Support NeoGAF

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[AKyemeni]

I loved Silent Hill 4.

The intro was god-tier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AseTNgPRDH8

 

[Da DreadLord]

Now I want to replay this (and the other silent hill games)... come on konami, bring them to steam!

Also anyone know how to fix the sound bugs in silent hill 2 on modern systems?

 

[Pettigrew]

Not as good as Silent Hill 2, yet an excellent horror game and underrated silent hill game.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[we.are.the.armada]

I didn't like this Kurt Cobain-looking guy.

I loved the idea of a guy being trapped in a nightmarish apartment room with a hole opening up in the bathroom after a period of time. It gave me a House of Leaves vibe.

 

[Da DreadLord]

Intro definitely sets the tone early on, and as I say at the top here, I think the extended trailer for the game is god-tier. They really had the promotional material for the game down to a T.



This topic on GAF helped me optimize the PC versions of Silent Hill 2 and 3 nicely, but on a Windows 7 64-bit machine I should mention.

But in my memory, at least with Silent Hill 2, I think you need to go to your task manager and set the game to only use a single dual-core to fix the audio.

Thanks If I grow tired of waiting for these to get on steam, I'll have to find my disk and reinstall

 

[FunkyPajamas]

Just wanted to say that this is what a LLTP is about, you brought me back to the party game and made me remember the love I had for it, even if I finished it many years ago.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

I started playing this a few months ago after picking up a used copay at Gamestop, but my PS2 is pretty much shot and stopped reading the game. I tried 100 times to get it to work but it won't. I had just got to some sort of Forest area but haven't gotten it to work again . I was really enjoying it, but fuck whatever the hell those enemies are in that subway station. Is there any way to kill those fuckers?

 

[Grisby]

I didn't like it all that much. While the room stuff was great, the repeating levels and ghosts became an annoyance. The actual environments themselves were visually boring and not very memorable to go through once, let alone a second time.

Throw in some burpy nurses and a rather boring protagonist and yeah, it just didn't do it for me.

I did enjoy the music and bits of the story were interesting, with the ending actually being pretty cool. The apartment hauntings are definitely the highlight of the show though.

 

[afternoon delight]

This topic on GAF helped me optimize the PC versions of Silent Hill 2 and 3 nicely, but on a Windows 7 64-bit machine I should mention.

And it's god-tier in itself.

Silent Hill 2 and 3 can be found for as much as those lame new games for 60$, but they're worth it!

 

[SJRB]

Very cool write-up, OP. I agree with the surreal dream-like feel of the game. Overall it made me very uncomfortable in many ways, from the total weirdness of pretty much everything to the voyeuristic tendencies.

Silent Hill as a whole has that effect of "feeling uncomfortable" on me, the overall visual style and [ambient] music is one of a kind.

 

[Ourobolus]

And in some way it controls about how you'd expect a Silent Hill game to control. Well, a correction, for some reason I feel the controls in this game are a bit worse than the older SH's.He actually feels harder to control than easier to previous games, at least at first before you adjust. And the weird part is I can't completely pinpoint on why that is. Maybe something about the weird camera angles in this game? I dunno. But of notable difference, in his room he takes on a first person view and observes and interacts with things. Which is an interesting and different change of pace for the series.

This is what stopped me from getting anywhere in this game. The problem is that in a lot of points there are fixed camera angles, like in previous games, but there isn't relative movement. So left is always left, right is always right, but the camera angles keep changing, disorienting you.

Tank controls in previous games meant that even with changing camera angles, you always moved forward when pressing up, and you turned when pressing left/right, rather than simply moving in that direction.

 

[AKyemeni]

Also, Resting Comfortably gave me the chills back then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO2LvgjzgmQ

 

[HelenKeller:BlindDeafDTF]

The Room was pretty interesting, but felt like a weird Silent Hill spinoff. I think 3 will always be my favorite.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[afternoon delight]

4 did give us its soundtrack and Room of Angel so no matter what, it's worth checking out.

 

[faceless007]

It's a pretty decent half of a game. Then they padded it with the second half. How did the idea of making it an escort mission with a crippled side character while being chased by an unstoppable, unkillable villain with a gun you can't dodge (while also dealing with the other unkillable ghosts around) not get nixed in the design stage?

