to be a shell for the player. The team even admitted it was difficult to create cutscenes with hik for this reason. I feel like that is kne if the reasons the game suffers. If done correctly it would of helped a lot.
I genuinely think SH4 deserves a remake. If nothing else, I think this would be an opportunity to learn from the original game's mistakes and improve it.
Silent Hill 4 was my first introduction to the series, and has a special place in my heart. It was the stepping stone to the originals, and although it can be annoying to play, the story is captivating, and it will always be my favourite
Lol that line of “sometimes the horror works” right when you see Eileen’s or Cynthia’s face all blown up and her eyes twitching and following you, is not the example of the horror working in my opinion. As well as a lot of people when it was released, especially. Subjective indeed. The ideas of the woods and monsters are a scary environment is usually quite frightening if pulled off more convincingly. Also the lack of symbolism and the unimaginative creature design make this by far the worst of the true silent hill games.
Hey Max! I personally LOVE Silent Hill 4. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned how claustrophobic it is. It is essentially the wealth of meaning - be it religious or occult-based - that makes it so precious to me. I feel like I could see from the desperate perspective of Walter Sullivan, and just like you've said, it literally hurts that there is nothing left to be done for this man. That being said, the gameplay does have pacing issues. I dreaded revisiting these nightmare realms again and again. They were more irritating than it was fun playing through them. But the meaning. I have to say, that's what makes it so beloved to me. Its exploration of psychological trauma is so very apt, that it awoke me to some of my own that I hadn't been taking seriously enough in the past. It's a game that changes you as you play it, for some of us.
To me, Silent Hill 4 only gained value and relevance with time. This is because it's a symbol of an era where experimentation with game formulas was still possible within the entries of an established franchise. While not all of its elements work flawlessly, there is still something to be learnt from them, and it's a shame the following entries in the series shunned them completely in the name of playing safe. This kind of daring is something that today in the triple A space is almost impossible; the only recent-ish game I can think of that managed to do this while being successful is Yakuza: Like a Dragon with its genre shift - and it still brought infinite arguments within fans.
Silent Hill 2 is my favourite, for story, atmosphere and of course music, but I think SH4's locked room concept was really cool. That door is iconic. The bland protagonist was a let down and it did falter along the way, but I still regard it as a worthy addition.
The game had moments of brilliance. The extended trailer had me 💩ing my pants. The two faced monsters, the hauntings, the Eileen face room, the general aesthetic, etc. …but, there’s plenty weak about it. Frustrating monsters, ghosts stopped being scary & just annoying, Eileen was a hassle to escort, and you had revisit the entire first half of the game. Bullets don’t stack made all projectile weapons useless. I beat 1-3 multiple times for all endings; I couldn’t for this installment. Good ideas, but undercooked.
This is one of my favorite games ever, along with Radiata Stories. The PS2 was my favorite era. I am happy playing them over and over. I have recently been playing Pathologic Classic HD and I enjoy it as well. It figures that it too was made in 2005. You might like Pathologic too.
I absolutely love Silent Hill 4, but I don't play it nearly as much as the first 3 titles of the series. It's not because I don't think it's as good, or bad as a game at all. The reason why I don't play through it as often is because I need to be in the right mood to deal with the more complicated mechanics, and rigidness of the game. It's kind of the same way that I think about Resident Evil 0, or Forbidden Siren despite the fact I think those are awesome games as well. When I am in the right mood, and I have the right mindset, that's when SH 4, Siren, and RE 0's quality shines through. Even though the mechanics of those games are unique, and maybe not that logical, streamlined, or intuitive, it's partially their unique rigid mechanics that make them special to me, flaws and all.
The scream at the beginning terrified me as a kid and I stopped playing. The apartment is definitely one of the creepiest locations across all of the SH games.
I think the direction and design in SH4 was brillant -The apartment feels incredibly sad and bland, just making you feel you don't want to be there -Henry is bland, but bland characters are great for the Silent Hill style, don't forget that pretty much anyone who connects with the town or it's powers, is broken in some way -I ESPECIALLY love the camera work, whenever you're in a 3D world the camera movement feels wrong, not as a camera following you, but like somebody's watching you, in some corners the camera literally moves as if the camera were somebody's eyes while they're hanging upside down, just creepy Still, some points were negative and i think it changes the experience by a lot, the lifebar along with the charged attack mechanic makes it feel way more battle focused instead of surviving, and while the locations are pretty well made, it feels wrong to simply appear in these places, in SH2 you get to some really weird places that shouldn't exist, but you do so by going there in a seamless and disturbing way, like loooong stairs, feeling like you're going to hell, but you don't get teleported, so it feels like nothing is connected even if the plot is I think it's not a bad game, it's pretty good, but it's not in the holy trinity category, just below those 3 and above every other game
This is how you express an opinion on a divisive topic. Not putting anyone down, Max gave an honest, calm, and fair assessnent. I wish fandoms in general knew how to do the same. We would have some great conversations, meaningful conversations without resulting to petty arguments. Great work! The laugh at the end was so wholesome!
Ok so I have to start by saying Thank you Max, since I discovered your channel One spark of my life reignited and it was regarding about psychology in relation with alchemy and many other concepts, I have to say that I´m writing this comment before watching the video because all of this has led me from one big hole in my life where I was considering inflicting myself a quick game over , to this point in my life where I´ve realized what I want to be and Im happy with that and also helping other people, please by any means dont think I´m idolizing you, I´m just showing my respect and being grateful to you and all the stuff that has helped me to get here and also the reason I´m writing this comment is because I just said that I was going to look for a video that is just 20 mins long and by chance I just posted a Pick in my Ig story related to Sh4 which is one of my favorite games and seeing this video posted made me say that is just to good to be a coincidence and I had to comment that (and also be grateful).
Dark Souls 2, DMC: Devil May Cry and Fallout 4 all had different teams from those who made the prequels everybody loved. To be honest, I don't really think Fallout 4 was all that divisive, as it was pretty much a continuation of Besethda formula they started somewhere in Oblivion or Fallout 3.
Well everyone who has played new vegas and the older fallout games do not appreciate 3 and 4 that much or outright hates them, because they really are not as good as those other games
@@shaneriggs6678 i would argue fallout 3 offers a more interesting narrative and not much else, the old jank that game has is so charming to me, while fallout 4 just has better gunplay. Although that is good the shooting is not the only aspect of the game that is relevant, and fallout 4 is just not that good of an rpg
@@vincentpresscod7531 selling well does not equal quality or fan approval. Many fallout fans probably bought fallout 4 because it was the newest in the franchise, and its big marketing push and Bethesda having tons of fans from Skyrim already made it succeed with the mainstream audience. But the hardcore fallout fanbase doesn't really like fallout 4
I agree with everything you said. One thing I believe is a highlight for me is when you get to the apartment building world and each apartment tells you a lot about each of the residents and their relationships and how life was in the building. That was a very sweet touch often overlooked. To me, thats the best level of the game
10:00 The monster filled forest is a scary concept BUT what we get in SH4 is NOT a forest, but rather a fairly wide, more-or-less straight path, sided by an invisible wall of trees.
I haven’t played this in awhile-your videos truly make me want to revisit these titles-but one thing that stands out as what I remember most vividly is the slow deterioration throughout the game of his room as a safe haven to rest and recover, into a place so demonically possessed that it causes harm just to be there. It’s extremely well done; truly made me dread having to return to the room after completing an objective, to see what else could’ve gone wrong in there.
I don't think I will ever tire of your phenomenal Silent Hill videos. I find such an odd comfort in traveling through that foggy town with you as a guide.
