Overall: Silent Hill is back and it rings true to its franchise, bringing a lot of elements, not just from other games of the series, but also from the movie and the comic books. This time around we'll see the story of Alex Shepperd, a USA Soldier who just got discharged and is comming back to his hometown, Shepperd's Glen. This nice little town used to be just as cute as Silent Hill, but when Alex arrives the place he realises that there's something wrong, the commerce is gone, most places look downright abandoned... And there's a strange myst creeping around. Soon you find the town's Judge, and in a very strange conversation you're told to check on your mother soon, cause she's not ok she "needs you". As soon as you reach your house and meet your mother you realise that something very evil has happened to the town, people are disappearing and that includes Josh, you're younger brother who looks up at you as if you were his supreme hero. You tell your mother you'll find him, and that's when hell breaks loose. That's as far as I can tell of the story without spoiling anything, you see, Shepperd's Glenn is a neighbour town to Silent Hill, in a matter of fact, they're so close that Toluca Lake itself touches Shepperd's Glenn, people can even easily sail across the lake to the other town; for some reason the "Ancient Gods" of Silent Hill have reached Shepperd's Glenn and brought horror to it, just as they did to Silent Hill.
Shall we start with the very bad parts of the game? The graphics, as far as character modeling and texture goes, is awful. Sometimes it looks barely good enough (the face is somewhat good), but most of the time it'll look just like a PS2/OrigXbox game. Other times it's so ridiculously dark that it only frustrates you (your flashlight illuminates almot nothing), maybe that kept them from making a really great scenario (after all you won't be seeing it because it's too dark...). If the graphics were'nt so bad the game has some really ugly glitches, I'll give the reader the worst one right now, in order to get future players ready: there's a puzzle near the end of the game where you have to move the hands of a clock to a certain time, and that'll get some windows open, well I got the time right and the windows would NOT open,after checking on forums your poor reviwer realised that he wasn't the only one suffering, it was a GLITCH, the game won't respond to the correct answer (Gosh knows why), so you'll just have to try every single possibility 'till one works... Dubbing is also awful, many times it doesn't match the timinig of the character's mouth. Fortunately, at least the monsters were very well disigned and modeled, they show the expected graphical potential. But when you see a monster, make sure you don't die, cause the savepoints are few and usually far away form where you die...
Controls, in terms of action, have changed dramatically, since you're a soldier it plays similar to Resident Evil 4, you can dodge, counter attack and even do combos with your weapons.
The music is great, done by Akira Yamaoka it's just what one would expect from a Silent Hill game; the sound effects are also wonderful (in a very disturbiong way).
Other than the new scenario from Shepperd's Glen, you'll revisit our beloved Alchemilla Hospital in Silent Hill, a Hotel (just like in the movie), the Church, and a few other places, most of them new, in Silent Hill itself.
The monsters are very grotesque, and the bosses are huge and gruesomely gorgeous, ranging from a giant aggresive-looking porcelaine doll to a naked pregnant woman with spider-like machinery for limbs, all bosses are a tough fight with extremely brutal "finishing moves" (just as in God of War, Star Wars the Force Unleashed and others), and even worse psychological horror: each monster is somehow the display of somebody's (if not Alex's inner self) evil secrets. There is an interesting innovation to the enemies though, this time around you'll face the cult "goons" themselves, they look just like in the movie, and even though they're weaker than the monsters, they're just as good in fighting as you are, dodging, blocking and countering your every move.
The game has improved a lot in terms of dialog, now, at some cutscenes, you can choose Alex's line of topic during a conversation, some of those will even change the ending.
During gameplay the player will find many collectbles other than the usual health drinks and ammunition. Those consist of pictures, children's drawings and serums. The serums are very interesting: not only do they replenish 100% of you health, they also make your health bar bigger.
The inventory system is back to it's former self, it has a limit for bullets, but other than that you're free to carry what you will.
All in all Silent Hill Homecomming is one of the best in the series, perfect for any fan who will be willing to overlook its problems. Others, however, may find it only good enough. In any case, it is a very decent game, albeit with a vwery disturbing story.
Made in Canada