Not the best survival horror, but still should provide a good time to those looking for a scare.
User Rating: 8 | Silent Hill 4: The Room PS2
I had kind of been waiting for this game for a while pre-release. Then when I got it shortly after the release date, I was for the most part pleased with what I put into my Playstation 2. There were something though that kind of dissapointed me personally though, but overall I think its a fine game and a worthy addition to the series. GAMEPLAY: For the most part, it plays like the previous Silent HIll games. Though one big change is the inventory system, in which all your items are displayed as small icons at the bottom of the screen, and you change weapons or use items on the fly. This is both damaging and helping to the gameplay experince. Its helpful in that it takes up less time of as before you would have to go through a few windows to change or use items. It damages though for when your being attacked and you have to spend some vaunurable time changing or reloading. The camera for the most part handles pretty well. Though there are some cases of offscreen threats, you still get a pretty good view over the situation. Also, the addition to a 1st person mode while in the appartment was a cool touch, giving it a more realistic kind of feel to it. GRAPHICS: This game simply looks superb. The character and creature design is great, the levels and atmosphere of them are well made and give a great sense of gloom and fear. Simply put this is a great great looking game. SOUNDS: This game also has some really nice sounds in it that add nicely to the dark atmosphere to the game. It also has a very nice soundtrack to it just like the others, which overall goes really well with the situation. VALUE: While its not the scariest game ever made, make no mistake, this is a scary game. It didn't scare me as much as I thought it would, but there were several moments of me kinda jumping out of my seat. This game also does a good job at retaining the dark and disturbing formula of the Silent Hill style story, even though this is the first one that dosen't nessicarly take place in Silent Hill. The only thing is that while its pretty challenging, the game kind of feels a bit short. I havn't beaten it yet, but I am very very close to the end, and I am getting the feeling of that it could have been a bit longer. OVERALL: Like I said, there are scarier games out there, but this does not go to say Silent Hill 4 doesn't do the Survival horror genre proud. Definantly a must get for any survival horror fans out there, as long as you dont expect it to be an amazing experince. Overall, the game is just plain fun to play. 
