Review: Silent Hill: Homecoming

This review was written by PlayStation3UK.net staff and is not plagurised in any way.

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).

Another change to the original Silent Hill gameplay mechanic is the aiming. Silent Hill: Homecoming now adopts a more Cold Fear / Resident Evil 4 camera angle for the shooting. As soon as this was revealed, people instantly though “Omg it’s a rip off of Resident Evil 4”. This isn’t the case, this new angle merely allows you to actually see what you’re firing at instead of blindly firing into the next screen, which is a nice change. The only gripe with it was the fact that L2 is aim and R2 is shoot which was a little weird to get used to at the beginning.

The overall controls are pretty solid and pretty average. They’re not bad or really amazing either. Alex turns a little bit too slowly still, and as I can’t seem to find a quick turn button, a very creepy scene was pretty much ruined, as the event had happened before I got a chance to turn around.
Slight more freedom over the camera is a very welcome change, as you can really look at the environments clearly, which brings me to my next point. The game is dark, very dark. Some people are going to love this, as I remember a lot of forum members loving how dark Silent Hill 1 was during the “hell” states, but this is the kind of dark you’ll hate. At selected times; the torch just doesn’t do anything. You’ll be in one room, see a door in the corridor and run towards it, then for no reason the hallway will just be pitch black and the torch just doesn’t shed the tiniest bit of light on the door in front of you. It seems more of a bug than anything, because in some areas it really works and looks great, but in others looks like it isn’t even turned on.

However, the use of the torch can be really good at times. During the Hotel Level I came across an unusually aggressive Nurse which killed me every time I tried to fight her, so instead I decided to turn my light off and creep around her which worked perfectly. She stumbled down a corridor as I hid in the shadows and stopped in the middle of this open area, perfectly still like a terrifying nurse statue. All I could see was her outline in the blackness, not moving an inch. I crept passed her and she didn’t notice me and I really thought this element is a fantastic edition to the series.

The graphics rather strange in Silent Hill: Homecoming. Sometimes they are really impressive, showing off what next-gen consoles can do. The nurses in particular look very detailed and the real-time damage looks more than little red lines like it used to and more like bit splatters of blood when you hit something in the back with the crowbar. The transitions to the hell world are also pretty cool looking. However, the very noticeable and disappointingly terrible graphics on every character but Alex’s hair is far below what the PlayStation 3 is capable of, and at times looks nearer PlayStation 2 graphics than PlayStation 3.

The storyline is pretty good, and definitely on par with the others. It remains solid throughout the game, despite the game dwindling in the middle (Which it then picks up again nearer the end). The main ending of the story is pretty unpredictable, and it’s not what you think. The first time I played it through I got the UFO ending, so it really wasn’t what I expected, but the reveal before the end of the game is good. I thought I’d guessed the ending when I saw the intro which was obviously inspired by Jacob’s Ladder and assumed they’d use the same kind of theme as Jacob’s Ladder, evidently they were more creative than that, which is great. The only kind of thing I didn’t like about the story progression was small things, not to do with the story, but at times like at the start, when you have to fill the empty can with petrol you go to Travis’ truck the alley and just somehow put it in your can… no siphoning or anything. He just somehow filled the can up without a tube or anything, it’s not as though he could tilt the truck and pour it in, is it?

In summary, Silent Hill: Homecoming has an impressive, compelling storyline but the bugs I have encountered literally stop you from being able to play sometimes. On return to Alex’s house, I hacked down a door but there was no “X Open Door” icon, so I went outside to try to reset the room and the same happened from the door to actually get into the house. This is a minor technical issue which I really hope that Double Helix will patch, but as for the game itself it has plenty of the Silent Hill “touch”, a great sound track, a good set of characters, a (slightly) improved combat system and lots of endings. It also has a pretty good length in comparison to the previous games, and certainly compared to Silent Hill: Origins’ average of 4 hours. It’s worth playing the game for the storyline at least because I loved pretty much every cut scene. I recommend Silent Hill: Homecoming to the Silent Hill fans, and very much to horror fans just looking for a scary game. Some parts are really creepy while still keeping the Silent Hill effect.

Score: 8/10 - Recommended purchase to fans of Silent Hill and Horror fans in general.

Reviewed by Furin using the PlayStation 3 version (With DualShock 3) on a Sony Bravia 26″ 720p HD TV

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