Silent Hill 4: The Room

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Silent Hill 4
Silent Hill 4
Developer(s) Konami
Team Silent
Publisher(s) Konami
Release date(s) JPN June 17, 2004
NA September 7, 2004
EUR September 17, 2004
Genre(s) Survival Horror/Psychological horror
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Mature (M)
BBFC: 18
PEGI: 18+
Platform(s) PlayStation 2
Xbox
PC
Media DVD-ROM
CD-ROM

Silent Hill 4: The Room is the fourth installment in the survival horror series Silent Hill. The game was released in Japan on June 17, 2004, North America on September 7, 2004, and Europe on September 17, 2004. The Room was released onto multiple platforms consisting of the Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and PC. It is the second Silent Hill game to be released with a subtitle, following the expanded version of Silent Hill 2.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Henry Townshend is living in South Ashfield, a town half a day's drive away from Silent Hill. One day he finds himself mysteriously locked in his own apartment. He cannot escape through either the windows or his front door, which has been chained shut from the inside. No one, not even people standing directly outside the door, can hear him when he pounds on the door and cries for help. After five days of entrapment Henry finds a hole that has opened up in his bathroom wall. Armed only with a steel pipe that broke loose when the wall opened, a carton of chocolate milk, and a bottle of wine, he proceeds to venture into the hellish madness of "Silent Hill".


The hole leads Henry to a variety of strange areas, inhabited by dangerous and sometimes immortal creatures. In the first four worlds, he witnesses the murders of four people who are stuck in corresponding realms like him. The murders then happen in the real world, too. As Henry ventures further, he learns more and more about a serial killer Walter Sullivan that terrorized Ashfield several years ago and left certain numbers carved on his victims. Walter was arrested and committed suicide. However, new victims bear similar numbers, and different events suggest that Sullivan is not really dead.

Walter Sullivan was born in the same Room 302 (where Henry lives now). His parents fled the scene soon afterwards, as the baby was unwanted. Superintendent Frank Sunderland handed the newborn to the medics, and so Walter found his way to the "Wish House" orphanage in Silent Hill, where he was taught of occult rituals. Later ,Sullivan began to believe that the Room itself was his mother. Therefore he decided to "wake" it up through the "21 Sacraments" ritual, which required, in particular, 21 murders. Walter killed 10 people, taking their hearts out. He then went through the ritual of Assumption, which allowed him to make himself the eleventh victim yet stay alive and even become immortal. His goal is to kill another 10 people to complete the 21 Sacraments. Henry meets two Walters: one adult (real) and one child, an image conjured by real Walter's reminisces.

The four victims that Henry encounters in his wanderings are numbers 16 through 19. The twentieth murder, however, is interrupted, and the victim (Henry's neighbour Eileen Galvin), still alive, is taken to the hospital. Henry rescues Eileen and together they try to stop Walter. By the while, Henry's apartment becomes increasingly haunted and dangerous.

In the final battle, Henry must make Walter mortal again and kill him once and for all. To make things more difficult, Eileen becomes possessed and is about to walk in a mechanism that will kill her, so time is short.

[edit] Endings

Warning: Solution details follow.

The game has a total of four possible endings. Unlike the other games, there is no "joke" ending, although the UFO endings of the previous three games are alluded to.

