Horror Games Special Feature – Silent Hill 4: The Room
With Halloween just around the corner, we felt it was time to delve into some of the horror classics of gaming!
In the nights leading up to All Hallows Eve, we’re going to do a short feature of some of the more notable horror games that have been released. This isn’t a list of the best or even our favourites.
Just some Horror games which have stood out to us, for one reason or another.
The Silent Hill franchise is incredibly dear to me and I will continue to defend it even as it stabs me in my still beating heart and spits on my twisted gaming childhood. (Thanks a lot, Silent Hill: Homecoming)
Yet, one game in the series that I’ve always felt doesn’t get enough love or respect is the incredibly off-kilter Silent Hill 4: The Room.
SH4 found itself at a disadvantage almost immediately when the developers let slip that it was never meant to be a Silent Hill game in the first place. Fans were outraged at the thoughts of some random horror project being repurposed in order to wear the Silent Hill brand. It felt like blasphemy, as though Silent Hill was just ‘any old game’.
“It has almost nothing to do with Silent Hill!” they cried. This is true; the town itself barely features in the game at all. Who knew this could lead to one of the more creative entries in the series?
Whereas some later games dragged the protagonists to the town of Silent Hill for some contrived reason (something Silent Hill: Origins, Downpour and even SH3 were a little guilty of), The Room broke with tradition. Instead, they simply gave us a villain who was born, raised, and ultimately infected by the town that makes hell look like an Italian vista.
Walter Sullivan was a physical embodiment of the town itself, and a brilliant creation on the part of Konami. He gave us an idea of what Silent Hill could produce as an end result, as opposed to the ongoing effect it has on the protagonists themselves.
This should have been less interesting from a thematic point of view (symbolism that resonates with the main character is always fun). But SH4 actually delivered some of the series’ most unsettling imagery, such as the giant Eileen head room, or the Double-head victim (pictured below).
The Room isn’t a standout just because of the narrative direction it took. It did some ground-breaking work with gameplay as well. Utilizing the room as a save-point/safe-haven/story-telling device, one which you could only view in the first-person, was a stroke of genius. Best of all, it managed to instill some serious dread when it becomes haunted by ghosts, late in the game.
Suddenly, the one place you always used to go to for comfort, to relax, became more nerve-shredding than the Silent Hill dimension itself.
The first two Silent Hills are two of my favourite games of all time, but my love for SH4 has grown over the years. Possibly because it gets such a hard time from hardcore fans (something I consider myself to be).
It might not feature a lot of the Silent Hill mythos, it may repeat most of its locations* and it may have a dismal escort mission piggy-backing the ending (Eileen *shakes fist*).
But still, SH4 may be the most creative entry in the series. And that’s something no game should be stigmatized for.
Best Moment:
Some of the best moments in the Silent Hill franchise occur in The Room. If we had to choose one though, it has to be the giant Eileen Head room, simply for how long that image has stayed with us over the years.
Where is the franchise now?
Silent Hill: Downpour was the last official game to be released in the series, with a later spin-off called Book of Memories released on the PS Vita.
A massive reboot in the form of Silent Hills was teased at the end of the excellent P.T. demo, but unfortunately, Konami took that particular show pony to the back yard and shot it in the head.
Whether any more Silent Hill games are going to be developed ever again is very much in the air.
Written by Stephen Hill
*One thing people don’t appreciate about revisiting older levels is the fact that it emphasizes the inversion between the Room and the outside. Outside is initially unfamiliar/threatening, the Room is familiar/safe.
Once the room becomes haunted, it becomes unfamiliar/threatening, while outside begins to look familiar and suggestively safe (though not the case. Mind games, see?)
