The protagonist and player character of Silent Hill 4 is Henry Townshend, a resident of the South Ashfield Heights Apartments building in the fictional town of Ashfield.[9] Henry is an "average" man who has been described by Konami as an introvert in his late 20's.[10][11] For the most part Henry navigates the game's world alone, although he eventually works with his neighbor Eileen Galvin, an NPC whose role has been unfavorably compared to Maria of Silent Hill 2.[11] Henry also deals with the new supporting characters of Cynthia Velázquez, Andrew DeSalvo, Richard Braintree and Jasper Gein - the latter believed to be named after the serial killer Ed Gein.[12]
The main antagonist of the game is Walter Sullivan, an infamous serial killer who is believed to have died years prior to the game's events.[13] Sullivan appears in two forms: an undead adult enemy and a neutral child supporting character.[14] The previous victims of Sullivan play a small role in the game as enemies, and the original Japanese official site offered backstory information on these minor characters.[15][16]
Silent Hill 4: The Room uses two minor, unseen, characters from previous installments as major characters in its plot. The first, Walter Sullivan, was first referenced in a newspaper scrap in Silent Hill 2 as having killed himself shortly after killing twins Billy and Miriam Locane.[17] These two victims also appear in the form of the "twin victim" creature Henry encounters.[15] The second character is investigative journalist Joseph Schreiber, who was first referenced in Silent Hill 3 with a magazine article he has written condemning the "Hope House" orphanage run by The Order which the game's protagonist, Heather can discover.[18] It is implied in the game that South Ashfield Height's superintendent Frank Sunderland is the father of Silent Hill 2 's player character James Sunderland.[7][12][19]
Critics were, for the most part, pleased with the voice acting in the game.[11][20] The graphics of the characters were also praised.[7][11][20] In 2005 producer and composer Akira Yamaoka acknowledged the characters were, to him, "a little weak."[21]
[edit] Plot
Konami's model of the hole in Henry's apartment from GC 2004The game begins with the player taking control of protagonist Henry Townshend, who has been locked in his apartment in South Ashfield, room 302, for five days with no means of communication and having recurring nightmares.[22] Shortly afterwards a large hole inexplicably forms in the wall of his bathroom, and he enters. From there he enters a network of holes leading him through a series of Silent Hill-style worlds.
Henry's first destination is an abandoned subway station where he meets a woman named Cynthia Velázquez who is convinced she is in a dream, but is soon killed by an unknown man. On his radio he hears confirmation that she is indeed dead in the real world. The exact same thing happens to the next three people Henry finds: Jasper Gien, Andrew DeSalvo and Richard Braintree, a resident in Henry's apartment complex. The cases seem similar to the deceased serial killer Walter Sullivan's M.O. and Henry finds scraps of the diary of his apartment's former occupant, journalist Joseph Schreiber, who was investigating his spree.[23][24] Henry learns that Walter was in fact an orphan who had been led to believe that his biological mother was Henry's apartment, where he had been found.[25]
It is revealed that Sullivan is in fact attempting to carry out a ritual which calls for 21 murders, the 21 Sacraments, to try and "purify" his "mother," and is in an undead state through which he can kill his victims immortally.[26] Henry is his intended 21st victim. Midway through the game a child manifestation of Walter's "innocent" self interrupts the murder of the intended 20th victim, Eileen Galvin, and she joins Henry trying to find Schreiber.[27] At the same time hauntings begin to inhabit Henry's apartment and its condition disintegrates. The two eventually find the ghost of Schreiber, who tells them that their only escape is to kill Sullivan.[28]
Shortly after Henry acquires Walter's umbilical cord, a tool required to kill him for good, Eileen leaves Henry under Walter's influence. He finds her about to walk into a deathtrap with Walter, and the final boss fight ensues. After Walter is killed, there are four possible endings, determined by whether or not Eileen survived the final boss fight and on the condition of Henry's apartment.[3] There is no UFO "joke ending," a feature included in all earlier installments in the series
