Excellent environmental lighting and shadow effects build a fantastic.

The Silent Hill franchise has always been known for its ability to trip the player's psychological levers, instilling a significant amount of unease, fear and even dread at the situations that they find themselves in. Whether it was wandering the fog enshrouded streets of Silent Hill or the rusty, industrialized hallways of the Otherworld, the characters were normal people -- not fighters -- stranded in a situation that was completely out of their control, forced to survive any way they could against unnatural monsters. That, in turn, imparted a sense of panic and concern in the player because they weren't guaranteed to emerge from a fight unscathed. Unfortunately for the series, the latest installment from Konami and Double Helix, Silent Hill: Homecoming, manages to drain the emotional and psychological elements from the game. While the monsters and strange environments of the game return, the overall experience just isn't scary, which is a major letdown for a title with such a great horror pedigree.

Homecoming is the story of Alex Shepherd, a recently discharged soldier who has disturbing dreams that seem to plague him during his waking moments, many revolving around his younger brother Joshua. Once he eventually gets back to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen (thanks to a quick cameo of a previous Silent Hill character), he discovers that things are truly bad at home and only getting worse. People have been disappearing in increasing numbers, including Alex's father and little brother, the streets are shattered and in disarray and strange creatures roam the town. As Alex investigates his family's disappearance and the incidents going on, he eventually discovers the dark secret of Shepherd's Glen, its connection to Silent Hill, and how his family plays a significant role in these events. The tale itself is a decent one -- players that have gone through a number of Silent Hill stories before will gain a new perspective on the communities bordering Toluca Lake. he true star of the title, as it always has been within the franchise, is Akira Yamaoka's musical selections. Atmospheric, moody and beautifully presented, the music is as good as it's ever been. However, because the gameplay looses its psychological edge or the fear, the score feels somewhat misplaced with the title. It's way too good for many of the bland sections, and, after a while, you may exert too much of your energy even trying to get into the mood set by his music. It practically tries to beat you into feeling an emotional level that isn't supported by the rest of the game. Vocally, the dialogue is fine -- it's not horrible, but it's not fantastic either, and there are a number of delivered lines that you'll want to simply throttle characters for. In fact, you'll want to throttle Josh or leave him to whatever fate he'd suffer in the Otherworld because of his petulant delivery.
Closing Comments
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As a fan of the entire Silent Hill universe and someone that has every game associated with the property, I was hoping that Homecoming would be an excellent step forward for the franchise. Unfortunately, I admit that the game feels like a bit of a letdown. The gameplay has been reduced from a tense psychological experience fraught with spine tingling jumps and scares to a generic, predictable action title set in the location with good graphics and a great soundtrack. If Alex had been limited in some way, or even if there was an adjustment to the fearful aspect.

Silent hill homecoming PS3

Silent Hill: Homecoming (Also known as Silent Hill 5 or Silent Hill V) is the 6th instalment of the famous horror series, Silent Hill. Silent Hill: Homecoming follows the story of a soldier returning home from war, Alex Shepherd. The story follows Alex’s search for his brother through his hometown of Shepherd’s Glenn, which on Alex’s return home after being discharged from the Armed Forces, is now a hellish nightmare filled with strange disappearances and, of course, monsters.

There has been a lot of scepticism about Silent Hill: Homecoming’s development, as it hasn’t been made by series developer Team Silent in house at Konami, but instead by American developer Double Helix, part of a merge with Shiny Entertainment & The Collective (Marc Eco’s Getting Up, Star Wars Episode III). Looking at their past games library, and the fact that they aren’t Japanese like the original developers, it’s easy to see why lots of fans have been sceptical and generally against the idea of a full console Silent Hill being developed by them.

However, the end result of a different team isn’t a complete disaster, but isn’t 100% perfect either. What has remained story about the Team Silent touch however is Team Silent member Akira Yamoka and his music. Silent Hill: Homecoming’s sound track is excellent and is very much up to standard in comparison to the other Silent Hill games. The soundtrack ranges from industrial during a boss encounter, peaceful and calming when you’re talking to a friend (Like the cut scene with Elle) and tense and ominous like during a boss battle. There is very little or no complaint with the sound track, voice acting included, which is also pretty good.

