Silent Hill: Homecoming

Positives:

• A few interesting ideas
• Some of the creatures designs
• Musical score

Negatives:

• Lack of horror
• Gameplay
• Graphics
• Story
• Poorly done psychological elements

As an avid fan of the Silent Hill series, I understandably, had this pre-ordered way back 2 months ago. I received it last week and completed it 2 days ago. That's a miserly 12 hours in all! So, how do I rate this in comparison to the others?? Quite frankly, I don't. It does not come anywhere near S.H 2, 3 and yes, even 4 (which I really enjoyed). All fans of Silent Hill know the formula -it's that oppressive, dark, dense, anxious build up. Claustrophobic and psychological right the way to the end. These elements are synonymous to Silent Hill and were severely lacking in this game. It borrows so heavily from the film and has a Resident Evil feel about it, that doesn't work. The plot, length, atmosphere, quality and overall feel of this game was quite frankly nothing more than an American travesty of something that was unique and brilliant. It is a passable RPG at best. A Silent Hill game? I think not.

Review of the PC version. When Alex comes out of a military hospital and returns to where he grew up(after having been gone for years), he finds his mother catatonic, his younger brother missing(is there going to be a creepy kid in every installment of this series?) and his father(John Locke) seemingly having gone in search of the aforementioned sibling. You can never return home, a theme explored in this. Of course, usually that's done without Hellraiser going on. The characters aren't bad(if everyone looks the age of 30 tops, including the ones who have adult offspring), and the voice acting is above average, and yet this does not have the impact of the others(it is around the same as The Room in that area). Yes, the plot is going to let some people down, if the twist is pretty good. I don't think that's it... no, it's that there are hardly any puzzles in this. Well, they're there... I just wouldn't dignify them by referring to them as that. I'd call them "tasks". Go into a room, find an object, place it in another one, that's it. There are two or three that take in excess of a minute or two and aren't your first guess, the rest, you're almost going through the motions. You don't have trouble finding your way, either. This is as linear(and the levels as nicely done, with an infested hotel and a police station under attack; you go back to some of the same spots as earlier on in this) as the rest, and tense enough for you to not notice. The challenge all comes from the more action-oriented tone of this. It does still build atmosphere, effectively with the excellent sound-side, the grotesque creature designs(there's a four-legged man-sized spider with blades for legs, a tight-clothes-wearing psychotic nurse with bouncy cleavage(...why?) and a knife with your name on it, and the second-hand-smoker's worst nightmare that you'll want to keep away from you; then again, this does have the worst dogs(it's the only bad case, really), they're essentially skinless with a head that's the cross of a newt and a leopard... no, really, I swear, this makes them seem superior to how they actually are), the Hellish Otherworld and the abandoned, fog-covered(and it's done better than any of the earlier ones, and you can "lose yourself" in it and suddenly be running in the direction you came from... you know, like Neo trapped in Limbo early in The Matrix Revolutions; that's not a spoiler), should be quaint yet *isn't*, isolated suburbia. You have environment interaction(in addition to the realistic Havok physics engine, as also seen in Max Payne 2), where you can squeeze yourself through, duck under or hop over if there's a partial entrance to another place(note that some of your foes can follow you, including opening doors! And you'll want to sometimes up and run away from them), as the guy is a soldier... and this does make the tough fights seem greater(how nasty must these things be if a trained army guy has trouble?). When you enter combat, you can do fast attacks(and combo) or powerful ones, and dodge/block(the enemies will do that as well; AI is marvelous, except for when the bugs hit it... there are a bunch in this, that can really frustrate you, though I never had to start this over), and you have to learn their style to get past them. It works fine enough, if the timing can really be bothersome, and it is highly exciting. You get a knife(that can also cut through fabric), a pipe(that can pry open doors), an axe(that can hack through boards), a pistol and a shotgun. Ammo is extremely sparse similar to #4, so make the bullets count. You can do a short-range blow with any firearm in this, if they get too close(and aiming is first-person... thank you, Konami). There is a lot of inspiration drawn from the lousy movie... they do kinda pull it off. This requires fast-clicking(and in general it's fairly immersive) in certain situations, like in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. It's quite cinematic. The cut-scenes are all in-engine or pre-rendered. Graphics are nice, with a real dynamic look to some of the things where it makes sense(you see a sort of vein running across the metal-plated floor, and it seems to be flowing, or like something fluid is running through it) and fantastic filters, like "old film", creating a genuinely unsettling mood. It's like the first in ways, but when you reach somewhere where the road is gone, it looks like it slid down. There are fancy features that you don't need, like the ability to turn around items(it's not like you can catch subtle details on them that help you... it's already giving you too many hints). I do love that we get complete control over a 360 degree camera when we want... you gotta stand still, that's all. The light even follows it. That really should have made it into these sooner. Faces and hands look "off", I can't put my finger on why... it's not unlike Robert Zemeckis' CGI flicks, his A Christmas Carol(the one with Jim Carrey), Beowulf and the rest, you know, soulless eyes, they're like really close to human yet *not*... the movements are strange at times, and they seem incapable of displaying three emotions... also, our protagonist always looks confounded, as well as like he doesn't know what that word means. Animation is excellent. If we define Silent Hill as what we got in the original three and what the fourth was a different artist's take on(not the same, yet interesting in its own right), then this, well, ain't it. That's not to say that it isn't a cool and fun game. The psychology holds up, and it makes you think, like the rest of them. There is bloody, gory, brutal violence, sensuality and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to fans of survival horror, and not to purists. 8/10

