Henry as a bland character is the perfect representation of a "hikikomori" theme. A complete self isolation where your life is as empty as you can get. You literally got nothing special going on in your life & there is nothing more scary then loneliness to many people, especially in this modern era. Re-playing SH4 while I was in COVID Quarantine time is such special kind meta. I also think this is why we have an emergence of good appreciation to SH4 in the first place. Depression from loneliness has become a major epidemic in big cities, despite on the contrary that in theory there are more people in cities than in a town or villages. Controversially, I would argue that SH4 was ahead of its time.
Not to mention the obvious connecting factor to Walter... both Henry and Walter are anti-social, even their speech is awkward in comparison to... literally every other character in the game. It's interesting that it's Henry, someone as anti-social, and definitely not as messed up and psychotic, that gets to foil Walter's plans. I'd like to think prior residents were just like Henry as well
yeah i think that's definitely the theme with sh4, even more so when you notice all the mother and fetus symbolisms that can be linked to that wish to stay in one's comfort zone. even towards the end before the final boss fight we see henry in a fetal position with a red filter on. i think saying sh4 is lacking in symbolisms is complete bs
SH4 in general is just too japanese for people in the west to "get" compared to previous entries mostly inspired by western fiction writers, psychoanalysis and alchemy.
SH4 is the scariest to me. A lot of the levels have this surrealist feeling to them. The Water Prison, a panopticon isolated in the middle of the sea where there is only pain and despair. A world where buildings have meshed into each other to form a nearly incomprehensible brutalist nightmare. It's a shame the later half is just so infuriating to actually play
I think it has the greatest otherworld level designs alongside 3. I wish the textures were uncompressed with patches to play in 4k like 3 was. Just imagine these designs with better gameplay and higher poly counts, or rebuilt in a new engine like iD tech 7 or other good ones.
@weylandpunanigaming I really didn’t find it all that scary either, however the latter half of the game is very infuriating due to the girl that you have to babysit for the entire second half of the game and she will constantly fall back and get left behind where you will have to keep returning to where she stopped at to regroup with her just to continue on, all while having enemies to contend with and trying to not be killed?!?!? After about 2 1/2 hours straight of dealing with Eileen’s bullshit, I was literally trying to kill her with the hatchet myself- Other than that, it is still a very awesome game and one of my favorite silent Hills!
Henry, I think, is one of the most misunderstood characters in gaming as a whole. Maybe I read into the game way too much, but I feel like the subtext in the game gives Henry a much more well-rounded psyche than most other protagonists when you start diving deep. It's very easy to miss a lot of the smaller details since it comes from examining items throughout the house multiple times over the course of the game. For one, consider Henry's occupation and general attitude. He's a photographer, so he's used to examining the world through a lense, which can be a form of separation from reality. We see this through his almost stunted conversational skills with those he meets, giving context that he might not actually interact with others on a frequent basis. Instead, most of his interactions over the course of the game is him observing from afar, almost living through others vicariously. I think this is because Henry could possibly have a form of agoraphobia and fear of the outside world. I think there's a reason why the entire fear that The Room plays into is a corruption of places thought to be safe, and the only way to escape that hell is to face it head-on (metaphorically facing reality). This also gives us insight into Walter's character, because I believe him and Henry are very similar in many ways. They both want the safety and security of the "womb", and we see the consequences of a person who refuses to let go of that in Walter, and a person who confronts the uncomfortable outside world in Henry. I don't want to ramble on too long, but I just think Silent Hill 4 as a whole is a lot more subtle with its themeing than any of the other games in the series, and I'd love to see it get more appreciation on that front.
YEAH YOURE TOTALLY RIGHT !!! i tried to talk about all those things you said on another comment here, maybe youll like to read it, or not it doesnt really matter but, it made me very happy to see someone else pointing out how great the symbolism and lore of SH4 is , and how good of a character henry is once you... begun to think of him as a human being and not just a "bland character" because youre biased by other people reacting harsh to the game simply cuz they rushed it asf and did not even checked any item on his appartment or at least enjoyed the game, because they were too busy on finding things to compare with other SH games lol.... which im sure its the main reason SH4 was not suposed to be a SH from the very beggining, so people dont distract themselves, but anyway... KONAMI sucks xD, but still and hopefully, the game its a gem for a few of us who see it as a standalone work of art and not just... huh... a marathon in order to spot the most differences with other silent hill entries : P
though , i dont agree that very much on the fact that SH4 express everything about henry through subtext alone, because i honestly think that every major designing choice over mechanics its heavily based around what the game its trying to convey to us about henry's psychological state. even the whole "losing your only safe place" and the look-around-your-house sections, and the escorting missions and the different scenarios and camera angles, idk, almost EVERYTHING thats different to other SH's to me, seems like a conscious artistic choice to better serve henry character study : ), but still... it has a lot of subtext and subtlety too... and thats what i found the most fascinating of SH4 over any other SH, that it trascended the fact of copypasting a pre-existent game genre, but instead it employed the genre to its fullest extent in order to express whatever the devs wanted to express about an specific health issue, and idk, to me thats as far as games can go in order to be pure art... employing techniques to express feelings and not the other way around (something SH2 excelss as well anyway : ) but i think SH4 has an even deeper use of that concept)
I think Henry has alot of unfulfilled potential, he is very bland but with how desolate his apartment is (Very little personal stuff, seems to only eat take out food) it feels like he's just kind of lost and maybe even depressed. If they focused on this idea of a broken person locked in his apartment only escaping by exploring someone else's nightmares could have alot of thematic potential. There's also parallels between Walter and Henry in terms of their isolation from the world, which if expanded upon could make Walter Henry's pyramid head.
I think he is perfect as he is. Henry is just a random person involved in something much bigger than him, it's a nice contrast to Harry, James and Heather, and considering the team in charge of SH4 wanted to change things up, Henry is a really nice change of pace. It tells you that anyone can be brought into Silent Hill shenanigans, you don't need some past trauma, you don't need someone to save, you don't need a valid connection to the cult or the town itself, and Henry is living proof of that. Not to mention Henry fits perfectly to Sh4's true main character... Walter. This is his game, it's his story, his childhood, his adulthood, his trauma, his connection to the cult, his everything. Silent Hill lives through Walter and Henry is just the person that will end up walking in Walter's own twisted world. Maybe Walter Sullivan's character doesn't work as well if Henry has more personality, or isn't just your common guy. Considering the vision of SH4, I think Henry being dull is 100% what they wanted to go for and the contrast between him and the previous 3 character is probably enough proof.
I like the theory that he's a shut-in hermit. It plays into the mechanics of The Room itself and how it starts off helping you, only to hurt you when the escort phase starts. Unfortunately, there's not much to give this idea weight.
I recognize that SH2 is the best game in the series, but SH4 is still my favorite. The various themes and events in SH4 connected with me on a deeper level. Just one example of several was the idea of the room being invaded by dark or destructive forces. When I was a small child I remember moving a small dresser in my room and discovering an ugly hole in the wall that the dresser was hiding. I also remember crying when I found it because I got the idea that it was a bad thing that was disturbing the sanctity and security of my bedroom to the point where my young mind was afraid of it and even thought monsters might be able to enter through it. Finding the carved out section of the wall behind Henry's cabinet that showed Eileen's bedroom reminded me of this childhood fear. When monsters literally started entering into Henry's apartment in the later half of the game, it was like this childhood fear was accurately manifested within the game.
Silent Hill 3 is my Favorite over SH2, Silent Hill 4 will always have a special place in my heart because it was my first silent hill game I seen back in the day
Another thing I love about SH4 that I dont hear people talk about enough is the attention to detail on the other tenants. When you watch them through the windows and go to their rooms. They all have unique distinctions from one another and one of the tenants is an artist who has drawn just about everyone. Adds to the lore of the apartment building and references to silent hill 2.
Walter is one of the coolest villains ever! Also I love the concept of Silent Hill spreading further and further. I cant choose between 2 and 4 but they are both masterpieces
He's a unique villain with very tragic back story, but at the same time deserves to get punished for what he's become and done. Not many games or movies are able to do such.
But it only spread because of Walter and now that he’s dead and the cult is pretty much done for after 3, Silent Hill should be peaceful again. We don’t need another SH 2 style story, unless it involves another cult corrupting the town’s spiritual power again. The only reason why the events of Silent Hill 2 happened in the first place is because it occurred in between Silent Hill 1 and 3, when Heather and Harry were in hiding and the remnants of the cult were still operating in Silent Hill. Hence why, every other game that happens after 4 doesn’t fit the story that Team Silent established. All of them including Homecoming and Downpour should have occurred when the cult was still active.
I can imagine that playing Silent Hill 4 during covid quarantine time probably hit different for some people. While I think Henry could've had a bit more going on, I like how calm he is and doesn't let his feelings show all too often due to his introverted nature. It almost seemed like he struggled to connect to people until he had to help Eileen.
Henry has a lot of untapped potential. *HOWEVER* he's fascinating to view through a neurodivergent perspective. He's awkward, quiet, introverted, and hints to have quite bit of family drama, but it's never really explored. A big problem is that SH4 is Walter's story; Henry ends up being an observer of it.
But he was supposed to be the observer. He was the 'reciever of wisdom' if I remember correctly. He must witness everything and then give his life for Walter's rituel to work.
I find Silent Hill 4 to have my favorite premise of them all. I used to be a massive shut in myself around 10 years ago (to the point where the thought of going out for even the basic things filled me with dread) so being stuck in a room you feel the most comfortable and safe in only to be trapped... yeah. In an odd way, I still felt comfy being in Henry's room in the first half of the game - before shit hits the fan - just looking around, looking out the window to see the outside world, turning on the radio and checking out everything. Maybe that was on purpose? Of Henry, I think he's a huge shut in himself which makes it even more ironic that he no longer can leave his room. Might explain why he's the way he is because even before the events of the game, the man was probably anti social as hell and now that he's meeting people for the first time in a long time, he has no idea how to act. If you examine his room he will point out he apparently didn't have much of a happy childhood or any real connection with anyone. Kinda like Walter. So maybe they were going for a Ying and Yang thing. Both anti-socials with bad pasts but one fights to save others while the other one kills. I wish I can play this game again.
I think this one has the most potencial for a proper remake amoungs all other silent hill games. A proper remake can make silent hill the benchmark of horror
I recently watched another video about SH4 and said the same thing there: I personally find this entry to be one of the scariest in the series. Taking places that are generally considered a "safe space", (like a home) and making them not safe is terrifying on another level. The degradation of the apartment as the game goes on, with it becoming increasingly dangerous, creates this feeling of dread that builds as you play. The ghosts were kind of random but the general feel was still very much on brand for SH. My cousin and I rented this back when it first came out and stayed up all night playing it, and it gave me nightmares off and on for years. I visited a house once years ago that was being worked on and it had a hole in a wall, and I legitimately got freaked out without even realizing it was because of the damn hole in the wall from this game. 😅
I love this game so much because it gives me this feeling of 'dissociation' when playing it. Everything about the vibes, graphics, wonky controls, weird stock sounds, weird animations, unkillable ghosts that just kinda fly around, cool otherworldly locations, akward dialogue between characters - just everything together gives me this special dissociation-type vibe that I don't think I experienced in any other game. It really feels like playing someones dream, especially because of in-game locations. It is not the same as the other entries of course, but I don't believe that it is worse because of it. It's just so weird in a special way, I love it. Also I really like the plot twist and what The Room really is. Very unique (and tragic) stuff.
the thing about the characters is 100% true. this is Walters story, in the same way 2 is James's etc. it's just the one game we don't actually play as the protagonist
@@mr.sinjin-smyth there's something beautiful and probably unintentional in the message "even if you feel like the most useless, boring, unimportant bumblefuck that ever lived, if you find yourself in the time and place to do the right thing, you can still make all the difference in the world"
Thanks Max for covering this game! I loved all of the 1st four Silent Hill titles, but The Room sits with me the longest still because of how freaky, surreal, and interesting it was! The levels were like fever dreams, and the neighbors of Henry were just as disturbed as himself! I really liked Walter's story and especially the music, even caring for Eileen while frustrating made me want to protect her from the monsters. It was a wild ride even playing it 3 different times to get different endings :)
I would honestly love a remake of SH4 , polishing the rough edges ( especially the combat ) and the voice acting especially if they can add a good voice actor for Henry. This game was a love of mine and just something that just was so different yet so familiar to silent Hill I loved it.
the entire game feels like just barely escaped alpha. it was definetly very rushed and the ideas poorly executed due to this. howrever the design in mind and theory of the game its masterful
I played all the big SH games with my friends and SH4 had one of our fav moments. The room from the thumbnail... we knew that it was coming, we had read articles about it before. But we didn't know how effing well they had done it. My friends and I all stared at the lower part of the screen, looked up slowly and then started screaming at the same time. It was the only time over the whole series that we let out an actual, loud scream. That scene was so darn brilliantly made!
