Silent Hill 4: The Room
Encyclopedia
Silent Hill 4: The Room is the fourth installment in the Silent Hill
survival horror series, published by Konami
and developed by Team Silent
, a production group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. The game was released in Japan in June 2004 and in North America and Europe in September of the same year. Silent Hill 4 was released for the PlayStation 2
, Microsoft Windows
, and the Xbox
. A soundtrack release was also made at the same time.
Unlike the previous installments, which were set primarily in the town of Silent Hill, this game is set in the fictional town of South Ashfield, and is focused on the character of Henry Townshend attempting to escape from his locked-down apartment. He explores a series of supernatural worlds and finds himself in conflict with an undead serial killer.
Silent Hill 4 features an altered gameplay style with third-person navigation and plot elements taken from previous installments. Upon its release the game received a mixed critical reaction due to deviations from the original Silent Hill style.
".
In the main levels of the game the player uses the usual third-person view of the Silent Hill series. The player has a limited item inventory which can be managed by leaving unneeded items in a chest in Henry's room. Silent Hill 4 emphasizes combat during gameplay, with a near-absence of complex puzzles in favor of simple item-seeking tasks. In the second half of the game Henry is accompanied and helped in combat by his neighbor Eileen Galvin; Eileen cannot die while she is with Henry, although as she takes damage she succumbs to possession. The damage Eileen takes in the game determines whether or not she dies during the final boss fight, directly affecting the ending achieved.
Combat in Silent Hill 4 follows the pattern set by the other games with a few key differences. The player has access to a variety of melee weapons but only two firearms. Certain melee weapons are breakable. Items which can be equipped such as talismans (which protect the player from damage from the hauntings in Henry's room) will eventually break after a short period of use.
Another key difference in the combat system is that melee attacks may be "charged" before they are used, inflicting a greater amount of damage to an opponent than a quick attack.
One of the most significant changes is the introduction of unkillable ghosts of antagonist Walter Sullivan's victims. The ghosts have the ability to hurt Henry, which can be nullified by two items. These items can also exorcize the hauntings in Henry's apartment. Ghosts can also be knocked down for a long time with one of two special bullets and pinned permanently with a special sword.
of Silent Hill 4 is Henry Townshend, a resident of the South Ashfield Heights Apartments building in the fictional town of Ashfield. Henry is an "average" man who has been described by Konami as an introvert in his late 20s. For the most part Henry navigates the game's world alone, although he eventually works with his neighbor Eileen Galvin. Henry also deals with the new supporting characters of Cynthia Velázquez, Andrew DeSalvo (most likely named after Albert DeSalvo
, the man believed to have been the Boston Strangler
), Richard Braintree and Jasper Gein — the last of which is believed to be named after the serial killer
Ed Gein
.
The main antagonist of the game is Walter Sullivan, an infamous serial killer who is believed to have died years prior to the game's events. Sullivan appears in two forms: an undead adult enemy and a neutral child supporting character. The previous victims of Sullivan play a small role in the game as enemies, and the original Japanese official site offered backstory information on these minor characters.
Silent Hill 4: The Room uses two minor, unseen, characters from previous installments as major characters in its plot. The first, Walter Sullivan, was first referenced in a newspaper scrap in Silent Hill 2 as having killed himself shortly after killing twins Billy and Miriam Locane. These two victims also appear in the form of the "twin victim" creature Henry encounters. The second character is investigative journalist Joseph Schreiber, who was first referenced in Silent Hill 3
with a magazine article he has written condemning the "Hope House" orphanage run by The Order which the game's protagonist, Heather, can discover. It is stated in the game that South Ashfield Height's superintendent Frank Sunderland is the father of Silent Hill 2' s player character James Sunderland.
Critics were, for the most part, pleased with the voice acting in the game. The graphics of the characters were also praised. In 2005 producer and composer Akira Yamaoka
acknowledged the characters were, to him, "a little weak."
The game begins with the player taking control of protagonist Henry Townshend, who has been locked in his apartment in South Ashfield, room 302, for five days with no means of communication and having recurring nightmares. Shortly afterwards a large hole inexplicably forms in the wall of his bathroom, and he enters. From there he enters a network of holes leading him through a series of Silent Hill-style worlds.
