Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

I got this as a gift, and was really sceptical, especially given the movies that, while enjoyable, didn't really scare me much. Prior to this game, Silent Hill was the only real survival horror game I'd played. I was wrong to have doubted this one. Although it is the fourth part of the game, I'd argue that this was the first one of its kind. The switch from first person shooting to third person shooting in this game is well worked with the controls and the story is completely overwhelming.

The story starts with a guy looking to save the president's daughter and he ends up uncovering a huge cultish insanity that takes over an entire region of a country. The demons and ghouls the protagonist faces become increasingly scary and hard-to-kill and the sheer number, at times, becomes tough to negotiate.

Having gone into the game not knowing what to expect from it, I completely enjoyed the way the game was designed and presented. Although a PS2 game (now that I'm spoiled by all the next gen games) this one is visually appealing and the controls and game play are very intuitive.

The mix of horror and fighting was perfectly matched in this game; throwing in random puzzles only made the game that much more enticing. While playing this game, more than once I felt my own hands shaking as much as the character's as you face off against a variety of terrifying bad guys. I'm not sure who my 'favourite' was, but the Iron Maidens made me very unsettled. In most games, I like to take enemies head-on, but as the strategy, until you can get a thermal sight, was to run away. Knowing that the villain was outside just waiting for you and had an instant kill on it made it very hard to calmly get through that section.

This was one game that I just had a ton of fun playing, went back through and re-played so I could buy the unlimited rocket launcher, but then stopped. The rocket launcher almost makes it too easy, if there is such a thing. The game is plain scary and the levels go from challenging to very difficult quickly.

The feeling of the game is truly a horror game. The sun never appears brightly, there's always a cloud around, there are far too few people to help and just when you think you might be out of the water, something new and grotesque occurs. Overall, an amazing game that is a ton of fun.