It was those two headed baby things that got me. When you're in a room and you know they're right outside. I would take a few deep breaths, let out an insane warcry and just go for it.
I don’t really play survival horror, but I really enjoyed silent hill 4. I discovered it during the COVID lockdowns and kind of got attached to it due to the parallels between Henry being locked in his flat and me kind of being stuck in the house. I remember being so bored and fed up that I thought “yeah, if a hole appeared in the house and it was going to take me to a subway/forest/whatever that was filled monsters I’d probably still head down it just to break the monotony”
I think this is a very well-researched and thought provoking video essay on SH4, but personally I think the main problem with this game is not its "lack" of creepy locations, or the lack consistency between closed and open spaces as you mentioned, as much as the original 3; on the contrary, I think SH4 is perhaps the most depressing and downright terrifying of the classic SH games, given that there literally no silver lining or any shred of of hope in any of the storylines nor the characters. In SH 1 to 3, as you perfectly explained, you have protagonists who are basically going through this nightmarish experience, hoping to reconnect with their loved ones (Harry with his daughter, Heather with Harry and James with Mary). In other words, there's a heart in the story. Hence, the horror is balanced by the hopeful aspect. However in 4, Henry is basically a victim of Walter's plan, and he spends most of the game clueless about the situation, reading the last tenant's diary and experiencing Walter's life step by step. That alone, imo. adds to the hopelessness of the situation. And the individual who is longing to connect with someone, happens to be Walter, looking for his "mother", but of course he happens to be a psychopathic serial killer whom you won't root for. All in all, SH4 is very grim in atmosphere imo. The problem, however, I think lies in the structure of the game and how it connects to the plot. That is, in the 2nd half of the game you'll basically have to retread all previous stages, with the added burden of a companion that you have to take care of, and Walter after you (basically, the Pyramid Head hospital encounter in SH2, but repeated again and again). In this sense, it reminds me of the 2nd portion of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, where you have go through stages where you have been, with an added difficulty of your life running out. Not to mention that your only safe place in the game (i.e. The Room) is constantly getting haunted by ghosts that damage you. All this makes the 2nd portion of the game very exhausting and frustrating. And of course there are other annoying gameplay features, such as the un-killable ghosts throughout the game, your inventory and the chest, etc. . And as far as the story aspect, I agree with you, Henry might not be a very compelling protagonist and someone whom you root for or sympathize with such as James or Heather. In short, I agree with you about Henry being an unfeeling empty protagonist, however that reason alone is what makes me terrified of this game, and at the same time makes me not love it as much as the original 3. Sorry about my long rant. I really enjoy your channel. Great work and cheers from Iran.
This game have a special spot in my heart. I like it's story and atmosphere and I also tried to look for realism in graphics during PS2 days especially in character rendering. Silent hill 4 ended my search for it because it have the most realistic and beautiful human characters on the PlayStation 2.
I think 4 is way more cohesive and scarier than what came before, staying behind only of 2. For a game that does not have the SH town as location, they do a very good job of being connected to that world and building up on lore stablished before.
Ya and at least it didn't try to retcon the original lore by adding what the live action movies did(adding the iconic monsters just coz, and it didn't match the lore of that story).... Such a sin.
Walter Sullivan sure has taken a most stuff ritgh out of Frank Reynolds playbook, hangin out in delapidated environments, living in a s%//& appartment with a younger lost guy, and he also has his " and I started blasting" mantra. There probably is a rum ham somewhere in there as well! I did like Shattered Memories too, it is judging you and it has those creepy environments that are eerie, the monster parts(chase sequences) aren't that great but as an experience I found it pretty cool.
This video came at the most opportune time for me! I'm in the process of writing a short film which will be filmed next month and it takes a lot of inspiration from the concepts and ideas of Silent Hill 4. Thanks Max!
Ok so I have to start by saying Thank you Max, since I discovered your channel One spark of my life reignited and it was regarding about psychology in relation with alchemy and many other concepts, I have to say that I´m writing this comment before watching the video because all of this has led me from one big hole in my life where I was considering inflicting myself a quick game over , to this point in my life where I´ve realized what I want to be and Im happy with that and also helping other people, please by any means dont think I´m idolizing you, I´m just showing my respect and being grateful to you and all the stuff that has helped me to get here and also the reason I´m writing this comment is because I just said that I was going to look for a video that is just 20 mins long and by chance I just posted a Pick in my Ig story related to Sh4 which is one of my favorite games and seeing this video posted made me say that is just to good to be a coincidence and I had to comment that (and also be grateful).
I don't think Silent Hill's influence can just happen anywhere. It happened to Heather cause she had a the god fetus in her and Claudia was hunting her and Harry down. It happens in Ashfield because Walter is doing the sacrament. Hell even in Homecoming it was because the town dynasties were a splinter group of the cult.
It's interesting to think that in games 3 and 4 the influence of Silent Hill spreads outside of town for very specific reasons. And now with the next new Silent Hill F set in Japan I wonder what will be the explanation for the influence of Silent Hill to reach the other side of the world lol
I genuinely think SH4 deserves a remake. If nothing else, I think this would be an opportunity to learn from the original game's mistakes and improve it.
For me, the main issue with SH4 stands with 2 gameplay choices: the escort part and the frustration tied to the undying enemies. I really enjoyed the story, locations and overall artistic direction. Even the first person perspective while exploring the room.
I think the direction and design in SH4 was brillant -The apartment feels incredibly sad and bland, just making you feel you don't want to be there -Henry is bland, but bland characters are great for the Silent Hill style, don't forget that pretty much anyone who connects with the town or it's powers, is broken in some way -I ESPECIALLY love the camera work, whenever you're in a 3D world the camera movement feels wrong, not as a camera following you, but like somebody's watching you, in some corners the camera literally moves as if the camera were somebody's eyes while they're hanging upside down, just creepy Still, some points were negative and i think it changes the experience by a lot, the lifebar along with the charged attack mechanic makes it feel way more battle focused instead of surviving, and while the locations are pretty well made, it feels wrong to simply appear in these places, in SH2 you get to some really weird places that shouldn't exist, but you do so by going there in a seamless and disturbing way, like loooong stairs, feeling like you're going to hell, but you don't get teleported, so it feels like nothing is connected even if the plot is I think it's not a bad game, it's pretty good, but it's not in the holy trinity category, just below those 3 and above every other game
Silent Hill 2 is my favourite, for story, atmosphere and of course music, but I think SH4's locked room concept was really cool. That door is iconic. The bland protagonist was a let down and it did falter along the way, but I still regard it as a worthy addition.
At risk of sounding like I am gatekeeping horror, or even more gatekeeping mental disorders: you will never understand Silent Hill 4 unless you are an introverted with severe depression. You see Henry as a bland guy. I see someone that shelves himself in his apartment, with boxes in his closet and few clothes. Someone that has trouble starting conversations and reacts nerviosly when someone approaches him. The way he reacts with Cynthia when she offers herself to him, the way Richard looks and dismisses him, how he looks down and away from Eileen when she becomes trapped with him and wants to seek him. You see a guy that is bland and has no character. I see myself. As you explore the rest of the world you learn much more about not just Walter Sullivan, but also about Eileen and her relationship with Walter, how all of the victims end up being related to him. It is not a game that tells you everything like Silent Hill 2, it is a game that you have to play and pay attention and actually read the stuff that you see around the world. While I can understand why people don't like the world and repeating the levels, it is more akin to a Metroidvania than any other Silent Hill. TL;DR: you wouldn't get it.
I appreciate how every Otherworld level is a memory of Walter's, but heavily distorted. Like the Water Prison having a torture room where the kitchen cooks would allegedly take the meat from the dead and feed it to the living inmates--it didn't exist in real life and was just a rumor Walter heard other prisoners talking about. I think the main thing that draws me to this game is that the Otherworld is more horrifying but also dreamier than previous installments. It's like if David Lynch made a movie with the feel of the first Manhunt game.
One of the reasons the main protagonist is awkward is due to the direction in development. They were told to keep him with minimum emotion showing since they wanted him to be a shell for the player. The team even admitted it was difficult to create cutscenes with hik for this reason. I feel like that is kne if the reasons the game suffers. If done correctly it would of helped a lot.
Silent Hill 4 was my first introduction to the series, and has a special place in my heart. It was the stepping stone to the originals, and although it can be annoying to play, the story is captivating, and it will always be my favourite
I agree with everything you said. One thing I believe is a highlight for me is when you get to the apartment building world and each apartment tells you a lot about each of the residents and their relationships and how life was in the building. That was a very sweet touch often overlooked. To me, thats the best level of the game
This is one of my favorite games ever, along with Radiata Stories. The PS2 was my favorite era. I am happy playing them over and over. I have recently been playing Pathologic Classic HD and I enjoy it as well. It figures that it too was made in 2005. You might like Pathologic too.
Dark Souls 2, DMC: Devil May Cry and Fallout 4 all had different teams from those who made the prequels everybody loved. To be honest, I don't really think Fallout 4 was all that divisive, as it was pretty much a continuation of Besethda formula they started somewhere in Oblivion or Fallout 3.
Well everyone who has played new vegas and the older fallout games do not appreciate 3 and 4 that much or outright hates them, because they really are not as good as those other games
@@shaneriggs6678 i would argue fallout 3 offers a more interesting narrative and not much else, the old jank that game has is so charming to me, while fallout 4 just has better gunplay. Although that is good the shooting is not the only aspect of the game that is relevant, and fallout 4 is just not that good of an rpg
@@vincentpresscod7531 selling well does not equal quality or fan approval. Many fallout fans probably bought fallout 4 because it was the newest in the franchise, and its big marketing push and Bethesda having tons of fans from Skyrim already made it succeed with the mainstream audience. But the hardcore fallout fanbase doesn't really like fallout 4
The best way to summarize my feelings playing SH4 is analogous to Frodo carrying the One Ring to Mount Doom. It was that mentally taxing on my psyche. This is boosted by the game's take on the traditional zombies in the form of ghosts that just plain creep you out with the way they move, their moans and the psychic damage they inflict on Henry by just being present. It is also how the game presents its cutscenes in a sort of low quality found footage format which really adds to its baggage. SH3 for me was the scariest experience out of the OG 4 games, but SH4 had the most consistent barrage of insanity to the point that finishing the game made you feel like you're, as mentioned, Frodo who just finished throwing the One Ring into the pits of Mount Doom, freeing you from the torment.
Great video on SH4! I like that Henry was such a random blank slate, it made the story scarier to me. It made it feel like this can happen to anyone, to any everyman. He was probably the most relatable SH protagonist to me personally, although as a whole I prefer playing SH2. Probably has to do more with the gameplay mechanics than the story, which I think was superb in SH4 and still chills me to the bones.