That said, the mechanic of each ghost being a persistent creature in the game, and you have a limited number of swords with which to immobilize them so you can choose which enemies you want to keep down for the entirety of the game, is kind of interesting. It would have been interesting if the game did more with that.

As far as the story and world design go I largely agree with the OP, it's extremely bizarre and dreamlike and strangely immersive, and the way it's revealed is pretty interesting.

I really like the final song on the soundtrack, Waiting For You (Live at Heaven's Night). It's a somber but aggressive lament from the perspective of Walter looking for his mother. Also, the idea of it being played "live at Heaven's Night" is an interesting bit of cross-textual world-building. Although I'm not sure the Heaven's Night we see in Silent Hill 2 is really big enough for the size of the crowd you hear in the song. I don't know why I thought of that.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

While it wasn't as good as 2, which I think is considered the best one overall, I preferred it over 3 in a lot of ways. It certainly did feel like a weird spin off but I enjoyed it for what it was.

I also used to just stare out of the window for a while a watch the world go by.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

I bought this game day one and it sits on my shelf unplayed beside SH3 which was also bought day one and remains unplayed.


...I am too scared to play them

 

[dan2026]

This game isn't the best, but it looks like a masterpiece compared to the 'Silent Hill' that came after.

Also didn't they censor the two headed babies?
Weren't they originally supposed to squeal when you killed them?

 

[Terra_Ex]

Good write up, my memory is hazy on the game now but I'll write up some bits that stuck with me. My first time through the game, I tried using one of those crucifix things (or whatever they are) to pin the immortal ghosts down, problem was I was slightly out of alignment with the ghost's body so the game wouldn't let me it - I interpreted this as the ghosts basically being unstoppable. So for a good portion of the game I battled through with the ghosts resurrecting themselves over and over and to be honest it added to the experience. Same thing occurred with the hauntings and exorcisms - the candles have to be placed fairly close to the invasions to make them go away so Henry's apartment was haunted by all manner of nasties for much of my first playthrough. Those two things (which admittedly were misunderstandings on my part) were a constant menace throughout and having evil encroaching on your apartment constantly made no where feel safe so I feel it really succeeded on that front.

Despite my initial reservations regarding a game themed around a room, I enjoyed the game a lot, though some areas like the water prison I really hated. It was odd adjusting between 1st and 3rd person views when moving between the apartment and connected worlds but I suppose that was done to add a claustrophobic element to the room itself and it was pretty cool seeing life going on as usual outside the apartment through the window yet you were stuck inside. I also appreciated the callbacks to SH2 as Walter's name was mentioned there in the newspapers and elevator quiz, it helped push the notion of SH as a connected universe.

Overall a good game which I'd definitely revisit, it definitely feels different from the first three games but I think I appreciate it more just for that.

 

[Anung]

I'd say that it is underrated as well. The story, atmosphere and music are up there with the best of them. I do think that the mechanics themselves really hurt the game though and is why, unlike 2 and 3, I rarely replay it.

 

[Grisby]

Spoiler

The giant head of Eileen was pretty freaky too

. Probably the only 'scare' that I had.

I remember being so so excited for 4. That trailer is still one of the best ever made.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GW_is7yL6_U

 

[BinaryPork2737]

I played this years ago after borrowing my friend's PS2. I've got to say, it is far better than any of the Silent Hill games that come after it, except maybe Shattered Memories. Maybe. The part of the game that sticks out the most to me remains the final boss of the game, especially with what's happening during the fight. I wasn't really a fan of the escort mission part of the game, but overall it was a pretty good SH entry.

 

[Da DreadLord]

I remember being so so excited for 4. That trailer is still one of the best ever made.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GW_is7yL6_U

 

[Dekanach]

I did not enjoy as much as the others Silent Hill games (1, 2, 3). I think the game lacks much psychological fear factor and It made me very short in terms of playing. Virtually has no puzzles and the characters are boring and a little bit development. Can not find it at all a bad horror game, but mediocre and with another name (just like 'Room 302') would have been better.

 

[AJ_Wings]

Really good write up OP. Explains in great detail what I exactly loved about the game.

The prison level was the stuff of nightmares.

