I was originally going to play Downpour after Silent Hill 4 The Room was released on PSN, but since that may be a long time from now I've been considering my options. Does Silent Hill Downpour reference the fourth game at all? What is thecontrol scheme for Downpour; is it just like the first 3 games or did they finally change it? And while we're on the subject, what is the control scheme for Silent Hill 4?

In my opinion, you really don't need to worry about any "control scheme" (they both have their flaws). Downpour makes subtle references to the past games, and has a huge easter egg containing a plot point of the 4th game, but it shouldn't ruin anything, really.

In my opinion, atmosphere and presentation matters much more than any control layout in any survival horror game.

The question of which games should be played prior to Downpour has been discussed many times, for example here.

I've noticed you starting a lot of threads to ask questions, and I'm sure most of them can be answered by digging through other threads. Please always search the forum before you start a new thread, so be sure the topic hasn't been covered before.

With that, locking this.