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Silent Hill: Homecoming is the story of Alex Shepherd, a resident of Shepherd’s Glen coming back to town finding a mysterious fog, people missing, a catatonic mother, and most of all no sign of his baby brother Joshua. You awaken in a horrific hospital in the beginning of the game, with nothing but the sights and sounds of anguish from other people. You release yourself from the operating table and bare witness to an incredibly large sword impaling a hospital worker on the other side of the door. Of course, the sword belongs to the one and only Pyramid Head, and that is just one of the many fan services that are seen throughout the game.
I have made it incredibly obvious in the past that I am a huge fan of the Silent Hill series, in fact I bought an original Xbox just so I could get the extra content in Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams. I think of myself as somewhat of a horror game expert as well. Being that I feel that I am an expert at “what works” in the horror genre and an expert of the Silent Hill mythos, I was incredibly excited about the next-generation entry of the game, if also not a bit weary. After all, Double Helix Games, an American developer was given the duty to create Homecoming. I will admit though that I fall into the category of people that believe the Japanese have kind of lost touch with what gamers want and how to utilize the technology, and I felt a bit safer knowing Konami would simply have more of a producing role, and that a western developer was working on it. Still, Silent Hill: Homecoming, despite appealing to the fanboy in me, is incredibly disappointing.
Hey lady I did not steal your purse!
This game is almost like a bunch of fans (say someone like me) took the game from Konami and made a game based on what they knew of the series without actually trying to add on to it. The biggest addition is the updated combat system. You can now dodge attacks, and doing so at the right time then striking lets you cause extra damage. You can also aim far better with your weapons like aiming for specific spots on monsters, similarly to the targeting system in Resident Evil 4 or Gears of War. The irony of the combat—the one thing people complained most about in previous titles being tweaked—is that it takes away from the game. Controlling your character in previous games was kind of awkward at times, but it actually added to the suspense, and horror of being helpless. The game leads you to believe that Alex has military training, which doesn’t help. The past Silent Hill games had that extra layer of suspense thanks to the protagonist always being kind of an everyday idiot.
The game brings almost nothing new to the series other than a decent combat system either. Nearly all the enemies from Pyramid Head, the nurses, and plenty of nods to the Silent Hill Movie as well, really shouldn’t surprise you if you are a veteran of the series. What is even worse the story itself is completely coherent, something that can be kind of jarring if you are a veteran of the series. That has always been part of the mystique and terror of the games, is you don’t know what the hell is going on. Unlike the past games, which gave you a gradual, subtle dive into the deep dark world of Silent Hill, Homecoming will abruptly make sure you know that the crap has hit the fan. It does this in a really cool way, ripped right from the Silent Hill movie, as the “normal world” will peel off into thin air to reveal the dark and twisted “dark world” that has become a trademark of the series. The story and events end up being so predictable, that you know to expect a turning point in the game, or a boss when this happens. Other things the game rips straight out of the movie is the church, the black “lava monsters” and even some of the creatures are similar to their movie counterparts. The coherent plot, decent visuals, and the atmosphere is made in a way that it almost feels like the developers are trying to introduce the game to new audiences. The plot itself as I have mentioned is a bit on the predictable side, and the attempts to make it more psychological than “boo scared ya!” didn’t really pay off.
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