Henry's first destination is an abandoned subway station where he meets a woman named Cynthia Velázquez who is convinced she is in a dream, but is soon killed by an unknown man. On his radio he hears confirmation she is indeed dead in the real world. The exact same thing happens to the next three people Henry finds: Jasper Gein, Andrew DeSalvo and Richard Braintree, a resident in Henry's apartment complex. The cases seem similar to the deceased serial killer Walter Sullivan's modus operandi
and Henry finds scraps of the diary of his apartment's former occupant, journalist Joseph Schreiber, who was investigating his spree. Henry learns Walter was in fact an orphan who had been led to believe his biological mother was Henry's apartment, where he had been found.
It is revealed Sullivan is in fact attempting to carry out a ritual which calls for 21 murders, the 21 Sacraments, to try to "purify" his "mother," and is in an undead state through which he can kill his victims immortally. Henry is his intended 21st victim. Midway through the game a child manifestation of Walter's "innocent" self interrupts the murder of the intended 20th victim, Eileen Galvin, and she joins Henry trying to find Schreiber. At the same time hauntings begin to inhabit Henry's apartment and its condition disintegrates. The two eventually find the ghost of Schreiber, who tells them that their only escape is to kill Sullivan.
Shortly after Henry acquires Walter's umbilical cord
, a tool required to kill him for good, Eileen leaves Henry under Walter's influence. He finds her about to walk into a deathtrap with Walter, and the final boss fight between the two men ensues. After Walter is killed, there are four possible endings, determined by whether or not Eileen survived the final boss fight and on the condition of Henry's apartment. There is no UFO "joke ending", a staple of the series.
shortly after the release of Silent Hill 2 and alongside Silent Hill 3, with the intentions of creating a new style of game that would take the series in a different direction than the previous games. News of the game's development was made public by October 2003, and official announcements by Konami followed at Gamers' Day 2004. The game was produced by the series' recurring sound designer and composer Akira Yamaoka
. Its working title
, prior to its incorporation into the rest of the series, was simply Room 302.
The main concept behind the new game structure was to take the idea of "the room" as "the safest part of your world" and make it a danger zone. The first-person perspective was included in this area of the game to give the room's navigation a personal and claustrophobic feel. The producers nonetheless retained the classic third-person perspective in all other areas to accommodate the increased emphasis on action and combat.
In an October 2004 BBC Collective article, it was noted that the game, like previous releases, refers to the film Jacob's Ladder
. It was further mentioned that the protagonist Henry Townshend shared a likeness to actor Peter Krause
. The architecture of the apartment and the addition of the hole was comparable to a similar non-Euclidean space
in author Mark Z. Danielewski
's novel House of Leaves
. Other nods included the novel Rosemary's Baby
and "flavour from the likes of Twin Peaks
and Stephen King
's short story 1408
." The creators of the game have acknowledged writer Ryu Murakami
's book Coin Locker Babies
as an inspiration on the game's premise.
The soundtrack for Silent Hill 4: The Room was released alongside the game in 2004, composed by Akira Yamaoka with vocals by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
and Joe Romersa
. The Japanese version featured a second disc containing music by series composer Akira Yamaoka played along to the reading of traditional Japan
ese stories. The American version contained 13 exclusive tracks and remix
es.
A short remix of the song "Your Rain" was featured in the Northern American console release of Dance Dance Revolution Extreme
and the multi-regional arcade Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova
a few years later. Several tracks from the game were also featured in the Silent Hill Experience promotional UMD
. There was a limited edition, single disc version of the soundtrack for North America which contained 20 tracks, the majority of which were exclusives not found on the Japanese soundtrack.
n and Europe
an releases on September 7, with pre-ordering customers receiving the soundtrack for free with the game in the former market. The game, alongside its two PS2 predecessors, were rereleased in 2006 as part of The Silent Hill Collection European boxset, as a tie-in with the release of the Silent Hill film
, and again in 2009. Microsoft
has confirmed that their Xbox 360
console is backward compatible
with the game's Xbox
port.
to name it the best PlayStation 2
adventure game in show. Upon its release in 2004 the game also attracted the attention of mainstream news outlets CNN
, the BBC
and The Times
. Rating aggregation site Metacritic
shows an average rating of 76 out of 100 for both PS2 and Xbox console versions, while the PC version shows an average rating of 67 out of 100. Rating aggregation site Game Rankings
shows an average rating of 76.13% for the PlayStation 2 version, 73.16% for the Xbox version, and 70.35% for the PC version. Silent Hill 4 topped game sales charts in Japan during a video game sales slump, but dropped to tenth place one week later. Official statements by Konami referred to sales of the game in North America as "favorable."
