Review: Silent Hill - Homecoming

Presentation

MjolnirX - Silent Hill: Homecoming is the story of Alex Shepard, a veteran who has been discharged, returning to his hometown only to find it in ruins. The townsfolk are rash and mostly incomprehensible. Some are catatonic at best. Upon your arrival, you come to realize that your little brother has gone missing and no one seems to be doing anything to find him. It is up to you to find out what happened to your town, and to find your brother.

The game's box art immediately sets the tone for the game. An uneasy, awkward portrait of your father and your little brother, whose stare is almost paralyzing. The character art is definitely in-sync with the rest of the series, improved in its high definition.

Graphics

The graphics, like all Silent Hill games, are not its strongest point. There are times where models seem jaggy or without texture. As well, the facial features have the same lack of emotion some of the voice actors do (picture Rocky Balboa). Aside from that, the gritty, dark, mysterious, hellish settings are improved this time around. There's a lot more variation in environments, from something that closely resembles Hell, to catacombs to the town of Shepard Glen itself. Each environment is carefully crafted to make you as uncomfortable as possible, including being in your own home. There's a lot of fine environmental details, like awkward portraits on walls and deteriorating furniture and walls that can really set the tone for what will happen. The enemies are as detailed as ever, especially the bosses; the amazing amount of detail in the bosses goes to show the effort that was put into the game.

Detailed.

Sound

Silent Hill's music has always been kind of an awkward spot for me. The game wouldn't be the same without it, yet I find there are moments when I actually notice the music isn't really the most appropriate for the area or situation I'm in. Specifically, the moments I dislike the most are the conversations. The music seems like something you'd hear in a PS1 Fantasy game (ex. Legend Of Legaia). Don't let that fool you for a minute about the power of the music elsewhere though. The quiet, almost non-existent ambient music in many of the game's areas creates an atmosphere that always leaves you wondering if it's the quiet before the storm.

Gameplay

It wasn't overly difficult to play through the game, though as expected there are frustrating-as-hell moments that make you want to quit. When you beat the game on the hardest difficulty, you unlock the Alien Gun, which makes going back for all the other achievements a breeze. Beating the game on the hardest difficulty definitely still has its work cut out for you. There's almost no ammo or health packs and the enemies are way stronger and do more damage. The controls are also Survival Horror-awkward, but that is more of a benefit than a hindrance to the genre. More often than not, you can avoid enemy encounters and run past the them to continue on your morbidly-merry way, but if you're trying to clear achievements on your way like I did, well, things get a little tricky. I ended up dying more times than I care to admit while trying to collect certain things. The hardest part is the lack of ammunition on the first playthrough; keeping enemies at a distance always has its advantages. Overall, I'd say the game was a 6/10 for difficulty.

Everything Else

At its worst, Silent Hill: Homecoming is replayable, if only for its alternative endings; the game has 5 endings. Though there is a so-called "good ending", they are all right in their own way. I won't spoil the endings here (that's not what this site is about). However, they consist of the obligatory "UFO Ending" where you will get your alien gun for your next playthrough, the "Bogeyman Ending", the "Downing Ending", the "Good Ending" and the "Hospital Ending". I recommend playing through to see them all. I say that on the basis that a few key decisions you make in the game will trigger these specific endings, and it's worth going back to make those decisions to see the consequences of them. After all, isn't that what Silent Hill is about?

Silent Hill: Homecoming didn't leave me wanting. It was overall a very decently put-together game. I would recommend this game to anyone who likes Survival Horror games. They don't get much better than this.

My Rating - 82 (Buy)

Achievements - 1000/1000

Hours Played - Over 30

Game Completed - Yes

Silent Hills: Book Of Memories Trailer - ...What?

MjolnirX - Konami's Silent Hill: Book Of Memories is starting to look even weirder than Silent Hill should. The isometric top-down view is one thing, but the severe lack of any kind of scare factor is another. It's going from the "Holy shit, I have 1 bullet and a crowbar, and there's 3 enemies who can kill me in 2 attacks" to "Don't worry, I have a bunch of bullets. What the hell is 'dying'?" Granted they say there is going to be limited supplies, but that seems to serve only as frustration in a game like this, as opposed to any kind of gut-wrenching horror it does in the other games.

I'm actually loving the storyline though. Your custom-designed main character finds the Book of Memories, and reads through it only to discover that is has all of your memories, past, present, and future, recorded within it. At some point you discover that you can alter the memories, and the game revolves around showing how you are tasked with dealing with the consequences of those changes. A little different than the original Silent Hill's, but surprisingly good nonetheless.

I'm not going to give this game a bad name before I've had the chance to play it. Right now, I'm still going to at least give it an honestly optimistic try. It may not be true to Silent Hill, but it doesn't have to be. It can be fun on its own. I'm just hoping it doesn't end up like Dead Space: Ignition.

Some Silent Hill: Book Of Memories Screens

Castrum - A few BoM screens for you guys:

http://kotaku.com/5832177/silent-hill-book-of-memories-gallery/gallery/1

Silent Hill: Book Of Memories To Have Multiplayer, Feature Character Creation

MjolnirX - Silent Hill: Book Of Memories is slated to be released for the PS Vita. It will be the first Silent Hill game to feature multiplayer, co-operative play and character creation. It also features a story that breaks away from the conventional Silent Hill canon. Though the characters will be new, the creatures will be similar to the ones featured in previous Silent Hill games. The game's release window is "Early 2012". Though the game has not yet been "Concept Approved," it's looking mighty good.

Silent Hill HD Collection Coming To Xbox 360

MjolnirX - After an outcry of support, Konami has announced that the Silent Hill HD Collection is coming out for not only the PS3, but the Xbox 360 as well. Originally announced as an exclusive for the PS3, fans of Xbox 360 rallied together and told Konami that releasing the game on both consoles would be in both parties' best interest. Though no exact date has been announced yet, the game is slated to "hopefully simultaneously" be released in September/October.