I think SH3 remains my favorite, but SH4 is second for me. This is spoiler heavy so here goes. A lot of people really hate the second half of the game due to Eileen. I've never had a big issue with her ai after knowing she will always prioritize following Henry without a weapon. Knowing this drastically changes the control players have and itll be way easier to get a 10 star rating knowing when Eileen should attack or run. Otherwise, Walter is a very good villain, and i think Henry being a victim of circumstance elevates Walter rather than Henry. I like how hostile the Room itself gets in this second half, and it feels very hopeless. But the second half has about twice the health items. I don't think it's super obvious, but theres a lot of dread and pressure in that half over the first. Biggest issue with the story is that it's really difficult to piece the story together without multiple playthroughs, whereas I feel things click way easier in SH3 near the end. SH4 is a quirky mess, and I love it.
Great video on SH4! I like that Henry was such a random blank slate, it made the story scarier to me. It made it feel like this can happen to anyone, to any everyman. He was probably the most relatable SH protagonist to me personally, although as a whole I prefer playing SH2. Probably has to do more with the gameplay mechanics than the story, which I think was superb in SH4 and still chills me to the bones.
I've always been intrigued by this game. The story, the whole apartment thing and especially Walter Sullivan are things that really appeal to me. I generally love the concept of supernatural serial killers :D However, what always kept me from actually playing it myself, were a lot of the gameplay decisions. The game has one big feature that I dislike: Enemies that you can't kill, and that also can go through walls and damage you when they're near you. Also, escort missions 🤪 I do appreciate the game nonetheless and enjoy watching other people play it 🤓I'm glad it exists.
My first Silent Hill was The Room. I was still a kid back then, and I already was fond of horror movies and games, with Resident Evil being my favourite franchise. I remember finding The Room in a bin at our local version of GameStop, and that cover of the chained up door immediately caught my attention. I was familiar with the name Silent Hill but I never really saw much of it. Bought the game, read the box and manual on the way home(oh the nostalgia...)and booted up the game. I never felt so shocked and this sense of dread and unease by an intro cutscene! The hellish and otherworldly sounds and music combined with the very haunted-like footage was, and still is, one of a kind. Noticing the strange feedback sounds on the main menu as I started a new game. And then it happened, actual gameplay. Surprised and scared that it was in first person. I looked around in that bedroom, hearing that awful and eerie quietness, it still sticks with me so well. Really enjoyed the game from the start, I was doing pretty good too. But everything changed when the Double-Heads came...I literally closed the game when I saw that. It took me years before I dared to continue! Silent Hill: The Room may not be the best of the franchise, but it sure as hell is the scariest and disturbing of them all in my opinion.
SH4 was my favorite Silent Hill game (and I was pretty obsessed with the series for a while--to the point I referenced SH2 in my honors thesis defense in college) because of how surreal the monsters and environment gets. I find it the most terrifying, and the most thought-provoking, and that's saying anything with Silent Hill.
I really liked the game, it might be my 3rd favourite after the 2 and 3. I feel its one of the most scary of the franchise and I liked the fact that Henry is so blank, it really gave me a feeling of someone being very depressed and lost. I like the character of Eileen too, when I played it, I was in love with a girl that looked like her but it was quite complicated because she was a stranger to me and I was too shy to talk to her. Walter Sullivan is a fantastic character as well, very intriguing...
We had an idea of Silent Hill spilling outside the town itself from the comics that started earlier the same year Silent Hill 4 was released. It made the changes in the game more palatable. The issue is that the comics weren't well marketed, and most didn't read them. It's a shame, really.
This video came at the most opportune time for me! I'm in the process of writing a short film which will be filmed next month and it takes a lot of inspiration from the concepts and ideas of Silent Hill 4. Thanks Max!
Silent Hill 4 basically does a more approachable version of what Pathologic did: communicating its main characters' misery through the player's mechanics. It's not fun, but that's very much by design.
I recall having Silent Hill 2 as my favorite SH game and after that it was SH4. When I played 4 I just finished high school and I didnt have a plan for my future, nothing in particular interested me but my hobby of playing games. I'd lost my friends as they all went to college and became part of different social circles. I been working a retail job for about a year and began to live a routine life. When SH4 came out I bought it and found it weirdly cathartic. I related to Henry, A man without purpose, a man without social ties, a man who did not exist. It was odd and griping from the start, how did nobody noticed Henry was missing, why was Henry so awkward during his interactions with other characters. The isolation was real, the first person perspective really sold it well, and in fact it reflected my state of mind. The same walls, the same sounds, and the same emotion of emptiness. It felt like an allegory for facing life, as being in that room was safety but empty, yet facing the dangers of the outside world meant risk and possible death, but a meaningful life in that vein. As someone mentioned in this thread, Walter reflected the possibility a similar man as Henry responding to the world with anger and violence. Viewing this game today and finding parallels with how most of these souls survive and find purpose in living vs, those rare but destructive individuals who mass murder like those shooters.
I've been a Silent Hill fan from the beginning. I remember when the trailer of SH4 released. My uncle and I watched it on Gamespot's website back in the day and we were so stoked, especially when we saw the Twin Victim walking around. My uncle got it back when it first released in September 2004. During that time, his mother who was also my grandmother was very ill and passed away that November. It was a sad year us and the rest of the family but SH4 made us a little happier from our loss.
it's always really interesting to me when people don't necessarily get henry eileen or cynthia, because i really connected a lot with all those characters. henry in particular, digging into some of the implications from his apartment and trying to figure out what kind of person he is was always one of my favorite aspects of The Room as a setting. for example: -the only people who notice he's missing with no warning or explanation are his neighbors, who aren't his friends or anything. where are his family and friends? does he have any? -there's very little personal touch in his apartment, except for his pictures. he's also a photographer, which makes his role in the 21 sacraments as the witness take on a whole another meaning. -related to that, the amount of eye themed stuff with him gets to me. the peephole in the wall, the door, the window. there's a lot of what you can do in the room to see but nothing you can do to change your situation. -and then the monsters, the twin victims point at you. the giant eileen head follows you around. the ghost that looks at you from the closet, the copy of yourself looking in through the door. -he's got very bland reactions, that's true, but that always read to me as a character trait and not as just. failure in excecution. i find that he's a reasonably caring person, trying to protect cynthia and eileen and being upset when he can't help them out. i think his bland exclamations really read to me as someone who has trouble expressing himself, but still yearns for connection. that's just my thoughts on him though! it's interesting to see other perspectives. i always assumed doing a little investigative work on the protagonist was intended as another fun aspect of the game haha
I always took Henry as an Observer type of person. He is a photographer and comments on the pictures he took around his apartment, and its known for watching things quietly waiting for the right moment. He is always looking somewhere too like out the window or at his neighbors or out the peephole. I still find him bland but i think its intentional for a character like him to be able to figure out whats wrong with Walter. I love the game but when the later half becomes a long ass escort mission i do begin to enjoy the game less. Still I'd argue this game has the most uncomfortable body horror of the whole series with its monster design and story themes.
9:56 yes yes i know, subjective experiences but it's funny, Because for me the forest was the SECOND SCARIEST place on the game, open forest likes that gives me instant creeps. Even in RE4 where the game isn't as scary, the early forest area made me fear every step
You hit the nail on the head with your assessment of using random characters in Walter's story as opposed to the other games. With the titles previous, one of the reasons why those stories were so enchanting was because they were personal to the characters. You couldn't replace them with anyone else because those stories matter to THEM. At least with Henry, the story doesn't outside of him just so happening to buy Walter's old apartment room. At least with, say, Eileen, she met Walter as a child, giving her connection to the antagonist. I may be wrong, but Richard may have encountered him at some point? The superintendent also knew about his family. They have more ground for being the main character than Henry. I hate the excuse of making a shell of a character for the player to insert themselves in. Whatever emotions people state I should have with that method, I never do. I prefer established characters with distinct personalities, who I can root for and fear for. Henry is a boring character but at least he isn't a terrible one you don't want in your media. He doesn't do or say things that make me hate him. He was just written poorly. You can make a recluse interesting but I guess they thought that's how hermits act? If this game were to be remade, they could give him more personality, and possibly give him more connection to Walter. I want to know why these characters fight other than not wanting to die; anyone can have that fear. I want a story personal to them. I played Silent Hill 4 with my mother the year it was released, I believe, and it had been the one Silent Hill game to give me consistent nightmares. The ghosts were a great, if at times frustrating, addition. They are the best representation of ghosts I've seen in media so far. They are like spirits and zombies mashed together. Zombies with tragic backstories who wield supernatural powers, don't seem to understand what has happened to them, or that they're attacking an innocent man. Walter is an unsung villain and I can just imagine the potential he could have storywise and gameplay-wise if a developer had the notion and ambition to give this game another shot. Silent Hill 3 is my favorite out of all, but Silent Hill 4 terrified me the most. If I were in charge of a AAA gaming studio, I'd love to ask Konami to give me a shot at a remake.