The PS2 and Xbox versions of the game received an "impressive" 8.0 rating from IGN reviewer Douglass C. Perry. Perry described it as "neither brilliant nor terrible," and was displeased by the lack of boss fights and complicated puzzles. The article expressed the author's mixed feelings toward the element of "the room," and while Perry noted that the room "itself is a good idea," he was displeased by the inconvenience of constantly having to return there. His closing comments also noted another problem: "While all the classic touches that have become so familiar and so great in the series have returned, they have simultaneously become cliché."
Kristan Reed, a reviewer for Eurogamer
, expressed disappointment with the degree to which the game had been geared as a combat game with an absence of standard Silent Hill puzzles. He was nevertheless pleased with the game's plot, graphics, and audio and gave the game a 7/10 rating for the PS2, and a 6/10 for the Xbox version. GameSpot
gave both the PS2 and Xbox ports 7.9 ratings, concluding with "While not all of the changes made necessarily serve to enhance the series, the dark, gripping storytelling is what allows this game its Silent Hill credentials."
The PC
port of the game received lower ratings than the console versions. IGN reviewer Perry complained about "the blurriest textures we've seen in years and some serious graphical glitches" and "extremely low mouse sensitivity" inhibiting gameplay, giving it a comparatively low 6.9 rating. GameSpot's review of the PC version was slightly lower (7.6) than the console version, praising the graphics as having "been optimized well for the PC" but acknowledging "keyboard and mouse controls just don't fare that well in an environment of constantly shifting perspective views that can make navigation frustrating."
Silent Hill
is a survival horror video game series consisting of seven installments published by Konami and its subsidiary Konami Digital Entertainment. The first four games in the series, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, 3 and 4, have been developed by an internal factor, Team Silent...
survival horror series, published by Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
and developed by Team Silent
Team Silent
Team Silent was a development group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo , responsible for the first four games in the Silent Hill franchise by Konami released from 1999 to 2004, with later titles developed by external Western companies such as Climax Studios and Double Helix Games...
, a production group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. The game was released in Japan in June 2004 and in North America and Europe in September of the same year. Silent Hill 4 was released for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, and the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
. A soundtrack release was also made at the same time.
Unlike the previous installments, which were set primarily in the town of Silent Hill, this game is set in the fictional town of South Ashfield, and is focused on the character of Henry Townshend attempting to escape from his locked-down apartment. He explores a series of supernatural worlds and finds himself in conflict with an undead serial killer.
Silent Hill 4 features an altered gameplay style with third-person navigation and plot elements taken from previous installments. Upon its release the game received a mixed critical reaction due to deviations from the original Silent Hill style.
Gameplay
Gameplay is centered on the protagonist Henry's apartment, which is shown through a first-person perspective and contains the only save point. The other levels of the game are reached through holes formed in the apartment. For the first half of the game the room will also heal the player. In the second half of the game, the room becomes possessed by hauntings that drain Henry's "healthHealth (gaming)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
".
In the main levels of the game the player uses the usual third-person view of the Silent Hill series. The player has a limited item inventory which can be managed by leaving unneeded items in a chest in Henry's room. Silent Hill 4 emphasizes combat during gameplay, with a near-absence of complex puzzles in favor of simple item-seeking tasks. In the second half of the game Henry is accompanied and helped in combat by his neighbor Eileen Galvin; Eileen cannot die while she is with Henry, although as she takes damage she succumbs to possession. The damage Eileen takes in the game determines whether or not she dies during the final boss fight, directly affecting the ending achieved.
Combat
Another key difference in the combat system is that melee attacks may be "charged" before they are used, inflicting a greater amount of damage to an opponent than a quick attack.