The Silent Hill HD Collection will feature High-Def remakes of both Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. It will not feature the first Silent Hill, possibly because Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is still readily available for purchase on the Wii.

Having just played the hell out of Silent Hill: Homecoming, I am anxious for these to come out for the 360. I already own Silent Hill 2  for the Xbox, as well as Silent Hill 4: The Room, and I'm a huge fan of the series and genre. This will add nicely to my collection of games that I consider sleep-banes; if not for their mind-effing stories and socially-awkward characters, then for their addictive hold they have on me.

Resident Evil: Revelations And Asura's Wrath Trailers

Castrum - Got two trailers here for you guys:

Guillermo del Toro's "Insane" Trilogy Will Be Open-World

Castrum - I haven't paid much attention to this game at all, but if it's what del Toro says its will be, I might just be on-board:

The trilogy is called Insane, and del Toro told MTV Multiplayer that while he and developer Volition have been working on it for a year, they've got another two or three years on the game before it's finished.

...

According to del Toro, they have been designing the monsters, which, he said, are unlike anything you've seen. The game, which was previously described as horror title, will apparently be a sandbox game. 

"We had to build a sandbox, so we designed all the archetecture already," said the filmmaker. This makes sense and doesn't actually sound insane at all as Volition is behind the Saints Row sandbox video games.

http://kotaku.com/5831241/guillermo-del-toro-rationally-explains-how-much-longer-insane-will-take

Resident Evil 4 HD, Code Veronica Release Dates Revealed

MjolnirX - Resident Evil 4 HD and Resident Evil: Code Veronica have finally had their release dates announced. Resident Evil 4 HD will be landing in the US on September 20th, 2011, while Resident Evil: Code Veronica will be seeing a release date on September 27th, 2011.

Resident Evil 4 HD and Resident Evil: Code Veronica will be download-only on XBLA and PSN, but they will feature all of the bonus content from the previous console versions, such as the "Separate Ways" epilogue.

Review: Dead Space 2

This is a new regular segment I will be featuring on this site. As an avid gamer, I love to play as much as possible. I will be reviewing the games I've played here, so look out for my new posts. The first games that I will be reviewing are Dead Space 2, as well as Dead Space: Ignition.

Developer - Visceral Games
Publisher - Electronic Arts
Platform - Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genres - Survival Horror, Third-Person Shooter
Modes - Single-player, Multiplayer
MetaCritic - 90
User Ratings - 86
My Rating - 85
Achievements - 900/1000
Hours Played - 10


MjolnirX - Dead Space 2 is an all-round great game. The story picks up where Dead Space 1, or more recently, Dead Space: Ignition, left off (more on that later). You continue as protagonist Isaac Clarke, awakened from stasis by Dead Space: Ignition "protagonist" (I use that term loosely) Franco Delille. The game takes place on Saturn's now-shattered moon Titan, on a human colony called "The Sprawl". This time around, the story pits you against multiple adversaries: EarthGov, Unitologists and, of course, the Necromorphs.

The fate of Franco

The updated graphics are a welcome addition to this new iteration of the Dead Space franchise. They're visually rich and effective at establishing an unsettling environment. The music is dramatic, and queued to individual events, even some as small as things being knocked over in an area beyond your vision, being seen only via shadows cast on poorly-lit walls, creating a crescendo of nervousness and anxiety. Of course, Dead Space 2 makes best use of this in low-lit rooms, with full 5.1+ surround-sound, and on the largest HDTV you can find, with your chair or couch only two feet away.

Though the game is one of the best I've played so far, it has its flaws. My biggest disappointment is the lopsided multiplayer. It just seems unbalanced in favor of the Necromorphs. It is, however, fun. I spent a few hours playing through it, and I've had just as many fun moments as I've had frustrating moments. Another thing I couldn't get into was Isaac's new appearance and personality. I liked how in the first one, he was a faceless hero. It was easier to personify him. With his own personality, and his own struggles, it seems like they are just trying to dramatize and romanticize the whole story. The story itself seemed to make next to no progression into the Dead Space canon. It also seems, other than the now full-faced Isaac, the game has a Halo-like storyline: a be-all, end-all object that threatens the galaxy, and it turns out there are more, and the faceless hero has to save the day, and all this occurs in space. The length of the game was also kind of odd, considering it takes up two discs. I ended up getting 90% of the achievements in less than 10 hours.

As far as the controls go, I couldn't be happier. The sluggish movements pay homage to the greats of the Survival Horror genre like Dino Crisis, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill. The lack of a HUD makes the game much more immersive and cinematic, thus drawing the gamer in and setting up the inevitable scare-tactic that will scare the shit out of you and make you wonder why you're playing the game at all. Though there is a selection of weapons, I found that every time I acquired my next weapon, I never used it at all because my original weapon had all my nodes in it, and was superior in almost every way. This isn't a major concern, but it seems that for all the work put into diversifying weapons, there isn't any real reason to take any of the others, save for achievements.

My copies of Dead Space

I ended up only getting 900 out of the available 1000 achievement points. The last two are just too frustrating to try. One requires you to play the game on the hardest difficulty, which provides you with little to no ammo or health, makes each enemy seem like a boss, and you only get three saves for the entire length of the game. When you die, it sends you back to the last save point, not a checkpoint. Hours of work could be lost. Maybe some day I'll go back and try again, but not likely in the near future.

SUMMARY

Overall, I think Dead Space 2 is easily one of the best games for 2011 so far. I've never really felt so much anxiety playing a game. It is scary, but it's also fun and rewarding. I could easily recommend this game to anyone who loves FPS or Survival Horror games.