Silent Hill 4: The Room

Silent Hill 4: The Room  is a survival horror video game and the fourth installment in the Silent Hill series. The game was released in Japan in June 2004 and in North America and Europe in September of the same year. It was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The game involves the protagonist Henry Townshend and his struggles to escape from an apartment room (Room 302) he is locked in.
 * 2) Silent Hill 4: The Room is the first game in the series to feature a first-person perspective.
 * 3) Henry navigates through the apartment in a first-person perspective and can access an only save point as well as enter the Otherworlds through holes formed in the walls.
 * 4) In the second half of the game, the room becomes possessed by various hauntings which drain Henry's health. These hauntings are completely random in each playthrough.
 * 5) In the main levels of the game, the game is played through a third person perspective.
 * 6) The player only has a limited item inventory which can be managed by dumping unneeded items in a chest in Henry's room (similar to the item boxes in Resident Evil).
 * 7) The tank controls from previous installments are completely removed in favor of much more fluid and responsive directional controls.
 * 8) Akira Yamaoka returns as the games's composer.
 * 9) Scary and extremely bizarre graphics and environments.
 * 10) Lots of blood and gore, even more than previous games.
 * 11) Henry can charge his melee weapon if the attack button is pressed for a few seconds for a more powerful strike.
 * 12) The game features ghosts, which cannot be killed by normal means. The ghosts are actually the victims of the ritual the main antagonist is peforming through out the game, some of which are NPCs that you failed to save.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Due to using full analog control instead of tank controls, sometimes control might get a bit problematic when the camera suddenly switches to a different angle while you were running.
 * 2) There is little difference between the 2 good endings.
 * 3) Henry is often seen as fans as the worst protagonist in the series due to being boring.
 * 4) The puzzles are uninteresting.
 * 5) The game forces you to return to the same areas again after doing them once.

Reception
Silent Hill 4 was generally well-received, although some fans consider it a downgrade from the first three Silent Hill entries. The story, music, detailed environments and graphics were generally well praised. Some fans loved the surreal atmosphere of the game.