RETRO – Over the years the Silent Hill series grew into a brand, and also a highly acclaimed horror series, that provided the player with a lingering sense of dread. It is also usually full of sadness, tragedy, and an atmosphere that is heavy with the cursed history of an abandoned town. These games were usually created by a Japanese studio, but Homecoming was developed by an American team, so let us see what they were capable of with this new entry to the Silent Hill franchise.

A man who is looking for his daughter, a husband looking for his dead wife, a girl marked by fate, a tenant locked in his own apartment, and a truck driver who just happened to pass by the town. These were the heroes of the Silent Hill series up until now. Every one of them was vulnerable, most of the times were just going with the flow of events.

Trying to survive the waves of enemies, and their nightmares, until we reached their final conclusion of the story. Silent Hill Homecoming’s protagonist is an ex-soldier Alex Shepherd, who has returned to his hometown. Sheperd returned to Glen in the hopes of forgetting the war’s horrible events. Of course we know that in a Silent Hill game these are futile dreams.

Something is wrong in Sheperd’s Glen

Before he even enters to Sheperd’s Glen, Alex has to fight some really horrible nightmares that take place in a hospital, and his little brother Joshua also has some unknown role in it. Of course we’ll meet the usual nurses that are becoming scarier. When Alex wakes up in the truck he realizes that the Hospital scene was just merely a dream. Our hero steps out of the truck, says goodbye to the driver, and heads towards his home.

However he realizes that not everything is the same as he had once left it. The town is transformed, and everything is gray, the streets are abandoned, plus his old acquaintances talk in riddles. His brother, and father disappeared mysteriously, and his mother seems to have gone off the wagon: sitting in a chair, holding a gun, while looking upwards as if she was praying for something. Basically something is very wrong in Shepherd’s Glen.

Not much else is left for our hero to do, but to go onwards and figure out what happened to the city, where his brother is, and why everyone is acting so weird.

Loving family

Silent Hill Homecoming was not as bad as the press says it is, however it is not a perfect game, and does not come near to the instant classics of Silent Hill 2 or 3. The story is interesting (though not quite as heavy as it usually is in the series), and the main character is sympathetic, so this allows us to connect with him more easily.

Joshua the little demonic brother really does scare us multiple times, and most of the characters act their “Silent Hill”-ian way. Throughout the story we uncover the reason why the strange behavior happens between the family and Alex, especially the way Alex’s father acts. We’ll get to know Alex’s girlfriend who has strong ties with our main character, and has a pretty good background story in the game.

While the story, and the characters are not as well thought out as in the previous Silent Hill games, it is still way above the usual horror game tropes. This is especially true for the final parts of the story where it starts to pick up, and a lot of the twists are revealed. One thing that annoyed me is that I wish I could have get to know some of the characters a little before they got eaten by a monster.

Gameplay did not change too much compared to the previous games. We have to roam the city, discover every nook and cram of it, solve puzzles, and of course kill the monsters that try to kill us. Usually the puzzles consist of aligning items in the correct order, or pull, pushing certain items.

“Revolutionary” changes

Although has stayed the same, a few pillars of the Silent Hill series have been changed by Double Helix for Homecoming. One major change is for example is that the camera is no longer fixed, but tracks our protagonist. Still this change caused some problems as there are times when we do not see where the enemy attacks us, which can be quite annoying. Another change is the combat system which allows Alex to dodge enemy attacks, and can counterstrike if the right weapon is used at the right time. According to the logic of the story.

Alex is much more powerful and agile, than the previous characters. Due to this some of the true Silent Hill feeling is lost, aka our hero is just a normal person fighting demons. As Alex is a “super soldier” we do not really feel the tension that the series used to have.

The new combat system is not perfect however, as without good reflexes will end up hitting the air constantly when trying to do a counterattack. Also it is never really made clear which weapon is effective against certain monsters, so Alex dies because we picked the wrong one before the initial encounter with the enemy. The combat in the beginning is really interesting as the AI is smart enough to trick Alex.

