Metareview - Silent Hill Homecoming (PC, PS3, 360)

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Oct 3rd 2008 at 10:30AM }

Within the circle of paranoid and traumatized Silent Hill fans, there are two fundamental truths that must be embraced upon the release of each new entry in Konami's survival-horror franchise. The first, and more difficult to accept, is that the core gameplay in Silent Hill is sort of awful. Oh, but that gripping atmosphere! That inescapable miasma of melancholy! That's where the second truth comes in: if series sound maestro, Akira Yamaoka, composed the soundtrack (and he did for Homecoming), then it's probably an experience worth having. What say you, early reviews?

1UP (B): "Homecoming stays true to the macabre Silent Hill atmosphere without feeling stagnant. Exploration's perfectly in line with previous games, complete with tons of locked doors, decaying structures, and doubling back between the real world and its hellish counterpart -- but some little nuances intrigue."
Cheat Code Central (84/100): "This game delivers on the experience you have come to expect from the franchise. It will also give you reason to begin clamoring for the next installment. The folks at Double Helix gave me the Silent Hill I wanted: a nerve-racking, scary as hell experience to hold me over this Halloween season."
IGN (67/100): "Unfortunately, I admit that the game feels like a bit of a letdown. The gameplay has been reduced from a tense psychological experience fraught with spine tingling jumps and scares to a generic, predictable action title set in the location with good graphics and a great soundtrack."

Tags: Double-Helix, Konami, Silent-Hill, Silent-Hill-Homecoming, Survival-Horror

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Moffka @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:39AM

Any Silent Hill fans that bought this that can give me their personal opinion? I'm very on the fence about getting this.

Duke @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:45AM

Me too. I have been debating this one all week. The reviews bounce around a bit, so I don't find them very helpful. Team XBox gives it an 84 and then you go down to IGN with a 67 and GamePro with a 60.

Anyone here actually play it yet?

Vegnagun bwf @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:54AM

I absolutely love this game. I don't understand the reviews at all. This is silent hill. Locked doors, health drinks, scares and all. The story is on par with the Silent Hill 2 story. The combat is much better than any other Silent Hill, which is good because enemies are a lot tougher and faster. It's a fairly short game, about what you've come to expect from a SH game (around 6 hours). It's enough fun to play again for the achievements and to try and nab the UFO ending. I highly recommend it as a Silent Hill fan. It's Silent Hill on 360, end of story.

EternityInBlack @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:56AM

A lot of people that I talked to are giving this game along the lines of the middle 8s (out of 10) and personally, I agree with them. It's on par with Silent Hill 2 in terms of quality (yes, we joked about how the texture quality is so-so). And there's no PS3 install for PS3 owners. Game loads fast in those times that it loads and there's no loading in between rooms. It's quite possibly one of the best Silent Hills I've seen in a while. Also, remember what IGN said about Silent Hill 2:
"Silent Hill 2 doesn't break any molds or revolutionize the survival-horror genre in any particular way..." -- IGN

MariosInferno @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:57AM

It's a good game so far. Let me prephas this with the fact that I'm a huge Silent Hill slappy, so, I only want to talk about my gripes.

1. The combat is MUCH easier. So much so, that it's a little disappointing. Locking on, combos, dodging...all cool additions, but, again, it's made the game feel much easier. 2 and 3 always had this sense of helplesness. Let's be honest, you weren't gonna fight Pyramid Head with the combat knife in SH2. Things just wouldn't go well for you, haha. There was always a feeling that I should run my ass off for just about every encounter. And that added to the atmosphere of the game. You were at a disadvantage and it felt like it. That feeling is not gone, but, let's just say...I plan on starting over and playing the game on hard.

2. Graphically, I think I was expecting a bit more. It's still by far the best looking SH game yet, but it could have used an extra coat of polish. Textures are the weakest point.

Other than that, it's been extremely solid. IMO, best since SH2, so far. All the aspects that a Silent Hill fan is looking for are intact.