I've been a Silent Hill fan from the beginning. I remember when the trailer of SH4 released. My uncle and I watched it on Gamespot's website back in the day and we were so stoked, especially when we saw the Twin Victim walking around. My uncle got it back when it first released in September 2004. During that time, his mother who was also my grandmother was very ill and passed away that November. It was a sad year us and the rest of the family but SH4 made us a little happier from our loss.
I don't think I will ever tire of your phenomenal Silent Hill videos. I find such an odd comfort in traveling through that foggy town with you as a guide.
I really liked the game, it might be my 3rd favourite after the 2 and 3. I feel its one of the most scary of the franchise and I liked the fact that Henry is so blank, it really gave me a feeling of someone being very depressed and lost. I like the character of Eileen too, when I played it, I was in love with a girl that looked like her but it was quite complicated because she was a stranger to me and I was too shy to talk to her. Walter Sullivan is a fantastic character as well, very intriguing...
Hey Max! I personally LOVE Silent Hill 4. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned how claustrophobic it is. It is essentially the wealth of meaning - be it religious or occult-based - that makes it so precious to me. I feel like I could see from the desperate perspective of Walter Sullivan, and just like you've said, it literally hurts that there is nothing left to be done for this man. That being said, the gameplay does have pacing issues. I dreaded revisiting these nightmare realms again and again. They were more irritating than it was fun playing through them. But the meaning. I have to say, that's what makes it so beloved to me. Its exploration of psychological trauma is so very apt, that it awoke me to some of my own that I hadn't been taking seriously enough in the past. It's a game that changes you as you play it, for some of us.
I haven’t played this in awhile-your videos truly make me want to revisit these titles-but one thing that stands out as what I remember most vividly is the slow deterioration throughout the game of his room as a safe haven to rest and recover, into a place so demonically possessed that it causes harm just to be there. It’s extremely well done; truly made me dread having to return to the room after completing an objective, to see what else could’ve gone wrong in there.
Still remember the weird guitar flamenco guitar that played in the menu, and the chills I got every time the subway girl (the one floating around laying on the floor) touch me.
*don’t read this comment if yr avoiding spoilers* i feel like not enough people talk about this but in henry’s defense, i think he actually has a good amount of emotional depth to him, tho it’s not obvious at all. he’s very socially awkward and doesn’t seem to deal with people much. a lot of what you can glean from his personality isn’t revealed thru the story but instead thru examining his apartment. he’s a photographer and a lot of the pictures in the apartment were taken by him. photography can be a very isolating activity, yr viewing life thru a lens. yr literally a voyeur in yr own life taking this into account, it adds a lot of context to certain aspects of the game, such as the first person perspective and the peepholes into his apartment hallway and eileen’s apartment and the water prison. to me it adds to the “blank slate” nature of henry’s character bc he’s basically already living vicariously thru other people. it also adds to what some would call his “bad voice acting” bc of course he would be that quiet, he’s awkward and standoffish i think henry is a surprisingly complex character, you just have to do some more digging than what’s honestly probably necessary lol
Henry has to have a rich inner world, emotional depth and even a certain amount of mental fortitude to be able to fulfill his role as The Observer. So even Walter understood that about Henry while most players don't. But what I find far more interesting and disturbing is how many people dismiss Henry entirely because it takes a tiny amount of effort to know him and understand him, so suddenly he's bland and has nothing going on for him, not even a personality. And that's kinda also what Walter thought of Henry and it's his downfall. Henry wins over loneliness, Walter loses. And what causes loneliness if not the lack of putting any effort into actually knowing the other person? So the player is likening themselves to the psychotic antisocial villain, which is just genius if you happen to be the type of person to catch that. But that's also how Walter and Henry differ from one another while being extremely effective foils of each other: Henry is capable of forming true emotional intimacy even tho he has trouble expressing it and reaching out. He possesses the muscle but hasn't trained it yet, Walter does not. Henry cares and empathizes and he's trying to get through to the people around him when it actually matters, if he can help someone then he will overcome his fear. He felt closeness with Eileen before the events of the game started and it turned out that it wasn't just some creepy voyeuristic crush, but they actually fit together and Henry was able to sense it. He didn't know her but he also understood her on a much deeper level that usually takes people years to reach in a relationship. That's the foundation of what they have, and they survive together if Henry "puts his house in order" and cares about Eileen's wellbeing enough to make her want to stick around (again, perfect symbolism). But again, if you didn't catch that Henry has a personality, you're not gonna catch that either.
I appreciate you making this view that is very fair towards Silent Hill 4. I liked it quite a bit but I don't ignore its flaws (people have different ideas of flaws). What I didn't like about SH4 or other Silent Hill games didn't keep me from enjoying it or any other SH I've played. Silent Hill 4 did give me a bit of both unease and familiarity. I actually related a bit to Henry at the time I played SH4, the lack of interest, gloom, quiet and feeling both chaotic and empty like his apartment. I was struggling with depression, anxiety & loneliness then so SH4 felt a bit too familiar in that sense. I do wish we get a bit of insight into Henry's struggles and what's going on with him for the sake of the story. It's a good game despite any shortcomings any player may or may not see. I do see it being scary in how he can't leave his safe place and later malicious things try to get into his apartment, no one outside is aware of what's going on, effectively turning our home - a deeply place that should feel safe - into a place of nightmares. I'm familiar with that feeling. I haven't played every SH game - to my shame as a SH fan. I've never played Book of Memories, Alchemilla and worst of all I've never played.... Silent Hill 1. I so want to play it but circumstances at various times seem to thwart me. It must be The Order's doing. Please don't shame me, I know it's awful 😭🤧😣
To me, Silent Hill 4 only gained value and relevance with time. This is because it's a symbol of an era where experimentation with game formulas was still possible within the entries of an established franchise. While not all of its elements work flawlessly, there is still something to be learnt from them, and it's a shame the following entries in the series shunned them completely in the name of playing safe. This kind of daring is something that today in the triple A space is almost impossible; the only recent-ish game I can think of that managed to do this while being successful is Yakuza: Like a Dragon with its genre shift - and it still brought infinite arguments within fans.
I've always been intrigued by this game. The story, the whole apartment thing and especially Walter Sullivan are things that really appeal to me. I generally love the concept of supernatural serial killers :D However, what always kept me from actually playing it myself, were a lot of the gameplay decisions. The game has one big feature that I dislike: Enemies that you can't kill, and that also can go through walls and damage you when they're near you. Also, escort missions 🤪 I do appreciate the game nonetheless and enjoy watching other people play it 🤓I'm glad it exists.
I agree with most of your criticism. One additional point I'd like to make is regarding the apartment or the room itself, which served as your safe haven throughout the game. It was a place where you could find respite and escape from the evils of Silent Hill. As the game progressed, the insidious influence of the Silent Hill world seeped into your room, invading your sanctuary and leaving you vulnerable. Paradoxically, you became more endangered in the very apartment you had relied on throughout the game than you were in the actual town of Silent Hill. This transformation mirrored the deteriorating state of a person's mind after spending time in Silent Hill, making the room a perfect representation of that psychological decay. Gradually, it became increasingly infected with the malevolence of Silent Hill, revealing that everything you needed to see was right in front of you all along, yet you were unable to perceive it. This erosion of trust extended even to your own senses, which is precisely what resonated with me about this game. Moreover, the apartment itself symbolized Henry's reserved and awkward nature. It created a sense of distance between him and the people around him. Although he could see them and almost reach out to touch them, he remained emotionally distant, as if a million miles away. By peeping into Eline's room and observing others from afar, the apartment underscored Henry's struggle to connect with the world. This isolation was so profound that when he went missing, only his neighbor and the custodian noticed his absence. The room had become his entire existence long before he ever set foot in it. Overall, the game effectively conveyed the gradual corruption of your safe space and the representation of Henry's withdrawn personality through the apartment. These elements added depth to the narrative and heightened the psychological impact of the gameplay experience.
Nah, ultimately it's about agoraphobia. It's the ultimate nightmare of an agoraphobic to have your only safe space invaded or lose it entirely and we see it happen to Henry. That's the only reason he actually fights back, it's either that or certain death, despite the supernatural elements and a serial killer on his back.
I just bought an original copy of the Xbox version of this game and beat it a few months back! While I was extremely happy to finally play a silent hill game I had never played, I was constantly aggravated and disappointed at various intervals throughout my experience with silent Hill 4.. In spite of its shortcomings though, I really did enjoy the game also and we’re so thankful that I finally got to play and beat one of the harder entries in the series and one of the last entries that still felt like a silent hill game?! Maybe it did not feel like a silent hill game in every respect, but it damn sure felt like more of a silent hill game than anything that came after it- Great video!
I think SH4 is my favourite, i was so sucked into the atmosphere back in (2005?). But it definitely suffers from the same thing that Dark Souls 1 does, it kind of falls apart in the second half of the game. The premise of 'the room' and the mechanics of it totally gripped me
I've only played SH2, SH3, SH4 and Homecoming... all available on PC. SH4 is also my favorite of these, and is very unique in a sense that has you playing some random NPC who somehow foils main character's ultimate goal and even saves the girl.
@@mr.sinjin-smyth how can you play as a npc, that doesn't make any sense haha. Also you could argue that Harry from the first game is a 'random npc' by the same logic, he only gets involved because him and his wife found cheryl randomly when she was a baby. Analogous to how Henry randomly started living in room 302. Also remember Henry is important in some sense because it is number 21 of the 21 sacraments.
@@Windraesa SH4 is Walter's story, with Henry just being the final of his victims to achieve his ultimate goal for resurrection. No much else is known of Henry save for being an aspiring photographer. He's also about as normal as they come having no tragic back story. He's only involved because of staying in the the room were Walter was born. I know Harry maybe very much the same, but I've never played SH1, so I can't have any valid opinions on that one.
My first Silent Hill was The Room. I was still a kid back then, and I already was fond of horror movies and games, with Resident Evil being my favourite franchise. I remember finding The Room in a bin at our local version of GameStop, and that cover of the chained up door immediately caught my attention. I was familiar with the name Silent Hill but I never really saw much of it. Bought the game, read the box and manual on the way home(oh the nostalgia...)and booted up the game. I never felt so shocked and this sense of dread and unease by an intro cutscene! The hellish and otherworldly sounds and music combined with the very haunted-like footage was, and still is, one of a kind. Noticing the strange feedback sounds on the main menu as I started a new game. And then it happened, actual gameplay. Surprised and scared that it was in first person. I looked around in that bedroom, hearing that awful and eerie quietness, it still sticks with me so well. Really enjoyed the game from the start, I was doing pretty good too. But everything changed when the Double-Heads came...I literally closed the game when I saw that. It took me years before I dared to continue! Silent Hill: The Room may not be the best of the franchise, but it sure as hell is the scariest and disturbing of them all in my opinion.
I think that sh4 was supposed to be more surreal and dreamlike. the previous games were also very surreal and dream like but I feel like sh4 was more focused on this concept a little more
I hope your hand gets better. You sound more light hearted in this video, I enjoyed it and I think you offer a balanced judgement. All the best, Max! Waiting for the next video.
I recall having Silent Hill 2 as my favorite SH game and after that it was SH4. When I played 4 I just finished high school and I didnt have a plan for my future, nothing in particular interested me but my hobby of playing games. I'd lost my friends as they all went to college and became part of different social circles. I been working a retail job for about a year and began to live a routine life. When SH4 came out I bought it and found it weirdly cathartic. I related to Henry, A man without purpose, a man without social ties, a man who did not exist. It was odd and griping from the start, how did nobody noticed Henry was missing, why was Henry so awkward during his interactions with other characters. The isolation was real, the first person perspective really sold it well, and in fact it reflected my state of mind. The same walls, the same sounds, and the same emotion of emptiness. It felt like an allegory for facing life, as being in that room was safety but empty, yet facing the dangers of the outside world meant risk and possible death, but a meaningful life in that vein. As someone mentioned in this thread, Walter reflected the possibility a similar man as Henry responding to the world with anger and violence. Viewing this game today and finding parallels with how most of these souls survive and find purpose in living vs, those rare but destructive individuals who mass murder like those shooters.
