This or Sh4: The Room

Murphy's been a bad boy ...

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guncrazy
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This or Sh4: The Room

Post by guncrazy »

Which one has a better atmosphere and immersion into the silent hill universe? I have never played Downpour and played 4 like 7 years ago. I have both available to play right now...Which one is the better choice?
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PoemOfTheLastMoment
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by PoemOfTheLastMoment »

Silent Hill 4!
Play the originals first!
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KiramidHead
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by KiramidHead »

I'd go for Downpour.

1) No ghosts constantly following you.

2) The player character doesn't suck.

3) No escort mission for half the game.

4) Actual puzzles instead of mindless fetch quests.

5) Most monster designs are superior. All 4 has on Downpour are the Twin Victims.

6) Better story.

7) Better controls.
Mephisto
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by Mephisto »

Better story? You wish.
Downpour's story is really, really good but better than 4's? Now that's too much.

As for the OP, you said you played 4 seven years ago... Why don't you try something new?
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thy_butcher
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by thy_butcher »

I really like SH4, but I think Downpour is overall superior; especially from a gameplay perspective.
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Dr-G0nz0
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by Dr-G0nz0 »

Mephisto wrote:Better story? You wish.
Downpour's story is really, really good but better than 4's? Now that's too much.

As for the OP, you said you played 4 seven years ago... Why don't you try something new?
Agree to this! Downpour's story--and every other third party SH game--is fairly clear. You can complete it once, maybe twice and you'll have the full story given to you. The first four games take ages to full digest!
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Dr-G0nz0
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by Dr-G0nz0 »

KiramidHead wrote:I'd go for Downpour.

1) No ghosts constantly following you.

2) The player character doesn't suck.

3) No escort mission for half the game.

4) Actual puzzles instead of mindless fetch quests.

5) Most monster designs are superior. All 4 has on Downpour are the Twin Victims.

6) Better story.

7) Better controls.

1) No ghosts constantly following you. (to each their own, but alot of people, myself included, found the ghosts to bring a hell of alot of tension to the game.)

2) The player character doesn't suck.(surely this is a troll response?)

3) No escort mission for half the game. (Eileen wasn't exactly an annoyance, was she? You could play the game just as smoothly even when she wasn't around.)

4) Actual puzzles instead of mindless fetch quests.(Downpour's puzzles were bairly exsistant either. And what little puzzles were there could be figured out within seconds anyway.)

5) Most monster designs are superior. All 4 has on Downpour are the Twin Victims. (Are you kidding?! The biggest downfall of Downpour was the terrible monster design. If you can even call it that.)

6) Better story. (As Mephisto said.)

7) Better controls. (SH4 definitely played alot more fluid.)


Did you even play 4? I think if you check the SH4 section on this forum and read the reasons for half the things you put as cons for SH4 you might begin to relise. Don't get me wrong, Downpour was great, but half of these cons aren't even good opinions. Still, it's a free country and all that...
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally. You merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, moulded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but BLINDING! " -Bane
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Skele
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by Skele »

I'm not a huge fan of SH4:TR, but it's mainly due to the controls being kinda clunky, and i felt the monsters sucked. With that said, i'd play that game any day of the week over Downpour.
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KiramidHead
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by KiramidHead »

Dr-G0nz0 wrote:

1) No ghosts constantly following you. (to each their own, but alot of people, myself included, found the ghosts to bring a hell of alot of tension to the game.)

2) The player character doesn't suck.(surely this is a troll response?)

3) No escort mission for half the game. (Eileen wasn't exactly an annoyance, was she? You could play the game just as smoothly even when she wasn't around.)

4) Actual puzzles instead of mindless fetch quests.(Downpour's puzzles were bairly exsistant either. And what little puzzles were there could be figured out within seconds anyway.)

5) Most monster designs are superior. All 4 has on Downpour are the Twin Victims. (Are you kidding?! The biggest downfall of Downpour was the terrible monster design. If you can even call it that.)

6) Better story. (As Mephisto said.)

7) Better controls. (SH4 definitely played alot more fluid.)


Did you even play 4? I think if you check the SH4 section on this forum and read the reasons for half the things you put as cons for SH4 you might begin to relise. Don't get me wrong, Downpour was great, but half of these cons aren't even good opinions. Still, it's a free country and all that...
Yes, I have played 4 multiple times.

-The story taking multiple playthroughs to understand doesn't make it better, just differently told. SH4 squeezes its plot into about two dozen notes. That's hardly good story telling. In order for much of anything to make sense, you have to search up the supplementary materials. The characters are decidedly meh, and don't stick around long enough to make much of an impression. Walter is the only one with any real character to him. That being said, I do like the story quite a bit. I just like Downpour's better.

-No, I'm not trolling when it come Henry. The guy is the Channing Tatum of Silent Hill. He's good looking, but ungodly boring. Murphy has, you know, character.

-Eileen's AI isn't very good and she's slooooooowwwwwww. Say what you will about Maria and Elle, but at least they kept up.

-Let's look back at SH4's monsters: dogs (yawn), monkeys, annoying bugs, possessed wheelchairs, burping women, wall things that pimp slap you, and vines that do nothing but get in your way. How exactly are these any better than Dolls or Weeping Bats? Most of SH4's enemies are just plain silly.

-So you're fine with the ghosts in SH4. I like them in concept, but they're in far too much of the game. If they weren't constantly popping up, than they would have worked much better for me. Think Downpour's chase sequences. Something like that is what I'm thinking of.