  • Escape. After Walter falls to the floor he lifts his arm up, calling out "Mom" before he goes motionless. The room starts to shake. Eileen, still alive and no longer possessed, slumps to the ground. Henry calls her name and reaches out to her, then the screen fades to Young Walter knocking on Room 302's door in Walter's apartment world, calling out to his Mother to "let him in". He then falls to his knees and to the floor, fading away. After he disappears, the door leading to Henry’s apartment opens. Next Henry is walking away from the Ashfield apartment buildings. He looks back and then continues on, saying Eileen's name. One day after Henry is at the normal world hospital in Eileen's room, and he has brought her flowers. Eileen says to him, "Guess I'll have to find a new place to live, huh?" This ending is considered the "best". To obtain it the player must keep Eileen from getting hurt and clear Henry's apartment of hauntings.
  • Mother. This scene is the exact same as the Escape except when Henry visits Eileen in the hospital, she tells him "Well, I guess I can go back to South Ashfield Heights now." We then see Henry's apartment as it was at the beginning of the game, covered in blood and rust, implying that the spirits still haunt Room 302. To obtain this ending the player must keep Eileen from getting hurt, but not clear Henry's apartment of hauntings.
  • Eileen's Death. After Walter falls to the floor he lifts his arm up, calling out "Mom" before he goes motionless. The room starts to shake. The screen fades to Young Walter knocking on Room 302's door in Walter's apartment world, calling out to his Mother to "let him in". He then falls to his knees and to the floor, fading away. After he disappears, the door leading to Henry's apartment opens. We see Henry sitting up in his bed once more, then a shot of him in first person point of view in the living room hearing on his radio, to his despair, that Eileen has died of her wounds. To obtain this ending the player does not have to keep Eileen from harm, but they do have to clear Henry's apartment of hauntings.
  • 21 Sacraments. After Walter falls to the floor he lifts his arm up, calling out "Mom" before he goes motionless. Henry stares down at him, and then suddenly falls to his knees, holding his head in pain. He then stands up, as if possessed. We see Young Walter in the apartment as it was at the beginning of the game with blood and rust. He cuddles up to the couch saying, "I’m home, I won't let anyone get in the way... I'm gonna stay with you forever..." The radio turns on with a news bulletin announcing the deaths of Ellien, Henry, and others. This ending is considered the "worst". To obtain it the player does not have to keep Eileen from harm, nor do they have to clear Henry's apartment of hauntings.

[edit] Gameplay

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.
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Reportedly, this installment was originally envisioned as a spinoff of the main game series.[1] The gameplay is very different from the previous three installments. The player is based in Henry's apartment, from which Henry can manage his now limited item inventory and which contains the only save point in the game. Henry also does not have a portable radio, but has one in his apartment which serves a similar purpose. A first person perspective is also used in the apartment, a first for Silent Hill.

Combat has also been significantly altered. While the player is now able to "charge" an attack, allowing its power to build before the attack is launched, there are no "safe" areas (monsters are able to follow Henry from area to area) and the ghosts in the game are unkillable and will constantly bedevil Henry in the subway section and elsewhere. Even Henry's apartment, seemingly set in the "real" world, becomes increasingly haunted and dangerous throughout the game.

It should be noted the PC version of Silent Hill 4 is restricted to 30 FPS for normal gameplay and 15 FPS for cutscenes. This is very noticeable as cutscenes that were smooth on the PS2 version are notedly jerky in the PC version. There is (currently) no known way to remove this FPS lock.

[edit] Reaction

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Reviews for Silent Hill 4: The Room were favorable. The reviewers for Gamespot UK gave the game a rating of 7.9 out of 10 for both the PS2 and Xbox verisons,[2][3] IGN gave it a 8.0 out of 10 for both versions,[citation needed] and Gamestats also had a 8.0 out of 10 for both versions.[citation needed]

[edit] Sequels

A sequel title is planned for unspecified next-generation console (assumed to be the PlayStation 3).

Additionally, a prequel is planned for the Playstation Portable handheld.

[edit] Influences and trivia

See Silent Hill influences and trivia

[edit] Music

Main article: Silent Hill 4: The Room - Original Soundtracks

The original 2-disc soundtrack for Silent Hill 4: The Room, composed by Akira Yamaoka, was released in Japan on June 17, 2004 and its catalogue number is LC1292-3.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Reed, Kristan. Silent Hill 4: The Room. Eurogamer. Retrieved on 2007-2-9.
  2. ^ Silent Hill 4: The Room (Playstation 2). Gamespot UK. Retrieved on 2007-2-11
  3. ^ Silent Hill 4: The Room (Xbox). Gamespot UK. Retrieved on 2007-2-11

[edit] External links


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Silent Hill video games

Silent Hill • 2 • 3 • 4: The Room • 0rigins • 5
Silent Hill (film)
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