Reminds me of a quote from one of the original Dead Space devs, which was to the effect of "You need to tell the player where the safe rooms are, because otherwise they'll figure out which places are safe on their own... and then you can't take it away to mess with them." They definitely must've played SH4 at some point...
I remember that one particular shop or workbench on the mining deck in DS1. Usually, these were little beacons of safety among the chaos. But this one was in the noisy mining deck which was unsettling in and of itself. There, after exiting the shop/workbench a necromorph attacks you from the back. It made me uneasy for every subsequent shop/workbench in the game.
YES! This reminds me so much the tlou2 because as Ellie whenever I would see a work bench I would go "Oh cool I must be in a safe spot." Only to have a guy run up behind me and start trying to kill Ellie. Scared the heck out of me when first playing.
Oh my god, "a serial killer hands you a cursed doll, and the correct response is to not pick it up" is such a fun concept because a) it goes against your genre expectations hard as the video says b) it's the most obvious thing to do if you think about the situation unclouded for like, 2 seconds
And it also ‘abuses’ your video game muscle, which is to collect everything. I mean, in how many games with a inventory, do you choose not to pick something up unless you have limited space or explicitly says it will do something harmful
@@pian-0g445 Yeah but it's also your typical one item only, because its not something health or mana for RPG types of games. Its a unique item and then as a player you think "oh its something I need for the story" This why I love the geniuses of it, for the reason you said but also because for the opposite reason. Its really smart.
I was sadly one of the poor dolts who collected that item, which makes it hilarious because my first time playing, I was using a gameFAQ walkthrough because I got stuck earlier in the game, and the walkthrough did not mention that room or encounter with Walter AT ALL. It's one of the few things in intentionally left out. That's insanely subversive of both the game design AND the walkthrough that was in on the whole thing lol..
I remember when I was a kid and played this game I would always look out the window and see regular people just going about their day and it just blew my mind because none of those people had any idea what was going on inside the house. It felt like I could get away from everything if I could just smash the window open and jump out and escape to civilization. It was a really suffocating feeling, being so close to freedom but being unable to acquire it and intentional or not it really added to the experience. Great video
This whole game is a great allegory for domestic violence You feel trapped and uncomfortable in your house so you search for happiness outside only to slowly realize that it is not safe out there As you retreat back to your house again, thinking it is alright because even if uncomfortable at least its safe, they are violently forced to see the reality that the uncomfortable feeling was a warning all along
I love how laid-back your reviews and retrospectives are, less of a checklist of good vs bad and more concepts and design philosophy, love every minute of your content, keep it up!
It’s really refreshing from how often retrospectives feel like “30 minutes in which I determine whether X is objectively good or bad”. I feel less under pressure when watching 👍
I've been saying it for years, Silent Hill 4 is severely underappreciated and deserves so much more love. I think it's really cool how you focused on the titular room, as how it compares to the "safe rooms" of other games in the genre, given how it subverts and deconstructs this familiar mechanic.
I will ALWAYS remember this as the horror game that really got under my skin. When the second half of the game came around, I DREADED coming back into the apartment. In fact, I remember that Baby Haunting clear as day and it makes my skeleton wanna jump out of my skin. Even remembering it is enough to make me freeze up.
After Silent Hill The Room I was afraid of walking down my own hallway because I thought those ghosts would burst out and chase me! The noises those ghosts make still haunt me.
On rare occasions when I looked through the peep hole, it looked like Eileen was staring back at you. Almost as if she felt or knew that she was being watched. She would just sit on her bed staring back at you while saying nothing.
This Silent Hill always scared me as a kid, to the point that I never got around to play it. Something felt so eerie about feeling trapped in your home where you're supposed to feel safe. Looking at myself now: traumatized from a home invasion, locking myself in my apartment, I relate very much to the horror being portrayed by this game. That feeling of watching the world move on without you. That feeling of something compelling you away from the door even though you know it's the only chance of freedom. That feeling of forced introspection of your trauma turning into an echo chamber of self-blame as punishment, which culminates as the hole/portal in the bathroom - the place where you're most vulnerable. The relationship between the player and the peephole is so poetic because for someone who experiences paranoid delusions, the worst thing they can imagine is having their fears confirmed, and the second worst is not getting the confirmation. Even when it seems clear, you know that you're not getting the full picture of the surroundings - rendering the peephole useless if using it for security. Match that with the seemingly unwilling silence that comes from anxiety/general questions of what you're seeing is real: peepholes become the most claustrophobic part of a paranoid person's schedule. Idk if that makes me want to play it more, or less. All I know is that it's very well done.
What is so genius is that you can tell Henry is a recluse. The neighbors don't know him, he has order out menus everywhere, his family doesn't come looking for him ect. He goes from wanting to be inside to being desperate to escape. It's tragic and scary.
Silent Hill 4 never gets the credit it deserves for really throwing the "Silent Hill formula" out of the window. I would probably say its the 2nd best one, after Silent Hill 2.
@@kseniav586 My ranking is 1. Silent hill 3, 2. Silent hill 2, And Silent hill 4 at 3. Dont know but i didn't really like silent hill 1 compare to the other 3.
Always amazed at the how good The Room still looks. I mean we went the whole seventh console gen without any character models face looking as good as Eileen. The pure artistry of the Silent Hill games is still seldom ever topped.
The only Silent Hill I've ever played was 2, and that's purely because people gaslit me into believing the other titles were never as good and 2 was the peak of the series. But the room mechanics explained in this video display way more domestic horror than anything 2 showcased, to the point where I might give this game a go.
SH2 might be the peak, but that doesn't mean it's the only good one. More like it's a 10 among several 9s. IMHO all 4 games are great in their own right and offer unique experiences which can't be encompassed by just SH2. If anything, SH2 works the most as an isolated story which uses the SH concept for a more character driven story.
@nick gurr Yea, SH4 is the one Silent Hill made by Team Silent people loved to hate back in the day. The hate against this game was relentless from a big part of the community, but I guess that after years of bad/mediocre western SH games and the eventual abscence of any new games at all, people started giving it a chance or rediscovering it and understanding what made it good.