Still remember the weird guitar flamenco guitar that played in the menu, and the chills I got every time the subway girl (the one floating around laying on the floor) touch me.
silent hill 4 and dark souls 2 are my favorites mainly for being the first ones i finished by my self when i was a teen, that's why they are special for me.
I played Silent Hill 4 a long time ago and didn't finish it. I was on the fence about it. I really liked the feelings of isolation. I felt haunted in that apartment. When I would return there after finally completing a section I felt helpless and yet weirded out by how what I had done affected the real world. It had so much going for it. However, I hated the combat and when I couldn't kill the ghosts and couldn't return to the apartment for "safety" because of spirits that's when it started to lose me. I started getting frustrated. I eventually was discouraged with exploring and trying to figure stuff out because I was constantly getting attacked. I couldn't just stop and think and observe. The best moments were the quiet moments. Then returning to all the same areas was about it for me. I never felt like I was getting anywhere or learning anything.
i was never a huge fan of silent hill. i started playing the main 3 games, but neither made me as interested as silent hill 4. It has a feel to it that I've never felt in a horror game before. Most people feel the safest home, and the idea of safety turning vulnerable is scary. The way the home gets more and more absorbed of Silent Hill, first healing Henry's health, then taking away from it is genius! The hole in the wall and the locked door will forever be iconic. Though, I agree, in retrospect, the mc felt quite plain, but it never bothered me, especially after finding out it's not his mental hell.
Henry as a bland character is the perfect representation of a "hikikomori" theme. A complete self isolation where your life is as empty as you can get. You literally got nothing special going on in your life & there is nothing more scary then loneliness to many people, especially in this modern era. Re-playing SH4 while I was in COVID Quarantine time is such special kind meta. I also think this is why we have an emergence of good appreciation to SH4 in the first place. Depression from loneliness has become a major epidemic in big cities, despite on the contrary that in theory there are more people in cities than in a town or villages.
Controversially, I would argue that SH4 was ahead of its time.
Henry is unique in a sense that he's like some random NPC who somehow foils the main character's ultimate goal and even saves the girl.
Not to mention the obvious connecting factor to Walter... both Henry and Walter are anti-social, even their speech is awkward in comparison to... literally every other character in the game. It's interesting that it's Henry, someone as anti-social, and definitely not as messed up and psychotic, that gets to foil Walter's plans.
I'd like to think prior residents were just like Henry as well
I noticed the inspiration from hikikomori too. I was half-ready to see that come up in the game but it never did.
yeah i think that's definitely the theme with sh4, even more so when you notice all the mother and fetus symbolisms that can be linked to that wish to stay in one's comfort zone. even towards the end before the final boss fight we see henry in a fetal position with a red filter on. i think saying sh4 is lacking in symbolisms is complete bs
SH4 in general is just too japanese for people in the west to "get" compared to previous entries mostly inspired by western fiction writers, psychoanalysis and alchemy.
SH4 is the scariest to me. A lot of the levels have this surrealist feeling to them. The Water Prison, a panopticon isolated in the middle of the sea where there is only pain and despair. A world where buildings have meshed into each other to form a nearly incomprehensible brutalist nightmare. It's a shame the later half is just so infuriating to actually play
I think it has the greatest otherworld level designs alongside 3. I wish the textures were uncompressed with patches to play in 4k like 3 was. Just imagine these designs with better gameplay and higher poly counts, or rebuilt in a new engine like iD tech 7 or other good ones.
SH4 was the least scary of the japanese games, but I still enjoyed it.
@weylandpunanigaming I really didn’t find it all that scary either, however the latter half of the game is very infuriating due to the girl that you have to babysit for the entire second half of the game and she will constantly fall back and get left behind where you will have to keep returning to where she stopped at to regroup with her just to continue on, all while having enemies to contend with and trying to not be killed?!?!?
After about 2 1/2 hours straight of dealing with Eileen’s bullshit, I was literally trying to kill her with the hatchet myself-
Other than that, it is still a very awesome game and one of my favorite silent Hills!
@weylandpunanigaming Folk like you remind me that I ain’t so miserable. Thank you
@@shidanslairincorrect, it's the most scary. All you need to do is watch the cinematic that plays at the main menu when it's left idle for a minute.
I think Henry has alot of unfulfilled potential, he is very bland but with how desolate his apartment is (Very little personal stuff, seems to only eat take out food) it feels like he's just kind of lost and maybe even depressed. If they focused on this idea of a broken person locked in his apartment only escaping by exploring someone else's nightmares could have alot of thematic potential. There's also parallels between Walter and Henry in terms of their isolation from the world, which if expanded upon could make Walter Henry's pyramid head.
That would take away from the point of SH 4. It's not Henry's story. It's Walter's.
I think he is perfect as he is. Henry is just a random person involved in something much bigger than him, it's a nice contrast to Harry, James and Heather, and considering the team in charge of SH4 wanted to change things up, Henry is a really nice change of pace. It tells you that anyone can be brought into Silent Hill shenanigans, you don't need some past trauma, you don't need someone to save, you don't need a valid connection to the cult or the town itself, and Henry is living proof of that.
Not to mention Henry fits perfectly to Sh4's true main character... Walter. This is his game, it's his story, his childhood, his adulthood, his trauma, his connection to the cult, his everything. Silent Hill lives through Walter and Henry is just the person that will end up walking in Walter's own twisted world. Maybe Walter Sullivan's character doesn't work as well if Henry has more personality, or isn't just your common guy.
Considering the vision of SH4, I think Henry being dull is 100% what they wanted to go for and the contrast between him and the previous 3 character is probably enough proof.
@@Suiki1 True but what the OP is suggesting isn't SH4 but something else they believe would be better.
I like the theory that he's a shut-in hermit. It plays into the mechanics of The Room itself and how it starts off helping you, only to hurt you when the escort phase starts. Unfortunately, there's not much to give this idea weight.
Let's hope they improve upon the story in the remake.
Henry, I think, is one of the most misunderstood characters in gaming as a whole. Maybe I read into the game way too much, but I feel like the subtext in the game gives Henry a much more well-rounded psyche than most other protagonists when you start diving deep. It's very easy to miss a lot of the smaller details since it comes from examining items throughout the house multiple times over the course of the game. For one, consider Henry's occupation and general attitude. He's a photographer, so he's used to examining the world through a lense, which can be a form of separation from reality. We see this through his almost stunted conversational skills with those he meets, giving context that he might not actually interact with others on a frequent basis. Instead, most of his interactions over the course of the game is him observing from afar, almost living through others vicariously. I think this is because Henry could possibly have a form of agoraphobia and fear of the outside world. I think there's a reason why the entire fear that The Room plays into is a corruption of places thought to be safe, and the only way to escape that hell is to face it head-on (metaphorically facing reality). This also gives us insight into Walter's character, because I believe him and Henry are very similar in many ways. They both want the safety and security of the "womb", and we see the consequences of a person who refuses to let go of that in Walter, and a person who confronts the uncomfortable outside world in Henry. I don't want to ramble on too long, but I just think Silent Hill 4 as a whole is a lot more subtle with its themeing than any of the other games in the series, and I'd love to see it get more appreciation on that front.
I have never actually considered this. Great comment!