-Eh, this is a matter of opinion, but I vastly preferred Downpour's control scheme. Moving around was less of a frustration because the game had the decency to let you control the camera. I also preferred the inventory and all the neat functions assigned to the d-pad.

-I should add one more thing to my list: Downpour doesn't make you repeat every level once you get to the halfway point.
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Skele
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by Skele »

^The game purposely avoids giving too much information about Henry, because the story isn't about him. Yes he's "boring," but that's the whole point.. if they focused on his character, you'd be paying that much more less attention to Walter, and everything going on.

Oh, and i actually found the notes to be very well done.. i actually looked forward to returning back to the apartment to find them so that i could learn more about what all had happened.

As far as monsters, i think both game's monsters suck, however i do like a number of the ghosts in SH4, and the twin baby face monster was nice. I didn't like anything in Downpour... Weeping bats, are you serious?

Also, Downpour plays (imo) quite similar to SH4, but it's a couple of tweaks to the scheme. i hate the control schemes in both games, but i'll admit Downpours is better, but it reminded me too much of 4's which is not a good thing.
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teosoleil
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by teosoleil »

Silent Hill 4.
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Tillerman
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by Tillerman »

KiramidHead wrote:1) No ghosts constantly following you.
Like some other people, I liked the concept of ghosts from SH4. Unkillable enemies add a lot of tension and are a good idea, but it's much better when only certain enemies are unkillable and there is still a combat system unlike SM. The implementation of ghosts could have been better, as it is annoying to try to explore rooms that ghosts are "guarding," and unfortunately the ghosts are somewhat stupid looking. But generally I prefer them over Downpour's stupid void chase sequences.
KiramidHead wrote:5) Most monster designs are superior. All 4 has on Downpour are the Twin Victims.
The monster designs in Downpour are garbage, easily the worst in the series. SH4's are inconsistant... some are awesome like the Twin Victims, others feel uninspired. If we're ranking the games based on monster design, I'd put SH4 around the middle, and Downpour at the absolute bottom.
KiramidHead wrote:6) Better story.
Well, to each their own. I usually hear SH4's story praised as one of the best in the series around here, and I feel the same way.
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clips
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by clips »

Why not get both?...you can find SH4 cheap anywhere nowadays.

But as others have stated...4

The story is way better and unique....

The art direction and otherworlds are better and the overall atmosphere can be downright brutal at times.

The concept of being locked up in your apt while the outside world chugs along was great and as the game goes on, there is a feeling of dread and a feeling of getting pulled deeper into the depths of madness..

It's a better game than Downpour, but that isn't to say that Downpour is a bad game...Downpour has incredible atmosphere when the monsters aren't around and the visuals are impressive and some of the otherworlds segments would've been interesting if it wasn't for the red void chasing you thru them....Downpour is the best SH game out of the newer games that came out after 4...it really is impressive, but again i say just get both of them.
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by pink_isnt_well000 »

Since you've already played 4 I would suggest playing Downpour. It is overall a more solid game. Story wise I can't really choose between the two though. I enjoyed Downpour enough to put it above 4 in order of favorites. Which for me was a big deal because I pretty much adore 4. I liked 4 when it wasn't cool to do so. Back when we only had the first 4 games and it just didn't fit according to pretty much everyone. Then the newer games came out and suddenly everyone liked it. :/
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leftshoe18
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by leftshoe18 »

Downpour is my favorite in the series so I'd say go with that one.
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by NanayaShiki »

Downpour is superior in pretty much every category in my opinion.
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by Silent Fantasy »

NanayaShiki wrote:Downpour is superior in pretty much every category in my opinion.
I have to agree, besides story, atmosphere, and overall creep factor. Everything else in Downpour is better.
That's just my opinion though. I would stick to Downpour since you played 4 already. I do adore SH4 for nostalgia reasons though, so it's hard for me to say that. lol If you can, just get both.
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by raptor112 »

Personally I'd go with downpour, I HATED Silent Hill 4 with a passion. With the limited inventory, the weak plot (I'm sorry, he thinks the apartment is is mother? REALLY?), lame monsters (though downpours monsters are only slightly better) and it just doesn't feel like silent hill for me. Unlike Downpour which has a better story, a nice twist towards the end, better endings and no ghosts.
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Kenji
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by Kenji »

That's tough.

For one, both are mechanically broken to the point of being nigh-unplayable, and both have weak monster designs. Both have cool concepts, though, so we have to give points for that. Both have protagonists that make Michael G's Harry Mason sound like Brian Blessed (or, at least, Michael G's Richter Belmont).

Honestly, you'd go wrong, either way. I suppose it comes down to whether you prefer the Coin Locker Baby story or not. If yes, The Room; if no, Downpour.
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Rev
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Re: This or Sh4: The Room

Post by Rev »

I prefer both. I don't see how either game can be seen as "unplayable" (other than the fact that neither copies of SH4 that I own won't load on my PS2 for some reason), but to each his own.

Downpour doesn't have the ghosts, but it does have the Void chase sequences. I do prefer the chase sequences more, as the ghosts in SH4 were more annoying than they ever were scary, in my opinion.

Actually, SH4 wasn't all that scary at all to me. But then, neither was Downpour, and I still do love both games. The monster designs were also equally weak in both games, with the exception of maybe a few (i.e. the Victims in SH4, and the Dolls in Downpour).

Between characters, storytelling, and overall plot, I'd have to go with Downpour. Both games have really great atmosphere, though Downpour is just a more playable game to me... regardless of whether or not I can get the damn games to play on my PS2. :x
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