Homecoming’s misteps prove you really can’t ever go home again… unless your home is the otherworld.
Silent Hill Homecoming
Homecoming’s misteps prove you really can’t ever go home again… unless your home is the otherworld.
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Honestly, I disagree here. I do love Silent Hill, but I don’t think this one did anything particularly wrong. It did borrow too much from the movie, but like you said, the movie did have some nice visuals. The combat, to me, really needed to be improved. It’s always felt clunky in Silent Hill to me, and I personally did rely on melee combat in the first game, because I wanted to save ammo for bosses and harder to hit enemies. It never really made the game feel less scary to me, but that’s just me. I wouldn’t say Homecoming is a bad game, or even a bad Silent Hill game, it just borrows too much from Silent Hill 2 and Origins. Story was weaker, though, I’ll give you that. What do you think of the new game so far? And please, Phelous, no more cross dressing, I get enough nightmares from the games. 😛
Haha well one thing I didn’t really like in the trailer was seeing a lot of running around the woods. That might not really be that big a part of the game but I think it’s usually better to keep it around an actual town area. So it’s kind of like the essence of something more safe that gets ripped from you when it turns into the Otherworld.
I thought the same thing. I’m hoping the wooded areas are mainly for the escape from the cops in the beginning or something. I like the idea of Silent Hill’s aura spreading, but running through the forest just doesn’t scream creepy to me. Hopefully it turns out good, though.
The combat is SUPPOSED to be shitty. In SH you are just a regular guy (or girl) trapped in the town, not some special forces Chuck Norris superman.
You are supposed to try to avoid the combat as much as possible, since the enemies are dangerous.
If you can easily kill them they are not dangerous anymore, they are just an obstacle.
Silent Hill was built around psychological horror. The idea is that you are alone in an hostile environment and you are the underdog.
Homecoming simply missis the point. It might not be a bad game but it’s not a good Silent Hill game.
I thought the new combat mechanics would be really fun in Homecoming, I’d finally get a chance to fight back against some of these baddies that I’d always had to run from, but like you said Phelous it started to take me right out of the whole experience. The focus on melee combat was what really drove it home, even in RE games you want to keep enemies away from you at all cost, in this game I went diving right at them and cut them to pieces for a joke.
Pyramid Head was totally wasted in this game, what a bait and switch! I like the character and I think he had a great presence even in the movie, but in this he just sorta lumbers around and though I got tense the first time I saw him by the end it was more like he was just walking on the set of a movie he wasn’t supposed to be in and then tip toed away.
This was by far the least creepy of all the Silent Hill games. It was action oriented which was the total wrong direction to take Silent Hill games. You hit the nail right on the head with this one Phelous, glad to see another Silent Hill fan felt the same way about this game that I did 😀
Thank you for reviewing this one. You mentioned details that were completely glossed over in other reviews. Keep up the good work Phelan!
It’s a shame they keep putting out new Silent Hill games, but none of them I really want to buy.
Also, I don’t know if it you’d be into it, Phelous, but I’d love to see you do something on the original games one day. A Let’s Play would be fun, but I’d love to see just one of your normal review/discussion-type things.
I’ve been thinking of a LP on SH1 soon so I’ll probably get on that.
Very cool! Something to look forward to.
Really looking forward to that! I enjoyed Lotus Prince’s LP on TGWTG, and it’ll be nice to hear your thoughts during the game.
Probably won’t be doing a Shattered Memories LP, huh? 🙂
I totally missed the boat on Resident Evil and Silent Hill when I was younger (not that I would have been able to play with ruining a couple pairs of pants), but maybe I could try one now.
Thing is, are there any good RE or SH games on the Wii? BTW, buying a Wii was NOT my choice.
Well you can actually get most of the original RE games and the REmake of 1 on gamecube which you could play on your Wii. RE4 is on the Wii and it’s controls are supposedly good but I’ve still only playing the GC version. Shattered Memories is mixed feelings on. If you watch my review from when it came out and it looks interesting enough you might want to check that one out.