Absolutely!
I love this
YEAH YOURE TOTALLY RIGHT !!! i tried to talk about all those things you said on another comment here, maybe youll like to read it, or not it doesnt really matter but, it made me very happy to see someone else pointing out how great the symbolism and lore of SH4 is , and how good of a character henry is once you... begun to think of him as a human being and not just a "bland character" because youre biased by other people reacting harsh to the game simply cuz they rushed it asf and did not even checked any item on his appartment or at least enjoyed the game, because they were too busy on finding things to compare with other SH games lol.... which im sure its the main reason SH4 was not suposed to be a SH from the very beggining, so people dont distract themselves, but anyway... KONAMI sucks xD, but still and hopefully, the game its a gem for a few of us who see it as a standalone work of art and not just... huh... a marathon in order to spot the most differences with other silent hill entries : P
though , i dont agree that very much on the fact that SH4 express everything about henry through subtext alone, because i honestly think that every major designing choice over mechanics its heavily based around what the game its trying to convey to us about henry's psychological state. even the whole "losing your only safe place" and the look-around-your-house sections, and the escorting missions and the different scenarios and camera angles, idk, almost EVERYTHING thats different to other SH's to me, seems like a conscious artistic choice to better serve henry character study : ), but still... it has a lot of subtext and subtlety too... and thats what i found the most fascinating of SH4 over any other SH, that it trascended the fact of copypasting a pre-existent game genre, but instead it employed the genre to its fullest extent in order to express whatever the devs wanted to express about an specific health issue, and idk, to me thats as far as games can go in order to be pure art... employing techniques to express feelings and not the other way around (something SH2 excelss as well anyway : ) but i think SH4 has an even deeper use of that concept)
I recognize that SH2 is the best game in the series, but SH4 is still my favorite. The various themes and events in SH4 connected with me on a deeper level. Just one example of several was the idea of the room being invaded by dark or destructive forces. When I was a small child I remember moving a small dresser in my room and discovering an ugly hole in the wall that the dresser was hiding. I also remember crying when I found it because I got the idea that it was a bad thing that was disturbing the sanctity and security of my bedroom to the point where my young mind was afraid of it and even thought monsters might be able to enter through it. Finding the carved out section of the wall behind Henry's cabinet that showed Eileen's bedroom reminded me of this childhood fear. When monsters literally started entering into Henry's apartment in the later half of the game, it was like this childhood fear was accurately manifested within the game.
Silent Hill 3 is my Favorite over SH2, Silent Hill 4 will always have a special place in my heart because it was my first silent hill game I seen back in the day
Another thing I love about SH4 that I dont hear people talk about enough is the attention to detail on the other tenants. When you watch them through the windows and go to their rooms. They all have unique distinctions from one another and one of the tenants is an artist who has drawn just about everyone. Adds to the lore of the apartment building and references to silent hill 2.
Walter is one of the coolest villains ever! Also I love the concept of Silent Hill spreading further and further. I cant choose between 2 and 4 but they are both masterpieces
He's a unique villain with very tragic back story, but at the same time deserves to get punished for what he's become and done. Not many games or movies are able to do such.
Sh2 is the masterpiece it's perfect horror.
But it only spread because of Walter and now that he’s dead and the cult is pretty much done for after 3, Silent Hill should be peaceful again. We don’t need another SH 2 style story, unless it involves another cult corrupting the town’s spiritual power again.
The only reason why the events of Silent Hill 2 happened in the first place is because it occurred in between Silent Hill 1 and 3, when Heather and Harry were in hiding and the remnants of the cult were still operating in Silent Hill.
Hence why, every other game that happens after 4 doesn’t fit the story that Team Silent established.
All of them including Homecoming and Downpour should have occurred when the cult was still active.
I think this one has the most potencial for a proper remake amoungs all other silent hill games. A proper remake can make silent hill the benchmark of horror
I can imagine that playing Silent Hill 4 during covid quarantine time probably hit different for some people. While I think Henry could've had a bit more going on, I like how calm he is and doesn't let his feelings show all too often due to his introverted nature. It almost seemed like he struggled to connect to people until he had to help Eileen.
I find Silent Hill 4 to have my favorite premise of them all. I used to be a massive shut in myself around 10 years ago (to the point where the thought of going out for even the basic things filled me with dread) so being stuck in a room you feel the most comfortable and safe in only to be trapped... yeah. In an odd way, I still felt comfy being in Henry's room in the first half of the game - before shit hits the fan - just looking around, looking out the window to see the outside world, turning on the radio and checking out everything. Maybe that was on purpose?
Of Henry, I think he's a huge shut in himself which makes it even more ironic that he no longer can leave his room. Might explain why he's the way he is because even before the events of the game, the man was probably anti social as hell and now that he's meeting people for the first time in a long time, he has no idea how to act. If you examine his room he will point out he apparently didn't have much of a happy childhood or any real connection with anyone. Kinda like Walter. So maybe they were going for a Ying and Yang thing. Both anti-socials with bad pasts but one fights to save others while the other one kills.
I wish I can play this game again.
Henry has a lot of untapped potential. *HOWEVER* he's fascinating to view through a neurodivergent perspective. He's awkward, quiet, introverted, and hints to have quite bit of family drama, but it's never really explored. A big problem is that SH4 is Walter's story; Henry ends up being an observer of it.
You mean a completely bland protagonist with zero personality
But he was supposed to be the observer. He was the 'reciever of wisdom' if I remember correctly. He must witness everything and then give his life for Walter's rituel to work.
You're trying way too hard man. No wonder you're lonely.
Where were the hints of family drama?
THIS.
That giant Eileen head still freaks me out to this day
Seriously the most disturbing imagery I've seen in a game
What
.... The intro in Sh4 is basically the most disturbing imagery out there
@@user-slav153 No
@@navyhusky2020 yes
I recently watched another video about SH4 and said the same thing there: I personally find this entry to be one of the scariest in the series. Taking places that are generally considered a "safe space", (like a home) and making them not safe is terrifying on another level. The degradation of the apartment as the game goes on, with it becoming increasingly dangerous, creates this feeling of dread that builds as you play. The ghosts were kind of random but the general feel was still very much on brand for SH. My cousin and I rented this back when it first came out and stayed up all night playing it, and it gave me nightmares off and on for years. I visited a house once years ago that was being worked on and it had a hole in a wall, and I legitimately got freaked out without even realizing it was because of the damn hole in the wall from this game. 😅
the thing about the characters is 100% true. this is Walters story, in the same way 2 is James's etc. it's just the one game we don't actually play as the protagonist
SH4 is unique in a sense that you play some random NPC who somehow foils the main character's ultimate goal and even saves the girl.
@@mr.sinjin-smyth there's something beautiful and probably unintentional in the message "even if you feel like the most useless, boring, unimportant bumblefuck that ever lived, if you find yourself in the time and place to do the right thing, you can still make all the difference in the world"
@@TheCreepyLantern"the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world"
-GMan
Thanks Max for covering this game! I loved all of the 1st four Silent Hill titles, but The Room sits with me the longest still because of how freaky, surreal, and interesting it was! The levels were like fever dreams, and the neighbors of Henry were just as disturbed as himself! I really liked Walter's story and especially the music, even caring for Eileen while frustrating made me want to protect her from the monsters. It was a wild ride even playing it 3 different times to get different endings :)
I think this is a very well-researched and thought provoking video essay on SH4, but personally I think the main problem with this game is not its "lack" of creepy locations, or the lack consistency between closed and open spaces as you mentioned, as much as the original 3; on the contrary, I think SH4 is perhaps the most depressing and downright terrifying of the classic SH games, given that there literally no silver lining or any shred of of hope in any of the storylines nor the characters. In SH 1 to 3, as you perfectly explained, you have protagonists who are basically going through this nightmarish experience, hoping to reconnect with their loved ones (Harry with his daughter, Heather with Harry and James with Mary). In other words, there's a heart in the story. Hence, the horror is balanced by the hopeful aspect. However in 4, Henry is basically a victim of Walter's plan, and he spends most of the game clueless about the situation, reading the last tenant's diary and experiencing Walter's life step by step. That alone, imo. adds to the hopelessness of the situation. And the individual who is longing to connect with someone, happens to be Walter, looking for his "mother", but of course he happens to be a psychopathic serial killer whom you won't root for. All in all, SH4 is very grim in atmosphere imo.