Vegnagun bwf @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:08PM

Don't Trust the reviews. IGN actually said something along the lines of "there are tons of doors that don't lead anywhere and that can be frustrating". Really, IGN? Doors that are locked/busted? Would this be Silent Hill if half the doors weren't locked?

Blazur @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:11PM

Likewise, I've always been a fan of the Silent Hill series myself. Hearing that the game can be beat in roughly 6 hours is disappointing tho, so I'll likely wait a bit after the holiday craze dies down along with the price.

Duke @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:49PM

I appreciate the comments from those who have played it. It sounds like the game is getting beat down more than deserved by critics.

Marrvia @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:36PM

But is it as scary as Silent Hill 4? That's all I care about. Silent Hill 4 had some awful gameplay, but the fact that it had the most freighting moments in any game I've ever played made it all worth it.

SickBoy @ Oct 9th 2008 12:49AM

I wouldn't recommend buying this game. I'm a hardcore Silent Hill fan, I've played all 5 of the other games but this one is terrible. The game looks great, the story is decent, but the battle mechanics make the whole thing fall right apart.

The battle system is just short of impossible to pull off. They've added the whole dodging thing, but it just doesn't work. Most of the time it seems Alex just plain doesn't want to respond to the controller, because he rarely does what I want him to, and even if he does, he doesn't do it right away, leaving him open to get sliced up. Also, most of the game (as with the others) tends to take place in tight spaces. Kinda hard to dodge a scythe-sized blade in a sewer pipe, geniuses. Also, they send 2 or 3 monsters at you at once. So when you dodge one monster's attack, you end up right in front of another one, who's already wound up to strike. Oh, and some of the monsters can block...bullets. THEY CAN BLOCK BULLETS. DOUBLE HELIX WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.

The monsters in this game are more powerful and faster than ever before, and Alex is a slow, spastic mess. Not fun. Add to that the skimpy supply of ammo and health packs, and the fact that they actually limit the ammo you can carry for no explicable reason (you can only carry 8 shotgun shells at a time, 18 pistol rounds: WTF?!)and you're basically running through the game as a narcoleptic troglodyte who's only useful weapon is a steel pipe.

If you want to break away and just run, good friggin' luck. In previous games if you wanted to run, you held down X. Now, there's no walk and run, there's just an automatic jog. ...Alex jogs. When you've got a creature that has a giant curved blade for a head trying to kill you, you don't leisurely jog away, you run like your arse is on fire. And just try getting away when there are 3 of them blocking your path in a 8 foot wide hallway.

I waited months for this game, and Double Helix totally screwed the pooch. This game is almost unplayable. Thanks Double Helix, for completely ruining one of my favourite game franchises.

more bad asser @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:45AM

IE: The game is now appealing to the mainstream now instead of the hardcore, much like the PSP game tried to do too. In trying to 'fix'(I thought nothing was broken) aspects of the series they ended up tossing out VERY important pieces of the game's foundation. The experience will never be the same. Not unless Team Silent gets back together and makes one. Very sad.

Einhanderkiller @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:53AM

To those who want to get the PC version, it's releasing exclusively on Steam in North America later this month.

Ihavepants @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:50PM

Goddamn I get annoyed at Steam sometimes, why do the publishers lock out the rest of the world from giving them money.

Lysdexia @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:04AM

The game is fun for me, I like the atmosphere, the combat is a bit frustrating though (especially against those goddamn smog monsters)

The only downside I saw was the HORRIBLE textures, so AWFUL, I'm running at HD and it feels like I'm playing an XBOX game not a 360 game
Unless I'm missing something in terms of configuration, I say the textures are crap when you get somewhat close

Dolemike @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:15AM

All I can say is I've been a long time fan of Silent Hill and this one kicks ass. It seems like it could have been a sequel to the second one. All the components that made the second one great are in this round.

As far as the textures being awful, I think someone may need to get their eyes checked - the game looks great. I don't think it's quite as scary as 2 (mainly because I think I've become desensitized over the years), but there have been several moments I've found myself saying 'Oh sh*t!'.