The first Silent Hill game I played was this one. Don't ask me why, I don't remember. At the time, I was the loneliest I've ever been, stuck by myself in a one room apartment and I had no human connection for months. As empty and uninteresting as Henry was, seeing that god awful apartment resonated with me immensely.
I always took Henry as an Observer type of person. He is a photographer and comments on the pictures he took around his apartment, and its known for watching things quietly waiting for the right moment. He is always looking somewhere too like out the window or at his neighbors or out the peephole. I still find him bland but i think its intentional for a character like him to be able to figure out whats wrong with Walter. I love the game but when the later half becomes a long ass escort mission i do begin to enjoy the game less. Still I'd argue this game has the most uncomfortable body horror of the whole series with its monster design and story themes.
I absolutely love this game with all my heart, it’s definitely the best silent hill in my opinion, but that’s just me, it’s also the best looking game in the series, only thing beating it is silent hill 3’s facial expressions. That aside, this game is so creative and original, the story and setting, Walter, the apartment and its atmosphere. This game hit me way too hard, I remember at one point having trouble sleeping because of it, this game was and still is, absolutely and utterly insane. Descending the staircase (basically descending walter’s conscious) was my favorite part, each time you leave a world and descend even lower, you keep feeling chilly and uneasy, observing every important aspect of Walter’s short and harsh life. This will forever remain my all time favorite horror game.
Ya know, the thing about the locations in Silent Hill 4 is that they lack the presence of the Otherworld. There are a couple I really like, (The Water Prison, of course) but a huge part of what made the first three games "dungeons" feel so terrifying and memorable was that shift. That doesn't really happen here. It seems like a fairly substantial waste, especially considering the player visits these locations twice. I think it would have gone a long way in the game's favor if the return to these areas suddenly had them shifted into the Otherworld. I mean noticeably, with the blood and rust like in the first three games. The devs actually kinda did this with the apartment section when Henry finally unlocks his front door. The apartments undergo a definite change since your last visit. I would have liked to have seen this with the others as well. That being said, I still really enjoy The Room and I believe it is overall the creepiest game in the Silent Hill series.
You might find a game called Demonologist interesting. It takes the foundation of Phasmophobia and adds in horror akin to what I saw in Silent Hill*. It actually has a Silent Hill 4 reference at the Hospital level. It's still in early access but they are adding in new levels, new features, new secrets, and interesting world-building. It is also relatively short compared to most horror games due to the Phasmophobia-style gameplay loop. The Walter villain sounds genuinely terrifying. I really wish they hadn't nerfed Nemesis in the Resident Evil 3 remake as he was Mr. X on steroids in the original. You have to get out of there and fast because he will utterly destroy you if you don't know how to deal with him. They find new ways to make him more terrifying as the game goes on. You almost never feel safe in that game. If you haven't played the original Resident Evil 3 I highly recommend it as it is much, much more terrifying than the new one. They were also much better with their symbolism and naming conventions back then. I hate when such well-thought-out series are dumbed down when they are remade. *They do a great job of making you question your sanity or at least that of your character. Like most horror it is something you have to experience yourself to get the full effect and hearing someone give a detailed description of will detract from it.
9:56 yes yes i know, subjective experiences but it's funny, Because for me the forest was the SECOND SCARIEST place on the game, open forest likes that gives me instant creeps. Even in RE4 where the game isn't as scary, the early forest area made me fear every step
Silent Hill 4 basically does a more approachable version of what Pathologic did: communicating its main characters' misery through the player's mechanics. It's not fun, but that's very much by design.
First time I played silent hill 4 was on a demo disc from psn magazine in 04.. now that I remember it had a mgs3 demo as well. Crazy how a demo disc back then gave me more enjoyment than todays video games
Honestly the Room felt like it was more about the Walter than Henry. Or at the very least it’s about Henry learning about Walter and stopping him at the very end of his journey.
silent hill 4 and dark souls 2 are my favorites mainly for being the first ones i finished by my self when i was a teen, that's why they are special for me.
We had an idea of Silent Hill spilling outside the town itself from the comics that started earlier the same year Silent Hill 4 was released. It made the changes in the game more palatable. The issue is that the comics weren't well marketed, and most didn't read them. It's a shame, really.
This is how you express an opinion on a divisive topic. Not putting anyone down, Max gave an honest, calm, and fair assessnent. I wish fandoms in general knew how to do the same. We would have some great conversations, meaningful conversations without resulting to petty arguments. Great work! The laugh at the end was so wholesome!
I don't know if someone already recomended to you, but "fear and hunger" both the original and the sequel "fear and hunger termina" seen to have pretty interesting cocepts and alchemical ideas. Specially ideas of the difference between old gods, modern gods and the human psych when confronted with the chance to divinity as well the titular name "fear and hunger". You just need to get past the extremely grimdark gameplay and visuals with nudity and gore, and regarding the 1st game for some reason rape, but at least the 2nd game has less rape.
I think Silent Hill 4 benefits from the 2D personalities we see, and the spaces that are open but untrustworthy. The 2D personalities we see are people thrust into an Otherworld which can be both somewhat docile and familiar, a mostly ordinary orphanage that you just want to spend some time in to see some tourism, a guy who woke up trapped, etc., and you see all of them in a 100% unpredictable situation. They are all in something resembling survival mode post-Jasper. The denial and view that it isn’t 100% a threat is gone. Eileen has literally “died” and is still in shock, and Henry is just unsure of what to expect anymore. Nothing surprises him, but he still wants to save others, despite being attacked by literally everything that moves. He is in survival mode and has been for days at this point. Frank is perhaps the most unique, as we just see him for seconds at a time. We see a lot of personality in the characters for all the time we see them, more than we see for Lisa, or for original Alessa, and more for Maria or Ernest, all characters that are almost universally loved.
Can I just say, thanks Max for leading such a mature debate here. Silent Hill fans can be so combatant over the smallest things, just look at the comment section on Avalanche's review of this game, so I really respect that you took this video as an opportunity to encourage healthy discussions about the franchise going forth.
SH4 is the only game that has given me nightmares from when I played it all the way to my adulthood. I have dreams where Walter is chasing me and I can't kill him. The dreaded feeling that once I finish this level, my apartment will not be safe anymore.
2 biggest reasons why SH4 wasn't scary for me: 1.) Spam-able charging attacks with invincibility frames. I remember once I got the one handed axe, combat just stopped feeling scary for this very reason. 2.) Having Eileen as a companion. Granted, it wasn't the first time the franchise did this as Maria accompanies James for a small portion of SH2. But in SH2, Maria doesn't spend a whole lot of time with James while exploring the more scarier areas of SH and she definitely doesn't fight. By comparison I remember Eileen accompanying Henry for a lot longer during these moments and joining in on the action when equipped with a weapon. So just like going to some place scary in real life would presumably be less daunting with a friend or ally by your side, having Eileen by Henry's side for a fair portion of the game as some means of back up definitely made a good chunk of the game and atmosphere feel significantly less scary for me. Honestly, if it wasn't for these 2 things, I imagine I'd look back far more fondly on the game being more on par with 1, 2, & 3.
I still remember the first time playing this game and the ghost freaked me out. No SH game before SH4 made me put the controller down because a ghost. It didn't help that I was watching a lot of JHorror at the time, with probably cause fueling my reaction to the game. But one's I got over that, I still really enjoyed the game. I really feel that this game is really Walter's story, (especially when I realized this was the Walter from the newspaper/elevator game in SH2) but knowing the horrific deeds he did, it's kind hard to show it directly through his eyes, so we get it told through the other characters. And that what kept me coming back to the game, Walter. His story, the new lore scattered in the game. As always the music was fantastic. I believe it's my most listened SH OST next to the one from SH2. But that's indeed a masterpiece and it be hard to get over the bar that score set. Gameplay was fine and interesting, as where the creatures but far less memorable than those of earlier games. (Beside some ghost and the Doublehead.)
Just wanted to quickly drop by to say thanks for your measured takes on video games, as you like no other I have ever seen help validate my view of video games as an actual artform, and a unique one at that, as first of all, it combines the more traditional forms of art, but also has the qualities no other kind of art can boast, one of them being interactivity of course, which really helps with immersing oneself into the worlds designers and devs created; and while postmodern art was (probably?) the first art metagenre that popularized the involvement of a consumer into the instance of art, it just cannot compete with games in viewer participation and involvement. Also wanted to rejoice in my adoration of Japanese neoclassical music. I myself is more of a Yuka Kitamura kind of person (the initial chords and singing of the Dark Souls 3 main menu theme help selling the world immensely, but also work amazingly as a standalone opus that I unoronically enjoy listening to on occasions; previous installments still do have absolutely stunning highlights though too, and the relaxed subtlety of Majula theme from DS2 is one of the reasons I did enjoy my time playing that game, though I still prefer DS1 & 3 for gameplay mechanics and the feel they give).
I never liked this SH 4 when it originally came out on PS2. Although I still have my copy to this day, I have gone back and played it a few times and have appreciated it over the years. It was definitely not for everyone considering how far it steered away from SH 1,2, &3. Kinda reminds me of how Halloween movies 1 & 2 were directed, and then they tried Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. Although I never found SH 4 to be scary, it did play on my feelings of anxiety and claustrophobia.
My first silent hill game was thr 4th. I recall looking at the case in games stop a lot when i was younger and how mysterious the gane was. I got it when i was around 9th grade. I will speed run it and take about an hour to finish it every time i came from school. Good times. I would like to emulate it too
![[[OFFICIAL MV]] เอิ้นขวัญให้อ้าย- อ๊ะอาย สกุณาพร | ค่ายเพลงเป็นหนึ่ง](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/83x6L3X3qh0/mqdefault.jpg)
Henry as a bland character is the perfect representation of a "hikikomori" theme. A complete self isolation where your life is as empty as you can get. You literally got nothing special going on in your life & there is nothing more scary then loneliness to many people, especially in this modern era. Re-playing SH4 while I was in COVID Quarantine time is such special kind meta. I also think this is why we have an emergence of good appreciation to SH4 in the first place. Depression from loneliness has become a major epidemic in big cities, despite on the contrary that in theory there are more people in cities than in a town or villages.
Controversially, I would argue that SH4 was ahead of its time.
Henry is unique in a sense that he's like some random NPC who somehow foils the main character's ultimate goal and even saves the girl.
Not to mention the obvious connecting factor to Walter... both Henry and Walter are anti-social, even their speech is awkward in comparison to... literally every other character in the game. It's interesting that it's Henry, someone as anti-social, and definitely not as messed up and psychotic, that gets to foil Walter's plans.
I'd like to think prior residents were just like Henry as well
I noticed the inspiration from hikikomori too. I was half-ready to see that come up in the game but it never did.
yeah i think that's definitely the theme with sh4, even more so when you notice all the mother and fetus symbolisms that can be linked to that wish to stay in one's comfort zone. even towards the end before the final boss fight we see henry in a fetal position with a red filter on. i think saying sh4 is lacking in symbolisms is complete bs
SH4 in general is just too japanese for people in the west to "get" compared to previous entries mostly inspired by western fiction writers, psychoanalysis and alchemy.
SH4 is the scariest to me. A lot of the levels have this surrealist feeling to them. The Water Prison, a panopticon isolated in the middle of the sea where there is only pain and despair. A world where buildings have meshed into each other to form a nearly incomprehensible brutalist nightmare. It's a shame the later half is just so infuriating to actually play
I think it has the greatest otherworld level designs alongside 3. I wish the textures were uncompressed with patches to play in 4k like 3 was. Just imagine these designs with better gameplay and higher poly counts, or rebuilt in a new engine like iD tech 7 or other good ones.
SH4 was the least scary of the japanese games, but I still enjoyed it.
