Silent Hill: Homecoming, the first Silent Hill to enter the next-gen world and second to be developed by someone other than Konami's very own Team Silent. Is the meaning of fear still Silent? Or does it cry out for change?
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| "I am way too good looking to be in this town." |
In Silent Hill: Homecoming, the story may seem familiar and that's because it's pretty much a rip-off of Silent Hill 2, but that doesn't stop it from being interesting. You're a man named Alex who has a nightmare about his brother, Joshua. Thinking Joshua is in trouble he heads back to his parent's house in Shepard's Glen, which is directly across Toluca Lake, coming from Silent Hill. He returns home and finds out that the town is dead and his brother is missing, the search begins.
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| "This is you. Sexy, no?" |
Along Alex's adventure, he learns the history of his own hometown and it's disturbing connection to Silent Hill. It's a dark tale, but at the same time pretty awesome.
Putting my opening statement aside, this Silent Hill is totally different. There's no more static camera effect like in previous games, this time the camera feels like you are playing a third-person shooter (i.e. Resident Evil, Uncharted, Gears of War). You control the camera with the right stick and when it moves, the character turns to match it. One big addition to this Silent Hill is a combat system which was what the other Silent Hills couldn't seem to get. This Silent Hill, however, is focused on fixing the combat. You enter combat mode with the left trigger and you can use a light attack with the A button, heavy attack with X button, and dodge with the B button.
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| "Don't bring a flashlight to a knife fight." |
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| "Hey mom, why do you look like shit." |
Once the combat trigger is pulled, you automatically target the closest enemy. This revamped combat system feels good and works well, but it might work a little too well, most monsters won't stand a chance once you get used to the controls. Outside of combat, you can only walk and dodge unless a button prompt is shown. Sometimes you will enter a situation where a certain button must be pressed rapidly or you'll die, but they are usually in combat. Expect around 6 hours of playtime.
As for the sound, series composer, Akira Yamaoka, returns to create the soundtrack and it is perfect. It is an example of why game soundtracks are sold. As for the voice acting, Silent Hill wasn't exactly known for their excellent voice acting, but Homecoming's voice actors do a really good job with their characters, especially Alex and Josh. The sound effects are spot on as well, from the dog's growl to the clanging of a Needler's sword feet. To top it all off, the trademark radio static returns to let you know danger is around.
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| "Human Centipede! |
On the presentation side, to simply put it....It's Silent Hill. Everything is nicely rendered and textured properly, The town looks nice, character models look nice, the animation is nice, but the real show stealers are the monsters you face. The humans for the most part look nice, aside for some awkward facial movements on the lesser characters, but it's the symbolic monsters that make a Silent Hill. In this game the monsters are just as frightening.
The monsters, I won't spoil anymore, are well animated and textured with fresh cuts visible during combat. In some areas they respawn over and over and it gets annoying, but that doesn't stop them from looking good.The only negative things I can say are: Combat is too easy, the guns are picky about firing at the odd time, and it takes too much visual inspiration from the movie (which is a total misrepresentation of the franchise) instead of creating it's own look.
In closure, it's a worthy entry into the Silent Hill franchise, with it's disturbing story, great visuals, amazing soundtrack, and multiple endings.
HOW DOES IT LOOK? Silent Hill: Homecoming presents the most up to date graphics in the Silent Hill franchise aside from Wii's Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, compared to the other previous Silent Hill's this game presents a fresh look with new enemies as well as previous enemies, and bringing back the fan favorite underworld environment conversion. It's dark, bloody, nasty, and gory but that is what Silent Hill is and this game is sure to please.
HOW DOES IT SOUND? The voice actors did a top notch job in presenting emotion within their characters. Sometimes audio is out of sync with the mouths but did not bother me too much. Environment sounds were a main key to the experience, the sound of a child crying, screaming, laughing. Several foot steps in the background as well as eerie noises creep in your ears provide enjoyability.
HOW DOES IT PLAY? The game plays fantastic, aside from the side note of it being rather sluggish. I don't mean this as a bad thing but it satisfies the survival horror hunger in all of us.
HOW LONG WILL IT LAST? With multiple endings, including the infamous UFO ending it will take around a few play throughs but with experience comes greater possibilities and if you save at the right moments of the game, you will be able to get the multiple endings without having to replay. Although, each ending comes with bonus items as well as different costumes. For instance, UFO ending comes with a Laser Gun that has unlimited ammo. Nice.
HOW IS IT PRESENTED? To say it as simple as I can, it is a Silent Hill game and if you are a fan of the franchise you will not get disappointed.
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Thursday, July 22, 2010
I really enjoyed this game when it first came out. I don't know why a lot of people are trolling over it especially the big companies like IGN, and Gamespy. It was a good game, with substance and I can't wait for the next one.
Never played Silent Hill, and never planning too but after reading this I might just check it out. I hope they have a demo or something that I could download to try it out before I actually buy it.
Nice review though! and LOL MACEWINDU.
Most fun I have reading a review. Will visit again for sure! Nice job.
Agreed with the person whose comment is on top of mine. Very awesome site. Enjoyed the Henchman of the month idea, also good reviews for good games.
That stormtrooper at the end of your reviews crack me up.
I was a little bit disappointed at this game. But, I think I just expected a lot more out of it. Maybe Silent Hill 8 would be better.
Great review as usual! Awesome Henchman of the month idea.
This is an old game, review new games!
The difference between a good review site and a bad review site: Bad review sites are cheap.
Superdave513, one word: Your a faggot.
LMAO, YOU DUN GOOF'D.
...pwned
Thanks for that, I was about to call the Cyber Police!