The problem, however, I think lies in the structure of the game and how it connects to the plot. That is, in the 2nd half of the game you'll basically have to retread all previous stages, with the added burden of a companion that you have to take care of, and Walter after you (basically, the Pyramid Head hospital encounter in SH2, but repeated again and again). In this sense, it reminds me of the 2nd portion of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, where you have go through stages where you have been, with an added difficulty of your life running out.
Not to mention that your only safe place in the game (i.e. The Room) is constantly getting haunted by ghosts that damage you. All this makes the 2nd portion of the game very exhausting and frustrating. And of course there are other annoying gameplay features, such as the un-killable ghosts throughout the game, your inventory and the chest, etc. .
And as far as the story aspect, I agree with you, Henry might not be a very compelling protagonist and someone whom you root for or sympathize with such as James or Heather. In short, I agree with you about Henry being an unfeeling empty protagonist, however that reason alone is what makes me terrified of this game, and at the same time makes me not love it as much as the original 3.
Sorry about my long rant. I really enjoy your channel. Great work and cheers from Iran.
I love this game so much because it gives me this feeling of 'dissociation' when playing it. Everything about the vibes, graphics, wonky controls, weird stock sounds, weird animations, unkillable ghosts that just kinda fly around, cool otherworldly locations, akward dialogue between characters - just everything together gives me this special dissociation-type vibe that I don't think I experienced in any other game. It really feels like playing someones dream, especially because of in-game locations. It is not the same as the other entries of course, but I don't believe that it is worse because of it. It's just so weird in a special way, I love it.
Also I really like the plot twist and what The Room really is. Very unique (and tragic) stuff.
I would honestly love a remake of SH4 , polishing the rough edges ( especially the combat ) and the voice acting especially if they can add a good voice actor for Henry. This game was a love of mine and just something that just was so different yet so familiar to silent Hill I loved it.
the entire game feels like just barely escaped alpha. it was definetly very rushed and the ideas poorly executed due to this. howrever the design in mind and theory of the game its masterful
I don’t really play survival horror, but I really enjoyed silent hill 4. I discovered it during the COVID lockdowns and kind of got attached to it due to the parallels between Henry being locked in his flat and me kind of being stuck in the house. I remember being so bored and fed up that I thought “yeah, if a hole appeared in the house and it was going to take me to a subway/forest/whatever that was filled monsters I’d probably still head down it just to break the monotony”
I played SH4 for the first time when the COVID lockdown began and it was one of the greatest experiences I had in my life.
Silent Hill 4 is good and I'm tired of pretending it's not
Max is so dedicated to the channel that he broke his arm just to better channel Eileen's energy.
Man, the comments for this video are priceless. This is another banger. Thank you.
I appreciate how every Otherworld level is a memory of Walter's, but heavily distorted. Like the Water Prison having a torture room where the kitchen cooks would allegedly take the meat from the dead and feed it to the living inmates--it didn't exist in real life and was just a rumor Walter heard other prisoners talking about.
I think the main thing that draws me to this game is that the Otherworld is more horrifying but also dreamier than previous installments. It's like if David Lynch made a movie with the feel of the first Manhunt game.
The room is a strange disjointed beast that took risks with a beloved formula, and that's why I love it. Thank you for finally covering it Max!
It has the most artistic merit for me, personally, but it is undeniably held back by a needlessly frustrating gameplay loop.
It's themes are FAR more resonant in a post-pandemic world and I would kill to see a remake with fixed gameplay in the vein of Bloober's SH2 remake. There's SO much more room for improvement in this game.
Walter Sullivan sure has taken a most stuff ritgh out of Frank Reynolds playbook, hangin out in delapidated environments, living in a s%//& appartment with a younger lost guy, and he also has his " and I started blasting" mantra.
There probably is a rum ham somewhere in there as well!
I did like Shattered Memories too, it is judging you and it has those creepy environments that are eerie, the monster parts(chase sequences) aren't that great but as an experience I found it pretty cool.
To me, SH4 was always a game that ended up less than the sum of its parts. There are a lot of very cool ideas and set pieces, the whole thing with the apartment is pretty genius, and I really like the *idea* of Walter's story, but it just doesn't all come together for me. I know Henry isn't supposed to be the focus, but they could have given him *something* to make the game feel a little less flat (yeah I know the argument that he's neurodivergent/introverted. Even then, he could do a little more than just saying "what the hell" and "what is thaaaat" all the time). As for Walter, I do like what they were going for, but I can't help but feel something's missing that keeps it from hitting as hard as it should. Kinda wish they'd done like SH2 did and downplayed the whole cult/ritual stuff maybe a tiny bit to distract less from the very real horror of what he went through. That, and certain aspects of his abuse and his reaction to it (what he feels the apartment is to him.....) just felt too over the top that they become a little bit silly and take me out of it pretty hard, where the abuse situations in SH2 were more grounded but still led to big fallouts. But that's just my personal preference. I am glad that it worked better for a lot of others than it did for me. SH4 is still good, it just didn't do it for me as much as the first three did.
EDIT: Also, the ghosts are just bad and I will die on this hill. They're way more obnoxious than they are scary. I think they could have worked, but they should have made them waaaaay less common, maybe even limiting them early on before bringing them in full force as they appear later in the game. As they are now, they are an active distraction from the otherwise excellent atmosphere.
I don't think Silent Hill's influence can just happen anywhere. It happened to Heather cause she had a the god fetus in her and Claudia was hunting her and Harry down. It happens in Ashfield because Walter is doing the sacrament. Hell even in Homecoming it was because the town dynasties were a splinter group of the cult.
It's interesting to think that in games 3 and 4 the influence of Silent Hill spreads outside of town for very specific reasons.
And now with the next new Silent Hill F set in Japan I wonder what will be the explanation for the influence of Silent Hill to reach the other side of the world lol
@@gredhudson5576the games God has breaken out of the games into real life and now is haunting Japan
Silent Hill 4: The Room..
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Oh hi Mark
The reason why Henry is so bland of a character is that the main character of this game isn't him, it's Walter Sullivan. Henry is just a third perspective on that.
I think 4 is way more cohesive and scarier than what came before, staying behind only of 2. For a game that does not have the SH town as location, they do a very good job of being connected to that world and building up on lore stablished before.
Ya and at least it didn't try to retcon the original lore by adding what the live action movies did(adding the iconic monsters just coz, and it didn't match the lore of that story).... Such a sin.
@weylandpunanigaming i see no point made to counter my argument.
@weylandpunanigaming i see nothing to reply to as no point was made to prove my comment wrong.
This game have a special spot in my heart. I like it's story and atmosphere and I also tried to look for realism in graphics during PS2 days especially in character rendering. Silent hill 4 ended my search for it because it have the most realistic and beautiful human characters on the PlayStation 2.
That's Final Fantasy 12 to me, still looks stunning all these years later.
Final Fantasy 8 for me.
I think that sh4 was supposed to be more surreal and dreamlike. the previous games were also very surreal and dream like but I feel like sh4 was more focused on this concept a little more
The most important things for a Silent Hill game are, unsettling atmosphere, music and creepy monsters. Silent Hill 4 has all these things and does them really well.
The best part about SH4 is all the people just giving Henry absurdly specific psychological profiles when the reason he's bland is simply because he's supposed to be a random poor outsider drawn into the whole thing and the story is Walter's.
Good to see how his blank-slate-ness let people just juxtapose whatever they are onto him and "identify with him".
