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"Silent Hill 4 - The Room - XBox"

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Sun 28/01/07 at 20:24
Regular
"Braaains"
Posts: 439
Despite being the fourth in the Silent Hill series of games, it's rumoured that 'The Room' actually started life a just a general survival horror game, and was later turned into a Silent Hill game. Certainly there are elements in 'The Room' that set it apart from other titles in the series. For a start, the game begins with you, as the protagonist Henry Townsend, not in Silent Hill or some other monster infested local, but in your room. And it's a nice room, too, coming complete with a comfy bed, a small kitchen, TV, oh, and rusty metal chains on the door.

Yes, those definitely weren't in the estate agent's guide - in fact they weren't there at all until five days ago. And since then, you've been unable to leave your room at all. It appears the aparttment you're has been somehow isolated from the rest of the complex. Yes, you can see out of your windows, and through your door's spyhole but no matter how much noise you make, none of your neighbours seem able to hear you. What's a guy to do? Crawl through the hole that's mysteriously appeared in his bathroom wall, of course! Which, wouldn't you know it, leads to a number of gloomy levels, each inhabited by monsters and more.

It's up to you to keep Henry alive by bashing in the brains of the monsters you encounter, or perhaps just running like hell. Yes, running is probably the better option since not only do you have to contend with the monsters themselves, there are also ghosts which can't be killed at all. There's only a couple of these per level but the problem is that they will follow you from room to room, so you can't hang around too long. But since the game relies more on bringing object X to place Y than solving puzzles, that's not a big issue.

Unfortunately for Silent Hill fans, there is one hell of a big problem with the game. It's not that the graphics are duff - they're actually pretty good. Nor is it that the game's not scary - it may not be quite as unsettling as previous Silent Hill games, but it's still fairly frightening, especially when you find odd things happening in your room, a place you previously thought to be safe. And yes, Henry himself isn't the most charismatic hero in the game, but not that many games characters are, so I can live with that. No, the real problem is that halfway through the game, it turns to crap.

Allow me to explain. There are essentially four levels in the game, excluding Henry's room. You go through these levels meeting other characters and getting some idea of what's going on. But after the last of these levels, something unpleasant happens. You find yourself having to go through these levels again, only backwards. And it gets worse - you have to take along some stupid non-player character who is pretty much incapable of defending herself from not only monsters but from the Resident Evil Nemesis style bad guy who's tracking you down. Who, by the way, isn't a tenth as scary as Nemesis. And to cap it all, should the woman take a certain amount of damage, she doesn't die but in fact keeps going, only for you to discover that because of the damage she's taken you can't get the game's good ending.

I just can't fathom why someone at Konami felt that forcing gamers to endure the twin trials of backtracking and dragging along some dozy cow was in any way necessary. But they should be tracked down forced to play the latter half of the game again and again till their eyeballs bleed. Maybe I'm overreacting but what annoys me is that the game is actually damn good up till the the halfway point and then it all falls apart. If you are a Silent Hill fan, then by all means rent this and play it up to the halfway point - that's the hospital level - and just send it back. A sad example of how to ruin a perfectly good game.
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Sun 28/01/07 at 20:24
Regular
"Braaains"
Posts: 439
Despite being the fourth in the Silent Hill series of games, it's rumoured that 'The Room' actually started life a just a general survival horror game, and was later turned into a Silent Hill game. Certainly there are elements in 'The Room' that set it apart from other titles in the series. For a start, the game begins with you, as the protagonist Henry Townsend, not in Silent Hill or some other monster infested local, but in your room. And it's a nice room, too, coming complete with a comfy bed, a small kitchen, TV, oh, and rusty metal chains on the door.

Yes, those definitely weren't in the estate agent's guide - in fact they weren't there at all until five days ago. And since then, you've been unable to leave your room at all. It appears the aparttment you're has been somehow isolated from the rest of the complex. Yes, you can see out of your windows, and through your door's spyhole but no matter how much noise you make, none of your neighbours seem able to hear you. What's a guy to do? Crawl through the hole that's mysteriously appeared in his bathroom wall, of course! Which, wouldn't you know it, leads to a number of gloomy levels, each inhabited by monsters and more.

It's up to you to keep Henry alive by bashing in the brains of the monsters you encounter, or perhaps just running like hell. Yes, running is probably the better option since not only do you have to contend with the monsters themselves, there are also ghosts which can't be killed at all. There's only a couple of these per level but the problem is that they will follow you from room to room, so you can't hang around too long. But since the game relies more on bringing object X to place Y than solving puzzles, that's not a big issue.

Unfortunately for Silent Hill fans, there is one hell of a big problem with the game. It's not that the graphics are duff - they're actually pretty good. Nor is it that the game's not scary - it may not be quite as unsettling as previous Silent Hill games, but it's still fairly frightening, especially when you find odd things happening in your room, a place you previously thought to be safe. And yes, Henry himself isn't the most charismatic hero in the game, but not that many games characters are, so I can live with that. No, the real problem is that halfway through the game, it turns to crap.

Allow me to explain. There are essentially four levels in the game, excluding Henry's room. You go through these levels meeting other characters and getting some idea of what's going on. But after the last of these levels, something unpleasant happens. You find yourself having to go through these levels again, only backwards. And it gets worse - you have to take along some stupid non-player character who is pretty much incapable of defending herself from not only monsters but from the Resident Evil Nemesis style bad guy who's tracking you down. Who, by the way, isn't a tenth as scary as Nemesis. And to cap it all, should the woman take a certain amount of damage, she doesn't die but in fact keeps going, only for you to discover that because of the damage she's taken you can't get the game's good ending.

I just can't fathom why someone at Konami felt that forcing gamers to endure the twin trials of backtracking and dragging along some dozy cow was in any way necessary. But they should be tracked down forced to play the latter half of the game again and again till their eyeballs bleed. Maybe I'm overreacting but what annoys me is that the game is actually damn good up till the the halfway point and then it all falls apart. If you are a Silent Hill fan, then by all means rent this and play it up to the halfway point - that's the hospital level - and just send it back. A sad example of how to ruin a perfectly good game.

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