LATEST GAMES:Silent Hill: Homecoming

Price:
$109.95
Reviewed on:
Xbox360
Summary: As a fan of the entire Silent Hill universe and someone that has every game associated to the property, I was hoping that Homecoming would be an excellent step forward for the franchise. Unfortunately, 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 soundtrack.
THE Silent Hill franchise has always been known for its ability to trip the player's psychological levers, instilling a significant amount of unease, fear and even dread at the situations that they find themselves in. Unfortunately, Silent Hill: Homecoming, manages to drain the emotional and psychological elements from the game. While the monsters and strange environments of the game return, the overall experience just isn't scary.
Homecoming is the story of Alex Shepherd, a recently discharged soldier who has disturbing dreams that seem to plague him during his waking moments, many revolving around his younger brother Joshua. Once he eventually gets back to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen (thanks to a quick cameo of a previous Silent Hill character), he discovers that things are truly bad at home and only getting worse. People have been disappearing in increasing numbers, including Alex's father and little brother, the streets are shattered and in disarray and strange creatures roam the town. As Alex investigates his family's disappearance and the incidents going on, he eventually discovers the dark secret of Shepherd's Glen, its connection to Silent Hill, and how his family plays a significant role in these events. The tale itself is a decent one – players that have gone through a number of Silent Hill stories before will gain a new perspective on the communities bordering Toluca Lake.

Homecoming doesn't radically attempt to revamp the established universe that's existed for almost a decade, but tries to tie the plot of Alex's adventure to pre-established canon. There are a number of nods to both the Silent Hill film from a few years ago as well as the movie Jacob's Ladder, which adds a couple of layers to the development of the characters as well as the situations they find themselves in. However, even with all of that going on, the main twist related to the game can easily be figured out before it happens, leaving a rather bland taste when it's finally revealed. Homecoming eventually feels more like a subplot to a larger, unfinished tale with tenuous connections to the rest of the series. Apart from the aforementioned cameo and a brief mention of Cybil, many of the other story regulars have been excluded. Alessa and Dahlia don't show up, and even the few sequences where Pyramid Head pops up are more like brief guest appearances for fans, although he does have a great scene towards the end of the game.
To a degree, this "straying away" from the well known characters or elements from the previous games would be fine if the title maintained the frightening aspects of the franchise, but that just doesn't happen. The placement of jump moments are extremely predictable, so you never feel like you're put on the edge of your seat because of something that'll suddenly attack you seemingly out of nowhere. Instead, you frequently come off as bored or unsurprised that a creature comes through a door or a gate, primarily because you won't have been attacked in so long that you'll start to expect something to step out of a shadow or a hallway up ahead.
Even worse are the sections where the title continually triggers a number of respawning monsters until you move to a certain portion of the environment and trigger a cutscene. This doesn't create or contribute to the claustrophobic sense of dread a player should feel going through these games in any way.