One of the most significant changes is the introduction of unkillable ghosts of antagonist Walter Sullivan's victims. The ghosts have the ability to hurt Henry, which can be nullified by two items. These items can also exorcize the hauntings in Henry's apartment. Ghosts can also be knocked down for a long time with one of two special bullets and pinned permanently with a special sword.
Characters
The protagonist and player characterPlayer character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
of Silent Hill 4 is Henry Townshend, a resident of the South Ashfield Heights Apartments building in the fictional town of Ashfield. Henry is an "average" man who has been described by Konami as an introvert in his late 20s. For the most part Henry navigates the game's world alone, although he eventually works with his neighbor Eileen Galvin. Henry also deals with the new supporting characters of Cynthia Velázquez, Andrew DeSalvo (most likely named after Albert DeSalvo
Albert DeSalvo
Albert Henry DeSalvo was a criminal in Boston, Massachusetts who confessed to being the "Boston Strangler", the murderer of 13 women in the Boston area. DeSalvo was not imprisoned for these murders, however, but for a series of rapes...
, the man believed to have been the Boston Strangler
Boston Strangler
The Boston Strangler is a name attributed to the murderer of several women in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, in the early 1960s. Though the crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo, investigators of the case have since suggested the murders were not committed by one person.-First Stage...
), Richard Braintree and Jasper Gein — the last of which is believed to be named after the serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Ed Gein
Ed Gein
Edward Theodore "Ed" Gein - July 26, 1984) was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes...
.
The main antagonist of the game is Walter Sullivan, an infamous serial killer who is believed to have died years prior to the game's events. Sullivan appears in two forms: an undead adult enemy and a neutral child supporting character. The previous victims of Sullivan play a small role in the game as enemies, and the original Japanese official site offered backstory information on these minor characters.
Silent Hill 4: The Room uses two minor, unseen, characters from previous installments as major characters in its plot. The first, Walter Sullivan, was first referenced in a newspaper scrap in Silent Hill 2 as having killed himself shortly after killing twins Billy and Miriam Locane. These two victims also appear in the form of the "twin victim" creature Henry encounters. The second character is investigative journalist Joseph Schreiber, who was first referenced in Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 3 is a survival horror video game published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 and developed by Team Silent, a production group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. It is the third installment in the Silent Hill series and a direct sequel to the first Silent Hill game...
with a magazine article he has written condemning the "Hope House" orphanage run by The Order which the game's protagonist, Heather, can discover. It is stated in the game that South Ashfield Height's superintendent Frank Sunderland is the father of Silent Hill 2
Critics were, for the most part, pleased with the voice acting in the game. The graphics of the characters were also praised. In 2005 producer and composer Akira Yamaoka
Akira Yamaoka
is a video game composer, sound designer, sound director, and video game producer who worked for Konami since 1993 until his resignation in 2009. He is best known for creating the music in the Silent Hill series; he also worked as a sound director and producer on the series as well as serving as a...
acknowledged the characters were, to him, "a little weak."
Story
Henry's first destination is an abandoned subway station where he meets a woman named Cynthia Velázquez who is convinced she is in a dream, but is soon killed by an unknown man. On his radio he hears confirmation she is indeed dead in the real world. The exact same thing happens to the next three people Henry finds: Jasper Gein, Andrew DeSalvo and Richard Braintree, a resident in Henry's apartment complex. The cases seem similar to the deceased serial killer Walter Sullivan's modus operandi
Modus operandi
Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...
and Henry finds scraps of the diary of his apartment's former occupant, journalist Joseph Schreiber, who was investigating his spree. Henry learns Walter was in fact an orphan who had been led to believe his biological mother was Henry's apartment, where he had been found.
It is revealed Sullivan is in fact attempting to carry out a ritual which calls for 21 murders, the 21 Sacraments, to try to "purify" his "mother," and is in an undead state through which he can kill his victims immortally. Henry is his intended 21st victim. Midway through the game a child manifestation of Walter's "innocent" self interrupts the murder of the intended 20th victim, Eileen Galvin, and she joins Henry trying to find Schreiber. At the same time hauntings begin to inhabit Henry's apartment and its condition disintegrates. The two eventually find the ghost of Schreiber, who tells them that their only escape is to kill Sullivan.
