Silent Hill: Homecoming – The Shepherd Returns…

I firmly believe in credit where credit is due, and when it comes to survival horror, Silent Hill as a series deserves a LOT of credit. The series has paved the way for many of the genre’s many installments and has raised the standard for ‘scary’ with every new release in this horrid experience called Silent Hill. Silent Hill: Homecoming, the first big console release in the series not to carry a numerical indication, is to release due February 2009, but thanks to the many joys of knowing your local game-dealer and pulling some strings, I’ve been able to import the US version so I can bring the joy and gospel that is Silent Hill to you, my dear readers…

Alex Shepherd is a young enlistee of the proud US Armed Forces who is forced to return home due to an injury. After his rehabilitation he makes his way back to his quiet home town of Shepherd’s Glen, which is aptly named after one of Alex’s forefathers (Yes, that was a spoiler, but such an obvious one). The minute he sets foot in the misty streets of Shepherd’s Glen, he finds out something sinister and dark is aloof. As the plot unfolds, Alex will soon discover that the town of Shepherd’s Glen is closely linked to another lakebound village, known as Silent Hill.

At first glance, the graphics seem to be a bit bland for Playstation3 terms, but as soon as you get into the game and witness more and more happenings take place, the whole gritty feel of it all starts to live and breathe on your screen, and as things get more gruesome, they also get more detailed as well. Major improvements in the graphics department are best noticeable when compared to previous games in the series. Animations are lot more fluid as they were before, facial animation has come a long way and is convincingly true to life and the creatures move in even more bizarre fashions without going over the top.

Part of the improved animation is also felt in the controls. Where the first cast of player characters in the series were rigid, sluggish and total combat-klutzes, Alex comes out a soldier, through and true. Fighting and running around actively comes more natural to Shepherd and this is reflected in the way he responds to your input on that shiny controller of yours. Attacks come off as more effective, faster and closer to real life, and there’s finally the ability to quickly dodge or roll away from enemy attack, leaving an opening for a swift counterattack, without making combat routine and too easy. When compared to the previous Silent Hill games, this is really a sigh of relief shed by all of it’s fans.

The game itself seems to take to many things seen in Silent Hill’s recent silver screen adaptation, in a good way for a change. Gameplay itself has become a tad more action-oriented and the story develops at a much more cinematical pace. The nurses are remodeled and animated to closely capture the nurses seen in the movie. More human in appearance, yet maniacal and completely alien in movement and behavior. Another thing taken from the movie are the realtime transitions from the ‘regular’ environment to the series signature ‘evil side’. (Which, I might add, are pure genius!)

Audio still plays a major factor in the game’s experience, and is again used brilliantly as a means to alert the player of things around him. The trusty static that your radio picks up around monsters is of course present again, but it’s also in silence that Homecoming pulls of some genius auditory mindscrewing. In certain parts of the game, the silence only gives way to random (or intentional) freaky sound effects as a means to startle you or to get a chill running down your spine as you try and wonder what made that sound and where it came from.

Of course, the game has it’s downsides as well. Voice-acting is once again a bit bland. There’s a lot more emotion conveyed and the quality has sprung up a few notches, but some lines come out totally different than you’d expect, making it almost some sort of gag rather than a story-driving element. On top of that, combat has shifted to become more intense and recurring, something most players of the series need getting use to. The game’s environments are also VERY dark at times, with the flashlight doing nothing more than attracting attention from nearby enemies.

Silent Hill as a series has come a damn long way from it’s PSOne roots, constantly evolving and raising the bar graphically and atmospherically without losing it’s distinct touch of gruesome horror and extremely dreaded suspense moments, and Homecoming is again one in the series that does exactly that. Homecoming really breathes the Silent Hill feel from head to toe, and adds a whole lot more to the franchise in a whole, such as the fluid controls, the more intense and elaborate storyline and the addition of dodges and more intuitive combat handling.

The bottom line is, however, that it’s still very Silent Hill… VERY Silent Hill. Although the series is a damn good one, it hasn’t really strayed from it’s hit formula, aside from Silent Hill 4: The Room, but even that one was a true Silent Hill at it’s core. Other series like Resident Evil have purposely changed integral parts of their gameplay elements, like RE: Survivor, or Resident Evil 4, that kept it all just a little bit fresher than Silent Hill.

But then again, why change a winning formula? Silent Hill is Silent Hill, and more of a good thing is never bad…

Screenshots coming soon!