However later we will be able to notice the patterns they use so we’ll be able to avoid the pitfalls from the beginning. It is also recommended to use a gamepad, as that provides less frustration during combat, than a keyboard and mouse. The difficulty of the game gets harder over time, so while we won’t have much problem killing monsters in the beginning, later everything will be a mess to deal with.

It is also recommended to horde up on ammunition and weapons for the bosses otherwise you’ll end up sweating all the way till the end. Luckily we’ll be able to upgrade our weapons in the game, which will allow us to slay the bosses even quicker in certain situation. One thing I would like to note here is that the save points are really far from the crucial points of the game, so at times you’ll have to rewatch a cutscene, over and over, because sadly there is no option to skip these. This is really bad because the story is not that good to watch everything twice.

It is a bit rusty

The game’s graphics are subpar, and hit the usual standards of the previous titles. Which is a bit disappointing as we are in 2009. The characters are detailed enough, however their mimicking and expressions are worse than the 2001 Silent Hill 2 game, which is a fatal flaw for a Silent Hill game. I do not understand why Team Silent was not able to assist them in this part or for that matter in the cinematics, as they look really bad. The lip syncing is also not the best as it seems that sometimes the audio does not match the lips.

The animation of the characters however are great, and this is especially seen in Alex’s combat moves. The monsters are also well designed, and the nurses look just as sexy, yet disgusting as in the previous episodes. The other monsters are okay, but their wow factor is lost real quick, and some of the newer monsters later in the game feel like reskins of older ones.

The performance of the development team regarding the effects are pretty inconsistent. The Otherworld is awesome, and has first class effects, gives a good atmosphere to the game. However the fog effect used in the “real world”  is not only weak, but creates a weird illusion on the character’s skin. The most disappointing aspect is however the shadows in the game: sometimes they are too pixelated, or moves when the character stands still – it can be seen that the developers rushed this part of the development.

Sheperd’s Glen and Silent Hill looks relatively detailed, well at least the environment, as the textures are pretty low resolution, and we’ll notice this on bigger monitors, or HD TVs. Some of the camera angles really highlight the low quality parts of the game.

Scared, and yet bored at times

The horror aspect is not always the best in Homecoming. Besides the fact that Alex is a super soldier and can kill anyone with ease (at least in the beginning of the game), the locations are not that scary as in the previous games. Sheperd’s Glen was a really boring place to roam, and even the cemetery was more annoying than scary since I had to run around in a maze against undead dogs.

Also the developers somehow messed up the monster placement for Homecoming, and you’ll be able to see them before they try to surprise you. It really ruins any kind of tension or surprise the series usually had (especially in Silent Hill 2). Instead here the entire game devolves into one hack and slash game, and I did not feel like I was playing a Silent Hill game.

Luckily Akira Yamaoka comes to the rescue and does a fantastic job on the music front of the game. The music created by Akira is phenomenal, and at certain parts are nerve racking, and at other parts sad, or frightening. Another person to highlight for the music is Mary Elizabeth McGlynn whose fantastic voice enchants the player once it is heard. The voice acting is super, and all of the actors put their best to the table, and really helps the player to enjoy the story.

The Japanese know better

It was not a good idea to let Double Helix developer Homecoming. While the American developers were eager to produce Homecoming, and tried to keep the main pillars of the series intact, they left a few small parts unpolished. This resulted in a lot of issues for those that love the series. The story is interesting, and the main character is also developer with great depth, but the side characters die too quickly to actual create a bond between Alex and them.

The combat system was a mistake to change, or should have been extensively redesigned, to save a lot of frustration for the player. Same goes for the camera movement, it was changed with good intentions, but it ended up causing more harm than good.

Another stupid design decision was the reviving monsters until a certain checkpoint. The tension is heightened by the constant use of the flashlight that barely works now most of the times. So we will not see too much in the dark. Although this only made the game more frustrating than frightening, and I ended up playing with the contrast in the menu screen for a while.

I hope that Team Silent will take back the series one day, and will be more reluctant to pass it to another development team.

-BadSector- (2009)

Publisher: Konami

Developper: Double Helix

Genres: horror, action, adventure

Publication: 2009