Shortly after Henry acquires Walter's umbilical cord
Umbilical cord
In placental mammals, the umbilical cord is the connecting cord from the developing embryo or fetus to the placenta...
, a tool required to kill him for good, Eileen leaves Henry under Walter's influence. He finds her about to walk into a deathtrap with Walter, and the final boss fight between the two men ensues. After Walter is killed, there are four possible endings, determined by whether or not Eileen survived the final boss fight and on the condition of Henry's apartment. There is no UFO "joke ending", a staple of the series.
Development
The fourth Silent Hill game was begun by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo's development group Team SilentTeam Silent
Team Silent was a development group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo , responsible for the first four games in the Silent Hill franchise by Konami released from 1999 to 2004, with later titles developed by external Western companies such as Climax Studios and Double Helix Games...
shortly after the release of Silent Hill 2 and alongside Silent Hill 3, with the intentions of creating a new style of game that would take the series in a different direction than the previous games. News of the game's development was made public by October 2003, and official announcements by Konami followed at Gamers' Day 2004. The game was produced by the series' recurring sound designer and composer Akira Yamaoka
Akira Yamaoka
is a video game composer, sound designer, sound director, and video game producer who worked for Konami since 1993 until his resignation in 2009. He is best known for creating the music in the Silent Hill series; he also worked as a sound director and producer on the series as well as serving as a...
. Its working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
, prior to its incorporation into the rest of the series, was simply Room 302.
The main concept behind the new game structure was to take the idea of "the room" as "the safest part of your world" and make it a danger zone. The first-person perspective was included in this area of the game to give the room's navigation a personal and claustrophobic feel. The producers nonetheless retained the classic third-person perspective in all other areas to accommodate the increased emphasis on action and combat.
In an October 2004 BBC Collective article, it was noted that the game, like previous releases, refers to the film Jacob's Ladder
Jacob's Ladder (film)
Jacob's Ladder is a 1990 American psychological thriller/horror film directed by Adrian Lyne, based on a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin.-Plot:Jacob Singer is a U.S. soldier deployed in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War...
. It was further mentioned that the protagonist Henry Townshend shared a likeness to actor Peter Krause
Peter Krause
Peter William Krause is an American film and television actor and film producer. He is perhaps best known for his lead roles as Nate Fisher on Six Feet Under, Adam Braverman on Parenthood, and Casey McCall on Sports Night...
. The architecture of the apartment and the addition of the hole was comparable to a similar non-Euclidean space
Euclidean space
In mathematics, Euclidean space is the Euclidean plane and three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, as well as the generalizations of these notions to higher dimensions...
in author Mark Z. Danielewski
Mark Z. Danielewski
Mark Z. Danielewski, born March 5, 1966 in New York City, New York, is an American author, best known for his debut novel House of Leaves...
's novel House of Leaves
House of Leaves
House of Leaves is the debut novel by the American author Mark Z. Danielewski, published by Pantheon Books. The novel quickly became a bestseller following its March 7, 2000 release. It was followed by a companion piece, The Whalestoe Letters...
. Other nods included the novel Rosemary's Baby
Rosemary's Baby
Rosemary's Baby is a 1967 best-selling horror novel by Ira Levin, his second published book. Major elements of the story were inspired by the publicity surrounding the Church of Satan of Anton LaVey which had been founded in 1966.-Plot summary:...
and "flavour from the likes of Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
and Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's short story 1408
1408 (short story)
"1408" is a novella by Stephen King. It is the second tale in the audiobook collection titled Blood and Smoke, released in 1999. In 2002, it was collected in written form as the twelfth story in King's collection Everything's Eventual...
." The creators of the game have acknowledged writer Ryu Murakami
Ryu Murakami
is a Japanese novelist and filmmaker. He is colloquially referred to as the "Maradona of Japanese literature".-Biography:Born as Ryūnosuke Murakami in Sasebo, Nagasaki on February 19, 1952...
's book Coin Locker Babies
Coin Locker Babies
, 1980) is a novel by Ryu Murakami, translated into English by Stephen Snyder. The translation was published in 1995 by Kodansha International Ltd.-Plot summary:...
as an inspiration on the game's premise.