I really enjoyed the story in this one. It has a fun idea for a feature film. Plus, it was cool to see the Core from Event Horizon
At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I have my own video on Silent Hill 4 that I made explicitly with the intent of broadening the scope of discussion surrounding the game by introducing what I felt to be, new and fresh talking points. I think SH4 is a flawed, but fascinating entry and I don't think it gets nearly enough credit for what it uniquely brings to the table.
that's good to hear, i think a lot of people like max derrat didn't understand the subtlety silent hill 4 offers when it comes to their characters. i actually think the game has more depth than sh2.
@@blunderless I dunno if I would go quite that far, but SH4 absolutely has way more going for it than most give it credit for. It is extremely thematically rich and its commentary has gnawed at my brain for over a decade.
For me, the main issue with SH4 stands with 2 gameplay choices: the escort part and the frustration tied to the undying enemies. I really enjoyed the story, locations and overall artistic direction. Even the first person perspective while exploring the room.
Silent Hill 1 is still my nightmare experience and for me the best part…the team put a lot in it…
The only thing that I hate form SH4 was backtracking. We all know this is Konami's fault because they did not give Team Silent enough time to cook, and it shows. But honestly do you remember the trailers made for the game? Cinematograph perfection, they were unbelievable made in a music video fashion. I hope SH4 will get a proper remake, game deserves it and really needs it.
The first Silent Hill game I played was this one. Don't ask me why, I don't remember. At the time, I was the loneliest I've ever been, stuck by myself in a one room apartment and I had no human connection for months. As empty and uninteresting as Henry was, seeing that god awful apartment resonated with me immensely.
At risk of sounding like I am gatekeeping horror, or even more gatekeeping mental disorders: you will never understand Silent Hill 4 unless you are an introverted with severe depression.
You see Henry as a bland guy. I see someone that shelves himself in his apartment, with boxes in his closet and few clothes. Someone that has trouble starting conversations and reacts nerviosly when someone approaches him. The way he reacts with Cynthia when she offers herself to him, the way Richard looks and dismisses him, how he looks down and away from Eileen when she becomes trapped with him and wants to seek him.
You see a guy that is bland and has no character.
I see myself.
As you explore the rest of the world you learn much more about not just Walter Sullivan, but also about Eileen and her relationship with Walter, how all of the victims end up being related to him. It is not a game that tells you everything like Silent Hill 2, it is a game that you have to play and pay attention and actually read the stuff that you see around the world.
While I can understand why people don't like the world and repeating the levels, it is more akin to a Metroidvania than any other Silent Hill.
TL;DR: you wouldn't get it.
As soon as I read that title, I immediately thought about Silent Hill 4!
People should not connect SH 4 with Silent Hill 2. Henry doesn’t need a detailed backstory. The story is about the cult’s original plan to birth God. Henry just so happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and so does everyone in the apartment.
He’s every way the same as Harry Mason, he wasn’t supposed to be there, Cheryl could have been picked up by any other passerby.
The best way to summarize my feelings playing SH4 is analogous to Frodo carrying the One Ring to Mount Doom. It was that mentally taxing on my psyche. This is boosted by the game's take on the traditional zombies in the form of ghosts that just plain creep you out with the way they move, their moans and the psychic damage they inflict on Henry by just being present. It is also how the game presents its cutscenes in a sort of low quality found footage format which really adds to its baggage. SH3 for me was the scariest experience out of the OG 4 games, but SH4 had the most consistent barrage of insanity to the point that finishing the game made you feel like you're, as mentioned, Frodo who just finished throwing the One Ring into the pits of Mount Doom, freeing you from the torment.
Considering the success of SH2 remake, I can only hope for a remake of this one. Oh boy, it can REALLY deliver
One of the reasons the main protagonist is awkward is due to the direction in development. They were told to keep him with minimum emotion showing since they wanted him to be a shell for the player. The team even admitted it was difficult to create cutscenes with hik for this reason. I feel like that is kne if the reasons the game suffers. If done correctly it would of helped a lot.
I genuinely think SH4 deserves a remake. If nothing else, I think this would be an opportunity to learn from the original game's mistakes and improve it.
Silent Hill 4 was my first introduction to the series, and has a special place in my heart. It was the stepping stone to the originals, and although it can be annoying to play, the story is captivating, and it will always be my favourite
Lol that line of “sometimes the horror works” right when you see Eileen’s or Cynthia’s face all blown up and her eyes twitching and following you, is not the example of the horror working in my opinion. As well as a lot of people when it was released, especially.
Subjective indeed. The ideas of the woods and monsters are a scary environment is usually quite frightening if pulled off more convincingly.
Also the lack of symbolism and the unimaginative creature design make this by far the worst of the true silent hill games.
Hey Max! I personally LOVE Silent Hill 4. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned how claustrophobic it is. It is essentially the wealth of meaning - be it religious or occult-based - that makes it so precious to me. I feel like I could see from the desperate perspective of Walter Sullivan, and just like you've said, it literally hurts that there is nothing left to be done for this man.
That being said, the gameplay does have pacing issues. I dreaded revisiting these nightmare realms again and again. They were more irritating than it was fun playing through them.
But the meaning. I have to say, that's what makes it so beloved to me. Its exploration of psychological trauma is so very apt, that it awoke me to some of my own that I hadn't been taking seriously enough in the past. It's a game that changes you as you play it, for some of us.
All the prayers for Max. Hope your arm recovers well. Your SH videos are just brilliant!
To me, Silent Hill 4 only gained value and relevance with time. This is because it's a symbol of an era where experimentation with game formulas was still possible within the entries of an established franchise. While not all of its elements work flawlessly, there is still something to be learnt from them, and it's a shame the following entries in the series shunned them completely in the name of playing safe. This kind of daring is something that today in the triple A space is almost impossible; the only recent-ish game I can think of that managed to do this while being successful is Yakuza: Like a Dragon with its genre shift - and it still brought infinite arguments within fans.
Silent Hill 2 is my favourite, for story, atmosphere and of course music, but I think SH4's locked room concept was really cool. That door is iconic. The bland protagonist was a let down and it did falter along the way, but I still regard it as a worthy addition.
You gotta see Henry as yourself... One you may wake up and all of a sudden you're the one who's going to experience something horrible now
4 is definitely a great game. Scary af ... deserves a great remaster.
Bring back tank controls
The game had moments of brilliance. The extended trailer had me 💩ing my pants.
The two faced monsters, the hauntings, the Eileen face room, the general aesthetic, etc.
…but, there’s plenty weak about it.
Frustrating monsters,
ghosts stopped being scary & just annoying, Eileen was a hassle to escort,
and you had revisit the entire first half of the game. Bullets don’t stack made all projectile weapons useless.
I beat 1-3 multiple times for all endings; I couldn’t for this installment.
Good ideas, but undercooked.
SH4 was amazing. It still freak me out. I know its different from the previous games but i still think its a Silenthill game.
Silent hill 1 2 3 are masterpieces. The room is just an alright game IMO.
Being locked in an increasingly haunted apartment is such a good horror concept. I just can't stand the gameplay.
This is one of my favorite games ever, along with Radiata Stories. The PS2 was my favorite era. I am happy playing them over and over. I have recently been playing Pathologic Classic HD and I enjoy it as well. It figures that it too was made in 2005. You might like Pathologic too.
Henry Townsend is the kinda guy who walks up to somebody lying on the ground, lacerated and covered in blood, and asks "are you okay?"
I absolutely love Silent Hill 4, but I don't play it nearly as much as the first 3 titles of the series. It's not because I don't think it's as good, or bad as a game at all. The reason why I don't play through it as often is because I need to be in the right mood to deal with the more complicated mechanics, and rigidness of the game. It's kind of the same way that I think about Resident Evil 0, or Forbidden Siren despite the fact I think those are awesome games as well. When I am in the right mood, and I have the right mindset, that's when SH 4, Siren, and RE 0's quality shines through. Even though the mechanics of those games are unique, and maybe not that logical, streamlined, or intuitive, it's partially their unique rigid mechanics that make them special to me, flaws and all.
