Buy Silent Hill Homecoming

Play Silent Hill 1-4 for your own sake.

A bit of a warning, this will be my rantiest review I think I've ever done.

Let me start off by politely, and courteously, taking a moment to ask why, out of every Silent Hill game, is this the only one on Steam? Now don't get me wrong, I'll get to Homecoming in a moment, but as most other entries in the series had PC ports, why. biased Konami, is this the only one Steam gets?

With that out of the way, Silent Hill Homecoming is the sixth main entry in the SH series, a psychological survival-horror series that has come to be known best for its atmosphere, story, surrealism, and creepy monster designs.

Silent Hill Homecoming came out on the heels of the Silent Hill film, and it shows. Several monster designs and much of the visual look of the game can be attributed to the film. Most notably, the game has some impressive Otherworld transition sequences inspired by the movies. They look cool, and sound cool, so they at least get the job done there.

And that's something to be said for Homecoming. It's not a terrible looking game, the designs of the characters and monsters at least look cool, the environments look appropriately ominous, and the fog effects, while a bit sparser than other entries in the series, are still rather well-handled.

However, the film inspiration becomes a bit much in areas. This was the game that shoe-horned Pyramid Head in for no reason, and I literally mean no reason. Oh, he appears in cutscenes, but not a single time in gameplay. Not once. And that's not even arguing on how he has no reason to be here. Both in the fact he literally does nothing in the story and it goes against on what Pyramid Head was in SH2. And then there's scenes that were so obviously inspired by the movie, and enemies inspired by the movie. It essentially is an extension to the Silent Hill movie in game form, honestly.

But so much goes against what the SH series is. I was literally in hysterics during a scene almost half-way in the game when suddenly you get a sassy black sidekick comic relief character and escape a police station being invaded Dawn of the Dead style by giant hammerhead land-shark monsters. Don't get me wrong, this is brilliant B-Movie hamminess, but what the ♥♥♥♥ is it doing in the ♥♥♥♥ing Silent Hill series?

And that's what I think one of Homecoming's biggest problems is. It doesn't know what the SH series is. I am convinced the creators just watched the SH movie and made the game based off of that. There's no other explanation for it. Homecoming must of at one point in development been a video game adaption of the movie, because it has so much in common with the film; the nurses work just like they do in the film, so does the cult, and the aesthetics... But it's almost nothing like how the rest of the series is.

But let's get off our fixations of its identity crisis and focus more on the game as its own experience.

Silent Hill Homecoming tells the story of a man named Alex Sheppard who's returning from the military to visit his home in Sheppard's Glen (of course conveniently named after his family). He's been gone for a long time and finds that his hometown has completely changed. There's a few people still living in town, but the place is mostly deserted. Alex comes home to find his brother and father are missing, and his mom seems completely out of it with a pistol on her lap. Alex goes to investigate what exactly has happened to his family, and to this town, and what sort of connection it has with the nearby local resort town of Silent Hill.

To the story's credit, I did end up liking a few of the characters, most notably Alex, who did end up earning some sympathy from me through his journey. And Wheeler, your sassy black comedy relief character, was enjoyable, though so out of place. Most everyone else was forgettable, however. The plot twists unfortunately are mostly super predictable, the worst of all being the 'main' twist, and while I don't want to spoil the game, towards the end we get into some ludicrous Saw-inspired segments that just feel completely out of left field and unneeded. Homecoming also holds my personal honor for having the worst multiple endings I have ever experienced in a horror game. I'm not kidding, they are that bad.

The game has a few puzzles, and by puzzles I mean over half of them are sliding tile puzzles or this puzzle about crossing wires. Whoever the ♥♥♥♥ at Double Helix thought that making most of the puzzles in the game ♥♥♥♥ing sliding puzzles really deserves a solid kick in the ♥♥♥.

The game is also overly focused on combat. The combat to be fair isn't bad, with a very Zelda-esque system, being able to lock-onto enemies and circle and roll-dodge from them, but the weapons are notably unbalanced with some being far better than others. Also while technically the 'best' combat system in the series (and they try to rationalize it with the fact Alex is an ex-soldier), the series was never really about the combat, making it feel like the developers missed the point.

Also the PC port is a hit or miss based on your system. It either works perfectly fine, or it doesn't. Fans have made a lot of work-arounds for problems in the game, but it has had absolutely no official support. It was basically released on Steam, and left to die there.

This so far makes it sound like I hate Homecoming, but in earnest I didn't.

Homecoming has so much wrong with it, as a Silent Hill game, as a horror game, and as an action game, that it's easy to mention, but it's actually not a terrible game, and has several quite good moments and actually is an okay to good game, though I'd argue one of the weakest in its series.

Homecoming has some decent moments. Exploring the house is both interesting and a bit haunting. Going into the basement the first time is a bit unnerving. A few of the boss fights, especially the second one, are actually well-done. The game isn't too repetitive and does have moments that split away from just combat or just exploration. Speaking of that, there's a decent exploration element in this game that often is a bit rewarding for little extra tidbits, imagery, and sometimes goodies and hidden weapons. The game has some fun unlockable costumes and weapons.

The story is enjoyable in a B-fare kind of way, and is backed by good music and sound design. While not Akira's best work, the music still holds up well for the title. There are small touches to the game too and details that are appreciated, including each grave stone in the graveyard having a different description on them (and there are many), some small scares that the player may miss if they aren't observant or don't explore a bit. The atmosphere is okay, though the game really isn't scary.