It's great (and terrifying) when horror games catch you off guard by playing with your expectations. As you've made clear, Silent Hill 4 is a great example of this with its save room. Plus, its horror has only been strengthened in this post-2020 world. Being isolated in your own home, having little contact with other people, finding a corpse behind your wall: I'm sure these things will resonate with a lot of people. Well, maybe not that last one. Also, I just adore the 4:3 aspect ratio. Great video as always!
The Evil Within's safe room still scare the ever living crap out of me even when I know I'm at a section where nothing scary will happen. Something about the choice of music and the narrative changes that occur there will forever leave me scarred. There's a lurking feeling that the game might still have something left under its sleeve of surreal horrors ready to pounce at me the moment I embrace some semblance of calmness for too long.
I think SH4 succeeded the most at using the uncanny in a deeply unsettling way. The other games take you on a journey to strange locations, but The Room's horror is much more familiar. It comes from a place that should feel safe. Your apartment, your home, is twisted into something terrifying and unpredictable. Of all the SH games, this one feels the most like a neverending paranoid nightmare.
What an absolute rug pull the second half of the game was! This is why I think this is the best Silent Hill from Team Silent. In the beginning your being strung along, just one step behind the killer never in any real danger. Then, everything is flipped on its head! The room becomes oppressive and haunted, monsters start bleeding into different worlds becoming more abundant, and Walter finally joins the hunt putting the pressure on you and Eileen. That switch from being a bystander in the murders to being the last victim was absolutely beautiful and having to retrace your steps in order to defeat Walter was the icing on top.
Silent Hill 4 never really clicked with me the first time I tried playing through it, but I still very much appreciate what both it and Fatal Frame 3 does with the traditional save room. I’m also very glad that the indie scene has allowed for even more intimate and experimental explorations of domestic horror. Kitty Horrorshow’s Anatomy being perhaps the best example!
Fatal Frame 3 took it too far lol.. My brother and i stopped playing it as kids because we got too scared.. We played many horror games together before, and we never gave up because we always loved to go through the adrenaline of horror games. We played the previous Fatal Frame games too and we liked the franchise, but that moment in FF3 was too much and it changed us forever, we turned off the game and never played it again haha.. No horror game felt safe after that even to this day.
I always loved how gradually, Henry feels less and less safe in his apartment if you inspect the furniture and other things in it. For some reason, you can't inspect them most of the game, but during the Hospital World, his uneasiness is clear. Even his shoes make him nervous.
I LOVEEEE SH4 - I know it's a very different vibe from 1-3 but as a horror game, having your "safe space" become slowly deadly and unsettling was just...awesome.
I believe this game was misunderstood by many people simply because it was so far ahead of its time. Modern horror looks much closer to SH4 than the other titles. Even Kojima when making pt took more elements from SH4 than any of the previous titles, right down to the first person view in a confined space to even having a peephole. i replay the SIlent Hill series 1-4 every October, and when people ask me which is the scariest I answer tha they all scare me in different ways. But if you ask me which Silent Hill was the creepiest, the most unnerving: my answer is always The Room.
Great analysis! I would have loved that Silent Hill 4 treats the subject of "hikikomori" with all those cool gameplay mechanics and ideas about the room. Having your apartment feeling like a safe heaven at start but from you can't get out of with only one window to the outise world and then having your appartment slowly becoming a hell would have suited so well with the hikikomori theme. I'm a bit disappointed that in SH4 the center of all misfortune is Walter Sullivan and isn't really related to characters' personal issues
Your retrospectives/reviews/commentaries are truly one of a kind. Your style, the 4:3 ratio, the PSOne esque text font Literally my favourite videogame focused TH-cam channel out there
Silent Hill 4 should be discussed, analyzed and thought about more, especially in regards to its approach to the horror genre. Just a shame not many videos on it can be found here, but I'm glad there are people like you and Daniel Santos who have made a video on this game recently and have brought it to limelight, if only briely.
Don't think we didn't notice your video's 4:3 aspect ratio for the original PS2 release! A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one 😃 Great vid, love the friendly relaxing presentation
I remember using all my candles in the outside world to repel the ghosts, then not having candles to repel the hauntings in my room, that made me quit the game xD Then, years later I replayed it and it's one of my favorite Survival horrors of all time now.
i love your videos! SH4 is my favorite too. the slow erosion of safety is such a strong & memorable experience. i love your presentation & it reminds me why it's stuck with me for so long. thanks for this & hope you're doing well!
This is my introduction to your channel and I have to say this video was a safe room of its own. Excellently voiced and comforting. I'm glad I found ya! I grew up in the 90s and still love survival horror today. Playing Fobia now it's good stuff
One friend of mine once said "I don't like to watch reviews(or "resumenes", which is the spanish word for a brief summary of something while adding personal opinions, like this video), it spoils me the fun, i preffer to watch/do it myself" And i think she missed the point We NEED videos like these, because they give us NEW, PERSPECTIVES. I played the same game, yet, bc i did it with a friend, i got all the warnings and the surprise and horror elements were mostly taken off from me, and i didn't even stopped to think about how well-thought the mechanics, gameplay limits, and scenario of this game were, i didn't took the doll bc my friend knew i'm a scaredy cat and i spent so much time outside the apartment i barely remember the candles or medallions, if at all, and i didn't recognized once that the ghost or head were the first female character we encountered, as much as in the subway as in the peephole of the apartment, i just knew she died and the other one dissapeared and nothing more. I saw these game thorought HIS lenses of "oh well this is depressing and represents bad mental health very accurately", and never dared to think outside that box! We saw 2 diferent games despite playing the same thing, and it baffles me. Thanks for giving me new views and thing to reflect on this, it was a fascinating video.
I’m so happy that this channel has given me enough courage to start my own channel. I’ve been in a time of my life where I am getting back into games as life finally lets me catch up, and your channel has been on loop throughout my days of doing essays or even working out, and it ignited something in me to go through a retrospective of a lot of my favorite aspects of games. Thank you, euro, I really do appreciate it. Of course, this video was fantastic too. Gotta love the chill music and gentle voice as always.
I remember how dreadful those ghosts were on my play through. It makes me not want to replay the game hahaha. I’m still glad I played the game though, it was at the beginning of the pandemic back in 2020. So it all felt a little too real 😆
Another great video with an interesting angle and production. Killing it and earning that sponsorship! Biggest takeaway is that you still have a pristine condition GBA SP - jealous!