SH4 creeped me out more than any of the other games, it was a solid contribution to the franchise.
The scream at the beginning terrified me as a kid and I stopped playing. The apartment is definitely one of the creepiest locations across all of the SH games.
I think the direction and design in SH4 was brillant
-The apartment feels incredibly sad and bland, just making you feel you don't want to be there
-Henry is bland, but bland characters are great for the Silent Hill style, don't forget that pretty much anyone who connects with the town or it's powers, is broken in some way
-I ESPECIALLY love the camera work, whenever you're in a 3D world the camera movement feels wrong, not as a camera following you, but like somebody's watching you, in some corners the camera literally moves as if the camera were somebody's eyes while they're hanging upside down, just creepy
Still, some points were negative and i think it changes the experience by a lot, the lifebar along with the charged attack mechanic makes it feel way more battle focused instead of surviving, and while the locations are pretty well made, it feels wrong to simply appear in these places, in SH2 you get to some really weird places that shouldn't exist, but you do so by going there in a seamless and disturbing way, like loooong stairs, feeling like you're going to hell, but you don't get teleported, so it feels like nothing is connected even if the plot is
I think it's not a bad game, it's pretty good, but it's not in the holy trinity category, just below those 3 and above every other game
This is how you express an opinion on a divisive topic. Not putting anyone down, Max gave an honest, calm, and fair assessnent. I wish fandoms in general knew how to do the same. We would have some great conversations, meaningful conversations without resulting to petty arguments. Great work! The laugh at the end was so wholesome!
Ok so I have to start by saying Thank you Max, since I discovered your channel One spark of my life reignited and it was regarding about psychology in relation with alchemy and many other concepts, I have to say that I´m writing this comment before watching the video because all of this has led me from one big hole in my life where I was considering inflicting myself a quick game over , to this point in my life where I´ve realized what I want to be and Im happy with that and also helping other people, please by any means dont think I´m idolizing you, I´m just showing my respect and being grateful to you and all the stuff that has helped me to get here and also the reason I´m writing this comment is because I just said that I was going to look for a video that is just 20 mins long and by chance I just posted a Pick in my Ig story related to Sh4 which is one of my favorite games and seeing this video posted made me say that is just to good to be a coincidence and I had to comment that (and also be grateful).
Dark Souls 2, DMC: Devil May Cry and Fallout 4 all had different teams from those who made the prequels everybody loved. To be honest, I don't really think Fallout 4 was all that divisive, as it was pretty much a continuation of Besethda formula they started somewhere in Oblivion or Fallout 3.
Well everyone who has played new vegas and the older fallout games do not appreciate 3 and 4 that much or outright hates them, because they really are not as good as those other games
I agree but the problem with fallout 4 is it's not being compared to fallout 3 it being compared to fallout new Vegas
@@shaneriggs6678 i would argue fallout 3 offers a more interesting narrative and not much else, the old jank that game has is so charming to me, while fallout 4 just has better gunplay. Although that is good the shooting is not the only aspect of the game that is relevant, and fallout 4 is just not that good of an rpg
Yeah, but in that case, I doubt Fallout 4 is much more divisive than Fallout 3 was. It sold much better than Fallout New Vegas.
@@vincentpresscod7531 selling well does not equal quality or fan approval. Many fallout fans probably bought fallout 4 because it was the newest in the franchise, and its big marketing push and Bethesda having tons of fans from Skyrim already made it succeed with the mainstream audience. But the hardcore fallout fanbase doesn't really like fallout 4
I agree with everything you said. One thing I believe is a highlight for me is when you get to the apartment building world and each apartment tells you a lot about each of the residents and their relationships and how life was in the building. That was a very sweet touch often overlooked. To me, thats the best level of the game
10:00 The monster filled forest is a scary concept BUT what we get in SH4 is NOT a forest, but rather a fairly wide, more-or-less straight path, sided by an invisible wall of trees.
I haven’t played this in awhile-your videos truly make me want to revisit these titles-but one thing that stands out as what I remember most vividly is the slow deterioration throughout the game of his room as a safe haven to rest and recover, into a place so demonically possessed that it causes harm just to be there. It’s extremely well done; truly made me dread having to return to the room after completing an objective, to see what else could’ve gone wrong in there.
Kinda funny to state there are no major spoilers right after spoiling two of the endings in the game lol
I don't think I will ever tire of your phenomenal Silent Hill videos. I find such an odd comfort in traveling through that foggy town with you as a guide.
I think SH3 remains my favorite, but SH4 is second for me. This is spoiler heavy so here goes.
A lot of people really hate the second half of the game due to Eileen. I've never had a big issue with her ai after knowing she will always prioritize following Henry without a weapon. Knowing this drastically changes the control players have and itll be way easier to get a 10 star rating knowing when Eileen should attack or run.
Otherwise, Walter is a very good villain, and i think Henry being a victim of circumstance elevates Walter rather than Henry.
I like how hostile the Room itself gets in this second half, and it feels very hopeless. But the second half has about twice the health items. I don't think it's super obvious, but theres a lot of dread and pressure in that half over the first.
Biggest issue with the story is that it's really difficult to piece the story together without multiple playthroughs, whereas I feel things click way easier in SH3 near the end.
SH4 is a quirky mess, and I love it.
wow i've never heard anyone say 3 & 4 were best. i actually liked kicking monster ass with eileen too. my ranking would have to be 1>4>2>3
Great video on SH4! I like that Henry was such a random blank slate, it made the story scarier to me. It made it feel like this can happen to anyone, to any everyman. He was probably the most relatable SH protagonist to me personally, although as a whole I prefer playing SH2. Probably has to do more with the gameplay mechanics than the story, which I think was superb in SH4 and still chills me to the bones.
I've always been intrigued by this game. The story, the whole apartment thing and especially Walter Sullivan are things that really appeal to me. I generally love the concept of supernatural serial killers :D
However, what always kept me from actually playing it myself, were a lot of the gameplay decisions.
The game has one big feature that I dislike:
Enemies that you can't kill, and that also can go through walls and damage you when they're near you. Also, escort missions 🤪
I do appreciate the game nonetheless and enjoy watching other people play it 🤓I'm glad it exists.
My first Silent Hill was The Room. I was still a kid back then, and I already was fond of horror movies and games, with Resident Evil being my favourite franchise. I remember finding The Room in a bin at our local version of GameStop, and that cover of the chained up door immediately caught my attention. I was familiar with the name Silent Hill but I never really saw much of it. Bought the game, read the box and manual on the way home(oh the nostalgia...)and booted up the game. I never felt so shocked and this sense of dread and unease by an intro cutscene! The hellish and otherworldly sounds and music combined with the very haunted-like footage was, and still is, one of a kind. Noticing the strange feedback sounds on the main menu as I started a new game. And then it happened, actual gameplay. Surprised and scared that it was in first person. I looked around in that bedroom, hearing that awful and eerie quietness, it still sticks with me so well. Really enjoyed the game from the start, I was doing pretty good too. But everything changed when the Double-Heads came...I literally closed the game when I saw that. It took me years before I dared to continue!
Silent Hill: The Room may not be the best of the franchise, but it sure as hell is the scariest and disturbing of them all in my opinion.
SH4 was my favorite Silent Hill game (and I was pretty obsessed with the series for a while--to the point I referenced SH2 in my honors thesis defense in college) because of how surreal the monsters and environment gets. I find it the most terrifying, and the most thought-provoking, and that's saying anything with Silent Hill.
I really liked the game, it might be my 3rd favourite after the 2 and 3. I feel its one of the most scary of the franchise and I liked the fact that Henry is so blank, it really gave me a feeling of someone being very depressed and lost. I like the character of Eileen too, when I played it, I was in love with a girl that looked like her but it was quite complicated because she was a stranger to me and I was too shy to talk to her. Walter Sullivan is a fantastic character as well, very intriguing...