People keep putting down the new gameplay, but I'm not sure why. The gameplay HAS changed from previous Silent Hills which, to me, makes perfect sense since your character is a trained combatant. Gee, a soldier who knows how to fight? That's just insane!

I'm not sure what's been happening with all of these reviews of games recently, but I think they're crap. It seems the independent sites are giving honest reviews and the leaders like IGN and Gamespot are having issues with cranial-rectum inversion.

So, all-in-all I love this game. It reminds me a LOT of Silent Hill 2 (my favorite up to now).

vegeta1997 @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:17AM

Any install on PS3? I want to get it on PS3 but not if it has to have a 2gb install.

truBlue @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:23AM

Too bad they spread this app across too many platforms. If it was left to a Sony only sku it would have faired better. DMC4 suffered this dumbed down state and I'm sure RE5 will too. So many Sony built franchises crumbling as these companies pimp out these titles for 360 consumption. A sad time for hard core gamers.

Duke @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:47PM

Oh thats such a weak statement.

Moffka @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:57PM

While I love my PS3 and all. I can't help but look at my copy of Silent Hill 2 that I've been playing on my 360... Hmmm

JoeTheBlow @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:34AM

The whole switch to a more action orientated approach, like with RE4, worried me from the start, and was predictable with it going to an american dev team.
Dunno about this one. As fun as RE4 was, i still crave the days of feeling helpless and freaked out like the RE and SH series did.

Hope there will be a demo, or i can't take the risk in this wallet-obilterating gamefest season.

caserb @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:39AM

Oh shut up, truBlue. Get your fanboyism out of here from stinking up the place. Development across multiple platforms only affects gameplay as much as the developers know and understand each platform they're building on. A lot of multiplatform games started development on the 360 because - although it admittedly has less space than the Holier-than-thou bluray - its also a lot easier to work on than Sony's behemoth.

Not that it matters anyhow, you can blame Sony's attitude for multiplatform status, remember?

adrian @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:52AM

I guess he/she is forgetting that silent hill 2 on the xbox was the best version!

Moffka @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:01PM

The Xbox version is also a Directors Cut that came out later. So of course it's going to be better.

Adrian @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:53AM

I got this game when it came out and immediatly started playing when I got home. It is very much like the silent hill you would expect. It goes back though to the roots of silent hill ie 1 and 2. My first glimpse of Pyramid head and I nearly fainted. Unlike the second game where when you see him it is very dark, this time you can see his vainy muscular physique (?). Scared the hell out of me! I don't like the flash and your somewhere else aspect. They make up for it by putting something you actually need in an alternate place. I do like the improved interactive chat system. Instead of a one line you have to do what I say, you can choose the next point to address. All in All it is a good game. The nurses even on normal can kill you with their lightning quick speed. The puzzles are pretty easy. The game provides more of an interactive enviroment which is really fun. I am a big silent hill fan and would definetly recommend this game. I would even trade in SH 3 and 4 to obtain a copy. This is truly what silent hill is meant to be!

Mr ESC,Lives Again. @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:55AM

I bought Origins and Experience so yeah I'll buy this one too.

baby sea tuna @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:01PM

You're back! Awesome!

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:08PM

I have not played it yet but one of my good friends has it and he said it is one of his favorite games of all time and certainly the best Silent Hill game ever made.

There are to many games coming out this month for me to even consider this one.

peter @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:39PM

Why hasnt the PC version come out yet? I though tit was going to be on steam?

peter @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:40PM

Why hasnt the PC version come out yet? I though tit was going to be on steam?

peter @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:18PM

answered my own question later this month. =/ Since joystiq may not hav eposted this check it out
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8220416#post8220416

James @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:13PM

I'm a huge Silent Hill fan (have a tattoo on my shoulder like a dork and everything). So far, this game has a decent atmosphere but it doesn't feel exactly like Silent Hill. You can tell it's not done by one of the two usual teams. It's not necessarily a bad thing in some cases. It definitely has a good atmospheric feel, but it's a different feel than other Silent Hill games so far. Other SH games felt creepy and abandoned to me, whereas this game so far feels old an abandoned if that makes any sense. It's hard to describe I suppose.

