Recent reviews by CJ_03.

While the setting itself isn't in the town of Silent Hill, the atmosphere definitely resembles it. Fog abound, monsters lumbering around, and few actual people to talk to. If you pick up collectibles and do a little reading, the game does have some connections to the town, albeit minor.

Gameplay wise, I think the game is great. I see a lot of discourse about the combat, and having played it on both Hard and Story difficulties, I really am not seeing it. The game has Hinako use a variety of weapons all with different properties, including weapon durability. I never really found myself struggling with the durability because the game gives you plenty of weapons and things to repair them, let alone the fact that there are plenty of times where running is also an option. Fighting enemies can be frustrating at first, but learning how to counter and how to utilize a combat mechanic called Focus really changed my viewpoint. There is also a stamina bar that dictates how much you can attack and dodge, which really only starts being a factor in group fights and boss fights.

Puzzles are mostly good. Most of the time I figured out the answers and felt pretty satisfied. I was playing all 3 difficulties and there are times where I had to look stuff up, and some of the solutions I feel as though the devs were reaching. Not as insane as SH3 Hard difficulty mind you.

The games story is really special. While I'm not going to have any spoilers here, I will say that the story is a bit confusing at first but this is done on purpose. NG+ and NG++ as well as the different endings (there are 5) add more details and context that really elevate the experience. I strongly urge that even if you only want to play one playthrough to watch subsequent NG+ runs to really get the full picture. The themes the game touches on are really intriguing and are unique to this game.

My only main issue with the game is a glitch sometimes where the game will start distorting and flickering in some areas of the game, however its rare and I usually bypassed these areas quickly.

I'd give it a 8.5/ 10. It stands among the Team Silent games in terms of quality.