SH4 is the perfect example of a misunderstood masterpiece: it's not about Henry, it's about Walter and his "Mother". It refused to rinse and repeat what came before ( a trend the Western developers pursued, with the exception of the excellent Silent Hill Shattered Memories), instead opting to deconstruct everything people thought was what a Silent Hill game should be... It expanded the mythos ( Silent Hill could,in a metaphysical way, be "anywhere" in certain conditions, like in SH3) and was a natural progression.... Besides, the sadness and malevolence of the whole thing is second to none.
What an excellent video on my favorite game of all time. The choice of a 4:3 aspect ratio and slightly pixelated imagery fully capture the essence of what Silent Hill 4 was and is.
Lore wise, the biggest connection to the cult of Silent Hill is through Walter Sullivan, who was raised by The Order, the very same cult you deal with in Silent Hill 1 and 3. Dahlia Gillespie installing her teachings that would lead to him becoming a serial killer. Even his victims, Jasper, who we see during the story, his friends and him were very into learning mythology of The Order, Walter kills both of his friends for The 10 Hearts sacrifices and later, Walter sets Jasper on fire during the story. Sharon Blake, another victim of Walter, was a target of The Order and they murdered her entire family, when she found the gravestones of them, Walter murdered her. So with Silent Hill 4 basically, you have to deal with what The Order has caused and brought onto the world, the after effects of their teachings and actions.
i really enjoyed your take on this, my older brother and i played all of the series when we were kids and something about Silent hill 4 always stuck with me.
Thank you for your thoughtful commentary of SH4! Like most Silent Hill fans, SH2 is my favourite in the series, but SH4 is actually a close second. IMO it is the scariest in the franchise, and has the best overall story. I understand the valid complaints people have about SH4, but no one should lump it with the post Team Silent games. It's worth your time.
Although I think 2 is the best of the series and the most popular too, Silent Hill 4 has such a special place in my heart and is my favourite game out of the 3, simply because of horror and fear overtaking of one’s “safe place”, in which you said the safe room, and that is just one of the parts of this game that makes it so unique and special. Overall I thought this video was awesome and really shed some light on this hella underrated game! Keep up the good work!
This is quite possibly the best Silent Hill video on all of TH-cam. Also, I loved Buyee! Looking forward to buying some things I've been after for a while. Keep it up and you earned a new subscriber!
Great video, happy to learn more about this Room! SH4 has always been the most confusing to me and while I had seen some clips of people playing in the levels, I was never sure exactly how the Room worked or why it was so important to the game. I feel like I have a much better understanding of its purpose now and that it's not just a hub, I enjoyed hearing about the design process behind it!
It’s definitely a fine wine sort of game. Not something that you can get into at the start with all of it’s clunk, but a game you should savour every once and a while with it’s deeply engaging detective-like mystery of what’s really going on. The game might’ve received different reviews back then if it was named something else, but at least it’s now getting the attention it deserves.
spoiler: when shit started happening in Henrys' apartment I was honestly scared. The damn window in his living room, the damage received in front of the tv. Im like, what the hell
I was so hyped when I saw that thumbnail. Despite all the negative reviews over the years, SH4 always held a special spot in my heart. Great analysis of the titular room. Walter's corpse being inside the room itself is often overlooked, I believe - in particular, when you explore the other appartments in the building and you realise they're all bigger than your own appartment, that's quite an "oh shit" moment!
I'm so glad I have a channel I can watch that has a passion for these horror games, because I find horror fascinating but I'm far to jumpy and easily spooked to ever watch or play horror content
Thank you very much for this video. Silent Hill 4's story is also my favorite in the series, which is saying a lot because I absolutely love the stories of the first three games. It is a very different story from those games, though, but one that hits you on a different level than those. Silent Hill 4 has its flaws, for sure. But so did the other games. Now I am not the type of person to lock myself onto something that is an inherent part of a game, I just try to adapt to it unless it is completely egregious. I will say, Silent Hill 4 is a very personal game, and not meant in a direct sense, but the way the game is presenting itself, it truly makes you feel like you are a part of it. I love what it does so much. Truly, Silent Hill 4 is an amazing game.
The 4 by 3 aspect ratio is golden. Also, SH4 was my first Silent Hill game and it will be forever dearest. The soundtrack is, in my opinion, one of the greatest of all time and vocals just hit it right in the soul, especially when playing the game.
Silent Hill 4 is a truly great game that deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the previous entries in the series. It's really unfortunate that it's considered somewhat of a black sheep.
Incredibly well spoken. I had been wanting to make a video on how Silent Hill 4 flips the entire concept of safe rooms on its head but this just nails it perfectly. As scary as I found Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3-4 just managed to hit this stride that was beyond anything else I had played. While it does help I played it as a young kid, to this day it still leaves me with the fear of a safe spaces I have in my life turning into something as nightmarish as Room 302. Still I may go ahead and make something just going into detail on how it made me feel as SH4 just. It just manages to encapsulate so many feelings all in one package that just hit gut human reactions for me more than many other games have tried to.
And i thought being in my room at night drunk was scary, till i met the second half of SH4. My favorite of Team Silent, the enemies for the most part are lacking except the twins and ghosts, but the room itself is something special. I'll never forget being stuck in a loop in the forest, having to let the item on the apartment, going back and fourth to solve that puzzle. Also that feeling of safety that it gives for 4 hours just to break that and throw new mechanics on your face is perfect.
It makes me remember Eternal Darkness on the GameCube. Between stories, you end up back in the hub world of the mansion. But the mansion becomes less and less safe as the game goes on (not to mention the sanity mechanic), until finally there are enemies there just like everywhere else.
i feel like people presenting silent hill 2 as the peak of horror really kneecaps everyone's expectations for the rest of the series. i think silent hill 3 showed a lot more of team silent's creativity than 2, and 4 really pushes the boundaries in awesome ways. even the later editions all have things to rave about, even if there's places where they fall short. (homecoming might have some ridiculously unwelcome gameplay changes, but god DAMN does it have brilliant, visceral monster design.)