It's done by Americans, so the dialogue is less corny so far. But, I'm only about an hour into the game and I've met way too many people already. I don't feel isolated at all. To be fair though, I haven't even gotten to Silent Hill yet. I'm hoping the trend of meeting someone new every 10 minutes will stop whenever I get out of Shepherd's Glen.

The eventual twist seems pretty obvious from right when you go back home for the first time, which is pretty early in the games, so the infamous Silent Hill Twist is most likely going to be a big let down because you can tell what it's going to be way too early.

Also, for a current-gen game, a lot of the objects and textures look very last-gen. Specifically any kind of lamp item, grass, or dirt texture. Most people probably won't even notice, but when I play Silent Hill games I look at everything so I can take in the atmosphere.

My biggest gripe so far is that there's no button to default the camera behind Alex. So, you have to swing the camera stick to get the camera where you want it, except the camera moves way too slowly in my opinion.

Pip @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:23PM

For those of us who absolutely loved the original Silent Hill, but never really liked any of the others, including the second one, how does this rate? Just keep skipping them?

Bass Masterson @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:43PM

The problem with this kind of forum is self-advocacy. I guarantee you Backbone has a group of people publishing "Yeah this rocks!" comments to various sites, including this one.

This game has been troubled since the start, when it was handed to license-clearing-house, ridiculous-high-turnover-rate The Collective. The dev team fully cycled like three times. There was no consistent vision from art all the way to programming.

Before the review release everyone who played it said that it was horrible. Then the usual suspects come out with their curiously high ratings. It's the best Silent Hill since 2! It's so awesome! They took a survival horror game and made it an action/heavyhanded Iraq war commentary game! YAY! Money hat, please!

Ludwig Kietzmann @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:06PM

While that may be true, I'm not sure it's any less dubious than the implication that positive opinions, by virtue of being positive, must have been influenced by publisher/developer meddling.

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:25PM

"They took a survival horror game and made it an action/heavyhanded Iraq war commentary game! YAY! Money hat, please!"

AGENDA EXPOSED! Your fascist empire is getting ready to crumble, Bass. How does it feel to see your false idols fall from grace? People can only take so many years of those fascist neo-nazi conservatives and their propaganda arm Faux News.

I think i will go out and buy Silent Hill now. Because I can.

I hope you are ready for TEH EVAL SOCULZITS

Bass Masterson @ Oct 3rd 2008 9:04PM

Your obvious insanity aside, you do realize Democrats not only voted for the Iraq war, they propped it up with years of blather about how Saddam was the greatest threat the world had ever seen?

Clinton did it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps9j22G9HLE

The 'other' Clinton did it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wyCBF5CsCA

ManBearPig lovin' Al Gore did it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JE48XHKG64

But please, do vote to give the party that put us in this financial mess more power. While you're starving in socialized America, I'll be living abroad.

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:00PM

Bass -

Who said anything about the war? I guess your one of those die hard's that believes everything is the other sides fault. It's really sad. It seems fascist Neo-Nazi "Conservatives" (like yourself) can never accept fault for anything. Constantly pointing the finger at the other side. I would bet you are even happy about Caribou Barbies performance at the debate last night.

Just out of spite for you I picked up Silent Hill Homecoming. The funny thing is that you not only accept fascism but you then fear TEH EVAL SOCIALZIST so much you are going to "live abroad". Well let me be the first to say Good Riddance. Hopefully you and the rest of the Neo-Nazi "Conservatives" will STAY GONE. I don't have a problem with traditional conservatives or fiscal conservatives but the brain washed fascist Neo-Nazi "Conservative" swine like yourself and their propaganda arm FAUX news need "live abroad". You would fit in wonderful in Russia.

TheDiablo @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:08PM

I find it odd that nobody seems to mention the fact that the devs LEFT OUT COMPLETELY the option to invert the Y axis.

