Silent Hill: Homecoming Review

By Kevin "Berserker" Hall

Player(s): 1
Memory: 756KB

The Silent Hill series has been taking gamers on a wild ride through some of the most terrifying images and disturbing storylines for some time now. Last year's Silent Hill Origins for PSP went back to the beginning to show us how the darkness first spread throughout the town of Silent Hill. Origins marked the first time that the series has been developed by a developer other than Team Silent and now another developer has taken up the mantle and brought us a new next-gen Silent Hill entitled Silent Hill Homecoming.

Silent Hill Homecoming follows the story of Alex Shepherd, who has returned home from active duty due to the troubling nightmares about his brother. Upon arriving in his hometown, a mysterious fog now blankets the streets of a once thriving community. When he arrives at his family's house, Alex is greeted by his mother, who has lost much of her will to speak due to the disappearance of Alex's father and brother. Alex sets out on a journey to find his brother and find out what happened to his hometown.

Homecoming takes much more of an action approach when compared to other Silent Hill games. Silent Hill Origins increased the combat a good bit, but Homecoming goes even further by adding a dodge button. Enemy attacks can be dodged by tapping the dodge button just before an enemy attack connects to move out of the way of the attack. Directly after dodging, counter attacks may be performed. Dodging is a big key to survival in this Silent Hill installment since some enemies can get much more aggressive this time. The dodge feature really shines during boss battles since many of the bosses have to be fought in an open area without any sort of cover.

The new dodge feature has a few issues with timing sometimes. Some enemies simply do not give off a proper warning before an attack, which leaves you guessing and basically hitting the dodge button at random. Most enemies give off a warning sign, but some, I'm looking at you Feral, can get way too random with their attacks to where dodging can be quite hard to perform effectively.

This Silent Hill goes back to the basics in terms of weapons. Instead of collecting an assortment of different weapons like in Origins, the game offers only a few weapons like the older Silent Hills. This isn't a bad setup at all however, since Homecoming makes good use of all weapons that are obtained. There is no weapon that becomes completely useless. All of them have their own strengths and weaknesses. All melee weapons are also used to pass through certain obstacles from time to time, so you'll have to return to a certain weapon eventually even if you don't use it in combat. There are many button tap action commands much like Resident Evil 4, where a button is assigned to a certain action when your character gets close to an area that can be interacted with.

Homecoming falls victim to a bad framerate from time to time. During some battles, the animation will become choppy as too much action takes place on the screen at one time. This can have a bad effect on both combat and especially dodging. Sometimes simply rotating the camera in an area will cause the framerate to slow down a bit.

Upon first examination of some of the enemy designs in Homecoming, my first thought was that too many of them resemble a creature from past Silent Hill games. They do have some similarities but all of the enemies feel unique in their own way in Homecoming. Enemies in past Silent Hills didn't really display much of a weakness, but in Homecoming they all have a weakness that can be taken advantage of for defeating each one. For instance the Nurse is highly fazed by the flashlight and any loud noise, but when the light is turned off or you do not run or bump against an object, she will stand in place and not attack at all, allowing you to move up to her and attack her while she stands still. Almost all enemies have weaknesses such as this, which makes the combat much more pleasing. Some of them are weak to certain weapons and some have a weak spot on their body that can be taken advantage of.

Homecoming retains the same chilling atmosphere and creepy music that the Silent Hill series is well known for. It has some really good lighting effects also - watching the light shine on and off your character as you walk through a dimly lit area is quite impressive with the lighting effects showcased in the game. The street areas have received a major upgrade in this installment. The fog is so very heavy and realistic. A bunch of slaughter is showcased in some environments but I couldn't help but notice the same bloody figure appearing throughout the game - sometimes it is just a torso, but the same bloody figure model is used over and over for scenes of carnage and bloodshed, which takes away from these otherwise gruesome areas.

This time around, Otherworld transformations happen in real time either during cutscenes or in the actual gameplay. I was completely thrilled in one area to see the walls decaying as my character moved toward a door in the room. Both the normal world and especially Otherworld make good use of environmental effects and overall sound to impose fear into the player.

Sound has always been an important factor in the Silent Hill series and other survival horrors in general and I'm happy to say that Homecoming does a fantastic job in the sound department. Random noises, the clanging sound of metal, and sudden silence to emphasize something to come are all present just like in past games. The music matches each area very well, especially in Otherworld stages. The soundtrack is loud and relentless in Otherworld yet cool and faint in the normal world.

Characters from past Silent Hill games have always been full of emotion during cutscenes. In Homecoming each character retains the trademark emotions but the overall look of the character isn't displayed as well in their facial features this time. Lip movement seems so very minimal when some characters talk. Character designs for the more important characters look decent and they have a unique appearance and personality but some of the minor characters seem boring along with their personality.