I heard about Shattered Memories around it’s first release while it was being promoted with another game (can’t recall the name) and I was shocked to hear they were getting absymal ratings since they’re both popular series.
I’d probably get the GC version of RE4 and most definitely check the out first RE for it’s supposed B-movie style satire and campiness.
I saw your RE:Shattered review and pretty much all of your other vids and from being one that loves crappy horror movies, I think they’re all hilarious.
Edit: Bah, not sure why it posted that comment twice sorry.
Cool Review. I had the misfortune of playing this game too, but never finished it. I really hated the combat system with this game and the game adaptation of Saw. One request though, please dont wear that nurse outfit again. I’ve seen creepy cosplay outfits before, but DAMN.
Oh, when I saw this, I thought you were gonna totally bash on it, but
you were pretty damn fair to it. Sounds like you don’t hate it, you were
just disappointed by it.
I liked the game myself, not my favorite game in the series, but I had fun with it.
How many copies of the game do you have anyway? I thought I saw around five different versions of the game.
I’ve seen from your Twitter you don’t have high hopes for SH8 atm, though we only have a trailer so far, so it’s way too early to tell.
And yeah, It’d be cool to see a Let’s Play of the first or second game from you sometime in the future. You better hurry before Dena does it! Hehe.
Yeah it’s really not what I hoped for from a Silent Hill title mostly.
0!!! Haha. Oh I agree it’s too early to really tell, like I said there I hope I’m wrong and SH8 is great but I’m not expecting it.
Yeah I think I’ll do a SH1 LP fairly soon actually.
Nice review. Nice nurse 😉
I wanted to buy this game, but not if its that bad… and I can just buy the wussy Version. Bloody german ratings.. -.-
Phelous, you just made your fagirls very happy…
Yes, I’m one of them.
Haha well if that’s true for some reason I’m happy it’s fangirls and not fanboys.
*squeaks*
But Phelous I love you :c
I enjoy it when you do games. It proves that your not just a horror movie buff, but also a game buff. I’m not a horror gamer, but Never the less, I enjoy you’re reviews! Your also Canadian. That’s awesome.
That…was disturbing.
I admit, I was more scared when you were waving around that knife than by the game footage. I don’t play the Silent Hill games myself because I’m not too good at them, but I like to watch others play to see the creepy visuals and awesome storylines. Sad that this one is a disappointment on both counts.
On a positive note, nice legs! 😉
*edited to add that Wesker’s title card was gorgeous!
Haha!
Oh yeah Wesker’s title card for this one was amazing!
Do you feel like they should even keep making the games? Like will SH8 fall into RE5 gameplay? What did you think of Silant Hill 4 The Room? Most people I know that love the games didn’t like 4 that much. I mean even a bad Silant hill game is good right? Also none of us needed to see you as a puppet nurse/ bubble nurse. The UFO ending is never good ( well I hate getting them at lest.) As far as a Let’s play This guy L0rd Vaga I think made a lot of funny Blind let’s plays of 1-3. Take a look at them on youtube ” Let’s play silent hill blind” =] The way he acts after opeing the lockbox with nothing in it ( just a string of hair) was what I did too XD
I’ve had an increasingly rocky relationship with Silent Hill lately. SH1 and SH3 were great, SH2 was a masterpiece, and from there it really went downhill. Silent Hill 4 really isn’t as bad as I originally felt, but it was still a step down. 0rigins was an extremely weak game, but it was at least a Silent Hill game I suppose. Homecoming… oh god. This game just made me angry. The story at its’ core could have almost been done right. It wasn’t, but it could have been. But the tie-ins to Silent Hill make absolutely no sense. I agree completely with what was stated here, this game is absolute *crap*. I was feeling so burned after this one that I’d initially hated Shattered Memories far more than it, without much reason to. On reexamining Shattered Memories, it’s actually a decent game if I forget the stupid “remake” premise and look at it as more of a homage. If SH8 is anything like Homecoming, I’m going to just take my first three Silent Hill games and ignore the existance of any other games with Silent Hill in the title.