Spoiler

Especially the sequence where you enter one of the cells and you notice a shadow walking by the tiny observation window

. It was some horrifying stuff for my younger self.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[Gentleman Jack]

The boss/ghost intros in Silent Hill 4 are probably among the best in the series. The game really pulls together a distinctive look and feel for the hauntings and it helps hang the mythology together. The fact that the ghosts can appear randomly and that your means of disposing of them permanently is extremely limited is also a really good idea.

 

[Lime]

I love that you start with the mention of the E3 trailer. Possibly one of the best forms of marketing I've come across.

 

[daveo42]

Silent Hill 4 was the last Silent Hill I enjoyed and played through to completion. I really like the overall tone and story of the game. Silent Hill 2 is still the best in the series.

 

[Polioliolio]

On one hand, the story feels like a stretch.. it's milking the franchise by bringing in James father, taking a random newspaper scrap from SH2 and unraveling it into a far reaching plot, also it brings back 'the cult' into the story, which is a bit tiresome.. it's like watching Children of the Corn sequels.

But, the game still held my interest the whole time. Loved the changing room.. though they never took it as far as they could have... For example, the bodies that start coming out of the wall.. what should have happened was what happened in the intro .. a body will start falling through the ceiling, and if you don't burn a holy candle, or whatever it was, to make the room more pure, eventually, a body will just fall out into the room, and actually attack you while you're in there. That would have been horrifying! Instead, all the room changes, which were certainly cool, come off more like haunted house attractions.

Probably the laziest part of the game was in the sound effects.. I swear they hopped onto free-sound-effects.com for that one.. The burping nurses.. the dog creatures which sounded like jaguars, the monkey screams. Not terribly inventive.

Ever knock a nurse down the stairs?? She'll burp on each step. It just got silly.

I think the double headed bigfoot babies also had a weird sound effect.

These weren' unsettlingly weird.. just came off as unimaginative.



Liked the game though. Really enjoyed reading your post and bringing up memories for me. Good stuff!

 

[rtcn63]

I did enjoy SH4 when I played it many years back. The characters and atmosphere were at the very least, not totally forgettable. But I don't think I could stomach a second stint, mostly because of the repetitive first-person portion of navigating your apartment. And those gorilla-enemies, damn I hated them.

As for your companion, the biggest threat to her health was that one ghost that follows you through worlds. It needs to be pinned/executed post-haste.

 

[SlasherJPC]

These BIGGEST issue I have with this game is the burping nurses, and the monkey sounds. They just were not scary. I remember knocking a nurse down some steps and she burped down the WHOLE way! Aside from that, great horror game imo and even with re-treading, the room stuff was a great twist as well and I loved the outcome of the game.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[Fancy Clown]

I always wanted to get into the Silent Hill series, and recently after playing a lot of RE2 and 3 I've wanted to even more but have no way of doing so my 60gb ps3 died so I can't get the HD collection or PS2 versions, and the first Silent Hill stubbornly refuses to be up on the VIta store. Sigh. Guess I'll hold out hope for a PS4 version or PSNow.

 

[Muffdraul]

I loved SH4 when it came out, I thought it was very weird even for an SH, but just as good as the previous games. However after continuing to replay all of the games in the series as I am wont to do with my favorites, I soon realized that it just doesn't hold up as well as the others. That doesn't mean I think it sucks per se. I just think it's good tier as opposed to god tier.

 

[Sesha]

"Trapped in his flat."

I remember being freaked out a lot by the trailers, moreso than the previous games. I would have bought it, but I was kinda falling out of gaming at the time. The story, the hauntings and general crazy weirdness of the game makes me want to play it, but everything I've heard and seen about the game part of the actual game keeps me from doing so. Thanks to this topic I think I'll give it a try.

Oh, and that soundtrack. So good.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[ScOULaris]

SH4 felt uneven and a little rushed compared to the masterpieces that were SH1-3, but it's still better than 90% of survival horror games that have been released since. Team Silent was just one of those rare instances where an all-star group of talented artists got together and were given enough freedom by Konami to make something special for a few years.

What has happened to the series after SH4 is more unsettling than the games, themselves.

 

[Laranja]

I remember being so so excited for 4. That trailer is still one of the best ever made.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GW_is7yL6_U

I agree. The trailers for this game were absolutely fantastic and I don't think any other since has made me that hyped for a game.

I was really sad when I realized that my favourite scene in the trailer (Walter walking towards the door and then going through it) was never included in the game.

