Silent Hill Homecoming

The Silent Hill series has provided some of the most heart-stopping, pant-staining psychological terror ever seen in any form of media. More or less a decade ago, I remember sitting with a controller clenched in my hands scared witless but desperate to play on, in the original Silent Hill. After a disappointing decline after the previous two iterations, Homecoming sets its sights on rebooting the franchise.

This instalment follows Alex Shepherd, an injured soldier, as he returns to his hometown of Shepherds Glen. It quickly becomes apparent that all is definitely not well as the streets are uncharacteristically foggy, his father is missing and his mother is a shell of her former self. The story opens strongly, leaving you with a plethora of questions and virtually no answers in true Silent Hill style.

As soon as you have begun, you are thrown straight in at the deep end with a sinister opening set in the mandatory hospital level. Thankfully, the developers seem to acknowledge this and treat it as a sort of tutorial which doesn't end up taking too long. It soon comes to light that this isn't the classic Silent Hill formula, familiar from the first few games. This is initially hard to swallow as a great fan of those early classics, especially when a lot of the new style seems to be drawn from the film adaption. Yet, I found myself coming to terms with this and acknowledging that the series was moving in a new direction and at least wasn't stagnating.

The most immediately obvious change is the shift in focus of the game itself. In previous titles, you were physically weak and combat proved difficult and challenging as you were just a normal person. In fact, it was better to run or attempt to avoid enemies than stand your ground. However, Homecoming is a very different beast and it is now virtually impossible to avoid or outrun most enemies.

In order to deal with this the combat system has been improved giving you more precision when shooting and a set of moves for melee fighting. You have a choice of both heavy and light attacks when using one of the many weapons which can be strung into combos. When shooting, an over the shoulder camera takes over and you are given a reticule with which to aim. The combat is challenging and hard to get to grips with at first and is very different from anything seen before in the series.

Critical aspects to the combat are dodging and evasion which are tricky to get used to. During combat it is necessary to dodge enemies' moves whilst squeezing in attacks, the timing required for the dodges varies depending on enemies. This proves to be challenging but effective though it never quite becomes second nature as it should. The heavy emphasis on combat does feel misplaced in a Silent Hill title and as such the atmosphere never quite materialises.

Homecoming doesn't scare which is perhaps my biggest criticism. The combat orientated gameplay means you never fear your enemies and some patchy enemy design also undermines some of the horror. A greater focus on "shocks" feels misguided which is a shame as these have previously been overlooked in favour of building a chilling ambience.

Other flaws include an inventory system which is overly sensitive and can waste valuable health items when you are instead trying to select a key for a puzzle. This caused several serious cases of anger when valuable health kits were wasted through no real fault of my own. Some of the boss fights feel petty and frustrating, when you are knocked down only to be repeatedly pummelled into submission before you can even get to your feet. It must also be noted that there have been a wide range of glitches and bugs reported in Homecoming, including keys disappearing upon loading after saving your game. Be advised to make duplicate saves, though hopefully these technical problems will be addressed in upcoming patches.

However, despite these shortcomings, Homecoming managed to impress me as a horror game. The technical aspects of the title are simply superb with fantastic graphics making some of the transitions between the "Otherworld" and "reality" very impressive. The real standout achievement is another outstanding soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka which is not only evocative but immersive. Sound in horror games is essential and here it works perfectly being the game's strongest feature.

The real lynchpin of a Silent Hill title is its story. Here I was a little disappointed especially in the latter portion of the game where things move in a different direction, a little too far from the established mythos of the series. Some may feel a little cheated by the knitting together of the plot but it is effective enough. In some ways the narrative feels like a simplified version of something which was initially more complex though the presence of five endings does make up for this.

So, it seems that Silent Hill has changed as a series in order to find its place in a new generation. If you are a die hard fan of the series this may be especially galling and I really do yearn for the complex horror of Silent Hill 2. Yet, for all I dislike about the new feel for the series, I completed it in only a handful of sittings. There is definitely something here that still appeals even if it has been diluted down. Horror fans sit back and enjoy the blood filled tale: Silent Hill fans approach with some caution.