Excellent video! I've always loved that aspect of Silent Hill 4, that subduing of your expectations as you play the game, it's such a fresh approach to the world of Silent Hill. That's why it's my favourite Silent Hill, not because it's the best, but because of its originality. Thank you very much for talking about it!
I really like the other 3 games. The couple of things that discouraged me from playing this was because of how radically different it was and the amount of memes revolving around The Room. lol I'm encouraged to actually play this now after having watched this. Never heard of Buyee until now. Thank you for this! I'll definitely look around! ^_^
@@lightbrand_ he's probably referencing the tommy wiseau's movie, i dont get why everyone compare this game and this movie, apart from the name ,they have nothing in common
SH4 is massively underrated. It deserves so much more respect than the black sheep of the franchise. It tooks risks, it got weird, it played with your expectations & fucked with your head. It has more in common with RE than SH mechanically, but the story is so perfectly conjured that it stays with me today. Walter Sullivan had nothing & dud what he thought he had to do instead of dealing with that nothing. Henry Townshend captured that feeling of disconnection - being plucked out of reality & put into a dangerous game that nobody truly understands. It can happen to anyone. Silent Hill does not care who you are - it choses you & you will play along. SH4 is a SH game. I'm sick & tired of this "SH4 isn't even an SH game." It takes EVERY major elements of the series & takes a unique, but necessary turn. SH3 was actually the disaster - with almost every idea falling through because of the mass revamp the game got.
I loved this Silent Hill I think it's highly underrated. I played this game with headphones in the dark and I was legit creeped out, especially when the room started to change. I would love a remake.
im glad you are giving this game the credit it deserves. it took risks to make some big changes to the series, and i think at the time the fans were not ready for a dynamic shift in gameplay. i think the entire atmosphere of the room was progressively more terrifying as the story advanced.
The eileen head room is SUCH a good scare on account of the camera work. Henry has been listening to Eileen through the wall for so long and now suddenly is confronted by a giant, peering face that he can’t get away from, while being presented with the same moaning and breathing he first heard through the wall. A total inversion of the previous relationship.
This title reminds me of J Horror more than most other games, SH4 reminds me of particularly the Ju-On series, being scared of the ghost while trying to save and using candles stayed with me long after playing it, great video!!!!!
After playing the original four games for the first time last year, I can say without a doubt that SH4 unnerved me *the most.* Playing it at night without my friends in a party or call reaaaaally got under my skin. Especially when the hauntings started. The overall vibe (and soundtrack) of SH4 is probably my favorite of the games, and I really wish we got to see a more fully realized version of it. Also, the giant Eileen scare genuinely made me jump out of my seat. I was NOT expecting it lmfao.
Cool video. I always thought SH4 was underrated. Yeah, the gameplay got annoying at times with the ghost and the general combat, but it had so many unique and well implemented ideas alongside an interesting story. First video of this channel I've seen, but I like the style and calming voice. Will have to check out more
Yet another banger of a video, ET👍 This is one of those games I've always really wanted to play, but as things stand I unfortunately lack the means to do so. It's just such an ingenious premise for a horror game to start from you finding yourself trapped in what's supposed to be your in-universe home, with the initial sense of confinement then giving away to appreciation of the place as your only safe haven in-between perilous nightmare treks outside, till it eventually starts to dawn on you, that your apartment is actually the eye of the storm for all the terrifying things you've been put through.
Its the first time I hear about you, but this video is great!. I never though about this mecanics when I played it for the first time, now I want to play it again. I going to watch your other videos too. Really, good work with this video.
Reminds me of a quote from one of the original Dead Space devs, which was to the effect of "You need to tell the player where the safe rooms are, because otherwise they'll figure out which places are safe on their own... and then you can't take it away to mess with them." They definitely must've played SH4 at some point...
I can't wait for the remake!
I remember that one particular shop or workbench on the mining deck in DS1. Usually, these were little beacons of safety among the chaos. But this one was in the noisy mining deck which was unsettling in and of itself. There, after exiting the shop/workbench a necromorph attacks you from the back. It made me uneasy for every subsequent shop/workbench in the game.
YES! This reminds me so much the tlou2 because as Ellie whenever I would see a work bench I would go "Oh cool I must be in a safe spot." Only to have a guy run up behind me and start trying to kill Ellie. Scared the heck out of me when first playing.
Lol, the Dead Space remake has been postponed indefinitely my guy. It ain’t coming out anytime soon because of EA’s stance on singleplayer games.
@@Unchainedful It'll be released on january 27, 2023. Come out of your rock
Oh my god, "a serial killer hands you a cursed doll, and the correct response is to not pick it up" is such a fun concept because a) it goes against your genre expectations hard as the video says b) it's the most obvious thing to do if you think about the situation unclouded for like, 2 seconds
there are others who like to sit on the doll :p
And it also ‘abuses’ your video game muscle, which is to collect everything. I mean, in how many games with a inventory, do you choose not to pick something up unless you have limited space or explicitly says it will do something harmful
@@pian-0g445 Yeah but it's also your typical one item only, because its not something health or mana for RPG types of games. Its a unique item and then as a player you think "oh its something I need for the story" This why I love the geniuses of it, for the reason you said but also because for the opposite reason. Its really smart.
I was sadly one of the poor dolts who collected that item, which makes it hilarious because my first time playing, I was using a gameFAQ walkthrough because I got stuck earlier in the game, and the walkthrough did not mention that room or encounter with Walter AT ALL. It's one of the few things in intentionally left out. That's insanely subversive of both the game design AND the walkthrough that was in on the whole thing lol..
Not pick it up? What next? Don't jump in a hole where you cannot see the bottom? :D
I remember when I was a kid and played this game I would always look out the window and see regular people just going about their day and it just blew my mind because none of those people had any idea what was going on inside the house. It felt like I could get away from everything if I could just smash the window open and jump out and escape to civilization. It was a really suffocating feeling, being so close to freedom but being unable to acquire it and intentional or not it really added to the experience. Great video
I loved both comments !
@@Lucifronz I loved both comments !
and seeing the people in the other apartments.