But I didn't hate my time with it, in fact, I would say I enjoyed myself playing it. It's got so many flaws and they're so easy to point out, but despite it all there is an enjoyable game in here. It honestly probably would of been better if it was Silent Hill The Movie: The Game though, as it really does things that just doesn't sit right as a fan of the series. But in its own way, it's an enjoyable B-Movie sort of horror game that has dips into legitimately good moments and ideas.

If you go in expecting some B-Horror fun, as opposed to a Silent Hill game, it's a pretty okay to good game in its own right, just has some flaws, but I wouldn't say the flaws ruin the game and there is some fun and interesting sections to be had as the game goes on. If you go to it for a Silent Hill fix, however, I think you'll be bitterly disappointed. A misguided, but ultimately pretty okay game, that could of been a good game if it wasn't bogged down by a few problems.

I want more of Silent Hill on Steam <3

I wish SH1, SH2, SH3, and SH4: The Room were on steam. Every SH game after that blows. You'll regret getting it, but if you insist on trying it, get it when it's $9.99 or less.

why is this 40 dollars?

As a fan of Silent Hill since the beginning, this title undoes everything that made the series unique and enjoyable. The strong points of the series have always been atmosphere, design, and sheer compelling mystery. Homecoming fails on all of these points.

Firstly, the story, unlike those in previous games, is utterly predictable and tedious. It's straight out of the worst horror movies; every spoken line will seem familiar and you can predict half the scenes and twists before they happen. The stories in the previous games weren't always perfectly written, but they were never this insultingly cliché. There's no mystery, no creeping fear, no unresolved questions.

As for the monsters, they nearly look right for the series, but their behavior is worlds apart. Instead of being willful and mysterious, they're just like the posturing, aggressive beasts you'll find in any other game. That's more a matter of taste, but fighting them is definitely more simplistic than before. When you engage an enemy, you can practically feel the scripting pop into gear; the whole process is nothing but a timing game. Block, button mash, the end. Or, if the monster gets a hit in, enjoy being hit again and again and again as you try to either get back up or get out of the way. It's cheap and nothing but cheap, and not remotely enjoyable. Compounding this fact is that you have only 3 melee weapons that differ in speed and attack pattern, and these qualities stay the same even when you get new weapons (which just replace one of these 3, and play exactly the same).

The puzzles are shockingly simple. The solutions are frequently completely obvious, sometimes even without reading the hint (which is usually posted immediately near the puzzle, and barely obscures the solution if at all). In two cases, object interaction puzzles are actually repeated; one is only slightly different the second time around, but the other one is literally the exact same puzzle with the exact same method of solution! Overall, the puzzles come off like an afterthought, and add nothing to the experience.

If you're looking to extend your Silent Hill experience with Homecoming, forget it. Because it isn't Silent Hill, it is a horror game called Homecoming.

I'll try and make this a two part review.

• First, the story and gameplay:

- The game is nice, it has a interesting story, perpahs not as good as the other SH titles, but it's still a nice game;
- You have a short variety of weapons, but they're still cool and useful;
- This game is more action paced than the others, you do really fight and dogde as a skilled veteran should be able to do (some might enjoy this and others doesn't, it depends on how you like things, I enjoy, so I see it as positive);
- The creatures and enviroments are nice, all in all, it is a nice SH game, it could be better, but it's still nice.


• Second, the PC port:

- This game was extremely bad ported to PC, the graphics are worse then it's on consoles, the controls are bad and they do fail sometimes, specialy during QTEs, the game crashes for nothing, audio is bad, so are subtitles;
- The game has many bugs and glitches since It's launch in 2008 and Konami never bothered trying to fix them, this game is abandoned;
- Despite it's awful quality, it's a expensive game that seldom goes into sale, when it goes, it's like 10~15%.
- While the game has an interesting story, this port is poorly made, as if Konami didn't want to do it and did it as worse as possible to give us the message "we do not like PC gaming" (which can be seen by the sheer fact that they do not bother making the new games for PC) that it ruins the experience.


Conclusion:
It's a good game that was poorly ported and abandoned right after it was made, which in the end ruins the experience.
I do not recommend this game, you'll waste your money and your time having to do things over and over because of bugs and glitches, that if you don't end up having to start all over because these bugs can corrupt your save files.
Konami doesn't like the PC gaming market, they made the older SH for PC and then ported this and left it on it's current state, worse then many betas and early-acess games, they do refuse to port or remake the other SH to PC, despite the fact that the fans have been asking them for years.
So, if you value your money, do not buy this, it's poorly made and the company who made this doesn't care about it or who buys it.

A lot of people didn't like this game because of the increased focus on action compared to other entries in the series. I like it for that very reason. Sometimes you just want to hit an undead nurse with a pipe.

I love silent hill, and have played all the games in the series, and enjoy them all in some way. The game itself isnt among the worst and has good atmosphere and of course the soundtrack is amazing. The pc port however, is not; it's actually pretty terrible. Sometimes it plays fine, sometimes the cutscenes freeze, and sometimes the game crashes for no reason, and there's no fix for any of this. At 40 dollars i'd be hard pressed to recommend this to anyone, maybe 5 or 10 at the most, but lousy job on the pc port konami, for shame.

Dont buy this game.
-30 fps cap
-Bad pc support
-Plenty of bug
-Poorly optimized
-Cant pass the door with a code lock without crashing the game
-Doesn't work well on windows 7
Trust me DONT WASTE 40$ on this game like i did.