@weylandpunanigaming I really didn’t find it all that scary either, however the latter half of the game is very infuriating due to the girl that you have to babysit for the entire second half of the game and she will constantly fall back and get left behind where you will have to keep returning to where she stopped at to regroup with her just to continue on, all while having enemies to contend with and trying to not be killed?!?!?
After about 2 1/2 hours straight of dealing with Eileen’s bullshit, I was literally trying to kill her with the hatchet myself-
Other than that, it is still a very awesome game and one of my favorite silent Hills!
@weylandpunanigaming Folk like you remind me that I ain’t so miserable. Thank you
Henry, I think, is one of the most misunderstood characters in gaming as a whole. Maybe I read into the game way too much, but I feel like the subtext in the game gives Henry a much more well-rounded psyche than most other protagonists when you start diving deep. It's very easy to miss a lot of the smaller details since it comes from examining items throughout the house multiple times over the course of the game. For one, consider Henry's occupation and general attitude. He's a photographer, so he's used to examining the world through a lense, which can be a form of separation from reality. We see this through his almost stunted conversational skills with those he meets, giving context that he might not actually interact with others on a frequent basis. Instead, most of his interactions over the course of the game is him observing from afar, almost living through others vicariously. I think this is because Henry could possibly have a form of agoraphobia and fear of the outside world. I think there's a reason why the entire fear that The Room plays into is a corruption of places thought to be safe, and the only way to escape that hell is to face it head-on (metaphorically facing reality). This also gives us insight into Walter's character, because I believe him and Henry are very similar in many ways. They both want the safety and security of the "womb", and we see the consequences of a person who refuses to let go of that in Walter, and a person who confronts the uncomfortable outside world in Henry. I don't want to ramble on too long, but I just think Silent Hill 4 as a whole is a lot more subtle with its themeing than any of the other games in the series, and I'd love to see it get more appreciation on that front.
I have never actually considered this. Great comment!
Absolutely!
I love this
YEAH YOURE TOTALLY RIGHT !!! i tried to talk about all those things you said on another comment here, maybe youll like to read it, or not it doesnt really matter but, it made me very happy to see someone else pointing out how great the symbolism and lore of SH4 is , and how good of a character henry is once you... begun to think of him as a human being and not just a "bland character" because youre biased by other people reacting harsh to the game simply cuz they rushed it asf and did not even checked any item on his appartment or at least enjoyed the game, because they were too busy on finding things to compare with other SH games lol.... which im sure its the main reason SH4 was not suposed to be a SH from the very beggining, so people dont distract themselves, but anyway... KONAMI sucks xD, but still and hopefully, the game its a gem for a few of us who see it as a standalone work of art and not just... huh... a marathon in order to spot the most differences with other silent hill entries : P
though , i dont agree that very much on the fact that SH4 express everything about henry through subtext alone, because i honestly think that every major designing choice over mechanics its heavily based around what the game its trying to convey to us about henry's psychological state. even the whole "losing your only safe place" and the look-around-your-house sections, and the escorting missions and the different scenarios and camera angles, idk, almost EVERYTHING thats different to other SH's to me, seems like a conscious artistic choice to better serve henry character study : ), but still... it has a lot of subtext and subtlety too... and thats what i found the most fascinating of SH4 over any other SH, that it trascended the fact of copypasting a pre-existent game genre, but instead it employed the genre to its fullest extent in order to express whatever the devs wanted to express about an specific health issue, and idk, to me thats as far as games can go in order to be pure art... employing techniques to express feelings and not the other way around (something SH2 excelss as well anyway : ) but i think SH4 has an even deeper use of that concept)
I think Henry has alot of unfulfilled potential, he is very bland but with how desolate his apartment is (Very little personal stuff, seems to only eat take out food) it feels like he's just kind of lost and maybe even depressed. If they focused on this idea of a broken person locked in his apartment only escaping by exploring someone else's nightmares could have alot of thematic potential. There's also parallels between Walter and Henry in terms of their isolation from the world, which if expanded upon could make Walter Henry's pyramid head.
That would take away from the point of SH 4. It's not Henry's story. It's Walter's.
I think he is perfect as he is. Henry is just a random person involved in something much bigger than him, it's a nice contrast to Harry, James and Heather, and considering the team in charge of SH4 wanted to change things up, Henry is a really nice change of pace. It tells you that anyone can be brought into Silent Hill shenanigans, you don't need some past trauma, you don't need someone to save, you don't need a valid connection to the cult or the town itself, and Henry is living proof of that.
Not to mention Henry fits perfectly to Sh4's true main character... Walter. This is his game, it's his story, his childhood, his adulthood, his trauma, his connection to the cult, his everything. Silent Hill lives through Walter and Henry is just the person that will end up walking in Walter's own twisted world. Maybe Walter Sullivan's character doesn't work as well if Henry has more personality, or isn't just your common guy.
Considering the vision of SH4, I think Henry being dull is 100% what they wanted to go for and the contrast between him and the previous 3 character is probably enough proof.
@@Suiki1 True but what the OP is suggesting isn't SH4 but something else they believe would be better.
I like the theory that he's a shut-in hermit. It plays into the mechanics of The Room itself and how it starts off helping you, only to hurt you when the escort phase starts. Unfortunately, there's not much to give this idea weight.
Let's hope they improve upon the story in the remake.
I recognize that SH2 is the best game in the series, but SH4 is still my favorite. The various themes and events in SH4 connected with me on a deeper level. Just one example of several was the idea of the room being invaded by dark or destructive forces. When I was a small child I remember moving a small dresser in my room and discovering an ugly hole in the wall that the dresser was hiding. I also remember crying when I found it because I got the idea that it was a bad thing that was disturbing the sanctity and security of my bedroom to the point where my young mind was afraid of it and even thought monsters might be able to enter through it. Finding the carved out section of the wall behind Henry's cabinet that showed Eileen's bedroom reminded me of this childhood fear. When monsters literally started entering into Henry's apartment in the later half of the game, it was like this childhood fear was accurately manifested within the game.
Silent Hill 3 is my Favorite over SH2, Silent Hill 4 will always have a special place in my heart because it was my first silent hill game I seen back in the day
Another thing I love about SH4 that I dont hear people talk about enough is the attention to detail on the other tenants. When you watch them through the windows and go to their rooms. They all have unique distinctions from one another and one of the tenants is an artist who has drawn just about everyone. Adds to the lore of the apartment building and references to silent hill 2.
Walter is one of the coolest villains ever! Also I love the concept of Silent Hill spreading further and further. I cant choose between 2 and 4 but they are both masterpieces
He's a unique villain with very tragic back story, but at the same time deserves to get punished for what he's become and done. Not many games or movies are able to do such.
Sh2 is the masterpiece it's perfect horror.
But it only spread because of Walter and now that he’s dead and the cult is pretty much done for after 3, Silent Hill should be peaceful again. We don’t need another SH 2 style story, unless it involves another cult corrupting the town’s spiritual power again.
The only reason why the events of Silent Hill 2 happened in the first place is because it occurred in between Silent Hill 1 and 3, when Heather and Harry were in hiding and the remnants of the cult were still operating in Silent Hill.
Hence why, every other game that happens after 4 doesn’t fit the story that Team Silent established.
All of them including Homecoming and Downpour should have occurred when the cult was still active.
I can imagine that playing Silent Hill 4 during covid quarantine time probably hit different for some people. While I think Henry could've had a bit more going on, I like how calm he is and doesn't let his feelings show all too often due to his introverted nature. It almost seemed like he struggled to connect to people until he had to help Eileen.
Henry has a lot of untapped potential. *HOWEVER* he's fascinating to view through a neurodivergent perspective. He's awkward, quiet, introverted, and hints to have quite bit of family drama, but it's never really explored. A big problem is that SH4 is Walter's story; Henry ends up being an observer of it.
You mean a completely bland protagonist with zero personality
But he was supposed to be the observer. He was the 'reciever of wisdom' if I remember correctly. He must witness everything and then give his life for Walter's rituel to work.
You're trying way too hard man. No wonder you're lonely.
Where were the hints of family drama?
THIS.
I find Silent Hill 4 to have my favorite premise of them all. I used to be a massive shut in myself around 10 years ago (to the point where the thought of going out for even the basic things filled me with dread) so being stuck in a room you feel the most comfortable and safe in only to be trapped... yeah. In an odd way, I still felt comfy being in Henry's room in the first half of the game - before shit hits the fan - just looking around, looking out the window to see the outside world, turning on the radio and checking out everything. Maybe that was on purpose?
Of Henry, I think he's a huge shut in himself which makes it even more ironic that he no longer can leave his room. Might explain why he's the way he is because even before the events of the game, the man was probably anti social as hell and now that he's meeting people for the first time in a long time, he has no idea how to act. If you examine his room he will point out he apparently didn't have much of a happy childhood or any real connection with anyone. Kinda like Walter. So maybe they were going for a Ying and Yang thing. Both anti-socials with bad pasts but one fights to save others while the other one kills.
I wish I can play this game again.
That giant Eileen head still freaks me out to this day
Seriously the most disturbing imagery I've seen in a game
What
.... The intro in Sh4 is basically the most disturbing imagery out there
@@user-slav153 No
@@navyhusky2020 yes
I think this one has the most potencial for a proper remake amoungs all other silent hill games. A proper remake can make silent hill the benchmark of horror
I recently watched another video about SH4 and said the same thing there: I personally find this entry to be one of the scariest in the series. Taking places that are generally considered a "safe space", (like a home) and making them not safe is terrifying on another level. The degradation of the apartment as the game goes on, with it becoming increasingly dangerous, creates this feeling of dread that builds as you play. The ghosts were kind of random but the general feel was still very much on brand for SH. My cousin and I rented this back when it first came out and stayed up all night playing it, and it gave me nightmares off and on for years. I visited a house once years ago that was being worked on and it had a hole in a wall, and I legitimately got freaked out without even realizing it was because of the damn hole in the wall from this game. 😅
I love this game so much because it gives me this feeling of 'dissociation' when playing it. Everything about the vibes, graphics, wonky controls, weird stock sounds, weird animations, unkillable ghosts that just kinda fly around, cool otherworldly locations, akward dialogue between characters - just everything together gives me this special dissociation-type vibe that I don't think I experienced in any other game. It really feels like playing someones dream, especially because of in-game locations. It is not the same as the other entries of course, but I don't believe that it is worse because of it. It's just so weird in a special way, I love it.
Also I really like the plot twist and what The Room really is. Very unique (and tragic) stuff.
the thing about the characters is 100% true. this is Walters story, in the same way 2 is James's etc. it's just the one game we don't actually play as the protagonist
SH4 is unique in a sense that you play some random NPC who somehow foils the main character's ultimate goal and even saves the girl.
@@mr.sinjin-smyth there's something beautiful and probably unintentional in the message "even if you feel like the most useless, boring, unimportant bumblefuck that ever lived, if you find yourself in the time and place to do the right thing, you can still make all the difference in the world"
@@TheCreepyLantern"the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world"
-GMan
Thanks Max for covering this game! I loved all of the 1st four Silent Hill titles, but The Room sits with me the longest still because of how freaky, surreal, and interesting it was! The levels were like fever dreams, and the neighbors of Henry were just as disturbed as himself! I really liked Walter's story and especially the music, even caring for Eileen while frustrating made me want to protect her from the monsters. It was a wild ride even playing it 3 different times to get different endings :)
I would honestly love a remake of SH4 , polishing the rough edges ( especially the combat ) and the voice acting especially if they can add a good voice actor for Henry. This game was a love of mine and just something that just was so different yet so familiar to silent Hill I loved it.
the entire game feels like just barely escaped alpha. it was definetly very rushed and the ideas poorly executed due to this. howrever the design in mind and theory of the game its masterful
I really enjoyed the story in this one. It has a fun idea for a feature film. Plus, it was cool to see the Core from Event Horizon
Max is so dedicated to the channel that he broke his arm just to better channel Eileen's energy.