(Though Silent Hill Arcade is pretty awesome even if I like it for all of the wrong reasons)
**EDIT* I spaced all this out into paragraphs, if it all looks clumped together, I have no idea why, sorry.*
I haven’t played this one. I have played and beaten them all up to Origins. Still haven’t played Homecoming and Shattered Memories yet. But I will, eventually, because I’m the type of person that, if I love a franchise, like I love Silent Hill, I will generally buy every game that comes out, until they start making truly shitty games, or they just go a completely different direction and lose what makes the franchise so great. It seems like Homecoming may have gotten just this side of missing the point of the franchise, and the Pyramid Head cameos, on the surface at least, seem like fan service. I have my own theories on that.
I think the image of Pyramid Head in the historical society, within the game universe, is real, and their executioners actually looked somewhat like that, though the Pyramid Heads that you see roaming the town are exaggerated due to the psychology of the protagonists. Pyramid Head was different for James than he would be for Alex Shepherd. Although I haven’t played this game, I have seen Let’s Plays of it, and I know the plot and what happens.
I think Pyramid manifested as part of Alex’s anger and rage towards his parents, which is why it didn’t attack him, but did kill his father, and possibly put his mother in the death trap. Since he has lived in Silent Hill, well Shepard’s Glen, but close to Silent Hill, all his life, he most likely saw an image of him, or heard people mention the old executioners. People FROM there would know the town’s history, and Alex Shepherd may have seen and/or heard about them.
Notice also that PH’s Great Knife looks different in this game. It looks like a giant survival/combat knife. So, I don’t think we’re seeing the same Pyramid Head as the one from SH2. (Yes, i know the design was borrowed from the movie, but that’s beside the point.) The Pyramid Head from SH2 was a sexual sadist, but this one has a specific job to do, and he doesn’t go around raping monsters like the original.
As far as Alex having combat skills, this IS Silent Hill, and whether or not Alex is delusional, the town will make him think, and the players see, Alex using military combat moves. The town has a habit of warping reality, so I don’t think it would be out of line for the town to bestow the knowledge of how to dispatch it’s monsters, all the while making it possible for Alex to fail and actually die. I know all this is reaching, because they don’t explain anything really, but all of this is probable for Silent Hill.
I didn’t care for the cult aspect of this game being the cult from the movie either, as the movie is nowhere near approaching cannon for the series. It does seem like the people who created this one, story wise, hadn’t so much played the old games as saw the film and decided to expand on that universe, which is disappointing. Also, I like the idea of multiple Pyramid Headed Executioners. I don’t think it takes anything away from the original to have him in a story, they should just make it make more obvious sense, instead of having you guess why he is in the game.
The combat system looks interesting, but doesn’t look like a survival horror combat system, really. The smog monster, i agree, looks out of place, but most of the other enemies look pretty good for a SH game. The bosses are amazing looking to me though.
I have issues with this one, but I’m still going to buy it, because I am a completest, which i think will one day be my downfall :-p Great critique though. I love your vids, I have been watching them for a long time, and glad I’m finally commenting. Don’t know why I didn’t before, but yeah, you’re one of my favorite reviewers. Cheers!
I have to say this is the worst silent hill game ever.
I mean there’s no dread , no scary moments, boring otherworld , no scary sounds , this game doesn’t even try to be honest.
I’m sorry to say this but american developers just don’t get it with horror these days:P, instead you just need a shotgun apparently:P
1-4 far better then this embarrassment.
Really unsure about silent hill 8 , but if that game does the same crap all over again….SILENT HILL IS DEAD TO ME ,
but if it turns the other way around I will be happy^^
let’s hope they don’t fuck it up now:P
I’m on the verge on giving up on the series::O
I dont have an opinion on this game, but I do own it. I played it for a couple of hours and never went back.
I guess that speaks for itself 🙁
This was the first phelous review I watched. While homecoming felt different than the others it to me was not the worst. Silent Hill 4 felt to hard and the endings in it semmed to be more ability based than decision based like the others, also it is easier to get lost in SH four for me.
