Silent Hill 4: The Room - On this day

The horror game series Silent Hill quickly became popular and quickly burned out. Japanese studio Team Silent has released four Silent Hill games in five years, and it was on the fourth that it was clear that they wanted to do something different. That fourth part appeared on this very day 17 years ago for the then PS2 and Xbox consoles and the PC.

Silent Hill 4: The Room introduced us to a whole new character - Henry Townshend. Unlike the other protagonists in the series, Henry did not technically step into the town of Silent Hill, but his hell was in an apartment from which he could not get out. His front door was chained, and for some reason, he couldn't break the windows. Admittedly, there was an exit in the form of a huge hole in the bathroom wall, and that led Herny to locations where he was researching the past of serial killer Walter Sullivan.

Silent Hill 4 experimentation has brought several major changes over previous games. For example, the part in Henry’s apartment was played from a first-person perspective. The rest of the game was from a classical perspective, but the fight was different insofar as the individual enemies were immortal spirits that could not be permanently defeated.

Although these changes resulted in Silent Hill 4 being perhaps a more tense/scary experience than its predecessors, fans were divided around this game. One of the most common objections was reserved for characters who seemed somewhat disinterested and atypically calm given the circumstances. It was also resented that the game moved away from the concept of Otherworld, so the environments in the four were not traditionally dilapidated and dark as in previous games.

Ultimately, Silent Hill 4: The Room was the last game of Konami's Team Silent, the team that designed the original Silent Hill. After this game, the team disbanded, and sequels were awarded to teams outside of Japan. Some team members, like producer Akira Yamaoka, remained attached to the series, but fans will often say that after Silent Hill 4, nothing was the same anymore.

In any case, Silent Hill 4 was never subsequently upgraded for later consoles. Only the PC version in 2020 got its digital edition on GOG.com, but without significant additions.