Man, the comments for this video are priceless. This is another banger. Thank you.
I played all the big SH games with my friends and SH4 had one of our fav moments. The room from the thumbnail... we knew that it was coming, we had read articles about it before. But we didn't know how effing well they had done it. My friends and I all stared at the lower part of the screen, looked up slowly and then started screaming at the same time. It was the only time over the whole series that we let out an actual, loud scream. That scene was so darn brilliantly made!
That damn room haunted my brain at night for a long time... Glad to know I wasn't the only person genuinely freaked out!
It was those two headed baby things that got me. When you're in a room and you know they're right outside. I would take a few deep breaths, let out an insane warcry and just go for it.
I don’t really play survival horror, but I really enjoyed silent hill 4. I discovered it during the COVID lockdowns and kind of got attached to it due to the parallels between Henry being locked in his flat and me kind of being stuck in the house. I remember being so bored and fed up that I thought “yeah, if a hole appeared in the house and it was going to take me to a subway/forest/whatever that was filled monsters I’d probably still head down it just to break the monotony”
I think this is a very well-researched and thought provoking video essay on SH4, but personally I think the main problem with this game is not its "lack" of creepy locations, or the lack consistency between closed and open spaces as you mentioned, as much as the original 3; on the contrary, I think SH4 is perhaps the most depressing and downright terrifying of the classic SH games, given that there literally no silver lining or any shred of of hope in any of the storylines nor the characters. In SH 1 to 3, as you perfectly explained, you have protagonists who are basically going through this nightmarish experience, hoping to reconnect with their loved ones (Harry with his daughter, Heather with Harry and James with Mary). In other words, there's a heart in the story. Hence, the horror is balanced by the hopeful aspect. However in 4, Henry is basically a victim of Walter's plan, and he spends most of the game clueless about the situation, reading the last tenant's diary and experiencing Walter's life step by step. That alone, imo. adds to the hopelessness of the situation. And the individual who is longing to connect with someone, happens to be Walter, looking for his "mother", but of course he happens to be a psychopathic serial killer whom you won't root for. All in all, SH4 is very grim in atmosphere imo.
The problem, however, I think lies in the structure of the game and how it connects to the plot. That is, in the 2nd half of the game you'll basically have to retread all previous stages, with the added burden of a companion that you have to take care of, and Walter after you (basically, the Pyramid Head hospital encounter in SH2, but repeated again and again). In this sense, it reminds me of the 2nd portion of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, where you have go through stages where you have been, with an added difficulty of your life running out.
Not to mention that your only safe place in the game (i.e. The Room) is constantly getting haunted by ghosts that damage you. All this makes the 2nd portion of the game very exhausting and frustrating. And of course there are other annoying gameplay features, such as the un-killable ghosts throughout the game, your inventory and the chest, etc. .
And as far as the story aspect, I agree with you, Henry might not be a very compelling protagonist and someone whom you root for or sympathize with such as James or Heather. In short, I agree with you about Henry being an unfeeling empty protagonist, however that reason alone is what makes me terrified of this game, and at the same time makes me not love it as much as the original 3.
Sorry about my long rant. I really enjoy your channel. Great work and cheers from Iran.
The room is a strange disjointed beast that took risks with a beloved formula, and that's why I love it. Thank you for finally covering it Max!
This game have a special spot in my heart. I like it's story and atmosphere and I also tried to look for realism in graphics during PS2 days especially in character rendering. Silent hill 4 ended my search for it because it have the most realistic and beautiful human characters on the PlayStation 2.
That's Final Fantasy 12 to me, still looks stunning all these years later.
Final Fantasy 8 for me.
I played SH4 for the first time when the COVID lockdown began and it was one of the greatest experiences I had in my life.
I think 4 is way more cohesive and scarier than what came before, staying behind only of 2. For a game that does not have the SH town as location, they do a very good job of being connected to that world and building up on lore stablished before.
Ya and at least it didn't try to retcon the original lore by adding what the live action movies did(adding the iconic monsters just coz, and it didn't match the lore of that story).... Such a sin.
@weylandpunanigaming i see no point made to counter my argument.
@weylandpunanigaming i see nothing to reply to as no point was made to prove my comment wrong.
Walter Sullivan sure has taken a most stuff ritgh out of Frank Reynolds playbook, hangin out in delapidated environments, living in a s%//& appartment with a younger lost guy, and he also has his " and I started blasting" mantra.
There probably is a rum ham somewhere in there as well!
I did like Shattered Memories too, it is judging you and it has those creepy environments that are eerie, the monster parts(chase sequences) aren't that great but as an experience I found it pretty cool.
This video came at the most opportune time for me! I'm in the process of writing a short film which will be filmed next month and it takes a lot of inspiration from the concepts and ideas of Silent Hill 4. Thanks Max!
Ok so I have to start by saying Thank you Max, since I discovered your channel One spark of my life reignited and it was regarding about psychology in relation with alchemy and many other concepts, I have to say that I´m writing this comment before watching the video because all of this has led me from one big hole in my life where I was considering inflicting myself a quick game over , to this point in my life where I´ve realized what I want to be and Im happy with that and also helping other people, please by any means dont think I´m idolizing you, I´m just showing my respect and being grateful to you and all the stuff that has helped me to get here and also the reason I´m writing this comment is because I just said that I was going to look for a video that is just 20 mins long and by chance I just posted a Pick in my Ig story related to Sh4 which is one of my favorite games and seeing this video posted made me say that is just to good to be a coincidence and I had to comment that (and also be grateful).
I don't think Silent Hill's influence can just happen anywhere. It happened to Heather cause she had a the god fetus in her and Claudia was hunting her and Harry down. It happens in Ashfield because Walter is doing the sacrament. Hell even in Homecoming it was because the town dynasties were a splinter group of the cult.
It's interesting to think that in games 3 and 4 the influence of Silent Hill spreads outside of town for very specific reasons.
And now with the next new Silent Hill F set in Japan I wonder what will be the explanation for the influence of Silent Hill to reach the other side of the world lol
@@gredhudson5576the games God has breaken out of the games into real life and now is haunting Japan
I genuinely think SH4 deserves a remake. If nothing else, I think this would be an opportunity to learn from the original game's mistakes and improve it.
For me, the main issue with SH4 stands with 2 gameplay choices: the escort part and the frustration tied to the undying enemies. I really enjoyed the story, locations and overall artistic direction. Even the first person perspective while exploring the room.
As soon as I read that title, I immediately thought about Silent Hill 4!
I think the direction and design in SH4 was brillant
-The apartment feels incredibly sad and bland, just making you feel you don't want to be there
-Henry is bland, but bland characters are great for the Silent Hill style, don't forget that pretty much anyone who connects with the town or it's powers, is broken in some way
-I ESPECIALLY love the camera work, whenever you're in a 3D world the camera movement feels wrong, not as a camera following you, but like somebody's watching you, in some corners the camera literally moves as if the camera were somebody's eyes while they're hanging upside down, just creepy
Still, some points were negative and i think it changes the experience by a lot, the lifebar along with the charged attack mechanic makes it feel way more battle focused instead of surviving, and while the locations are pretty well made, it feels wrong to simply appear in these places, in SH2 you get to some really weird places that shouldn't exist, but you do so by going there in a seamless and disturbing way, like loooong stairs, feeling like you're going to hell, but you don't get teleported, so it feels like nothing is connected even if the plot is
I think it's not a bad game, it's pretty good, but it's not in the holy trinity category, just below those 3 and above every other game
All the prayers for Max. Hope your arm recovers well. Your SH videos are just brilliant!
Silent Hill 1 is still my nightmare experience and for me the best part…the team put a lot in it…
Silent Hill 2 is my favourite, for story, atmosphere and of course music, but I think SH4's locked room concept was really cool. That door is iconic. The bland protagonist was a let down and it did falter along the way, but I still regard it as a worthy addition.
Silent Hill 4 is good and I'm tired of pretending it's not
At risk of sounding like I am gatekeeping horror, or even more gatekeeping mental disorders: you will never understand Silent Hill 4 unless you are an introverted with severe depression.
You see Henry as a bland guy. I see someone that shelves himself in his apartment, with boxes in his closet and few clothes. Someone that has trouble starting conversations and reacts nerviosly when someone approaches him. The way he reacts with Cynthia when she offers herself to him, the way Richard looks and dismisses him, how he looks down and away from Eileen when she becomes trapped with him and wants to seek him.
You see a guy that is bland and has no character.
I see myself.
As you explore the rest of the world you learn much more about not just Walter Sullivan, but also about Eileen and her relationship with Walter, how all of the victims end up being related to him. It is not a game that tells you everything like Silent Hill 2, it is a game that you have to play and pay attention and actually read the stuff that you see around the world.
While I can understand why people don't like the world and repeating the levels, it is more akin to a Metroidvania than any other Silent Hill.
TL;DR: you wouldn't get it.
You gotta see Henry as yourself... One you may wake up and all of a sudden you're the one who's going to experience something horrible now
I appreciate how every Otherworld level is a memory of Walter's, but heavily distorted. Like the Water Prison having a torture room where the kitchen cooks would allegedly take the meat from the dead and feed it to the living inmates--it didn't exist in real life and was just a rumor Walter heard other prisoners talking about.
I think the main thing that draws me to this game is that the Otherworld is more horrifying but also dreamier than previous installments. It's like if David Lynch made a movie with the feel of the first Manhunt game.
SH4 was amazing. It still freak me out. I know its different from the previous games but i still think its a Silenthill game.
It was an honor to work with you good sir 🎩 sorry again for getting sick on you
One of the reasons the main protagonist is awkward is due to the direction in development. They were told to keep him with minimum emotion showing since they wanted him to be a shell for the player. The team even admitted it was difficult to create cutscenes with hik for this reason. I feel like that is kne if the reasons the game suffers. If done correctly it would of helped a lot.
Silent Hill 4 was my first introduction to the series, and has a special place in my heart. It was the stepping stone to the originals, and although it can be annoying to play, the story is captivating, and it will always be my favourite
I agree with everything you said. One thing I believe is a highlight for me is when you get to the apartment building world and each apartment tells you a lot about each of the residents and their relationships and how life was in the building. That was a very sweet touch often overlooked. To me, thats the best level of the game
This is one of my favorite games ever, along with Radiata Stories. The PS2 was my favorite era. I am happy playing them over and over. I have recently been playing Pathologic Classic HD and I enjoy it as well. It figures that it too was made in 2005. You might like Pathologic too.
Dark Souls 2, DMC: Devil May Cry and Fallout 4 all had different teams from those who made the prequels everybody loved. To be honest, I don't really think Fallout 4 was all that divisive, as it was pretty much a continuation of Besethda formula they started somewhere in Oblivion or Fallout 3.
Well everyone who has played new vegas and the older fallout games do not appreciate 3 and 4 that much or outright hates them, because they really are not as good as those other games
I agree but the problem with fallout 4 is it's not being compared to fallout 3 it being compared to fallout new Vegas
@@shaneriggs6678 i would argue fallout 3 offers a more interesting narrative and not much else, the old jank that game has is so charming to me, while fallout 4 just has better gunplay. Although that is good the shooting is not the only aspect of the game that is relevant, and fallout 4 is just not that good of an rpg
Yeah, but in that case, I doubt Fallout 4 is much more divisive than Fallout 3 was. It sold much better than Fallout New Vegas.