My main problem with homecoming though is that even on hard without the laser gun it was too easy except for the final boss thing, but still played through to get all endings.
The katana is not the reward for just the bad ending in SH 1, it is the reward for getting both a good and a bad ending. So the third play through is the earliest you could get it, the first time I played through this game I got the bad ending because I did not know how to get the good ending, and the katana room was still locked shut.
How I love these games, for more than one reason. The handsome monsters, the psychology, the silliness (especially in Silent Hill 4), the way the town looks, the Otherworld, …
Homecoming was so disappointening, like you said it was just Silent Hill 2 all over again. With no James. What the hell.
And on top of that it wasn’t even that creepy. Sure it had its cool graphics, but it just didn’t feel right. The only thing that I thought was creepy about Homecoming were its people. And with that I mean their teeth. What the hell was up with those? It was so creepy when they would talk, brrrr..
And I want Fitch’s boxer shorts, for when I decide to bleed to death. I mean come on, where do you find any shorts that are blood-resistent these days?
“It’s that fucker Phelous” – so funny, and that nurse crossdressing, jesus i laughed.
To be fair, i quite enjoyed Homecoming, and i liked the battle system. Yeah, it’s distorted the mood, but was a nice change of pace, good to know they trying something new. And yeah, freaking knife owns everyone, weird. The Room was more combat oriented also, don’t you think?
What i liked most is the home part, exploring it, watching paintings\photos, while that song was playing, this is when i was got in the game. Whole thing with parent issues was interesting to find out, but then i just killed those heartless assholes and game awarded me with bad ending, it was dissapointed for me too. But come to think of it, what did you expect, you’ve killed your parents, eventhough they were treating you like shit, nothing good is going to happen. True story.
Not much of great music where in this game also. It’s only main theme and home one, that all i remember. In parts 2,3 and the room, music was such a powerful tool to give your proper emotions to expirience. But again, in first game whole score was pretty much just noise music, which did really well, especially when you get to listen “normal” music later in game.
Too much was taken from movie, bad sign. Pyramid head was pointless, kind off, but he was there just for being popular, totally agree with that. And not much of extra within the game itself, also sad. Ultimately, nothing new was told at the end, plot became even more mess. But still, i enjoyed it, not the best game in series, but i wish they just could give it more polish and more silent hill touch in some meaning.
And downpour is coming, have no expectations. I’ve got a question, don’t you think that new games of beloved series make you dissapointed because you became older, and more thinking human being than you was when first time played them? I love so many game series from my childhood – teenage years, but like for last 5 or so years nothing made my heart and mind go numb. Maybe i just haven’t played something this great, or maybe it’s both me and games. Sad, i guess. Sorry for bad english by the way.
Hey Phelous, are you going to review Downpour? If you do, it will probably make or break whether or not I get the game. Also, it will be damn fun to see what you have to say about it.
do you plan on talking about downpour like you did this and shattered memories
Yes, a video of my thoughts on Downpour will be out pretty shortly.
While I’m sure all or most of what you said was true about the game (I even watched an entire LP of it) I still want to get the game. I just recently got back into the SH series and now I really want to play an updated 7th gen game. I would want to play Downpour, as you said it was quite better, but it’s still way to steep in price for my taste…
huh, I personally try to avoid using firearms(except for bosses) in SH games. eh, anyway, I always thought that the bigger focus on combat symbolised the fact that your playing as a soldier.
The Let’s Play of this game on the LP Archive makes a lot of the same points as this review, so I wonder If Phelous has seen it?
Nope. And even if I had I wouldn’t write a review based around what someone else thought.
This game i just beat and it was my first Silent Hill game i’ve played.To be honest i enjoyed it.If it is the worst of the series, then the others are going to blow me away.I mean this game did something that Resident Evil has never done, i creeped me out.Yeah RE has jump scares,but the atmosphere of the game got me good.One night i was playing it(lights off the only way to play) i was so into it i didnt relize my cat was getting ready to ppounce on me.She does i scream throw the controller across the room and all my wife can do is laugh. Thanks SH you have a new fan.