Silent Hill Homecoming (PC) Review

Posted by Derek Robbins on 12.13.2008

The Silent Hill franchise is a very well known one. Can Homecoming possibly live up to the name of its predecessors?



The Silent Hill franchise is a fairly legendary one. It has a solid fan-base that is insanely loyal towards it. Silent Hill has been a series that emphasizes atmosphere to scare you. Can this title master this and deliver a scary experience that longtime fans of the franchise can enjoy? Or will it follow the trend of Silent Hill Origins and just not feel the same as the rest of the titles in the franchise?

Gameplay

Okay, before I start talking about the actual gameplay in this game, I feel compelled to mention that it’s pretty ridiculous that the PC version of this game came out a full month and a half after the console versions of the game. Considering most people who are interested in the Silent Hill franchise probably own consoles, what motivation could they have for waiting an additional month for the PC version of the game? I have more complaints about this, but…I’ll save those for a bit later on.

Silent Hill is a franchise that is scary based on the atmosphere. The fog, the monsters, the sounds…everything should totally meld together and scare the crap out of you. So why is it that in a survival horror game I am not being scared at all? The combat is so easy, is so intuitive that I don’t fear the creatures of Silent Hill anymore. Alex Shepherd, your character, is a recently discharged soldier. So he knows his way through combat, unlike past protagonists in the series. I can slash through enemies with ease. If I see a monster around the corner, the first thing I think isn’t “OH SHIT” it’s “Oh, okay, I’m going to kill this thing.” I think if they had named this game something else and released it as a new Intelligent Property, perhaps I could understand them trying to market this new game. In the survival horror market though, this does not fly. It’s just a survival game.

Now, you might be wondering: “Okay, so…the combat makes it not scary. I’m sure other parts of the game can at least make you jump.” And yeah, of course, there are occasionally moments where you’ll tense up and your pulse will quicken. You’ll jump, you’ll get “shocked.” Is there anything that will creep you out though? Are there moments in the game that stick out in your mind as much as when Pyramid Head was introduced in Silent Hill 2? No. It’s nothing terrible scary…and that’s kind of a shame. I saw most everything that was potentially scary coming a mile away, and when I play a horror game, that’s not really what I want.

That’s enough complaining though. For as much as I want to get on this game’s case for not being an actual Silent Hill title, I can’t deny that I had some fun while playing the game. I think Alex’s ability to chain together combos and execute finishing moves is fantastic. I actually kind of had fun while thrashing through monsters. To make combat even more intuitive, they also give you the ability to dodge the swings of monsters. This ensures that you can’t just mash your way through the game. Add competent gunplay to this equation and you actually have a game that doesn’t play half-bad.

Now, while I did have fun…I can’t say it was anything extraordinary. Once I finished the game, I had no desire to slog through combat again. I realize that there are multiple endings (five to be exact, I got the UFO ending…ho-hum), but it just didn’t feel like the game had a soul. Plus, if you save at a certain spot you can see them all without playing the game all the way through again. The element that made Silent Hill amazingly unique, the atmosphere, is just not as apparent in this game. Perhaps someone who isn’t a fan of the series could judge this more effectively, but as a guy who likes it? It just feels awfully generic to me. It feels like a generic action game.

I am at least pleased that they got the exploration bit of the game right. I had to look around for places to go to and become accustomed to my surroundings. If they somehow could have made this into a scary title, I think I could have appreciated it more though. I realize I am emphasizing the point that this game isn’t scary an awful lot, but it’s one that absolutely needs to be mentioned as much as possible. It’s not scary, and as a Silent Hill that isn’t acceptable.

If you’re going to try to convince me that I should not look at it as a Silent Hill game, save yourself the time. Throughout the entirety, the game tries to tie itself into the rest of the series, and I just didn’t dig it. The story didn’t resonate well with me and as a whole I think it could have been a lot better. Perhaps my opinion on it is being affected by the fact that the game didn’t scare me one little bit. I always thought the fear lead credence to the story.

There are just little things that don’t belong. Why is Pyramid Head in this game at all? I figure it’s just a shout out to fans. Why are the sexy nurses in the game? What in the hell is Alex supposed to be lusting over? …Yegh. Again, I would have probably been far more accepting of this if it had been an original game. The fact that it ties in with Silent Hill and just falls flat on its face is inexcusable. I’m all for a franchise re-inventing itself, but for me it just didn’t work.



Graphics

Again, I’m going to complain about the PC-port compared to the console version of this game. I have a pretty damn good gaming computer, why can’t I play this game on the high settings? As soon as I switch the game to display in high, it crashes right away. That’s weird, and apparently I’m not the only person who has this problem. Why does it just crash instead of auto-adjusting my card for me? These little things kind of bug me, especially considering the little PC delay it got.