@@vincentpresscod7531 selling well does not equal quality or fan approval. Many fallout fans probably bought fallout 4 because it was the newest in the franchise, and its big marketing push and Bethesda having tons of fans from Skyrim already made it succeed with the mainstream audience. But the hardcore fallout fanbase doesn't really like fallout 4
The best way to summarize my feelings playing SH4 is analogous to Frodo carrying the One Ring to Mount Doom. It was that mentally taxing on my psyche. This is boosted by the game's take on the traditional zombies in the form of ghosts that just plain creep you out with the way they move, their moans and the psychic damage they inflict on Henry by just being present. It is also how the game presents its cutscenes in a sort of low quality found footage format which really adds to its baggage. SH3 for me was the scariest experience out of the OG 4 games, but SH4 had the most consistent barrage of insanity to the point that finishing the game made you feel like you're, as mentioned, Frodo who just finished throwing the One Ring into the pits of Mount Doom, freeing you from the torment.
Great video on SH4! I like that Henry was such a random blank slate, it made the story scarier to me. It made it feel like this can happen to anyone, to any everyman. He was probably the most relatable SH protagonist to me personally, although as a whole I prefer playing SH2. Probably has to do more with the gameplay mechanics than the story, which I think was superb in SH4 and still chills me to the bones.
I've been a Silent Hill fan from the beginning. I remember when the trailer of SH4 released. My uncle and I watched it on Gamespot's website back in the day and we were so stoked, especially when we saw the Twin Victim walking around. My uncle got it back when it first released in September 2004. During that time, his mother who was also my grandmother was very ill and passed away that November. It was a sad year us and the rest of the family but SH4 made us a little happier from our loss.
I don't think I will ever tire of your phenomenal Silent Hill videos. I find such an odd comfort in traveling through that foggy town with you as a guide.
I really liked the game, it might be my 3rd favourite after the 2 and 3. I feel its one of the most scary of the franchise and I liked the fact that Henry is so blank, it really gave me a feeling of someone being very depressed and lost. I like the character of Eileen too, when I played it, I was in love with a girl that looked like her but it was quite complicated because she was a stranger to me and I was too shy to talk to her. Walter Sullivan is a fantastic character as well, very intriguing...
Hey Max! I personally LOVE Silent Hill 4. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned how claustrophobic it is. It is essentially the wealth of meaning - be it religious or occult-based - that makes it so precious to me. I feel like I could see from the desperate perspective of Walter Sullivan, and just like you've said, it literally hurts that there is nothing left to be done for this man.
That being said, the gameplay does have pacing issues. I dreaded revisiting these nightmare realms again and again. They were more irritating than it was fun playing through them.
But the meaning. I have to say, that's what makes it so beloved to me. Its exploration of psychological trauma is so very apt, that it awoke me to some of my own that I hadn't been taking seriously enough in the past. It's a game that changes you as you play it, for some of us.
For me, it was a game (Room 246) that had the Silent Hill name slapped on it after the fact.
I haven’t played this in awhile-your videos truly make me want to revisit these titles-but one thing that stands out as what I remember most vividly is the slow deterioration throughout the game of his room as a safe haven to rest and recover, into a place so demonically possessed that it causes harm just to be there. It’s extremely well done; truly made me dread having to return to the room after completing an objective, to see what else could’ve gone wrong in there.
Still remember the weird guitar flamenco guitar that played in the menu, and the chills I got every time the subway girl (the one floating around laying on the floor) touch me.
*don’t read this comment if yr avoiding spoilers*
i feel like not enough people talk about this but in henry’s defense, i think he actually has a good amount of emotional depth to him, tho it’s not obvious at all.
he’s very socially awkward and doesn’t seem to deal with people much. a lot of what you can glean from his personality isn’t revealed thru the story but instead thru examining his apartment. he’s a photographer and a lot of the pictures in the apartment were taken by him. photography can be a very isolating activity, yr viewing life thru a lens. yr literally a voyeur in yr own life
taking this into account, it adds a lot of context to certain aspects of the game, such as the first person perspective and the peepholes into his apartment hallway and eileen’s apartment and the water prison. to me it adds to the “blank slate” nature of henry’s character bc he’s basically already living vicariously thru other people. it also adds to what some would call his “bad voice acting” bc of course he would be that quiet, he’s awkward and standoffish
i think henry is a surprisingly complex character, you just have to do some more digging than what’s honestly probably necessary lol
Henry has to have a rich inner world, emotional depth and even a certain amount of mental fortitude to be able to fulfill his role as The Observer. So even Walter understood that about Henry while most players don't. But what I find far more interesting and disturbing is how many people dismiss Henry entirely because it takes a tiny amount of effort to know him and understand him, so suddenly he's bland and has nothing going on for him, not even a personality. And that's kinda also what Walter thought of Henry and it's his downfall. Henry wins over loneliness, Walter loses. And what causes loneliness if not the lack of putting any effort into actually knowing the other person? So the player is likening themselves to the psychotic antisocial villain, which is just genius if you happen to be the type of person to catch that. But that's also how Walter and Henry differ from one another while being extremely effective foils of each other: Henry is capable of forming true emotional intimacy even tho he has trouble expressing it and reaching out. He possesses the muscle but hasn't trained it yet, Walter does not. Henry cares and empathizes and he's trying to get through to the people around him when it actually matters, if he can help someone then he will overcome his fear. He felt closeness with Eileen before the events of the game started and it turned out that it wasn't just some creepy voyeuristic crush, but they actually fit together and Henry was able to sense it. He didn't know her but he also understood her on a much deeper level that usually takes people years to reach in a relationship. That's the foundation of what they have, and they survive together if Henry "puts his house in order" and cares about Eileen's wellbeing enough to make her want to stick around (again, perfect symbolism). But again, if you didn't catch that Henry has a personality, you're not gonna catch that either.
@@Mia199603 very very well put, hit the mail completely on the head there
I appreciate you making this view that is very fair towards Silent Hill 4. I liked it quite a bit but I don't ignore its flaws (people have different ideas of flaws). What I didn't like about SH4 or other Silent Hill games didn't keep me from enjoying it or any other SH I've played. Silent Hill 4 did give me a bit of both unease and familiarity. I actually related a bit to Henry at the time I played SH4, the lack of interest, gloom, quiet and feeling both chaotic and empty like his apartment. I was struggling with depression, anxiety & loneliness then so SH4 felt a bit too familiar in that sense. I do wish we get a bit of insight into Henry's struggles and what's going on with him for the sake of the story. It's a good game despite any shortcomings any player may or may not see. I do see it being scary in how he can't leave his safe place and later malicious things try to get into his apartment, no one outside is aware of what's going on, effectively turning our home - a deeply place that should feel safe - into a place of nightmares. I'm familiar with that feeling.
I haven't played every SH game - to my shame as a SH fan. I've never played Book of Memories, Alchemilla and worst of all I've never played.... Silent Hill 1. I so want to play it but circumstances at various times seem to thwart me. It must be The Order's doing. Please don't shame me, I know it's awful 😭🤧😣
To me, Silent Hill 4 only gained value and relevance with time. This is because it's a symbol of an era where experimentation with game formulas was still possible within the entries of an established franchise. While not all of its elements work flawlessly, there is still something to be learnt from them, and it's a shame the following entries in the series shunned them completely in the name of playing safe. This kind of daring is something that today in the triple A space is almost impossible; the only recent-ish game I can think of that managed to do this while being successful is Yakuza: Like a Dragon with its genre shift - and it still brought infinite arguments within fans.
16:53 "Never forgive me, Never forget me" the theme song of "thinking deeply"
I've always been intrigued by this game. The story, the whole apartment thing and especially Walter Sullivan are things that really appeal to me. I generally love the concept of supernatural serial killers :D
However, what always kept me from actually playing it myself, were a lot of the gameplay decisions.
The game has one big feature that I dislike:
Enemies that you can't kill, and that also can go through walls and damage you when they're near you. Also, escort missions 🤪
I do appreciate the game nonetheless and enjoy watching other people play it 🤓I'm glad it exists.
Silent Hill 4: The Inevitable Dumpster Fire
I agree with most of your criticism. One additional point I'd like to make is regarding the apartment or the room itself, which served as your safe haven throughout the game. It was a place where you could find respite and escape from the evils of Silent Hill. As the game progressed, the insidious influence of the Silent Hill world seeped into your room, invading your sanctuary and leaving you vulnerable. Paradoxically, you became more endangered in the very apartment you had relied on throughout the game than you were in the actual town of Silent Hill. This transformation mirrored the deteriorating state of a person's mind after spending time in Silent Hill, making the room a perfect representation of that psychological decay. Gradually, it became increasingly infected with the malevolence of Silent Hill, revealing that everything you needed to see was right in front of you all along, yet you were unable to perceive it. This erosion of trust extended even to your own senses, which is precisely what resonated with me about this game.
Moreover, the apartment itself symbolized Henry's reserved and awkward nature. It created a sense of distance between him and the people around him. Although he could see them and almost reach out to touch them, he remained emotionally distant, as if a million miles away. By peeping into Eline's room and observing others from afar, the apartment underscored Henry's struggle to connect with the world. This isolation was so profound that when he went missing, only his neighbor and the custodian noticed his absence. The room had become his entire existence long before he ever set foot in it.
Overall, the game effectively conveyed the gradual corruption of your safe space and the representation of Henry's withdrawn personality through the apartment. These elements added depth to the narrative and heightened the psychological impact of the gameplay experience.
Nah, ultimately it's about agoraphobia. It's the ultimate nightmare of an agoraphobic to have your only safe space invaded or lose it entirely and we see it happen to Henry. That's the only reason he actually fights back, it's either that or certain death, despite the supernatural elements and a serial killer on his back.
@@Mia199603 Thats pretty much what I said.
I just bought an original copy of the Xbox version of this game and beat it a few months back!
While I was extremely happy to finally play a silent hill game I had never played, I was constantly aggravated and disappointed at various intervals throughout my experience with silent Hill 4..
In spite of its shortcomings though, I really did enjoy the game also and we’re so thankful that I finally got to play and beat one of the harder entries in the series and one of the last entries that still felt like a silent hill game?! Maybe it did not feel like a silent hill game in every respect, but it damn sure felt like more of a silent hill game than anything that came after it-
Great video!
I think SH4 is my favourite, i was so sucked into the atmosphere back in (2005?). But it definitely suffers from the same thing that Dark Souls 1 does, it kind of falls apart in the second half of the game.
The premise of 'the room' and the mechanics of it totally gripped me
I've only played SH2, SH3, SH4 and Homecoming... all available on PC. SH4 is also my favorite of these, and is very unique in a sense that has you playing some random NPC who somehow foils main character's ultimate goal and even saves the girl.
@@mr.sinjin-smyth how can you play as a npc, that doesn't make any sense haha. Also you could argue that Harry from the first game is a 'random npc' by the same logic, he only gets involved because him and his wife found cheryl randomly when she was a baby. Analogous to how Henry randomly started living in room 302. Also remember Henry is important in some sense because it is number 21 of the 21 sacraments.
@@Windraesa SH4 is Walter's story, with Henry just being the final of his victims to achieve his ultimate goal for resurrection. No much else is known of Henry save for being an aspiring photographer. He's also about as normal as they come having no tragic back story. He's only involved because of staying in the the room were Walter was born. I know Harry maybe very much the same, but I've never played SH1, so I can't have any valid opinions on that one.
@@mr.sinjin-smyth all true but I don't see how any of this refutes my rebuttal.
@@Windraesa Not refuting anything. Just giving my opinion and admiration for SH4's uniqueness.
My first Silent Hill was The Room. I was still a kid back then, and I already was fond of horror movies and games, with Resident Evil being my favourite franchise. I remember finding The Room in a bin at our local version of GameStop, and that cover of the chained up door immediately caught my attention. I was familiar with the name Silent Hill but I never really saw much of it. Bought the game, read the box and manual on the way home(oh the nostalgia...)and booted up the game. I never felt so shocked and this sense of dread and unease by an intro cutscene! The hellish and otherworldly sounds and music combined with the very haunted-like footage was, and still is, one of a kind. Noticing the strange feedback sounds on the main menu as I started a new game. And then it happened, actual gameplay. Surprised and scared that it was in first person. I looked around in that bedroom, hearing that awful and eerie quietness, it still sticks with me so well. Really enjoyed the game from the start, I was doing pretty good too. But everything changed when the Double-Heads came...I literally closed the game when I saw that. It took me years before I dared to continue!
