Knifing your worries away.
Who doesn't love a game where you play a person dealing with a deep personal drama, and the only way they can deal with it is going to a foggy town where all those things you thought were under your bed, are set front and center in your face for you to beat to death with a rusty pipe.
In case you haven't played it yet, i'm talking about Silent Hill.
A franchise everyone refers too when they explain what they want from a horror game. Even when Silent Hill 4 didn't receive the best of reviews, these games showed a great example of psychological horror, literally blended in monster horror.
So when the team disbanded, a loyal group of american developers by the name of Double Helix decided to take on the next SH game. That or they found out that there was going to be a movie of silent hill and they wanted to tie in something as way to get it too sell more. Considering that this is the same team that would go on to make the video game adaptation to the film versions of G.I. Joe, Green Lantern, and Battleship; you start to wonder how much they really knew about Silent Hill outside of the film?
Game Play
One of the big differences from this game and the past silent hill games is the reliance on combat. And it's not great, it makes sense in a story perspective because Alex was trained in hand to hand combat. But the whole combat system is severely lacking in depth beyond hacking and slashing, where you have your choice in three different weapons in range of damage and speed. As well as a choice of Light and Heavy attacks. But there is a bit of a learning curve in attacking and blocking, where you would think that the combat has a sense of strategy. You can easily use your knife to deal with enemies because your movements are so fast with the knife that they can't figure out when too attack. Making the knife the most powerful weapon in the game; even though its technically the weakest.
You also have an option of firearms from pistols to rifles that can take out some of the strongest enemies in one or two shots. Taking out a lot of the tension of the game, especially when you have the option to avoid a good 70% of it. Really draining away a lot of the tension of from a game that's supposed to scare you.
Exploration really offers nothing to the game. The game tries to implore the player to explore more of the town and talk to other characters in the game, but the lackluster voice acting and the empty rooms that dont feature anything more then a few health packs and ammo.
Design
The designs of the monsters do stick to the formula of the series of having them represent a issue with the main character or at least something relating to the town. This is where the new SH team got it right, for the most part anyway.The designs of the Siam, Schism, and the Lurker as well as the bosses all share a symbolic design of Sex, Birth, Duality and punishment. Wish they put that much effort in making the humans less plastic looking. Even when the first time you see the other world for the first time, from the second time and onward, it gets pretty bland.
The one thing that gets me in a twist is the level design; in past games, exploration was rewarded by learning more about the town and the people who lived in it. This reincarnation does this... for at least two levels and then onward gives you a bunch of empty hallways to make this game look less linear then it really is. Its lazy, very lazy.
Story
You play as Alex Shepherd a returning soldier who comes home to reconcile with his parents. Only to discover his town is missing half the people who lived there and are now replaced by hellish creatures that seem to want nothing more then to kill Alex.To his horror he has discovered his mother in a near catatonic state with the disappearance of his father and more importantly his brother. Taking a page from Silent hill 4, the game doesn't begin in Silent Hill, but in a town that's only stone throws away from it called Shepherd's Glen. But that's where the originality truly ends with a lot of themes borrowed from previous incarnations of the game. Especially the twist at the end.
The game intends to expand upon the lore of Silent Hill and how having any kind of connection to it, the titular town can affect a persons life and his or her descendants. But the theme of family and forgiveness is over shadowed by the lackluster voice acting and the numerous amount of plot holes. For example, why would you leave a cursed town only to found your own, not four miles away from that said town your leaving?
Homecoming also lacks the colorful cast of disturbed individuals that most fans will be used to. Using instead, bland faced characters who have at least one shining moment before they're killed off. Never affecting the story beyond a few minutes of dialogue before getting chucked into the same open grave with the rest of the cast. This also affects the enemies of the game, while they for the most part play the role of a road bump, their placement in the game is nonsensical in context of there . Like when you enter the town hall, the only enemy you'll face is one smoke monster in the left hallway.
All of this culminates to Alex's lack of a character depth. Giving his personality over to the player in multiple dialogue choices. He can either be a reserved and calm person, who wants nothing more then to help his fellow townsfolk and save his family, or be a selfish prick who just wants to be done with it all this crap. This becomes important to the story, because it affects what ending you get. And this multiple choice feature gives him less of an identity of his own and makes him more of a "create your own character" persona.
Final Thoughts
Its not a good game but at the same time its not a bad game either. Silent hill fans will find enough familiarity to trog though the bumbling story and catch all the little nods to previous games. While someone completely new to the franchise could easily get into the game but become alienated by its game play, then if the same gamer wanted to delve into the other games of the series. The developers had a chance to take crack at a long running series and take it in an interesting direction, but it only came out half appealing to the fans of the series and the other half who saw the movie.
Personal Notes
- I only cared about one character and that was the superstitious cop.
- Pyramid head shows up twice in the game with no indication why he's there.
- By the end of the game you will see more locked doors then you have ever seen in a game.
- And this game has the most pointless sewer level i've seen in a video game.