 

[EGM1966]

While a little uneven here and there - mainly due to the collision on the new concepts with the traditional due to the change from new IP to SH IP - this is my second favourite SH game after SH2 and I think very underrated.

SH1 and 3 form a more traditional narrative with clear protagonists and antagonists against a suitably weird backdrop.

SH2 for me is the standout SH title with its complex morally ambiguous central character and a narrative that is more about thematic content than a straightforward plot - it's all about discovering all about James, what he did, why he did it and what it means for his character. Everything, right down to the majority of the monster designs, is all about James.

SH4 for me is the only SH game that really matches the SH2 approach - except with SH4 as you note the central character we find out all about, who all the themes are about, is actually the antagonist this time around, and the central protagonist is actually deliberately bland and underdeveloped. I guess this (plus some other issues) threw some people off but I loved the reversal of approach in SH4 and found it refreshing vs the normal straightforward handling of protagonists/antagonists in games.

Walter is complex and we are immersed, Red Dragon style, in his complexity and come to sympathize with him even as we deplore his acts as a disturbed adult. Henry is merely a normal guy caught up in the events, even though we play as Henry, and I was impressed how well the SH team handled this.

I know the re-tread of all levels also annoyed many but I liked it as it was totally baked into the narrative, we had to go back over everything to understand Walter properly and use what we'd learnt during the first run through of the levels to unpick his plans and defeat him. In SH4 for me the backtracking had a clear and strong narrative purpose so I had no issue with it at all.

Like SH2 and 3 I was also blown away by it technically - how they got those character models and graphics in SH games out of a PS2 always amazed me.

Anyway good OP and nice to see a divisive game get noted for its positive aspects.

How I wish we could get another SH2/SH4 title in the franchise vs the half backed efforts of recent years.

 

[HeelPower]

This game isn't the best, but it looks like a masterpiece compared to the 'Silent Hill' that came after.

Also didn't they censor the two headed babies?
Weren't they originally supposed to squeal when you killed them?

if anything is annoying in SH4 its the combat(weapon break), item management, backtracking that drags down the game.

Personal gripe :Handling the character felt less personal as well with the zoomed out camera and Henry's weird proportions and running speed.

 

[Muffdraul]

if anything is annoying in SH4 its the combat(weapon break), item management, backtracking that drags down the game.

Personal gripe :Handling the character felt less personal as well with the zoomed out camera and Henry's weird proportions and running speed.

Yeah, I definitely didn't appreciate the downgrades to the inventory system. Ammo and health items no longer stacking + very limited storage space = goddammit. I was used to those constraints in other franchises, but suddenly implementing them in the fourth game in a series was... unwelcome.

Still, totally agree that SH4 is miles better than any of the farmed-out games that have followed it.

 

[HeelPower]

Yeah, I definitely didn't appreciate the downgrades to the inventory system. Ammo and health items no longer stacking + very limited storage space = goddammit. I was used to those constraints in other franchises, but suddenly implementing them in the fourth game in a series was... unwelcome.

Still, totally agree that SH4 is miles better than any of the farmed-out games that have followed it.

Its definitely a real SH game and miles better than what followed it.

The story game had a number of original things to it and totally nailed the atmosphere and story.

 

[Patryn]

I remember hating the ghosts and the escort stuff, but also appreciating what they were trying to do.

The creepiest thing to me was the ability to look out the window and tap on it to no avail. It really nailed the whole being trapped in your own house feeling.

As for the hauntings, yes, they are kind of haunted house stuff but the first time they're actually super effective. The

Spoiler

shot of a bloody you on the other side of the peephole

really made me jump the first time.

 

[Grisby]

That is my silent hill 4 trailer face, yes.

 

[RadioHeadAche]

I played it again last year and took my time exploring and soaking in the atmosphere. I really enjoyed it. Yes, the more combat-focused approach wasn't great, but the melee didn't feel as clunky as the first three installments.
Of course, I don't play Silent Hill for the gameplay anyway.

I still think SH4 gets a lot of undeserved hate these days. It's not as good as the past entries, but certainly is a worthy addition to the series even if it is more of a spinoff.

 

[stump sock]

the Room-based stuff is so goddamn good that I wish the whole game had been set that way. Or at least relied on those mechanics more rather than going the more traditional SH route. They were really on to something there.