And then a floating head jumpscares you
This whole game is a great allegory for domestic violence
You feel trapped and uncomfortable in your house so you search for happiness outside only to slowly realize that it is not safe out there
As you retreat back to your house again, thinking it is alright because even if uncomfortable at least its safe, they are violently forced to see the reality that the uncomfortable feeling was a warning all along
It's also one for depression. The Room could be a metaphor for your mind being slowly corrupted by it
Very interesting and thoughtful explanation about it!! And because the theme of this game really also seems like misogyny to me
I love how laid-back your reviews and retrospectives are, less of a checklist of good vs bad and more concepts and design philosophy, love every minute of your content, keep it up!
It’s really refreshing from how often retrospectives feel like “30 minutes in which I determine whether X is objectively good or bad”.
I feel less under pressure when watching 👍
I've been saying it for years, Silent Hill 4 is severely underappreciated and deserves so much more love. I think it's really cool how you focused on the titular room, as how it compares to the "safe rooms" of other games in the genre, given how it subverts and deconstructs this familiar mechanic.
Absolutely loved your video on it too!
@@Armaan8014 thank you!!
I will ALWAYS remember this as the horror game that really got under my skin. When the second half of the game came around, I DREADED coming back into the apartment. In fact, I remember that Baby Haunting clear as day and it makes my skeleton wanna jump out of my skin. Even remembering it is enough to make me freeze up.
aaam
After Silent Hill The Room I was afraid of walking down my own hallway because I thought those ghosts would burst out and chase me! The noises those ghosts make still haunt me.
Plus those babies that stuck in the wall. Imagine walking on the hallway and then there's them.
Yes! that sound still sends chills up my spine. And the De Salvo ghost quoting their sick gospel....gahhhh
My partner didn't want that game disc kept in the bedroom because she felt it was cursed, and she was the least spiritual person I knew
On rare occasions when I looked through the peep hole, it looked like Eileen was staring back at you. Almost as if she felt or knew that she was being watched. She would just sit on her bed staring back at you while saying nothing.
This Silent Hill always scared me as a kid, to the point that I never got around to play it. Something felt so eerie about feeling trapped in your home where you're supposed to feel safe. Looking at myself now: traumatized from a home invasion, locking myself in my apartment, I relate very much to the horror being portrayed by this game.
That feeling of watching the world move on without you. That feeling of something compelling you away from the door even though you know it's the only chance of freedom. That feeling of forced introspection of your trauma turning into an echo chamber of self-blame as punishment, which culminates as the hole/portal in the bathroom - the place where you're most vulnerable.
The relationship between the player and the peephole is so poetic because for someone who experiences paranoid delusions, the worst thing they can imagine is having their fears confirmed, and the second worst is not getting the confirmation. Even when it seems clear, you know that you're not getting the full picture of the surroundings - rendering the peephole useless if using it for security. Match that with the seemingly unwilling silence that comes from anxiety/general questions of what you're seeing is real: peepholes become the most claustrophobic part of a paranoid person's schedule.
Idk if that makes me want to play it more, or less. All I know is that it's very well done.
Magnificently stated dude.
What is so genius is that you can tell Henry is a recluse. The neighbors don't know him, he has order out menus everywhere, his family doesn't come looking for him ect. He goes from wanting to be inside to being desperate to escape. It's tragic and scary.
love what you said, and i feel exactly the same way about it , honestly this game is great beyond undestanding ^^
Silent Hill 4 never gets the credit it deserves for really throwing the "Silent Hill formula" out of the window. I would probably say its the 2nd best one, after Silent Hill 2.
I can't imagine there are people actually calling SH4 the worst part of the series. Yes, even after Downpour was released.
@@kseniav586 My ranking is 1. Silent hill 3, 2. Silent hill 2, And Silent hill 4 at 3. Dont know but i didn't really like silent hill 1 compare to the other 3.
It's my least favorite of the Team Silent games but it's still a 9/10 experience
@@jmgonzales7701 Me too, I didn't liked the first as much as the other ones. For me it's always
1. SH2,
2. SH4,
3. SH3
and then SH1
Always amazed at the how good The Room still looks. I mean we went the whole seventh console gen without any character models face looking as good as Eileen. The pure artistry of the Silent Hill games is still seldom ever topped.
Silent Hill in general looks pretty good. SH1 looked great for the time, and even the "bad" SH titles on the Wii looked good.
You boldly dared what I've been wanting to do for so long but always chickened out on: Making the video 4:3!
Love it!
The only Silent Hill I've ever played was 2, and that's purely because people gaslit me into believing the other titles were never as good and 2 was the peak of the series. But the room mechanics explained in this video display way more domestic horror than anything 2 showcased, to the point where I might give this game a go.
Odd, the common consensus is that 1-3 are also great, and 4 is interesting
SH2 might be the peak, but that doesn't mean it's the only good one. More like it's a 10 among several 9s. IMHO all 4 games are great in their own right and offer unique experiences which can't be encompassed by just SH2. If anything, SH2 works the most as an isolated story which uses the SH concept for a more character driven story.
The first 4 are quite amazing.
@nick gurr
Yea, SH4 is the one Silent Hill made by Team Silent people loved to hate back in the day.
The hate against this game was relentless from a big part of the community, but I guess that after years of bad/mediocre western SH games and the eventual abscence of any new games at all, people started giving it a chance or rediscovering it and understanding what made it good.
@nick gurr It's a bit lackluster in comparisson to previous SH games, but it's still a very solid game, and simply a unic experience.
It's great (and terrifying) when horror games catch you off guard by playing with your expectations. As you've made clear, Silent Hill 4 is a great example of this with its save room. Plus, its horror has only been strengthened in this post-2020 world. Being isolated in your own home, having little contact with other people, finding a corpse behind your wall: I'm sure these things will resonate with a lot of people.
Well, maybe not that last one.
Also, I just adore the 4:3 aspect ratio. Great video as always!
The Evil Within's safe room still scare the ever living crap out of me even when I know I'm at a section where nothing scary will happen. Something about the choice of music and the narrative changes that occur there will forever leave me scarred. There's a lurking feeling that the game might still have something left under its sleeve of surreal horrors ready to pounce at me the moment I embrace some semblance of calmness for too long.