We had an idea of Silent Hill spilling outside the town itself from the comics that started earlier the same year Silent Hill 4 was released. It made the changes in the game more palatable. The issue is that the comics weren't well marketed, and most didn't read them.
It's a shame, really.
This video came at the most opportune time for me! I'm in the process of writing a short film which will be filmed next month and it takes a lot of inspiration from the concepts and ideas of Silent Hill 4. Thanks Max!
Silent Hill 4 basically does a more approachable version of what Pathologic did: communicating its main characters' misery through the player's mechanics. It's not fun, but that's very much by design.
I recall having Silent Hill 2 as my favorite SH game and after that it was SH4. When I played 4 I just finished high school and I didnt have a plan for my future, nothing in particular interested me but my hobby of playing games. I'd lost my friends as they all went to college and became part of different social circles. I been working a retail job for about a year and began to live a routine life. When SH4 came out I bought it and found it weirdly cathartic. I related to Henry, A man without purpose, a man without social ties, a man who did not exist. It was odd and griping from the start, how did nobody noticed Henry was missing, why was Henry so awkward during his interactions with other characters. The isolation was real, the first person perspective really sold it well, and in fact it reflected my state of mind. The same walls, the same sounds, and the same emotion of emptiness. It felt like an allegory for facing life, as being in that room was safety but empty, yet facing the dangers of the outside world meant risk and possible death, but a meaningful life in that vein. As someone mentioned in this thread, Walter reflected the possibility a similar man as Henry responding to the world with anger and violence. Viewing this game today and finding parallels with how most of these souls survive and find purpose in living vs, those rare but destructive individuals who mass murder like those shooters.
I did try silent hill 4, , I really like alot of the stuff it has. it's a fine game, though there is a lot it could be better in.
I've been a Silent Hill fan from the beginning. I remember when the trailer of SH4 released. My uncle and I watched it on Gamespot's website back in the day and we were so stoked, especially when we saw the Twin Victim walking around. My uncle got it back when it first released in September 2004. During that time, his mother who was also my grandmother was very ill and passed away that November. It was a sad year us and the rest of the family but SH4 made us a little happier from our loss.
I struggled to finish the game, and was kind of pissed off by the ending
still liked the game though
For me, it was a game (Room 246) that had the Silent Hill name slapped on it after the fact.
it's always really interesting to me when people don't necessarily get henry eileen or cynthia, because i really connected a lot with all those characters. henry in particular, digging into some of the implications from his apartment and trying to figure out what kind of person he is was always one of my favorite aspects of The Room as a setting. for example:
-the only people who notice he's missing with no warning or explanation are his neighbors, who aren't his friends or anything. where are his family and friends? does he have any?
-there's very little personal touch in his apartment, except for his pictures. he's also a photographer, which makes his role in the 21 sacraments as the witness take on a whole another meaning.
-related to that, the amount of eye themed stuff with him gets to me. the peephole in the wall, the door, the window. there's a lot of what you can do in the room to see but nothing you can do to change your situation.
-and then the monsters, the twin victims point at you. the giant eileen head follows you around. the ghost that looks at you from the closet, the copy of yourself looking in through the door.
-he's got very bland reactions, that's true, but that always read to me as a character trait and not as just. failure in excecution. i find that he's a reasonably caring person, trying to protect cynthia and eileen and being upset when he can't help them out. i think his bland exclamations really read to me as someone who has trouble expressing himself, but still yearns for connection.
that's just my thoughts on him though! it's interesting to see other perspectives. i always assumed doing a little investigative work on the protagonist was intended as another fun aspect of the game haha
I always took Henry as an Observer type of person. He is a photographer and comments on the pictures he took around his apartment, and its known for watching things quietly waiting for the right moment. He is always looking somewhere too like out the window or at his neighbors or out the peephole. I still find him bland but i think its intentional for a character like him to be able to figure out whats wrong with Walter. I love the game but when the later half becomes a long ass escort mission i do begin to enjoy the game less. Still I'd argue this game has the most uncomfortable body horror of the whole series with its monster design and story themes.
The 3 big silent hill villains, pyramid head, god, some dude named Walter
9:56 yes yes i know, subjective experiences but it's funny, Because for me the forest was the SECOND SCARIEST place on the game, open forest likes that gives me instant creeps. Even in RE4 where the game isn't as scary, the early forest area made me fear every step
You hit the nail on the head with your assessment of using random characters in Walter's story as opposed to the other games. With the titles previous, one of the reasons why those stories were so enchanting was because they were personal to the characters. You couldn't replace them with anyone else because those stories matter to THEM. At least with Henry, the story doesn't outside of him just so happening to buy Walter's old apartment room. At least with, say, Eileen, she met Walter as a child, giving her connection to the antagonist. I may be wrong, but Richard may have encountered him at some point? The superintendent also knew about his family. They have more ground for being the main character than Henry.
I hate the excuse of making a shell of a character for the player to insert themselves in. Whatever emotions people state I should have with that method, I never do. I prefer established characters with distinct personalities, who I can root for and fear for. Henry is a boring character but at least he isn't a terrible one you don't want in your media. He doesn't do or say things that make me hate him. He was just written poorly. You can make a recluse interesting but I guess they thought that's how hermits act? If this game were to be remade, they could give him more personality, and possibly give him more connection to Walter. I want to know why these characters fight other than not wanting to die; anyone can have that fear. I want a story personal to them.
I played Silent Hill 4 with my mother the year it was released, I believe, and it had been the one Silent Hill game to give me consistent nightmares. The ghosts were a great, if at times frustrating, addition. They are the best representation of ghosts I've seen in media so far. They are like spirits and zombies mashed together. Zombies with tragic backstories who wield supernatural powers, don't seem to understand what has happened to them, or that they're attacking an innocent man. Walter is an unsung villain and I can just imagine the potential he could have storywise and gameplay-wise if a developer had the notion and ambition to give this game another shot. Silent Hill 3 is my favorite out of all, but Silent Hill 4 terrified me the most. If I were in charge of a AAA gaming studio, I'd love to ask Konami to give me a shot at a remake.
Still remember the weird guitar flamenco guitar that played in the menu, and the chills I got every time the subway girl (the one floating around laying on the floor) touch me.
Well, I have almost two hours of videos praising the game, with more to come. So, think that says all you need to know on where I stand
My relationship with silent hill 4 is best described as I really like the game as a horror game, but I don't like it as a silent hill game.
silent hill 4 and dark souls 2 are my favorites mainly for being the first ones i finished by my self when i was a teen, that's why they are special for me.
Both games deserve so much more love than they get.
I played Silent Hill 4 a long time ago and didn't finish it. I was on the fence about it. I really liked the feelings of isolation. I felt haunted in that apartment. When I would return there after finally completing a section I felt helpless and yet weirded out by how what I had done affected the real world. It had so much going for it. However, I hated the combat and when I couldn't kill the ghosts and couldn't return to the apartment for "safety" because of spirits that's when it started to lose me. I started getting frustrated. I eventually was discouraged with exploring and trying to figure stuff out because I was constantly getting attacked. I couldn't just stop and think and observe. The best moments were the quiet moments. Then returning to all the same areas was about it for me. I never felt like I was getting anywhere or learning anything.
16:53 "Never forgive me, Never forget me" the theme song of "thinking deeply"
Your stuff never gets old Max,
always interested to hear your perspective.
i was never a huge fan of silent hill. i started playing the main 3 games, but neither made me as interested as silent hill 4. It has a feel to it that I've never felt in a horror game before. Most people feel the safest home, and the idea of safety turning vulnerable is scary. The way the home gets more and more absorbed of Silent Hill, first healing Henry's health, then taking away from it is genius! The hole in the wall and the locked door will forever be iconic.
Though, I agree, in retrospect, the mc felt quite plain, but it never bothered me, especially after finding out it's not his mental hell.