Silent Hill 4: The Room
Release Information
US: Fall 2004
Europe: Fall 2004
Austraila: Fall 2004
Introduction
If you thought the nightmare was over, you were wrong. In the fall of 2004, Konami Digital Entertainment will take horror to new levels with their freakishly scary release ‘Silent Hill4: The Room’. The Room is the 4th instalment in the amazingly successful Silent Hill series that began in 1999.
This time around, gamers will find themselves in control of 28-year-old Henry Townshend who finds himself trapped in his apartment, which has been cursed by an evil greater then anything witnessed in the previous games. His apartment is located in South Ashfield, which dedicated gamers will know is a neighbouring town to our beloved Silent Hill. Henry’s journey will continue the Silent Hill mythology and promises to unravel even more of the horrifying truth that surrounds Silent Hill.
If the brilliance of Silent Hill 3 is anything to go by, I simply can’t wait for The Room. From the trailers I have seen and the information I have gathered, I have come to the conclusion that The Room could be possibly the sickest and most gruesome portrayal of survival horror gaming ever created; that’s why we’re going to love it.
Preview
The Room is already shaping up to be extremely different to every other game in the series. If the storyline about being trapped in your apartment isn’t confusing enough, Henry will have to travel through mystifying portals into what seems like strange parallel worlds to slowly uncover the clues that lead to the reason why he is trapped in the apartment in the first place.
Along the way, Henry might run into a number of terrifying and shocking creatures that can only appear in a game like Silent Hill. If the nasty monsters in the previous games had you looking over your shoulder, I can honestly say that you haven’t seen anything yet! In the trailer it shows a particular creature that I can only describe as a demented gorilla with 2 human baby heads walking on hands with no legs trying to attack poor Henry. If that’s not enough for you, Konami have even hinted that the undead will also pose a threat to Henry. Could this be a nod to Resident Evil perhaps?
As nightmares and reality blend into a hellish mix you will find the environments portrayed in the alternate worlds to be quite chilling. This is obviously to be expected if you are travelling to places through holes in your apartment’s bathroom. Some of these environments will include a vast forest, a frightening prison and the always-appealing hotel.
Particular focus will be placed on the action sequences involved in The Room. However, there will still be plenty of puzzles that will look and feel much like they did in the original Silent Hill. I hope that the increased focus on more action-oriented gameplay will not make it feel like I’m playing a Resident Evil.
The environments that are noted above will exist through the apartment’s portals. You will be able to play in these environments using the classic third-person view, however when you need to go back to your apartment, the game will apparently revert back to a first-person view. This change in gameplay is a first for the Silent Hill series and it could add a whole new dynamic. Hopefully, this change will work exactly like it did in Resident Evil: Dead Aim.
A whole new and exciting cast of interesting characters awaits Henry through any one of the chosen portals. As can be expected you never know who to trust in the Silent Hill world and The Room is no exception. From what can be seen in the trailer there is a glimpse of an evil looking man, with long hair, dressed in a dark robe; that may be the key to whole mythology.
Although Silent Hill 4 has no direct connections to the surrounding storylines of Silent Hill 1 & 3, it will still hint to the mythology in the same way Silent Hill 2 did. Producer ‘Akira Yamaoka’ did make the announcement that the different types of portals will help gamers to make such connections.
Anticipation
Thank heavens Konami decided to spice things up a bit with Silent Hill 4. Although Silent Hill 3 was an excellent game, it still followed the same formula that made the first 2 titles a success. That particular formula was getting boring and it’s about time some new gameplay elements and storylines were thrown in to give The Room some originality.
The Silent Hill franchise is currently getting more publicity then ever before. There have already been plans to create a major motion film and even a huge comic book series. With this much publicity, Silent Hill 4 has a lot riding on it.
Being a big fan of this series I have high hopes for The Room and when you look at it from a traditional gaming perspective, you really can’t go wrong with gaming giants Konami. Konami nearly always bring out top quality titles like the previous Silent Hill’s and the critically acclaimed Metal Gear Solid series.
Preview by: REC
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