Oh my lord. I am possibly the biggest Silent Hill fan I know, I've managed to introduce several friends to the wonders of this series and many of them enjoy it too. I recently received an Xbox 360 for Christmas, and the main reason I wanted it was for this game. I waited months for this game to come out, and having adored all the previous titles (even 4!) I was eagerly anticipating this one's release. I always say that no matter how bad a Silent Hill game is I will always finish it. But I've decided not to finish this one. Honestly, this game is beyond terrible. The graphics were decent and the voice overs were pretty good but that's about all. Besides having a totally boring plot that hardly ties in with any of the previous games at all, the game is crawling with glitches. Just as I decided to give it another chance this morning I walked right into a glitch many others have been having problems with. Therefore I had to start over. Now I just can't be bothered to finish the game, having spent many frustrating hours screaming at the television screen because this game is so damn.. ugh, it basically takes the word frustration to a whole new goddamn level. What really sucks about this game is that they had the atmosphere just right; the town of Silent Hill, the fog, the whole atmosphere was pretty much perfect. Then they threw in the dumb ass combat and it all went to hell. What makes a Silent Hill game for me is not the constant fighting, but the wandering around in the fog, and that helpless feeling you get when you hear a strange noise in the distant. In this game they pretty much took out all of these things and threw in a bunch of extremely annoying enemies that take about fifty hits from the axe to actually kill, that is before they've already knocked you on your ass half a dozen times. Also, weapons and ammo are extremely limited. I'm not saying there was a bunch of ammo everywhere you looked in the previous games, but hell, this is like playing Resident Evil - only even goddamn harder, and you can imagine what that's like. I'm so disappointed at this game, it could have been amazing if the Japanese hadn't handed it to the Americans. That being said, Origins which was also made by the Americans was a lot better than this game, so maybe they just went wrong somewhere. It's a pity really, this could've been a really good game if they'd just fixed a few things. I'm sad that I wasted thirty eight pounds buying this game, but I don't really regret it. I would've bought it anyway at some point, so it's just bad luck really. I've never been so annoyed with a game in all my life, and this one is easily the most difficult SH game I've ever played. Anyone who enjoys action and combat should try this game, but if you're a true Silent Hill fan who still considers the second game the best of the bunch, I'd say rent it. It's certainly not worth wasting any of your hard earned money on. 1/5

The game itself is a huge leap as it changes the combat system entirely from 1 and 2 (I didn't play 3 or 4 I'm assuming they're the same). For starters the game is more combat oriented with the introduction of using various combos and finishing moves to kill your enemies, you can also aim the gun yourself giving you the freedom to place a few pellets in certain monsters critical zones which can be really handy when your conserving those last 4 bullets that you 'wasted' 2 minutes ago fighting another creature.

The horror factor stands up to the silent hill name, really gory, really twisted and leaves you feeling cold due to the attention paid to certain details. The characters are likable and are great to interact with due to the new speech system allowing you to take complete control over certain dialogues. It's also great how you can have a combat buddy fighting alongside you, blasting monsters back to back.

My only complaint is the fact that the game is really anti-climatic towards the end, in many cases it feels that the designers just got bored and didn't bother with some greater in depth story line unlike in SH2 where you get two bosses and a scene explaining more of the story.

Overall the game is good and I give it 8 stars for the reason that the ending wasn't as good as it could have been, but it is definitely worth the look.