Well, since it’s October, I thought that I’d play a horror genre WAD for this month’s “Doom II”/”Final Doom” WAD review. And, after a bit of searching, I stumbled across “A Silent Hill map for GZDoom” (2022) by Thysamithan.
As the title of this article implies, I technically didn’t finish this level – for reasons I’ll explain later – but I got up to the final bosses and, after figuring out how to activate cheats (bring up the console, “SV_Cheats 1”, then console-based cheats will be active upon respawning after death), took a brief glance at the rest of the level.
As usual, I used version 4.8.2 of the GZDoom source port whilst playing this level and it seems to require at least a vaguely modern version of GZDoom to run.
So, let’s take a look at “A Silent Hill map for GZDoom”. This review may contain SPOILERS and the WAD itself contains some FLICKERING LIGHTS (eg: when firing the SMG, some areas later in the level etc…)
This is a large single-level WAD with a ton of custom stuff – monsters, music, textures, fog effects, animations, gameplay mechanics, a new weapon etc… And one of the first things that I will say about it is that, whilst it is incredibly impressive in terms of locations and atmosphere – and worth playing for this alone – the difficulty balancing is a bit off. And, yes, I get that it is meant to be suspenseful and challenging but it sometimes crosses the line into cheap, frustrating difficulty.
Again, the atmosphere and style of this WAD is AMAZING. It’s like a mixture of the first two “Silent Hill” games, with a hint of “Quake” (1996) and the “Dark Souls” games. The fog effects are spectacular and it’s ridiculously cool to see at least a couple of familiar locations as well. Titling the map “The Restless Dream” was also a brilliant reference too. And I also love how this level messes with the expectations of “Silent Hill” fans too – with the forest path from the original “Silent Hill 2” (2001) going from being an eerily quiet and slow thing… to being a frantic monster-gauntlet. This made me laugh and it was awesome.
Seriously, the beginning of this level is so awesome 🙂 And, yes, it was made before the 2024 remake, so this is proper PS2-era nostalgia 🙂
Plus, it’s a really subtle thing, but the smooth animations for all of the weapons really help to make the level feel a bit more modern. The sound design is spectacularly eerie and the new monsters are – for the most part – really good as well. The best monster is probably the imp-zombie which will keep resurrecting until it literally “gives up the ghost”. And there’s also a sub-machinegun that you can use as well.
And it is so cool to see THIS location from the first game here as well 🙂 I love how seamlessly this WAD blends these two games. It’s really cool 🙂
There is a ton of cool-looking and technically impressive stuff in this WAD – even including doors that open like actual normal doors – which I have literally nothing but praise for. And it’s a traditional style non-linear level, but with well-placed set-pieces and segments. There is a lot of good stuff to say about this objectively cool level.
But… the gameplay. Oh god, the gameplay! *Sigh* I get what the designer was trying to do with this level. Survival horror is meant to be tense and cerebral, with limited resources and limited weapons. It is a genre where you must carefully search for resources. And, in theory, the “Resident Evil 2” (1998) type mechanic where your movement speed slows down when your health is low is also a cool idea. In theory.
The trouble is that this style of survival horror only works when the game gives the player the option to run away and when the number of – and aggressiveness of – monsters is carefully controlled. Game balancing is everything with this type of survival horror. But this level also tries to add an element of “Dino Crisis” (1999)/ “Resident Evil 4” (2005) -style “Panic horror” where you are overwhelmed by lots of monsters. And the end-result of combining these two very different approaches to survival horror is, unfortunately, frustration. The worst of both worlds.
If there were fewer monsters, this would be an amazing old-school survival horror experience. If there were more resources, this would be an awesome “panic horror” game. Alas, it’s the worst of both worlds…
Given how scarce health can be sometimes, the “You slow down when your health is low” mechanic seems like an insult. When your health is low, you need to be able to run away with this many monsters. And, yes, the fact that you only get a few weaker weapons is good in theory… but not with that many monsters to fight! Add to this the fact that the monsters are more aggressive than in a “Silent Hill” game, often chasing you across much longer distances when you run away and – with the flying monsters – with more powerful attacks, and all of this adds up to something which is frustrating more often than it is suspenseful.
In fact, the reason why this level was a “DNF” for me and I resorted to cheats was because of… literal “Dark Souls” bosses… at the end. I’ve never played these games, but even I can recognise the names “Ornstein and Smough”. And, yes, great! Give me enough firepower for a fair fight and this would be cool. But I just had the basic pistol and shotgun left and, thanks to the bosses’ health counters, I soon realised that I probably didn’t have enough ammunition to even stand a chance against these two.
Ok, the reflection effects are cool and, as someone who played a lot of “Slaughter Map”-style WADs during the mid-late 2010s, I get the appeal of challenging gameplay. But this “Dark Souls” boss battle really does sum up the frustrating elements of this level….
Again, from a level design and technical perspective, this level is ridiculously impressive. It’s atmospheric and there are all sorts of cool locations and details – such as a random shop you can find if you actually bother to explore the streets of Silent Hill at the beginning, and Harry Mason’s abandoned car – this is an incredibly cool level in some ways. But, the actual gameplay! It is frustration personified! Again, I get what the designer was trying to do – but the balancing is off. If you want an old-school survival horror level, tone down the monsters a bit! If you want a frantic “panic horror” level, give the player enough resources! Just, please, choose one!
If I had to give it a rating out of five, it would get a three (A solid five for presentation and visual design, but a one for actual gameplay).