Audio
Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is an American voice actress, ADR director, writer, and singer best known for her extensive English-language dubbing of various anime, and her singing in multiple games from the Silent Hill series, as well as the movie adaptation and Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME. She has...
and Joe Romersa
Joe Romersa
Joseph M. Romersa is an American song writer, drummer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, sound engineer and vocalist....
. The Japanese version featured a second disc containing music by series composer Akira Yamaoka played along to the reading of traditional Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese stories. The American version contained 13 exclusive tracks and remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es.
A short remix of the song "Your Rain" was featured in the Northern American console release of Dance Dance Revolution Extreme
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme (North America)
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme is a music video game and part of the Dance Dance Revolution series by Konami. It was released by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan on September 21, 2004 and is the ninth DDR release in North America....
and the multi-regional arcade Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova is an arcade game in the Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. It was produced by Konami and released through Betson Enterprises. The game was released in Europe on April 28, 2006, followed shortly by the North American release on May 15...
a few years later. Several tracks from the game were also featured in the Silent Hill Experience promotional UMD
Universal Media Disc
The Universal Media Disc is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on their PlayStation Portable handheld gaming and multimedia platform...
. There was a limited edition, single disc version of the soundtrack for North America which contained 20 tracks, the majority of which were exclusives not found on the Japanese soundtrack.
Release
Silent Hill 4: The Room was first released in Japan on June 17, 2004. The game was shipped for its subsequent North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an releases on September 7, with pre-ordering customers receiving the soundtrack for free with the game in the former market. The game, alongside its two PS2 predecessors, were rereleased in 2006 as part of The Silent Hill Collection European boxset, as a tie-in with the release of the Silent Hill film
Silent Hill (film)
Silent Hill is a 2006 horror film directed by Christophe Gans and written by Roger Avary. The story is an adaptation of the Silent Hill series of survival horror video games created by Konami. The film, particularly its emotional, religious and aesthetic content as well as its creature design,...
, and again in 2009. Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
has confirmed that their Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
console is backward compatible
Backward compatibility
In the context of telecommunications and computing, a device or technology is said to be backward or downward compatible if it can work with input generated by an older device...
with the game's Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
port.
Reception
The previews of Silent Hill 4: The Room provided at E3 2004 lead IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
to name it the best PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
adventure game in show. Upon its release in 2004 the game also attracted the attention of mainstream news outlets CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. Rating aggregation site Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
shows an average rating of 76 out of 100 for both PS2 and Xbox console versions, while the PC version shows an average rating of 67 out of 100. Rating aggregation site Game Rankings
Game Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
shows an average rating of 76.13% for the PlayStation 2 version, 73.16% for the Xbox version, and 70.35% for the PC version. Silent Hill 4 topped game sales charts in Japan during a video game sales slump, but dropped to tenth place one week later. Official statements by Konami referred to sales of the game in North America as "favorable."
The PS2 and Xbox versions of the game received an "impressive" 8.0 rating from IGN reviewer Douglass C. Perry. Perry described it as "neither brilliant nor terrible," and was displeased by the lack of boss fights and complicated puzzles. The article expressed the author's mixed feelings toward the element of "the room," and while Perry noted that the room "itself is a good idea," he was displeased by the inconvenience of constantly having to return there. His closing comments also noted another problem: "While all the classic touches that have become so familiar and so great in the series have returned, they have simultaneously become cliché."
Kristan Reed, a reviewer for Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
, expressed disappointment with the degree to which the game had been geared as a combat game with an absence of standard Silent Hill puzzles. He was nevertheless pleased with the game's plot, graphics, and audio and gave the game a 7/10 rating for the PS2, and a 6/10 for the Xbox version. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
gave both the PS2 and Xbox ports 7.9 ratings, concluding with "While not all of the changes made necessarily serve to enhance the series, the dark, gripping storytelling is what allows this game its Silent Hill credentials."
The PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
port of the game received lower ratings than the console versions. IGN reviewer Perry complained about "the blurriest textures we've seen in years and some serious graphical glitches" and "extremely low mouse sensitivity" inhibiting gameplay, giving it a comparatively low 6.9 rating. GameSpot's review of the PC version was slightly lower (7.6) than the console version, praising the graphics as having "been optimized well for the PC" but acknowledging "keyboard and mouse controls just don't fare that well in an environment of constantly shifting perspective views that can make navigation frustrating."