The combat system has very clearly been changed, and has definitely increased the speed and the action during the combat parts of the game. The first thing to say about this is that it does not affect the horror, and the more action oriented fighting doesn’t mean the rest of the scary bits aren’t scary. The battle system itself though, does have its issues. Dodging attacks can be pretty frustrating at times, because the time between you pressing O and Alex actually moving is sometimes a little bit delayed, which can make precise dodging nearly impossible, not because you couldn’t learn the press it just that bit earlier to compensate for the delay, but because sometime it is delayed and sometimes it isn’t. The other annoying thing about dodging is that sometimes it doesn’t move you in the right direction, or at all. Also, if you’re fighting a monster and try to dodge while you’re in a corridor, you’re definitely going to get hit and there’s very little you can do other than shoot or run. The good thing about the combat system though is that it makes fighting the monsters much more fun... when you’re winning, of course. Pulling off combos and beating the monsters into a bloody mess then finishing them off by stabbing the pipe through their head or chopping their head clean off is a very welcome addition. The battle system, by combination of the real-time damage effects and great sounds, really makes you feel the crunch of pipe into that Nurse’s skull. Lovely. For the most part though, I’d have to say the combat is as good as the previous games to control, but with harder monsters and added things like combos, finishers and dodges (If it works).

9/10 score

A Solid 'Silent Hill Lite' Game

For the hardcore Silent Hill fans out there, this is often viewed as an 'Americanized' Silent Hill game. For those new to the Silent Hill games, this is a good place to start getting into the wonderfully dark, depraved and introspective world these games are set in.

Graphically, the game is top-notch. Although not as 'shiny' and graphically intense as most next-gen games tend to be (FEAR 2, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, etc.) it is never-the-less solid for a game that is less about graphical 'wow' and more about setting a suitably creepy atmosphere for the gamer to enjoy and take part in. In fact, the atmosphere is one of this game's strengths and it has it in droves. The only two Silent Hill games that can fight for this level of graphical submersion are that of Silent Hill 3, and Silent Hill 4: the Room.

The playability of the game is a bit above average. The puzzles are straightforward and easy to get while still making you use the grey goop in your head for some things, but aren't overtly frustrating. The bosses are elegant and straightfoward, although lacking a lot of the epicness that some other games try for (namely the Devil May Cry or Resident Evil series). The game also has a bit of replayability built in with the form of multiple endings, unlockable costumes for the main character and unlockable weapons. Although this is a novel idea, one will quickly tire of the same old missions and scares throughout the game, just to unlock a new costume or see a slightly different ending.

The storyline of the game is pretty solid compared to most mainstream games, especially the complete lack of any storyline or appreciable character development occuring in most FPS genre games that seem to dominate the gaming market lately. However, the storyline does not hold up compared to previous Silent Hill games and the Silent Hill franchise's rival, the Resident Evil series. It is noticable that another development company (one that seems to be American) has taken control of the Silent Hill games starting with Silent Hill Origins and now with Homecoming (and no doubt with the future PSP release of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, a Silent Hill 1 remake due sometime next year). Although the beginning of the game drops you into the full extent of the atmosphere of Sheperd's Glen and even Silent Hill itself, around halfway through the game things begin to lose their atmospheric importance and storyline cohesiveness. Some elements, such as the Dr. Fitch set of missions, which are heavily built up to if you pick up clues throughout the beginning of the game seem tacked on and aren't fully realized. Even the relationship between Alex and Elle is never even explored properly. There are a lot of areas in the game that tantalize you and beg you to explore them, yet often always remain outside of your ability to get to them, or...like the final romp through Silent Hill near the end of the game, often fall short of expectations (for instance standing in front of Alchemilla Hospital, begging to get in, yet for all your desire to go there, you're met with a locked door and a single Health Drink).

The game had high expectations and most of those are fulfilled, the rest seemed to have fallen to the wayside as deadlines for the developers neared, or through constraints on the dataload of the game itself. But as a balance between graphics and substance, it does achieve what it intends to do. It is a good 'introduction' to the dark world of Silent Hill.

Double Helix destroyed it, but it's still playable

The new Silent Hill brings many changes, some good but most bad, to the series. I first want to say that the new development company has done a horrible job at keeping up with Team Silent (previous developer). Some of the things I liked about the game are the fact that the story-line is OK, the monsters are sweet (but difficult, I'll get to that in a minute,) the graphics are excellent and the characters are very creative. I recommend it to survival horror fans, but I do NOT recommend it to major Silent Hill fans looking for another great Silent Hill game. The only way that I can see someone enjoying this game is if they didn't like the previous titles because this game feels nothing like them at all. In fact, the game is absolutely horrible when compared to previous. Right now I'm going to tell you exactly why it is so bad and why Double Helix should be shut down for turning the greatest video game franchise of all time into a low budget pile of junk:

1. DEAD MONSTERS DISAPPEAR - If your a major Silent hill fan like me, you've probably noticed that in all of the previous titles, when you kill a creature it's dead body stays in the spot you killed it in, even when you leave the room. They do not disappear. This adds a major level of realism to the game, but sadly this new title completely removes it. Now, bodies disappear within seconds of being killed. This was a major major disappointment to me, MAJOR.