Silent Hill: The Room may not be the best of the franchise, but it sure as hell is the scariest and disturbing of them all in my opinion.
Being locked in an increasingly haunted apartment is such a good horror concept. I just can't stand the gameplay.
SH4 is a great game to watch and understand, the gameplay itself isnt that great unfortunately, I do love the Room interactions
I think that sh4 was supposed to be more surreal and dreamlike. the previous games were also very surreal and dream like but I feel like sh4 was more focused on this concept a little more
I hope your hand gets better. You sound more light hearted in this video, I enjoyed it and I think you offer a balanced judgement. All the best, Max! Waiting for the next video.
I recall having Silent Hill 2 as my favorite SH game and after that it was SH4. When I played 4 I just finished high school and I didnt have a plan for my future, nothing in particular interested me but my hobby of playing games. I'd lost my friends as they all went to college and became part of different social circles. I been working a retail job for about a year and began to live a routine life. When SH4 came out I bought it and found it weirdly cathartic. I related to Henry, A man without purpose, a man without social ties, a man who did not exist. It was odd and griping from the start, how did nobody noticed Henry was missing, why was Henry so awkward during his interactions with other characters. The isolation was real, the first person perspective really sold it well, and in fact it reflected my state of mind. The same walls, the same sounds, and the same emotion of emptiness. It felt like an allegory for facing life, as being in that room was safety but empty, yet facing the dangers of the outside world meant risk and possible death, but a meaningful life in that vein. As someone mentioned in this thread, Walter reflected the possibility a similar man as Henry responding to the world with anger and violence. Viewing this game today and finding parallels with how most of these souls survive and find purpose in living vs, those rare but destructive individuals who mass murder like those shooters.
The first Silent Hill game I played was this one. Don't ask me why, I don't remember. At the time, I was the loneliest I've ever been, stuck by myself in a one room apartment and I had no human connection for months. As empty and uninteresting as Henry was, seeing that god awful apartment resonated with me immensely.
I always took Henry as an Observer type of person. He is a photographer and comments on the pictures he took around his apartment, and its known for watching things quietly waiting for the right moment. He is always looking somewhere too like out the window or at his neighbors or out the peephole. I still find him bland but i think its intentional for a character like him to be able to figure out whats wrong with Walter. I love the game but when the later half becomes a long ass escort mission i do begin to enjoy the game less. Still I'd argue this game has the most uncomfortable body horror of the whole series with its monster design and story themes.
I absolutely love this game with all my heart, it’s definitely the best silent hill in my opinion, but that’s just me, it’s also the best looking game in the series, only thing beating it is silent hill 3’s facial expressions. That aside, this game is so creative and original, the story and setting, Walter, the apartment and its atmosphere. This game hit me way too hard, I remember at one point having trouble sleeping because of it, this game was and still is, absolutely and utterly insane. Descending the staircase (basically descending walter’s conscious) was my favorite part, each time you leave a world and descend even lower, you keep feeling chilly and uneasy, observing every important aspect of Walter’s short and harsh life. This will forever remain my all time favorite horror game.
Ya know, the thing about the locations in Silent Hill 4 is that they lack the presence of the Otherworld. There are a couple I really like, (The Water Prison, of course) but a huge part of what made the first three games "dungeons" feel so terrifying and memorable was that shift. That doesn't really happen here. It seems like a fairly substantial waste, especially considering the player visits these locations twice. I think it would have gone a long way in the game's favor if the return to these areas suddenly had them shifted into the Otherworld. I mean noticeably, with the blood and rust like in the first three games. The devs actually kinda did this with the apartment section when Henry finally unlocks his front door. The apartments undergo a definite change since your last visit. I would have liked to have seen this with the others as well. That being said, I still really enjoy The Room and I believe it is overall the creepiest game in the Silent Hill series.
You might find a game called Demonologist interesting. It takes the foundation of Phasmophobia and adds in horror akin to what I saw in Silent Hill*. It actually has a Silent Hill 4 reference at the Hospital level. It's still in early access but they are adding in new levels, new features, new secrets, and interesting world-building. It is also relatively short compared to most horror games due to the Phasmophobia-style gameplay loop.
The Walter villain sounds genuinely terrifying. I really wish they hadn't nerfed Nemesis in the Resident Evil 3 remake as he was Mr. X on steroids in the original. You have to get out of there and fast because he will utterly destroy you if you don't know how to deal with him. They find new ways to make him more terrifying as the game goes on. You almost never feel safe in that game. If you haven't played the original Resident Evil 3 I highly recommend it as it is much, much more terrifying than the new one. They were also much better with their symbolism and naming conventions back then. I hate when such well-thought-out series are dumbed down when they are remade.
*They do a great job of making you question your sanity or at least that of your character. Like most horror it is something you have to experience yourself to get the full effect and hearing someone give a detailed description of will detract from it.
9:56 yes yes i know, subjective experiences but it's funny, Because for me the forest was the SECOND SCARIEST place on the game, open forest likes that gives me instant creeps. Even in RE4 where the game isn't as scary, the early forest area made me fear every step
Silent Hill 4 basically does a more approachable version of what Pathologic did: communicating its main characters' misery through the player's mechanics. It's not fun, but that's very much by design.
I did like it because i play it in the Playstation 2 and it was my first Silent Hill game.
First time I played silent hill 4 was on a demo disc from psn magazine in 04.. now that I remember it had a mgs3 demo as well. Crazy how a demo disc back then gave me more enjoyment than todays video games
Honestly the Room felt like it was more about the Walter than Henry.
Or at the very least it’s about Henry learning about Walter and stopping him at the very end of his journey.
silent hill 4 and dark souls 2 are my favorites mainly for being the first ones i finished by my self when i was a teen, that's why they are special for me.
Both games deserve so much more love than they get.
We had an idea of Silent Hill spilling outside the town itself from the comics that started earlier the same year Silent Hill 4 was released. It made the changes in the game more palatable. The issue is that the comics weren't well marketed, and most didn't read them.
It's a shame, really.
I loved number 4.
This is how you express an opinion on a divisive topic. Not putting anyone down, Max gave an honest, calm, and fair assessnent. I wish fandoms in general knew how to do the same. We would have some great conversations, meaningful conversations without resulting to petty arguments. Great work! The laugh at the end was so wholesome!
Henry Townsend is the kinda guy who walks up to somebody lying on the ground, lacerated and covered in blood, and asks "are you okay?"
I don't know if someone already recomended to you, but "fear and hunger" both the original and the sequel "fear and hunger termina" seen to have pretty interesting cocepts and alchemical ideas. Specially ideas of the difference between old gods, modern gods and the human psych when confronted with the chance to divinity as well the titular name "fear and hunger".
You just need to get past the extremely grimdark gameplay and visuals with nudity and gore, and regarding the 1st game for some reason rape, but at least the 2nd game has less rape.
I think Silent Hill 4 benefits from the 2D personalities we see, and the spaces that are open but untrustworthy. The 2D personalities we see are people thrust into an Otherworld which can be both somewhat docile and familiar, a mostly ordinary orphanage that you just want to spend some time in to see some tourism, a guy who woke up trapped, etc., and you see all of them in a 100% unpredictable situation. They are all in something resembling survival mode post-Jasper. The denial and view that it isn’t 100% a threat is gone. Eileen has literally “died” and is still in shock, and Henry is just unsure of what to expect anymore. Nothing surprises him, but he still wants to save others, despite being attacked by literally everything that moves. He is in survival mode and has been for days at this point. Frank is perhaps the most unique, as we just see him for seconds at a time. We see a lot of personality in the characters for all the time we see them, more than we see for Lisa, or for original Alessa, and more for Maria or Ernest, all characters that are almost universally loved.
Can I just say, thanks Max for leading such a mature debate here.
Silent Hill fans can be so combatant over the smallest things, just look at the comment section on Avalanche's review of this game, so I really respect that you took this video as an opportunity to encourage healthy discussions about the franchise going forth.
SH4 is the only game that has given me nightmares from when I played it all the way to my adulthood. I have dreams where Walter is chasing me and I can't kill him. The dreaded feeling that once I finish this level, my apartment will not be safe anymore.
Lmao "my favorite villain... next to God." What. Sentence.
The Apartment always a sense of savety more like a fortress then a prison......until the hauntings started
Your stuff never gets old Max,
always interested to hear your perspective.
Everybody gangsta till they come face to face with a supernatural John Wick ready to cap their ass. Stay strapped fellas.
2 biggest reasons why SH4 wasn't scary for me:
1.) Spam-able charging attacks with invincibility frames. I remember once I got the one handed axe, combat just stopped feeling scary for this very reason.
2.) Having Eileen as a companion. Granted, it wasn't the first time the franchise did this as Maria accompanies James for a small portion of SH2. But in SH2, Maria doesn't spend a whole lot of time with James while exploring the more scarier areas of SH and she definitely doesn't fight. By comparison I remember Eileen accompanying Henry for a lot longer during these moments and joining in on the action when equipped with a weapon. So just like going to some place scary in real life would presumably be less daunting with a friend or ally by your side, having Eileen by Henry's side for a fair portion of the game as some means of back up definitely made a good chunk of the game and atmosphere feel significantly less scary for me.
Honestly, if it wasn't for these 2 things, I imagine I'd look back far more fondly on the game being more on par with 1, 2, & 3.
I still remember the first time playing this game and the ghost freaked me out. No SH game before SH4 made me put the controller down because a ghost. It didn't help that I was watching a lot of JHorror at the time, with probably cause fueling my reaction to the game.
But one's I got over that, I still really enjoyed the game. I really feel that this game is really Walter's story, (especially when I realized this was the Walter from the newspaper/elevator game in SH2) but knowing the horrific deeds he did, it's kind hard to show it directly through his eyes, so we get it told through the other characters. And that what kept me coming back to the game, Walter. His story, the new lore scattered in the game.
As always the music was fantastic. I believe it's my most listened SH OST next to the one from SH2. But that's indeed a masterpiece and it be hard to get over the bar that score set.
Gameplay was fine and interesting, as where the creatures but far less memorable than those of earlier games. (Beside some ghost and the Doublehead.)
Just wanted to quickly drop by to say thanks for your measured takes on video games, as you like no other I have ever seen help validate my view of video games as an actual artform, and a unique one at that, as first of all, it combines the more traditional forms of art, but also has the qualities no other kind of art can boast, one of them being interactivity of course, which really helps with immersing oneself into the worlds designers and devs created; and while postmodern art was (probably?) the first art metagenre that popularized the involvement of a consumer into the instance of art, it just cannot compete with games in viewer participation and involvement.
Also wanted to rejoice in my adoration of Japanese neoclassical music. I myself is more of a Yuka Kitamura kind of person (the initial chords and singing of the Dark Souls 3 main menu theme help selling the world immensely, but also work amazingly as a standalone opus that I unoronically enjoy listening to on occasions; previous installments still do have absolutely stunning highlights though too, and the relaxed subtlety of Majula theme from DS2 is one of the reasons I did enjoy my time playing that game, though I still prefer DS1 & 3 for gameplay mechanics and the feel they give).
I never liked this SH 4 when it originally came out on PS2. Although I still have my copy to this day, I have gone back and played it a few times and have appreciated it over the years. It was definitely not for everyone considering how far it steered away from SH 1,2, &3. Kinda reminds me of how Halloween movies 1 & 2 were directed, and then they tried Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. Although I never found SH 4 to be scary, it did play on my feelings of anxiety and claustrophobia.
My first silent hill game was thr 4th. I recall looking at the case in games stop a lot when i was younger and how mysterious the gane was. I got it when i was around 9th grade. I will speed run it and take about an hour to finish it every time i came from school. Good times. I would like to emulate it too