I bought the game on Wednesday and i can safely say it is frustrating if you're a player accustomed to Inverted controls.

BlkSquadSlngBld @ Oct 3rd 2008 3:05PM

gotta look into it

aaronx_x @ Oct 3rd 2008 3:27PM

very scary, fun, great story/soundtrack :j

PS3 @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:05PM

Still one of the scariest game series I have played, second only probably to Alien V Predator

http://www.gadgets4nowt.co.uk

Ragingbear @ Oct 19th 2008 12:39AM

This game is flat-out awful. Other commenters mentioned the pitiful combat and weak textures, so I won't go too much into those, although I do want to mention graphics. You can tell when they didn't put any effort into rendering some graphical elements; things like the clock face that pans by in the title screen, all the random dismembered bodies (which come in maybe 2 poses and very predictable placement), and especially the child's drawings you collect are so blocky you could count the pixels. Other things, notably tree roots and veiny things in the Otherworld, are noticeably low polygon count. Even the fog looks pixellated, thanks to their sorry excuse for a noise filter, and the water doesn't move or ripple when you walk through it. I would say it looks as bad as last generation, but actually, it looks much, much worse than all the PS2 titles (which weren't bad by any means, but still, you'd expect the PS3 installment to improve on them. You'd be wrong).

In terms of actual design, the settings are intensely dull. They're just run-down versions of archetypal settings: hotel, prison, etc, and I can't tell you how overwhelmingly GRAY they are. It's barely a step above monochrome. Look at any screenshot index and you'll get the idea. This wouldn't be such a problem if you spent more time in the Otherworld, but as it is, only a tiny fraction of gameplay takes place there, often only as a single room at the end of a section (and this even goes for the final area of the game). And don't expect to enjoy exploring, because every area is painfully linear and/or tiny. Very little of the game takes place in SH proper.

Worst of all, it's just not scary. Double Helix replaced the atmosphere of the series with a bunch of pathetic b-movie horror tropes; crooked fence posts, dead trees, peeling wallpaper, hounds constantly howling in the distance (remember how effectively they used silence in the rest of the series? Not anymore). Calling Pyramid Head's role a walk on is generous. So many people talk about how awesome the first sighting is, but *spoiler alert,* all he does is WALK. PAST. For a sec, it looks like he might do something...then doesn't *end spoiler.* Other monsters, instead of being the bizarre shuffling things from the other games, are just roaring, aggressive, car-smashing beasts on the order of what you can see in any other game. They might as well just have printed the word 'horror' all over it, since they're completely incapable of actually producing that feeling (Hang on, they did that, literally. Look at the cover art some time; see all the 'scary' words scratched behind the characters? See how one of them is 'horror'? Pathetic).

It's true that you can't reverse the Y axis, which is frustrating. I'm curious to know if anyone else encountered the same glitch that I did, where it changes the controls after some load times, requiring you to constantly reset them to the defaults? Infuriating.

Someone mentioned above how some enemies block bullets. I just want to add that one of the gameplay tips that cycle during loads (itself a totally immersion-shattering feature) actually recommends killing the worst such monster...with a headshot.

The puzzles are incredibly easy. There was maybe one puzzle that required any thought whatsoever, and the rest basically have the solution posted immediately nearby, maybe barely obscured, but usually completely obvious. And, in a first in all my gaming years, they actually reuse an object interaction puzzle identically (and another nearly identically. Not totally uncommon, but here both instances are utterly simple).

I've been a passionate fan of the series since game 1, and I bought Homecoming at launch, fully expecting to love it. Instead, everything that made the series what it is (and fun) has been completely undone, and besides good name of the series it's ruining, it has absolutely no merit.

Prince of Persia @ Oct 29th 2008 4:06AM

Is there anyone who can help me?!
at the beginning of sewers chapter,even after I rotate and open the gate completely, nothing happen, elle doesn't duck under! You'll see the door is completely open but when you shoot, it seems that the door is still there and doesn't let the bullets go through the gate!