I think SH4 succeeded the most at using the uncanny in a deeply unsettling way. The other games take you on a journey to strange locations, but The Room's horror is much more familiar. It comes from a place that should feel safe. Your apartment, your home, is twisted into something terrifying and unpredictable. Of all the SH games, this one feels the most like a neverending paranoid nightmare.
What an absolute rug pull the second half of the game was! This is why I think this is the best Silent Hill from Team Silent. In the beginning your being strung along, just one step behind the killer never in any real danger. Then, everything is flipped on its head! The room becomes oppressive and haunted, monsters start bleeding into different worlds becoming more abundant, and Walter finally joins the hunt putting the pressure on you and Eileen. That switch from being a bystander in the murders to being the last victim was absolutely beautiful and having to retrace your steps in order to defeat Walter was the icing on top.
Silent Hill 4 never really clicked with me the first time I tried playing through it, but I still very much appreciate what both it and Fatal Frame 3 does with the traditional save room. I’m also very glad that the indie scene has allowed for even more intimate and experimental explorations of domestic horror. Kitty Horrorshow’s Anatomy being perhaps the best example!
Fatal Frame 3 took it too far lol.. My brother and i stopped playing it as kids because we got too scared.. We played many horror games together before, and we never gave up because we always loved to go through the adrenaline of horror games. We played the previous Fatal Frame games too and we liked the franchise, but that moment in FF3 was too much and it changed us forever, we turned off the game and never played it again haha.. No horror game felt safe after that even to this day.
@@twentytwo138 Now I wanna know more about Fatal Frame 3
I always loved how gradually, Henry feels less and less safe in his apartment if you inspect the furniture and other things in it. For some reason, you can't inspect them most of the game, but during the Hospital World, his uneasiness is clear. Even his shoes make him nervous.
Super well made video! Love your take on this entry.
I LOVEEEE SH4 - I know it's a very different vibe from 1-3 but as a horror game, having your "safe space" become slowly deadly and unsettling was just...awesome.
I believe this game was misunderstood by many people simply because it was so far ahead of its time. Modern horror looks much closer to SH4 than the other titles. Even Kojima when making pt took more elements from SH4 than any of the previous titles, right down to the first person view in a confined space to even having a peephole. i replay the SIlent Hill series 1-4 every October, and when people ask me which is the scariest I answer tha they all scare me in different ways. But if you ask me which Silent Hill was the creepiest, the most unnerving: my answer is always The Room.
Great analysis! I would have loved that Silent Hill 4 treats the subject of "hikikomori" with all those cool gameplay mechanics and ideas about the room.
Having your apartment feeling like a safe heaven at start but from you can't get out of with only one window to the outise world and then having your appartment slowly becoming a hell would have suited so well with the hikikomori theme.
I'm a bit disappointed that in SH4 the center of all misfortune is Walter Sullivan and isn't really related to characters' personal issues
Your retrospectives/reviews/commentaries are truly one of a kind.
Your style, the 4:3 ratio, the PSOne esque text font
Literally my favourite videogame focused TH-cam channel out there
The phone call haunting was genuinely terrifying.. “I’m always watching you”
Silent Hill 4 should be discussed, analyzed and thought about more, especially in regards to its approach to the horror genre. Just a shame not many videos on it can be found here, but I'm glad there are people like you and Daniel Santos who have made a video on this game recently and have brought it to limelight, if only briely.
Don't think we didn't notice your video's 4:3 aspect ratio for the original PS2 release! A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one 😃
Great vid, love the friendly relaxing presentation
I remember using all my candles in the outside world to repel the ghosts, then not having candles to repel the hauntings in my room, that made me quit the game xD
Then, years later I replayed it and it's one of my favorite Survival horrors of all time now.
2 words: Twin Victim 😐
i love your videos! SH4 is my favorite too. the slow erosion of safety is such a strong & memorable experience. i love your presentation & it reminds me why it's stuck with me for so long. thanks for this & hope you're doing well!
This is my introduction to your channel and I have to say this video was a safe room of its own. Excellently voiced and comforting. I'm glad I found ya! I grew up in the 90s and still love survival horror today. Playing Fobia now it's good stuff
One friend of mine once said
"I don't like to watch reviews(or "resumenes", which is the spanish word for a brief summary of something while adding personal opinions, like this video), it spoils me the fun, i preffer to watch/do it myself"
And i think she missed the point
We NEED videos like these, because they give us NEW, PERSPECTIVES.
I played the same game, yet, bc i did it with a friend, i got all the warnings and the surprise and horror elements were mostly taken off from me, and i didn't even stopped to think about how well-thought the mechanics, gameplay limits, and scenario of this game were, i didn't took the doll bc my friend knew i'm a scaredy cat and i spent so much time outside the apartment i barely remember the candles or medallions, if at all, and i didn't recognized once that the ghost or head were the first female character we encountered, as much as in the subway as in the peephole of the apartment, i just knew she died and the other one dissapeared and nothing more.
I saw these game thorought HIS lenses of "oh well this is depressing and represents bad mental health very accurately", and never dared to think outside that box!
We saw 2 diferent games despite playing the same thing, and it baffles me.
Thanks for giving me new views and thing to reflect on this, it was a fascinating video.
I’m so happy that this channel has given me enough courage to start my own channel. I’ve been in a time of my life where I am getting back into games as life finally lets me catch up, and your channel has been on loop throughout my days of doing essays or even working out, and it ignited something in me to go through a retrospective of a lot of my favorite aspects of games. Thank you, euro, I really do appreciate it. Of course, this video was fantastic too. Gotta love the chill music and gentle voice as always.
I really loved how even tho most save rooms are generally the same, each game/series always had their own feel
Yesss!!! This captures what made this game amazing so well. I remember this one being dragged through the mud back in the day
I love how relaxed this review was, pointing out the interesting design choices and how it asists in the overall goal of growing dread.
I remember how dreadful those ghosts were on my play through. It makes me not want to replay the game hahaha. I’m still glad I played the game though, it was at the beginning of the pandemic back in 2020. So it all felt a little too real 😆
Another great video with an interesting angle and production. Killing it and earning that sponsorship!
Biggest takeaway is that you still have a pristine condition GBA SP - jealous!
