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Silent Hill Homecoming – 5 years later
Almost 5 years ago Silent Hill Homecoming was released in USA market. After this time and practically at the end of the current generation of consoles, it is a game that deserves a second review because, like the good wines, Homecoming is much better right now than in 2008.
The reason is simple, only Dead Space has been working hard on console platforms in order to improve, renew or add value for the survival horror genre. Obviously, we have the top-notch The Last of Us, but we consider the master piece created by Naughty Dog a survival adventure not so focus in horror than Silent Hill, Dead Space or, formerly, the Resident Evil series or the undervalue Project Zero/Fatal Frame games.
With no more rivals than Dead Space, as newcomer in the survival horror battlefield, Homecoming provides a fantastic atmosphere, breathtaking moments and all the darkness, creepy elements of a 100% Silent Hill experience.
Five years later we are not so sensitive or reactive to 2008 graphics or technical elements of this game at this stage of the generation. We understand that lightning, textures or frame rates in this game are not proper of an updated AAA release and we can focus the analysis in gameply, story elements and, above all, the capability to entertain us without losing our time in reviewing characteristics which finally becomes obsolete even for the must have games of the early era of this generation.
In terms of story, Homecoming sent us to Shepherd’s Glen, a town located very close to Silent Hill, at the other side of Toluca Lake. We start the game in the middle of a nightmare, as usual in the franchise, taking the control of Alex Shepherd an ex-soldier who must find to Josh, his younger brother. We are going to understand very soon that the situation is more real and terrific than the worst of our nightmares as soon as we realise that not only Josh has dissapeared in the town and that Silent Hill will be directly involved in the explanations of this mistery.
Obviously, this Silent Hill has a poorer main character than Silent Hill 1, 2 and 3, but the plot and situations that Alex lives during his «vacations» in this living hell are quite interesting.
The star of the game is the scenario. The enviroments are enterily Silent Hill, the loneliness of the player in the abandoned town, surrounded by the fog, the absence of light beyond our flashlight will be very familiar for you. Also, Homecoming inherits a lot of elements of the first Silent Hill movie directed by Christophe Gans in terms of design of the «other side» or alternative reality typical of the franchise.
The enemies have very good design as well (I’m sorry to say that Downpour has the worst monsters of the entire franchise) and also borrows elements from the first film, like the nurses or the new revision of Pyramid Head.
If we need to highlight an individual atribute of this game, I would have to choose the excellent soundtrack composed by Akira Yamaoka. Along the series, Yamaoka has delivered inmortal pieces for the gaming industry and the world of music in general. It is fair to say that Homecoming score is perfect from the very beginning to the end with «One More Soul to the Call» as the real star of the tracklist.
The sound and voice acting are also great and deserve acknowledge.
Homecoming was brave and made a serious effort to improve the combat system. Taking into consideration the personal skills our character, with military training, it was obvious that Alex could move faster, violent and with more expertise in fighting that his predecessors. And Double Helix took advantage of the circumstances to provide to players the best achievement in terms of action of the entire Silent Hill franchise. Defensive moves, blocking attacks, we can surround enemies performing lethal hits…fantastic. No perfect, but, at least, a real improvement in comparison with the previous games (and much better than the poor mechanics in Silent Hill Donwpour).
CONCLUSION
Finally, we can define Silent Hill Homecoming like a worthy iteration of the series, with the best gameplay in the franchise, good ideas recovered from the movie, an excellent music and a very interesting plot and setting.
Five years later, without the weight of the expectations over the shoulders and avoiding the critics focused on the technical area of the game, this Silent Hill is remarkable and deserves your re-play and respect.
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