Silent Hill 4: The Room

hahaha. what a story mark.

I think this is an underrated Silent Hill. It's my second favourite.

Far from the worst in the series, but still the beginning of a downhill slide that the series never recovered from. The gameplay was a huge improvement for the series, and the level-based structure did a lot to break up the monotony the earlier games were sometimes guilty of, but there was also something to this game that made it feel like a lesser Silent Hill experience.

The Room is an attempt by Team Silent to shake up their usual formula and it works to partial effect. Leaving an open world was a huge mistake as while the linear design allows for more set-pieces, the moment-to-moment gameplay is still bland. I wish these guys would have been able to keep going, even though the trend was pointing down. Konami just can't help but ruin everything.

I love the concept, but the overall linear level design and focus on combat kinda kill it for me.