Ignoring my gripes, the graphics still look really nice (even on medium res.). Everything is highly detailed and there are a lot of neat effects. Enemies will show off weapon damage depending on what you hit them with, which is really nice. As much as I love generic-looking damage on my enemies, I think the high detail really adds something to the game. Of course, most every game that hits the market today is going to look nice. Graphics are good these days…but it’s nice to see those little touches.

The environments and stuff look really neat, but I did find myself having problems seeing even with the flashlight blaring. My assumption is “that’s the point”, but I honestly felt they were just trying to generate scares by making the game darker. That’s kind of cheap and I don’t like that. A game doesn’t have to be the second coming of Doom 3 to scare people.

Okay, that was some hyperbole. It’s not THAT dark.

The only real glaring issue I have with this game’s graphics, outside of the high-res problem (which isn’t that big of a deal, just an annoyance), is the fact that sometimes during the game the characters lip synching doesn’t mesh with their mouths. This is to be expected though as several other games have this issue as well. I just kind of wish it would be more consistent given the PC delay.

Still though, as a whole I think the game is very nice looking.



Sound

One of the most important things to the Silent Hill franchise is definitely the music and I am proud to say that it is still amazing. It’s moody, atmospheric, just perfect for a Silent Hill title. The problem though? This doesn’t FEEL like a Silent Hill title so the music just feels totally out of place. As I mentioned before, the game feels kind of generic…and this “scary mood” music just doesn’t fit in. It sounds nice though and I sure as hell am not going to dock it. It at least tries to convince you the game is scary. Nice try Mr. Yamaoka.

The voice work as a whole is decent. It’s certainly better than what you will experience in Silent Hill 2 or 3, but it’s far from good. I guess it’s good that it didn’t detract from the game. That’s always a plus.

Good stuff as always from Silent Hill in the sound department.

Lasting Appeal

I am a fan of the Silent Hill franchise, and generally I think those games can be replayed. I mean, it will take a little bit of time (unless you’re interested in finding all the endings, of course. Which if you just use a FAQ you can save before critical decisions in the game in order to see them all. Or, you know, just go to youtube or something)…but I felt that they are easy to go back to. They’re unique and you won’t really find many experiences like them out there. As I have said before, everything unique about Silent Hill is missing from this game. It just feels like a generic game. I can play a million of these. If the story was better…I suppose I could see myself playing the game again, but honestly? I really don’t see myself ever re-visiting this title. It just didn’t do it for me.



Fun Factor

Well, okay, the game is kind of fun. It’s an experience that you can get in several other places, but I’m not going to sit here and say I hated playing the game all the way through. I feel that I may be a little rough on this game because I have prior experience to the Silent Hill franchise. So I’ll tell you what, I’m going to pretend that I’ve never played a Silent Hill game before and try to tell you whether you’ll enjoy it or not.

It’s got a weak plot, it’s got generic gameplay, and it’s not scary. You can have some fun with it, because…I mean, you’re killing stuff. As a whole though, this really isn’t anything special. At least the main character plays well unlike most survival horror titles, but it’s hardly survival horror if surviving is easy as hell, is it? …Oh well.



Controls

Just wanted to lob in a quick bit regarding controls before I wrap this up. Don’t try configuring a joypad to play the game. I honestly tried to do it and half the time the buttons I pressed didn’t register. I’m no dummy, I know how to edit a control pad for a computer game. For whatever reason, it just didn’t work well and just ended up sticking with the keyboard and mouse. I was kind of dreading using those two, but I have to be honest…I think it controls pretty well with the two. As a console gamer primarily, I definitely prefer a joypad, but you know what? You can play the game quite easily on the PC.

The 411

As a Silent Hill title, Silent Hill Homecoming is bottom of the barrel. I would argue that it’s the worst in the franchise and should probably be forgotten about. It’s not THAT bad of a game, but it’s awfully generic. You can probably get this gameplay experience from somewhere else, and see it better executed as well.

Hardcore fans of the franchise may want to give it a go simply to say that they’ve tried it, but I’m telling you: This game isn’t for you. I feel this was made to play like this in order to compete with Resident Evil 4. The difference? RE 4 was a good game…this just isn’t.

If you’ve never played a Silent Hill and have no desire to play the earlier renditions of the series, I guess you can play this one. It’s nothing special, so don’t get your hopes up. If you go in expecting mediocrity, you’ll come out getting it. It’s something you’ll play once and never touch again.

Graphics	8.0	Pretty good graphics with only a couple of minor complaints. Most everything today looks good, but I think the presentation really helped this title out.
Gameplay	5.0	You can have fun with it, but it's very generic.
Sound	9.0	The music is great even if it doesn't always fit. The sound was really the thing that drew me in the most. Akira Yamaoka did a great job. The voice work was acceptable. Not great, but acceptable.
Lasting Appeal	3.0	I don't see any reason to play this again. You can save at a particular spot in order to achieve all of the endings...and once you do that, playing the whole thing multiple times is an excercise in tedium more than anything.
Fun Factor	5.0	You can have fun with it, but it's generic.
Overall	5.8   [ Not So Good ]