(some spoilers)
okay so I just finished the game, and I have to say, I have never been more disappointed and angry at a game before. Maybe it's because I loved the other silent hill games so much, and had such high expectations for this one. Either way, I have to say that Silent HIll: Homecoming is a sorry excuse for a Silent Hill game. I consistently enjoyed every other SIlent HIll installment, even SH4, which had a different feel than the others, but had the same essence. On the surface Homecoming may have looked like the other SIlent HIll games, but when you look closer it actually has nothing in common with them aside from the name.
I think the foremost thing that the Double Helix team missed about Silent HIll is the element of mystery and the unknown. Previous Silent HIll games were about subtlety, and hinting at things, but not actually affirming much. "Fear of the Unknown" is what drove Silent Hill. You never knew what could be lurking around the next corner, or what you would find behind the next door. The little nuances and creepy occurrences were what made the other SIlent HIlls great. To give a few examples: SH2, when you go into that abandoned shop that has scrawled on the walls "There was a hole here it's gone now", or when you're on the roof of the hospital and after you read the diary pyramid head comes out and attacks you. Or in SH3, when you find the phone off the hook, and pick it up to have someone sing you happy birthday, or in the "fun house" where bodies fall from the ceiling, or even the escalators in the mall that lead to nothing but an abyss.
These creepy little imaginative things made these games, and are what Homecoming lacked. Homecoming had a lot of over the top gore and brutality, reminding me of the cheap "eww" moments of American horror films (including the silent hill movie) and not the eeriness of SIlent HIll. There was nothing at all that left you wondering. We watched a man get his head ripped off, we saw his mother get stretched to death, we viewed his father get cut in half. So what? Yeah, it was gross to see, but not creepy or eerie at all.
Also, the monsters in this game were all about combat, and not at all about evoking fear in us. There were the big-boobed nurses from the SH movie, the dogs that have been in all of the games, some sewage monster, and some other creatures with big blades that were hard to kill. Nothing very original at all. Okay so we get to dodge and do combo attacks, who cares? I don't buy silent hill games to fight. And what about the sounds that SH creatures usually make, that add so much to the atmosphere? They weren't there. I think the dogs growled, but that's about it. In SH2, you could hear the straight jacket monsters walking toward you in the fog. In SH3 there was a ceiling monster that had blades that you could hear scraping together before it got to you. We got none of that in this game.
Another thing I want to acknowledge about this game is the lack of desperation and loneliness. There were so many people in this one that Alex came across. It seemed like he was never alone for more than ten minutes. For much of the second half of the game he was either with Wheeler or Elle. There was no time when I felt he was completely alone in the depths of horror, as in the others. It all felt very diplomatic and contrived to me, not horrifying and raw like I wanted it to be.
Finally, I just want to say that the locations of this game were awful. I can barely distinguish them in my head, aside from the "hell descent" level which did nothing for me. They were BORING. I'd have to say the best one was the prison, and that was done in SH2, and much better. His house level was limited and unimaginative, the graveyard was maze-like and annoying, the church was...nothing more than an ordinary church, and the last level had nothing to it! It was a bunch of rooms and corridors with order members. That's it. Not even a monster to be found. Usually in a video game I would think that the last level would be building to a climax. In previous silent hills, the last level is where everything goes to *beep* showing you that this is really it, and that something really horrifying is coming. Didn't get that feel at all in this one.
In short, this game may have had some new bells and whistles (new combat, seamless room transitions) but I'll take the clunkier SIlent HIll games any day. This game lacked everything that I loved about Silent Hill. I'm not an avid gamer, but I played Silent Hill because it was different. It took me into another world that was so interesting and imaginative and surreal that I didn't want to leave. I was really hoping that I would get that again with this game, but my expectations couldn't have been more wrong.
okay so I just finished the game, and I have to say, I have never been more disappointed and angry at a game before. Maybe it's because I loved the other silent hill games so much, and had such high expectations for this one. Either way, I have to say that Silent HIll: Homecoming is a sorry excuse for a Silent Hill game. I consistently enjoyed every other SIlent HIll installment, even SH4, which had a different feel than the others, but had the same essence. On the surface Homecoming may have looked like the other SIlent HIll games, but when you look closer it actually has nothing in common with them aside from the name.
I think the foremost thing that the Double Helix team missed about Silent HIll is the element of mystery and the unknown. Previous Silent HIll games were about subtlety, and hinting at things, but not actually affirming much. "Fear of the Unknown" is what drove Silent Hill. You never knew what could be lurking around the next corner, or what you would find behind the next door. The little nuances and creepy occurrences were what made the other SIlent HIlls great. To give a few examples: SH2, when you go into that abandoned shop that has scrawled on the walls "There was a hole here it's gone now", or when you're on the roof of the hospital and after you read the diary pyramid head comes out and attacks you. Or in SH3, when you find the phone off the hook, and pick it up to have someone sing you happy birthday, or in the "fun house" where bodies fall from the ceiling, or even the escalators in the mall that lead to nothing but an abyss.
These creepy little imaginative things made these games, and are what Homecoming lacked. Homecoming had a lot of over the top gore and brutality, reminding me of the cheap "eww" moments of American horror films (including the silent hill movie) and not the eeriness of SIlent HIll. There was nothing at all that left you wondering. We watched a man get his head ripped off, we saw his mother get stretched to death, we viewed his father get cut in half. So what? Yeah, it was gross to see, but not creepy or eerie at all.
Also, the monsters in this game were all about combat, and not at all about evoking fear in us. There were the big-boobed nurses from the SH movie, the dogs that have been in all of the games, some sewage monster, and some other creatures with big blades that were hard to kill. Nothing very original at all. Okay so we get to dodge and do combo attacks, who cares? I don't buy silent hill games to fight. And what about the sounds that SH creatures usually make, that add so much to the atmosphere? They weren't there. I think the dogs growled, but that's about it. In SH2, you could hear the straight jacket monsters walking toward you in the fog. In SH3 there was a ceiling monster that had blades that you could hear scraping together before it got to you. We got none of that in this game.
Another thing I want to acknowledge about this game is the lack of desperation and loneliness. There were so many people in this one that Alex came across. It seemed like he was never alone for more than ten minutes. For much of the second half of the game he was either with Wheeler or Elle. There was no time when I felt he was completely alone in the depths of horror, as in the others. It all felt very diplomatic and contrived to me, not horrifying and raw like I wanted it to be.
Finally, I just want to say that the locations of this game were awful. I can barely distinguish them in my head, aside from the "hell descent" level which did nothing for me. They were BORING. I'd have to say the best one was the prison, and that was done in SH2, and much better. His house level was limited and unimaginative, the graveyard was maze-like and annoying, the church was...nothing more than an ordinary church, and the last level had nothing to it! It was a bunch of rooms and corridors with order members. That's it. Not even a monster to be found. Usually in a video game I would think that the last level would be building to a climax. In previous silent hills, the last level is where everything goes to *beep* showing you that this is really it, and that something really horrifying is coming. Didn't get that feel at all in this one.
In short, this game may have had some new bells and whistles (new combat, seamless room transitions) but I'll take the clunkier SIlent HIll games any day. This game lacked everything that I loved about Silent Hill. I'm not an avid gamer, but I played Silent Hill because it was different. It took me into another world that was so interesting and imaginative and surreal that I didn't want to leave. I was really hoping that I would get that again with this game, but my expectations couldn't have been more wrong.