“Inside the Heart of Homecoming” is my second guest article over at Spawn Kill and my last post for a week or so. Whether you enjoyed the game or hated it, I promise the essay-styled look into the depths of Silent Hill: Homecoming will make you see the game in a new light (or rather, darkness).

Enjoy, and leave a comment over at Spawn Kill letting me know what you think!

San Diego, here I come!

Grim, fire siren-esque warnings about mediocre ratings and bad gamer reactions made me wary of playing the latest Silent Hill game, Homecoming. But as a huge fan of the series and the beautifully haunting music of Akira Yamaoka that immerses it, I just had to pop in the PlayStation 3 version and give it a try for myself. None of those omens about the game prepared me for what I was actually about to experience.

What You’ll Like

Wait, This Actually Kinda Makes Sense?

Alex Shepherd, a soldier now released from his overseas duty, can only watch helplessly as he is strapped down and wheeled on a gurney in the infamous Silent Hill hospital setting. Once he manages to free himself, abandoned by the ever-silent nurses, you meet the focus of this installment: his brother, Joshua—who of course continuously runs away from you for the entire length of the game. Sit back and relax, because Homecoming offers one of the smoothest and most well-paced stories I’ve seen from Silent Hill. And yeah, I just said that.

Even Silent Hill understands my hatred of rabbits.

What sets Homecoming apart from the standard psychologically confusing yet frightening gore fest that cements the series has to do with the characters. Unlike with previous romps through the permanently foggy Silent Hill, the protagonist encounters people who are already familiar to him. The townspeople of Shepherd’s Glen—which lies across from Silent Hill on the other side of Toluca Lake, and you’ll travel between both locations equally—all greet your homecoming in different ways. From your old friend and potential love interest, Elle, to your family and other surviving members of the dying town, the individuals in the game are much more fleshed out and relevant than you might expect.

Not to mention you can interact with them by via a dialogue tree and decision-making. The unique endings (including the staple UFO scene) are determined by some of these choices, which invoke a more engaging experience.

You Have My Fire Axe

Despite knowing the raw meaning of fear and teaching it to you with an iron ruler, Silent Hill wields a notoriously clunky combat system. This time around, the melee action proves much more efficient and rewarding.

"Oh-Oh yeah? Mine's bigger!"

Not only does each weapon serve an exclusive non-combat purpose, but some of them may be upgraded throughout the game. For example, the knife—which later becomes the ceremonial dagger—can cut through thin walls, while the fire axe can be used to hack down boarded doorways. With a tap of the shoulder buttons, equipping your weapons or using health can be accomplished without interrupting the flow of gameplay thanks to the convenient weapons and items wheels. Homecoming gives you the opportunity to master the system by blocking, evading, and using counter strikes to your advantage. A heavy attack or a successful dodge earns you an enemy stun and the chance to execute a sickeningly morbid finishing move unique to your foe.

Living Nightmare

With the strength of next-gen graphics, Silent Hill feels and appears more realistic than ever—and Pyramid Head never looked so good. Scare tactics and blood splatters on the screen add to the excitement; even enemies don’t hold back, as they’re perfectly capable of following you and remembering what door you quickly disappeared through in a pathetic attempt to hide. Remember, these monsters aren’t scared of the light—they’re drawn to it.

Let's just hope Alex opted for a crapload of vaccinations.

Homecoming packs in some fun new additions and moments—most notably involving a chainsaw showdown and a power drill QTA. The monsters, particularly the bosses, put the developers’ creativity to the test, and you’ll even team up with other characters on occasion. Interestingly, loyal fans will note the strong influence of the Silent Hill film, and while that might sound bad in theory, the effect actually succeeds. Even past SH games tie into Homecoming; there’s a fun nod to Cybil Bennett from SH1 tucked in near the end, along with a little comedic relief that makes the sixth installment refreshing.

Never Knew ’Bout the Little Things

Silent Hill continues to be a survivor’s game—you need to know when to run and when to fight. If you die, in addition to convenient checkpoints in between saves, the game refills your health halfway. Load screens also update accordingly with relevant tips on enemies, which means you won’t be stuck looking at the same boring trivia over and over again like in some games (ahem … RE5).

What You Won’t Like

Please Stand By for Technical Difficulties

This game is dark. Literally. You’ll need to jack up the brightness all the way just to see what’s in front of you, which can dilute the visuals. While you’re fixing that, you might as well mess around with the audios, too. The horrendously programmed music to dialogue ratio will have you raising and lowering the volume on your television over and over again. When a game requires the player to change these default settings, someone on the developing team just got lazy.

Honey, I Shrunk the Hero!

Alex can be rather clumsy and … challenged when it comes to opening doors—particularly near the beginning of the game. This can alert enemies or make it needlessly difficult to flee from them. Plus, your often unpredictable, analog stick-controlled inventory can easily turn simple fights into complicated messes. Even if your timing is perfect, the dodge function may not save you. Prepare to take a beating from a nurse with a mini knife, and then cry in shame because you wasted all your health and equipped the wrong weapon (or not at all) three times in a row.

Demented Rabbits Go Flop, Too

While the story itself maintains a smart balance of drama to what-the-fucking-hell, the gameplay doesn’t always impress. Bosses aren’t that challenging, albeit always interesting, and Homecoming goes through stages of unloading excessive amounts of health and ammo, to acting like it’s nuclear war, and then scattering them everywhere again like yummy candy out of monster piñata.

Although the gameplay usually keeps the action flowing, now and then you’ll encounter overly frustrating and stale points. Most of the puzzles are squished in at the end like your childhood attempts to force puzzle pieces together on your dining room table; the ones that are difficult are only randomly so. Sadly, there aren’t many clues to collect, so put away your Sherlock Holmes quips and detective pad and pencil. “Descent into Hell” only succeeds at making you loathe stairs, and apparently water and power stations just aren’t scary material. And speaking of that, surely Pyramid Head’s grand, highly anticipated return includes an epic battle, right? Nahhh. Who needs to sword fight a fan-favorite when we can just watch him strut around a couple times stabbing things … and have him look at you … and walk away. That’s much more satisfying.

"He totally can't see with that thing ... right?" Apparently not.

Recommendation:

Despite the negative reception, Silent Hill: Homecoming brings the series back to its roots like it should while rejuvenating it similarly to Resident Evil 4. The odd RPG elements might arguably put a kink in the horror, but where Homecoming falters, it also shines with an interesting story, solid characters, and insanely mutated monsters and bloodshed galore. And with a story twist revealed by good ol’ Dad—and even more so with the “Hospital” ending—the game hits Silent Hill at its core: Welcome to Silent Hill, your personal hell. 7.5/10

Review format credited to the Girls Entertainment Network