The Silent Hill series would have to be the second most popular horror series around after Resident Evil. So when Konami announced that Silent Hill 4 was going to be released in 2004, people weren’t too surprised. Today, we had an opportunity to go “hands-on” with Silent Hill 4 and we left feeling very excited.
Silent Hill 4 features a menu interface which is very similar to the previous versions, it feels instantaneously familiar. There are three difficulty levels, easy, medium and hard. After selecting your difficulty level the back story is presented.
The story revolves around Henry Townshend who finds himself trapped in his own cursed apartment. Only by exploring mysterious portals leading to disturbing alternate worlds will Henry begin to uncover clues as to why he is trapped. The game begins in the room in which Henry Townshend is stuck.
Henry’s room is very dark and looks rusted. It looks as if it's been the scene of a massacre and helps set the tone of the game from early on. The only sign of life players find in the apartment is a television set which is left running. When the player comes across something important an eye will appear in the top left of the screen. By pressing “X” players can examine what they are looking at in closer detail.
Further investigation reveals that Henry recognizes that the room is his, but it seems to have aged considerably. The television set which has been left running is unrecognizable to Henry. After the player has explored the room a zombie comes out of the wall and goes to attack Henry. The screen goes blank and Henry wakes up from a dream.
Henry wakes up and we get our first sign of what our main character looks like. Looking around him, we can see that Henry’s room is clean, and the hero of the title disregards his experience as a dream. Henry tries to use the phone but it doesn’t work, seconds later he receives a call from an anonymous person which says “help me” this is odd as the cord is cut.
The second time we visit Henry’s room it looks like any normal apartment. Henry looks out of his room and civilization appears to be fine. For some bizarre reason though Henry has been locked in his room with no escape, the door has been locked from the inside which makes Henry even more suspicious.
After hearing a noise Henry goes to investigate and finds a hole in his bathroom. It appears to be the way to escape from the room. So did we escape? That would be spoiling it too much.
It is true that in this short demo we didn’t get the opportunity to fight any monsters or even experience everything Silent Hill 4 is promising to offer. The new first-person mode is surprisingly effective and if the modes are switched between effectively then it will be a great asset to the franchise.
We were really impressed with Silent Hill 4 and we look forward to bringing you more coverage of it in the future. Stay tuned to PALGN for a review as soon as possible.
Loading...
