Date : 2008-05-13 Entry ID : 143 Game ID : 39
The following entries were found scribbled in a notebook in front of a small TV with a PlayStation 2 running Silent Hill 4.
Oh man! This is my kind of game. I started playing for real yesterday, and I was scared beyond my wits. I had to stop playing when I got tired, because I just couldn't survive another shock. When tonight I encountered a certain remote location in the Forest World, a single bone-chilling howl sent me running back to the portal to The Room to save. I investigated the entire rest of the world before entering that horrible place. This game has a quality that is very rare and appreciated more by me than by most people. The world is small, but incredibly detailed and rewards my slow and investigative style of playing. The best example is the view outside the window. I've literally spent minutes at a time gazing out the window, learning every detail of the neighbourhood by heart. When the pink bunny balloon suddenly appeared in the sky, I was in a state of shock.
I've returned to this horror masterpiece, and the game just keeps impressing me... The plot is mysterious, I'm keeping notes in a Memento-like manner, the graphics is wonderfully detailed, even at locations you don't visit more than once. For instance, in the apartment world, It seems as though every single apartment have received special attention and a unique design: strange colours on the walls, unique lighting due to scattered furniture. The colour of the city sky subtly changes with time, and the way that the waking world and the other worlds interact is puzzling and wonderful. But first and foremost - the atmosphere is convincingly dark, paranoid, and, at times, pure horror that makes you want to pause the game and turn on all the lights. In total, I'm loving it!
I just realized something: This game really shouldn't be played at night. It's just too much. It's all well and good, when I can look around and the sun is out, people walking around outside the window, my darker instincts kept at bay by rationality. But when its dark, I cannot bear it. So this tip is for you who are like me, and roleplay this game all the way through: play it during the evenings - never play it at night. Better for your health that way. Yesterday night I played the return to the water tower level, and I had to take desperate measures to keep playing; I turned the TV way down, and started some random episodes of The Simpsons on my laptop on the coffee table. Combined with my usual tactics of turning my head away from the TV each time I wake up in the game, expecting the worst. As Yngve prepared me for, Room 302, which in the beginning is your sanctuary from the horrors of the dreamworlds, gradually becomes the place you fear the most. The dreamworlds have their own reasonable gamelogic, each level has its own Victim, and I've seen every level once before. But in the Room 302, anything goes. I've seen ghostly funghi crawl slowly across my walls, blood running from my faucet, not the mention the worst of them (like the Wailling Wall of Terror). During the evening, my mind is prepared. Every time I open the bedroom door, I expect something standing in the hallway, screaming at me. I creep into the living room like a ninja, fearing to tread each step. So when I looked out the peephole and saw my own corpse staring back at me from outside, I was ready for it. I almost laughed, content that the game is not going to kill me before I finish it. During the evening, it's not so bad. But the time is 21:04, and the shadows are growing longer. I think it's time to switch to R-Type... Oh, and by the way, even though I fear Room 302 more than the other levels, something gnaws at my gut right now. Eileen looks stranger every time I look at her, with brown, pulsating blemishes all over her bruised body. And she talks errantly, telling her mother to wake up. Naturally, I fear the worst...