bahamut_zero's Profile

It has been a long wait for this next instalment in the Silent Hill series but Homecoming does not fail to disappoint. This time, the unlucky victim of the Silent Hill universe is Alex Shepherd a military veteran who returns to his hometown of Shepherds Glen to find that home isn’t quite what it used to be. Shepherds Glen, unfortunately for him, is but a stones throw from Silent Hill, and so the story begins.

The combat in Homecoming has been refined somewhat with a new combo system being introduced. While the previous SH combat experience has been ‘whack it till its dead’, the trend in this game is to dodge attacks through careful timing, then counterattacking and stunning enemies. As such you will have to observe the enemies movements carefully and plan your attacks. As the game progresses, the enemies get quite skilled in evading your attacks too therefore making it more challenging. Planning what weapons to use against enemies is also a must however you will be glad to hear that they don’t break like they did in Origins nor do you need to carry portable televisions and toasters to throw.

The Alchemilla nurses are back with even shorter skirts and deadlier combos to boot. They are much faster than the nurses in the previous games and I’m embarrassed to admit that they have contributed to more GAME OVER screens than other enemies, simply because I underestimated them. There are several new enemies too and as mentioned earlier, they all have unique weaknesses that you need to exploit otherwise each battle could take ages - unless you use the shotgun of course, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll save the ammo for the latter part of the game. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I haven’t played SH for awhile but I found the bosses in this game particularly difficult as well.

Homecoming lives up to its reputation as being one of the scariest games. When Alex descends into the Silent Hill universe you are confronted with some rather perverse and morbid scenes. But such is the general theme of the game and after awhile you get quite used to it. There is a chapter called “Descent Into Hell” which you must play at the dead of night because it is truly spooky.

Unfortunately, one of the downsides of the game is that the graphics aren’t as good as I expected. Furthermore, the loading times were far too long for my liking and often you would have to endure loading times even if you’re in the same house/building. This can get quite frustrating especially when you are scared out of your wits wondering if theres going to be another enemy behind that door or a nice tasty health drink.

The other thing I found quite annoying with the game is the inventory and attack controls (for the PS3). The inventory buttons are L1 and R1. To attack, you need to hold down the L2 button and press X or the square button and to shoot you need to hold down the L2 button and press R2. If you’ve recently played Dead Space or anything similar, you will find yourself pressing the first shoulder buttons to attack. In the heat of battle, what you will end up inevitably doing is to accidentally use up serums or other precious items you don’t’ want to use especially if you try to exit the screen using the Triangle. Watch out for this because it happened to me twice and it was quite frustrating.

Overall, my experience with the game has been rather enjoyable and I’m looking forward to finishing it shortly. As with most SH games, the unlockables are still pretty good so I’m looking forward to playing it the second time round with some new costumes especially to take revenge on those damn nurses with the secret super uber weapon.