2. NO EASY MODE - Another great thing about Silent Hill in the past was that all of the games (with the exception of 0rigins) had an easy mode. And not only was there an easy mode, the easy mode was actually easy, unlike in Resident Evil where the easy mode is still pretty difficult. Well, this new game has no easy mode, just Normal and Professional and the Normal mode is VERY DIFFICULT. Health items are very hard to find and through most of the game you will be using a very small selection of melee weapons and not guns because there are also very limited bullets. I had never in my life had so much difficulty in a Silent Hill game, VERY DISAPPOINTED, but I did finally beat the game.

3. VERY SMALL AMOUNT OF WEAPONS - Silent Hill 4 gave us tons of awesome melee weapons, from golf clubs to torches you could light to small axes, they were literally sweet as anyone could imagine and 0rigins gave us cool things like TV's and toasters and way more. Well, Double Helix managed to screw that up too. This new title has a VERY SMALL selection of weapons, even smaller when it comes to melee weapons, though the ol' steel pipe and knife are there. When you bump into objects they move in this game, it would have been really nice if you could pick up objects and throw them at monsters but nope, you cant.

4. YOU CAN TELL ITS LOW BUDGET - Just by playing it you can tell it's very low budget and does not even try to keep up with the level of excellence offered in previous titles. After you play this game you will seriously think that the developers have never touched a Silent Hill game in their lives. The controls are clunky, some of the areas do not match what was shown in previous games, the flashlight is horrible, it is pretty short (even shorter then previous titles) and it just overall does not feel like Silent Hill.

In the future, if Double Helix develops another Silent Hill game, I will think twice before buying it. If your a Silent Hill fan, you may want to RENT this game, not buy it. Trust me, its not worth it.

Bootleg Silent hill 2....

I was very excited about buying this game! I knew of the Silent Hill title and come to love it. I bought the game and at first I was like "OKAY I AM READY!" .... but then... as it kept draggin on I noticed something weird.. the story sounded so familiar and from the start I already knew where the story was heading.

The story was weak from the start and wasn't addictive like previous Silent Hill titles. The story seemed like a repeat of Silent Hill 2, but a cheap version.

The enemies in the game are annoying and are not fun to kill! There are very limited ammunition in the game, but that is okay because I was able to beat the game with a knife alone. Its very easy to beat the game with a knife if done right. A flashlight "off" will save you for sure in this game, but problem with that is its really dark in the game and you can't see a darn thing without it on!!!!

The enemies in the old games had a meaning and a symbol or manifestation of
the characters emotions and thoughts. Such as the Romper in Silent hill 1 which was a manifestation of Alessa's fear of adults. The Air Screamer which came from one of Alessa's favorite books. Stuff like this always told you about the character and what was going on around them. But in Silent Hill Homecoming they removed this and the monsters are just there to be cool.

The monsters are unique to the characters and their emotions so how is the pyramid head guy in part 2 and in homecoming? IN homecoming he was there just for show and had no real meaning which ruined a big part of the game for me.

Silent hill Homecoming had a lot from the movie Silent hill such as monster design with the nurses and pyramid head. The shift between worlds was just like in the movie which makes me really sad.

The game wasn't scary to me and the feel of the game was way off from the other silent hill titles. I felt that this game should have had a new name instead of it being another silent hill title. The music didn't help the game which we all know in previous titles the music was one of the best things in the game. I felt that the music didn't live up to the old titles and didn't help this game become scary.

In silent hill homecoming the main character was supposedly had just come out of the army and so he has combat skills. These combat skills ruin the game and make the game feel more action then sneaky and scary. In previous Silent hill games the lack of combat skills and poor accuracy make the game scary and even make the player panic because of the poor accuracy and combat skills.

My final advice is if you played previous Silent Hill games then don't pick up this one because you will be VERY DISSAPOINTED AND UPSET!!! if you are new to silent hill and buy this version then you won't notice any change or difference, but my advice is to go play silent hill 1-3 even 4 is better then this one ~ in the scary department.