Dude so happy for your first sponsorship and amazing video as always!
Reminds me of an amped up version of Rei's house in fatal frame 3. I always liked that idea of a comfortable space slowly becoming alien.
SH4 is the perfect example of a misunderstood masterpiece: it's not about Henry, it's about Walter and his "Mother". It refused to rinse and repeat what came before ( a trend the Western developers pursued, with the exception of the excellent Silent Hill Shattered Memories), instead opting to deconstruct everything people thought was what a Silent Hill game should be... It expanded the mythos ( Silent Hill could,in a metaphysical way, be "anywhere" in certain conditions, like in SH3) and was a natural progression.... Besides, the sadness and malevolence of the whole thing is second to none.
I don't normally like videos on TH-cam, but I did this one. It felt like talking about one of your favorite games with an intelligent friend.
incredible video maria i knew nothing bout this game so hearing bout it from you was really cool and congrats on the sponsor AHHHH
What an excellent video on my favorite game of all time. The choice of a 4:3 aspect ratio and slightly pixelated imagery fully capture the essence of what Silent Hill 4 was and is.
Congrats on the sponsorship!
Lore wise, the biggest connection to the cult of Silent Hill is through Walter Sullivan, who was raised by The Order, the very same cult you deal with in Silent Hill 1 and 3. Dahlia Gillespie installing her teachings that would lead to him becoming a serial killer. Even his victims, Jasper, who we see during the story, his friends and him were very into learning mythology of The Order, Walter kills both of his friends for The 10 Hearts sacrifices and later, Walter sets Jasper on fire during the story. Sharon Blake, another victim of Walter, was a target of The Order and they murdered her entire family, when she found the gravestones of them, Walter murdered her.
So with Silent Hill 4 basically, you have to deal with what The Order has caused and brought onto the world, the after effects of their teachings and actions.
i really enjoyed your take on this, my older brother and i played all of the series when we were kids and something about Silent hill 4 always stuck with me.
Thank you for your thoughtful commentary of SH4! Like most Silent Hill fans, SH2 is my favourite in the series, but SH4 is actually a close second. IMO it is the scariest in the franchise, and has the best overall story. I understand the valid complaints people have about SH4, but no one should lump it with the post Team Silent games. It's worth your time.
BABE WAKE UP, NEW EUROTHUG VIDEO DROPPED!
I was literally about to comment this same thing
Although I think 2 is the best of the series and the most popular too, Silent Hill 4 has such a special place in my heart and is my favourite game out of the 3, simply because of horror and fear overtaking of one’s “safe place”, in which you said the safe room, and that is just one of the parts of this game that makes it so unique and special. Overall I thought this video was awesome and really shed some light on this hella underrated game! Keep up the good work!
This is quite possibly the best Silent Hill video on all of TH-cam. Also, I loved Buyee! Looking forward to buying some things I've been after for a while.
Keep it up and you earned a new subscriber!
Great video, happy to learn more about this Room! SH4 has always been the most confusing to me and while I had seen some clips of people playing in the levels, I was never sure exactly how the Room worked or why it was so important to the game. I feel like I have a much better understanding of its purpose now and that it's not just a hub, I enjoyed hearing about the design process behind it!
It’s definitely a fine wine sort of game. Not something that you can get into at the start with all of it’s clunk, but a game you should savour every once and a while with it’s deeply engaging detective-like mystery of what’s really going on. The game might’ve received different reviews back then if it was named something else, but at least it’s now getting the attention it deserves.
I missed your videos about the SH franchise, loved the vid :)
After all these years, I had no idea that the radio could tell you when your apartment is being haunted
spoiler: when shit started happening in Henrys' apartment I was honestly scared. The damn window in his living room, the damage received in front of the tv. Im like, what the hell
I was so hyped when I saw that thumbnail. Despite all the negative reviews over the years, SH4 always held a special spot in my heart.
Great analysis of the titular room. Walter's corpse being inside the room itself is often overlooked, I believe - in particular, when you explore the other appartments in the building and you realise they're all bigger than your own appartment, that's quite an "oh shit" moment!
You get straight into the thick of it, sponsor talk way later for an uninterrupted and concise analysis. YES, PLEASE!!
I'm so glad I have a channel I can watch that has a passion for these horror games, because I find horror fascinating but I'm far to jumpy and easily spooked to ever watch or play horror content
Just subscribed, am lucky to find your channel and to find this beautiful illustration of one of my favourite games ❤️
Thank you
Really good video. I have never played this game but I have always found it fascinating
Thank you very much for this video. Silent Hill 4's story is also my favorite in the series, which is saying a lot because I absolutely love the stories of the first three games.
It is a very different story from those games, though, but one that hits you on a different level than those.
Silent Hill 4 has its flaws, for sure. But so did the other games. Now I am not the type of person to lock myself onto something that is an inherent part of a game, I just try to adapt to it unless it is completely egregious.
I will say, Silent Hill 4 is a very personal game, and not meant in a direct sense, but the way the game is presenting itself, it truly makes you feel like you are a part of it. I love what it does so much.
Truly, Silent Hill 4 is an amazing game.
The 4 by 3 aspect ratio is golden.
Also, SH4 was my first Silent Hill game and it will be forever dearest. The soundtrack is, in my opinion, one of the greatest of all time and vocals just hit it right in the soul, especially when playing the game.
I love your commentary style and the feel of your videos! Thank you for entertaining all of us
I'm glad I found this channel a few months ago... Your reviews are great! And congratulations on the first (of many) sponsors ^^
This is a very special video. Thank you so much for making it. It's going straight to my playlist.
A refreshing perspective on this game, very well put together! Thank you for sharing!
Silent Hill 4 is a truly great game that deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the previous entries in the series. It's really unfortunate that it's considered somewhat of a black sheep.
Incredibly well spoken. I had been wanting to make a video on how Silent Hill 4 flips the entire concept of safe rooms on its head but this just nails it perfectly. As scary as I found Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3-4 just managed to hit this stride that was beyond anything else I had played. While it does help I played it as a young kid, to this day it still leaves me with the fear of a safe spaces I have in my life turning into something as nightmarish as Room 302.
