Silent Hill: Homecoming

"The newest vacation in Hell"

I am a long time Silent Hill Fan, have been ever since the first one was released on the Playstation 1. Like many, I've experienced some of the ups and downs of the series, as well as how lame or awesomely demented some of these games can get. My opinion stands today that Silent Hill 2 was the best of the series, that game was Evil. Around the end of 2007, I found out that Silent Hill 5 was being developed. Obviously, I was pretty excited. And then release day rolled around, just in time for October to start. Did this game live up to the series' standards? Or say, will it scare the hell out of you? Let's find out.

Similar to Silent Hill: Origins, this game was made by a new developer. Double Helix games seems to be a new group, so I was a little charitable when thinking of how to write this review. While there's many flaws in the game, you can still tell that they put a lot of effort into the game, which I can really appreciate when it comes to games these days.

Story:
The storyline of Silent Hill has always been an incredibly interesting one. Unlike taking the science-fiction route like the Resident Evil series, the Silent Hill games have always originated around occult activity. Silent Hill 2 seemed to stray from the background of the town a bit, but it was about the only one to do so. In Silent Hill: Homecoming, you take control of a 22 year-old army soldier named Alex Sheperd. Now, as soon as you look at the back of the game's case, the tag-line Welcome to Sheperd's Glen might worry you a little bit, when it comes to just how much this game has to do with Silent Hill. Well don't worry, this game has quite a bit of the actual Silent Hill town in it, only it also tells the story of the neighboring town, Sheperd's Glen, as well.

The story in this game alone is pretty well told; whether it be through flashbacks of Alex's childhood, scattered memos all over the game, or cut-scenes with other characters, you do get the gist of what's been going on. There's a good mix of tragedy, shocking truths, and good all around horror in the game. Compared to other Silent Hill games, the story is pretty well written and told; but compared to other games in general, it could be better.

Similar to the rest of the games in the series, Homecoming has a whopping 5 endings that you can achieve. Thankfully, they're pretty easy to get, all you have to do is make a certain few choices; nothing as painfully annoying as some of the older games. Those who played Silent Hill 1 and 2 will know what I mean. Honestly though, the endings could have, and should have been better. Most of the endings are around 1 minute long, the longest I believe is around 4 minutes long, and doesn't explain anything extra at all. It might sound like I'm being overly picky, but once you beat the game, you'll see what I mean. Would it really take that much more effort to add at least a few more minutes onto these endings? In some of them, you don't have a clue how you end up at where the ending takes place. I can't say too much more without giving away spoilers.

Silent Hill endings have always had a little mystery to them, but not quite to this extent. I will give Double Helix credit though for trying to stay true to the series. The game does borrow some things from the Silent Hill movie too, which is pretty much a good thing, the movie introduced some very cool elements into the story.

PROS:
+Story well told.
+Keeps up with the older games.
+Everything gets explained in the end.

CONS:
-The endings suck.
-It's no Silent Hill 2.

Story overall: 8/10

Graphics:
I'm trying to be charitable again when it comes to the graphics of the game. To make a long story short, they do manage to hold up in today's generation of gaming, for the most part. They look like they could have been on the PS2, but they still look better than the other games in the series. On the very first night I had this game, I killed a dog on some stone steps in the cemetery. The dog fell down dead on the stairs, which is where I had to sigh a little bit. Actually, it did feel a little nostalgic, it brought me back to the PS1 days; the dog's corpse was floating in mid-air. His rear end had landed on one of the steps, and the rest of his body was just floating in place, as if he was laying on level ground. Not cool, this isn't really something that we should see these days in games. If something like this doesn't bother you, then I wouldn't worry too much, because this is the only real issue like this that I encountered.

There's also been a number of reported glitches on the GameFAQs forum. Some glitches that are bad enough that they can end your entire game, forcing you to restart from the beginning. Someone said that they ran to a save point after inspecting a hole (Press X to investigate, then jump down), and for some reason after he got back, the game wouldn't let him jump down the hole. Glitches like this are unacceptable, and that guy had to restart the entire game again, just for wanting to save his progress before jumping into the darkness below.

I think if they had spent another month polishing the game, there would be a lot less to complain about.

PROS:
+Holds up in today's graphics, for the most part.
+Character details are done decently.

CONS:
-Could have been a lot better
-Graphic glitches similar to what you'd see on the PS1.
-The framerate dips sometimes, for no reason at all.
-Game-ending glitches are unacceptable.

