Silent Hill 4: The Room

XboxAddict

Fans of horror games need to drop everything and pick up Silent Hill 4: The Room because aside from being the best in the series, this could be the best of the genre. About the only flaw that can be found is that Henry seems a bit too emotionless at times.

Next Level Gaming

In my honest humble opinion Silent Hill 4: The Room is by far the best of the Silent Hill series.

PGNx Media

A fun horror title with solid gameplay and an interesting storyline to keep you playing to the very end.

Game Chronicles

The clunky inventory and save system that forces you to return to your room is annoying at first but you eventually learn to live with it.

Worth Playing

The pedestrian gameplay is overcome by the incredible visuals and audio. The story is also the best of all the SH games to date.

MS Xbox World

Be warned, however, that this game is not for the weak at heart. It will scare you. But like a good horror flick, you'll love every minute of it, especially without the usual stupid teenagers getting killed.

Stuff

The large number of cut scenes seems a little distracting at first, but once you get used to them, they add a lot of depth to the game.

Game Informer

The game's disarming voyeurism, bizarre camera angles, and exceptionally well-placed tension is what the series has been trying to do all along, but The Room is the first entry to do it right. [Sept 2004, p.104]

Xbox World Australia

While not all of the additional elements worked well, such as the awkward inventory limit, fans of the series and newcomers alike will still find much to appreciate and cower in terror about in the game.

Team Xbox

While there were definitely some changes to the game that I didn’t care much for, such as the lack of radio/flashlight combo, perhaps the alterations were a good thing for the series overall.

BonusStage

Dedicated followers of the Silent Hill mythology will find plenty to sink their teeth into with a solid eight-hour adventure and multiple endings, and the new “Room” mechanics and intriguing plot might even snare a few newcomers.

Gamer.tv

It's the details that we love in this game...Graphics are wonderful, too...Just dont play it in the dark.

GameZone

The Room is a frightening and disturbing jaunt even with its number of flaws you’ll encounter along the way, but it is definitely a jaunt well worth taking.

Maxim Online

The bizarre levels and challenging puzzles remain engrossing even when you start asking the never-answered question, “What’s the point?”

Yahoo! Games

The Room is definitely smaller and more sparsely appointed digs than its predecessors... but it's still in one hell of a neighborhood.

Xequted

Even though the dialogue is pretty well-written, the game’s voice actors deliver a rather wooden performance that will have most audiences rolling their eyes and wishing for more monsters to kill.

Xbox Evolved

Worth at least a rental, since the game can easily be beaten the first time through in twelve or less hours.

Total Video Games

The eeriness of the environments, even your room feels dingy, is captured brilliantly, and the tunnel effect is awesome.

Official Xbox Magazine

Even with a new action-oriented emphasis, the game's targetting system, spotty collision detection, and lead-footed "companion" in the game's second half means it doesn't exactly handle like a dream. [Oct 2004, p.72]

IGN

Neither brilliant nor terrible. Instead, it falls into that weird ether world of limbo, a game that's good in parts and weak in others, leaving you with a feeling of only mild satisfaction. It's like waking up with a great hunger to a plate of luke-warm eggs.

AceGamez

More disturbing than seeing a clown in your infant years, Silent Hill 4: The Room is the best of the series to date and if you have the guts then it's definitely worth a look.

1UP

It's telling that even when Silent Hill isn't at its best, it's still better than most of the competition, and both parts of that sentence are true about The Room.

GameSpy

Overall I enjoyed Silent Hill 4 just as much as the previous games. Although the initially slower pace and more non-conventional puzzles might annoy some gamers, those who hang in there are in for a hellish treat well worthy of the creepy Silent Hill brand.

Cincinnati Enquirer

Unlike Hollywood horror movies that often get worse with each new sequel ("Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan," for example), Konami's scary Silent Hill series gets better -- and creepier -- with age.

Siliconera

Other than the different endings and the way the difficulty levels affect the puzzles and combat, the only difference on a reply are the addition of some hidden items.

PALGN

Its well implemented concepts of both first person and third person perspectives and its centralisation between an apartment and an alternative world offer a rare kind of gameplay experience.

GameSpot

Pairs third-person and new first-person gameplay with an emphasis on combat and item management. The resultant hybrid has some flaws, but The Room retains the dark, disturbing soul that is the unsettling center of the Silent Hill experience.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

It also introduces a cerebral angle to a genre that's left little to the imagination and makes it all the more unnerving as the hell on the other side of the hole in your wall closes in. [Oct 2004, p.96]

Game Revolution

Unsurprisingly, the Xbox version is a bit cleaner and sharper than the PS2 and has some more detailed textures. It’s a noticeable difference, but not a big deal.

GameBiz

A rather slow game, which gets incredibly fast with bad camera angles at unexpected times.

Gaming Age

Veterans can complete this in one sitting of 4-8 hours if so inclined. Even with all the monotonous backtracking and escort missions, the game is far too short. The downside is comparable to seeing a great horror flick that is only 80 minutes long.

My Gamer

Because of the rather boring combat system, it’s a sad fact that Silent Hill 4 really isn’t all that scary.

Game Over Online

A damned scary game, and it's one of the better survival horror titles out there because of that. It's good to see its designers taking risks and experimenting with the formula. This time, however, it's kind of a misfire. It's by no means a failure, but it's not a success, either.

TotalGames.net

We just can't get that excited about Konami's latest venture. Maybe it's the annoying plot twist that happens halfway through the game - think "Ico" with a plaster cast - that essentially forces you to replay through all the frightening locations you've already visited.

GMR Magazine

The stellar visuals and spot-on sound design keep these from being too terribly dull, but clumsy combat and woeful repetition will try your patience.

Sydney Morning Herald

One of the most disturbing games of the year. In a good way.

Into Liquid Sky

The game is too bright. Previous titles used the darkness to instill a mood and sense of horror in things you couldn't see. This time around, you can see everything, even in the distance.

Xbox Nation Magazine

The first-person view allows only for awkward movement and exploration, with Townshend forced to turn to alter his view. Invincible ghosts prove to be perpetually frustrating, especially in tight spots.

Eurogamer

It's the weakest of the series by a long way, and an ill-judged attempt to drag a narrative driven adventure game into the realms of sub hackandslash by removing much of the actual thinking and forcing the player to engage in less than challenging puzzles while foisting repetitive and unengaging combat upon them.

games(TM)

Silent Hill 4 is by far the most atmospheric of the titles to date, and if played under the right conditions will creep out even the most hardened survival horror fan. But being made to traipse over the same levels a second time seems a little lazy and really saps a lot of enjoyment out of the experience. [Sept 2004, p.113]

Edge Magazine

Look at it one way, and it's a choking journey with unprecedented attention to unease and psychological horror, a game framed with unparalleled sophistication. From another angle, it's just a clunky PSone throwback, with all the design wit of a dodo. [Aug 2004, p.92]

Gaming Horizon

Silent Hill 4 may look pretty on the surface, but after an hour or so you’ll have found out that like most pretty things, what’s beneath can be pretty disappointing.

Times Online

Fans of the series will have plenty to be happy about, but you can’t help feeling you’ve been here and done that in the previous games. That’s the real horror here.