Still I may go ahead and make something just going into detail on how it made me feel as SH4 just. It just manages to encapsulate so many feelings all in one package that just hit gut human reactions for me more than many other games have tried to.
subbed just because you built a video around 4:3 games, in 4:3, without stretching or all kinds of other issues!
Hadn't seen you work before I saw YFS' retweet. Great work and I can't wait to see what you make next!
I never thought of this game with the depth in which you have explained it. I have a new found respect and appreciation of it now. Thank you for that.
Nice video, SH 4 definitely had alot going for it
Finding out he was there the whole time fucked me up lmao I did not want to grab that item at his feet… at all…
And i thought being in my room at night drunk was scary, till i met the second half of SH4.
My favorite of Team Silent, the enemies for the most part are lacking except the twins and ghosts, but the room itself is something special. I'll never forget being stuck in a loop in the forest, having to let the item on the apartment, going back and fourth to solve that puzzle.
Also that feeling of safety that it gives for 4 hours just to break that and throw new mechanics on your face is perfect.
It makes me remember Eternal Darkness on the GameCube. Between stories, you end up back in the hub world of the mansion. But the mansion becomes less and less safe as the game goes on (not to mention the sanity mechanic), until finally there are enemies there just like everywhere else.
This game gave me nightmares, yo. Also girl the amount of saves you have in this footage xD (makes sense granted capturing footage for a review)
LMAOOO yup I had to try and make sure I had a save or two for every area otherwise footage collection would have been painful😫
i feel like people presenting silent hill 2 as the peak of horror really kneecaps everyone's expectations for the rest of the series. i think silent hill 3 showed a lot more of team silent's creativity than 2, and 4 really pushes the boundaries in awesome ways.
even the later editions all have things to rave about, even if there's places where they fall short. (homecoming might have some ridiculously unwelcome gameplay changes, but god DAMN does it have brilliant, visceral monster design.)
Excellent video! I've always loved that aspect of Silent Hill 4, that subduing of your expectations as you play the game, it's such a fresh approach to the world of Silent Hill. That's why it's my favourite Silent Hill, not because it's the best, but because of its originality. Thank you very much for talking about it!
I really like the other 3 games. The couple of things that discouraged me from playing this was because of how radically different it was and the amount of memes revolving around The Room. lol
I'm encouraged to actually play this now after having watched this. Never heard of Buyee until now. Thank you for this! I'll definitely look around! ^_^
There’s memes about the room? I remember playing half of the game a few years back and I found it really oppressive, honestly a really good game
@@lightbrand_ he's probably referencing the tommy wiseau's movie, i dont get why everyone compare this game and this movie, apart from the name ,they have nothing in common
First video I watch on your channel. I love the relax pacing of your review and analysis. Good content :)
Newbie in the channel. I love SH4 with all my heart and therefore, I love this vídeo too. You got yourself a new sub. Cheers!
I love you. Your videos deserve more attention.
SH4 is massively underrated. It deserves so much more respect than the black sheep of the franchise. It tooks risks, it got weird, it played with your expectations & fucked with your head.
It has more in common with RE than SH mechanically, but the story is so perfectly conjured that it stays with me today.
Walter Sullivan had nothing & dud what he thought he had to do instead of dealing with that nothing. Henry Townshend captured that feeling of disconnection - being plucked out of reality & put into a dangerous game that nobody truly understands. It can happen to anyone. Silent Hill does not care who you are - it choses you & you will play along.
SH4 is a SH game. I'm sick & tired of this "SH4 isn't even an SH game." It takes EVERY major elements of the series & takes a unique, but necessary turn. SH3 was actually the disaster - with almost every idea falling through because of the mass revamp the game got.
I loved this Silent Hill I think it's highly underrated. I played this game with headphones in the dark and I was legit creeped out, especially when the room started to change. I would love a remake.
im glad you are giving this game the credit it deserves. it took risks to make some big changes to the series, and i think at the time the fans were not ready for a dynamic shift in gameplay. i think the entire atmosphere of the room was progressively more terrifying as the story advanced.
Great video! This analysis brought to mind the way Fable 3 did the map room. If you know, you know!
The ad at the end is goated. Immediately made me like the video AND watch the whole ad
you did an excellent job on this video!
It's great to find a SH4 video that doesn't shit all over the game. I think it's a really great game.
The eileen head room is SUCH a good scare on account of the camera work. Henry has been listening to Eileen through the wall for so long and now suddenly is confronted by a giant, peering face that he can’t get away from, while being presented with the same moaning and breathing he first heard through the wall. A total inversion of the previous relationship.
This title reminds me of J Horror more than most other games, SH4 reminds me of particularly the Ju-On series, being scared of the ghost while trying to save and using candles stayed with me long after playing it, great video!!!!!
After playing the original four games for the first time last year, I can say without a doubt that SH4 unnerved me *the most.* Playing it at night without my friends in a party or call reaaaaally got under my skin. Especially when the hauntings started. The overall vibe (and soundtrack) of SH4 is probably my favorite of the games, and I really wish we got to see a more fully realized version of it.
Also, the giant Eileen scare genuinely made me jump out of my seat. I was NOT expecting it lmfao.
always a blessing when a new upload pops up in my sub box
Cool video. I always thought SH4 was underrated. Yeah, the gameplay got annoying at times with the ghost and the general combat, but it had so many unique and well implemented ideas alongside an interesting story. First video of this channel I've seen, but I like the style and calming voice. Will have to check out more
Finally, a gaming channel that knows what she is talking about and doesn't behave like an immature brat. I enjoyed this video a lot, great work.
Yet another banger of a video, ET👍
This is one of those games I've always really wanted to play, but as things stand I unfortunately lack the means to do so. It's just such an ingenious premise for a horror game to start from you finding yourself trapped in what's supposed to be your in-universe home, with the initial sense of confinement then giving away to appreciation of the place as your only safe haven in-between perilous nightmare treks outside, till it eventually starts to dawn on you, that your apartment is actually the eye of the storm for all the terrifying things you've been put through.
I was fascinated with this analysis of my favorite Silent Hill. Thank you!
Its the first time I hear about you, but this video is great!.
I never though about this mecanics when I played it for the first time, now I want to play it again.
I going to watch your other videos too. Really, good work with this video.