Graphics overall- 6/10

Gameplay:
Bingo, this is the Silent Hill series has always been a little weak. I'm going to open with this statement, that Silent Hill: Homecoming has the best gameplay of the entire series. The older Silent Hill games had great stories, but their combat was awful. This time around, Double Helix seemed to put some thought into the combat, which seemingly payed off for the series.

*New Combat Engine

Unlike the older games; you can dodge, roll, and strike with strong/weak attacks. This is a nice, practical step up from the melee combat in Silent Hill 2, but it does come with flaws. On the upside, you can get into some serious 1 on 1 brawls with any monster, no matter how big it is. If you ever fight 2 enemies at once, the one that you aren't targeting will usually just stand there politely and wait for you to finish slaughtering his buddy. While it's unrealistic and unlikely, it is a little less stressful for the player. I have been hit in the back by an enemy that I wasn't targeting, but 7 times out of 10, they'll stand there and wait for their turn.

The downside of the combat is painful... firstly, if you are fighting indoors, stay the hell away from any doorways, or any solid object in general. Can you guess why? Your melee attacks will start to oddly hit the door or wall and force you to bounce back instead of strike the monster. I died twice because of this. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I prefer to believe that someone who has at least a little bit of fighting skill and half a brain would be smart enough to not hit the wall when fighting for their life. The AI can be damn annoying too at times. Sometimes during these fights, they'll stand around and let you whoop the tar out of them, while other times you'll swear that they're straight out of Ninja Gaiden II. Maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but it can be pretty horrid at times.

Also a slight note; make sure you become familiar with the combat system early on, as the game is a little mean when it comes to giving healing items out. It's not ridiculous, but it can be a game-ender if you run out of healing items in a tough area.

And lastly, thankfully, this game's combat system is NOT like Silent Hill: Origins. It does have a good mix of guns to use, along with the melee. I'm pretty sure that Origins was trying to rip off Dead Rising a little bit, and it was just god awful.

PROS:
+Much better battle system.
+The fighting can be fun.
+Monsters can be a little forgiving.

CONS:
-Melee dominance over monsters can hurt the fear factor a good bit.
-Hitting walls is irritating, and shouldn't happen.

Gameplay overall- 7/10

I wasn't too sure where to put this, so I made it its very own section...

Fear Factor:
Ah yes, probably the most important part of the game. Does this game make your neck hair stand up on end? Oh my, it sure does. There seems to be 2 different kinds of fear inducing genres in games. The thriller games like F.E.A.R.(First Encounter Assault Recon) or Condemned, where you are fighting enemies like normal, and little things happen every once in a while to make you jump, like a ghost popping out of the woodwork, or running towards you out of darkness.

And then there's Survival-Horror, where you really find yourself wondering "Holy Jesus, am I about to die? What the hell is making that noise?! And that my friends, is Silent Hill: Homecoming. The game retains the old touches from the other games, being the terrifying siren that goes off, followed by a Nightmare or alternate reality of the town. I actually complained a little above about the healing items, but the lack of healing in this game really does add to the fear, because you don't know if you're going to make it all of the way through. Some nights, it got to the point where I almost didn't want to play the damn game because I didn't want to put myself into that hell that is Silent Hill. Horror fans, why do we do this to ourselves? Do we have an inner lust for self abuse? Haha, it seems so, when we rush out to buy games like this.

Truth be told, I seriously was spinning the camera around a lot to make sure that nothing was sneaking up behind me, especially in the Nightmare world. At times, you'll actually HEAR things walking, or the entire screen shaking, or screams echoing throughout the entire building, and you just cringe knowing that the game is plotting your demise.

The dolls are evil...

Watch your back.

PROS:
+Scarier than the older Silent Hills, even 2.
+What else can be said, it's a nail biter, you're going to be scared, or at least jump.

CONS:
None.

Fear Factor overall 10/10

Overall, I'd give this game a 7/10. I feel that Double Helix did a good job in making it, and I kind of hope that they stick with it and make the next Silent Hill. The graphics and the glitches are mainly what stop me from giving this game a 9/10, or maybe even a 10/10. Glitches can be fixed with a patch though, so we'll see what happens.

Buy or Rent?

I'd say give it a buy, once the price drops on it a bit. I wouldn't go too far past $45.00 USD, unless you're a fan of the series.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/16/08

Game Release: Silent Hill: Homecoming (US, 09/30/08)