Silent Hill: Homecoming

[blue_veilvet]

Silent Hill is one of my favorite game franchises. The first game still is the best, but 2 and 3 are also quite enjoyable. The fourth installment is just atrocious, I'm well into the second half of the game and cannot force myself to go on. The devs decided to make its horror a stressfull one, in which they succeeded, but made the game unplayable at the same time.

As for Homecoming, I won't buy any current gen consoles in the next years, but when I do, I'll be glad to pick the game up at a bargain price I saw some trailers and a review that claimed Homecoming's focus on action and its too predictable shocker moments would make it not scary at all, but I think I'd exactly like that. After the stressful experience with The Room it would be sort of easing to just fight myself through the haunted town without worrying about unbeatable ghosts or unbeatable Walter Sullivans that come for me while I have to walk slowly away from him so Eileen can keep up with me.

But there is one thing I might dislike about Homecoming, though. I think the game could be not as scary as its predecessors because of its graphics. It is really ironic, but the realism of the visuals might take away some of the horror atmosphere. I saw a nurse in the trailer, and although she made really bizarre movements, she failed to scare me like the pixelated nurses in the first installment.

[env963]

I own the first 4 games. The first is easily the best, then it's been a downward spiral. I didnt even beat 4 cause I got bored with it.

[Ack]

Hey, blue_veilvet, you know you can get Silent Hill Origins for PS2, right? It's similar to the first 3 in play style compared to 4, but it's pretty hit or miss. Still, has one of the coolest enemies in the franchise in it in my opinion...

4...I've beaten it multiple times, and honestly my biggest problem with it is simply cheap enemies. I realize it's Silent Hill and the enemies are supposed to screw with me, but these guys just came off as unfair. Everybody talks about the ghosts, but those things in the escalator that smack you around and you can't kill? It's the reason I didn't even try speed runs. And then there's the massive amounts they throw at you in limited spaces when you're stuck babysitting...

Still, I'm glad they at least tried something different. It didn't work and we all know it, but they were trying to revamp a series that they saw as going downhill. And after 4's failure, Konami handed it off to other companies. I guess they just didn't see it as worth the hassle anymore.

Homecoming's graphics don't bother me too much. There were some moments watching my girlfriend play that I thought were pretty cool that I don't want to bring up because of spoilers. The Hell World is my biggest complaint, though. It's mechanical, looks like a furnace, and just seems...well, empty. Nothing like they used to be, with all the freaky things in the background, walls that looked like skin, bizarre puzzles, anything like that. Again, I'll say the enemy design looks good in my opinion. I was impressed with the two boss fights I watched. Some of the enemies look like older ones, but they've been tweaked in little ways that make them new and interesting in my mind.

I wonder if this will be it for the franchise, though. It's too bad, Silent Hill has had a huge influence on my tastes and it'll be a shame to see it die, but that might be for the best at this point. We'll have to see what happens in the ensuing years.

[Ack]

Ok, I'm finally sitting down to play it. Honestly the combat engine doesn't bother me at all, I kinda like it. As I said before, I think the enemy animations and reactions are wonderful, and their design as a whole I'm enjoying. Graphically it's not up to par with other things on these consoles, but...well, that's not necessarily a huge problem in my case.

Now yes, it's definitely more Western, there are lots of jump scenes that get on my nerves, though the little touches that creep me out but also interest me, they're there too. Now I know Pyramid Head shows up later, and until I get an explanation I'm gonna be a bit upset about it, but as of right now this doesn't feel so bad to me. It's better than 4.

[Ack]

...I just shoved a power drill through somebody's face. This game...is awesome....

[Ack]

Ok, I just beat it. Honestly, I think it's better than most people are saying. Not the best, but fun. There are some bugs I noticed with it, but nothing that really ruined the game. And after thinking about it, Pyramid Head's being in the game doesn't really bother me, considering the way he appears in the game. In fact, I spent a good portion of the day rethinking the entire Pyramid Head thing, and it really doesn't bother me so much anymore.