The Silent Hill game I avoided for a very long time due to it's bad "reputation". I managed to somehow get the game at an okay price considering how hard it is to find now and by extension all of the Silent Hill games are up to Downpour. I don't want to emulate PS3 games as of yet either and the PC port of Homecoming on Steam is broken, unsurprisingly. With all that said, in spite of all the negative virtol this game gets by Silent Hill fans by the mere mention of it's name like many "disappointing" game releases in popular franchises, I found it to be decent. It does have some major issues particular with story, combat design and presentation but this is not even close to a game I consider to be badly made.
The best way of describing SH Homecoming that it's an algamation of Silent Hill 1 and 3, Silent Hill 2, the SH movie, Jaccob's Ladder with some elements of games like Resident Evil 4.
I'll start with the story and it's okay, not bad but not amazing. Remember what I said earlier how its an algamation? This is what I mean. It has parts of SH1 and 3 in that it deals with the religious cult group called "The Order" and it involves demonic scarifices. Silent Hill 2 in that it's about the protagonist's personal nightmares being represented by the town with a similar twist towards the end. The movie with it's visuals, human enemies, grotesque death scenes and exposition and of course Jaccob's Ladder with it's very premise.
As a result, it feels jumbled and confused. A positive is that the voice acting is good and the cutscenes are decently directed and those do help the game's story. The music during the cutscenes are also fine if one of Yamaoka's weaker OSTs. With that said like SH2's story there is a lack of conrete evidence for anything. What was Alex going to do after he found Josh? When did he get released from the Hospital, how long was he there? How did Alex know how to fight like a solider despite not actually fighting in a war? Why did the town of Shepard's Glen choose to act hostile when Alex got back? Why was Alex not a kid and was considerably older if they wanted to scarifice him? He would be harder to manipulate the older he got. What was Alex really doing when bringing Josh on the boat?
I didn't like this storytelling in SH2 but it's worse here since like the movie, there is exposition now and it makes Homecoming's lack of background details more noticeable since Homecoming bothers to explain things.
There is also weird things about it like how when characters die, it's similar directed like in the SH movie where it's an over the top grotesque death scene where in the first 4 SH games, the way deaths were played out were up to the imagination.
The visuals are also a downgrade from SH3, that game was one of my favorite looking games on the PS2 and the character models especially look worse in Homecoming. In a time where major franchises were making leaps in terms of visuals entering 7th gen, this stands out all the more.
Final issues is that load times can be lengthy on PS3 and the early hours can be lacking in terms of direction. The early Shepard's Glenn and graveyard sections almost made me quit the game due to the lack of direction on what do and where to do. There was also the Scarlett Fitch boss and the police station section after that can be very challenging due to resources being drained in the former and touch enemies being spawned in the latter. Usually there is down time in a survival horror game after a boss fight so the player can get resources again
With that out of the way, the gameplay for the most part can be solid. The combat can be criticized but the idea of it is good and you can tell since SH2 Remake would use this as a basis.
Shepard's Glenn can be interconnected in some ways too, the Graveyard will be a return to Alex's house when you get the key daggar in the Town Hall.
Enemies often never appear in more than 2 and it's more about trying to defeat and avoiding attacks as much as you can and not using too many health drinks. The game has just enough exploration and combat encounters is spread out evenly enough that it never feels like I'm playing an actual beat em up. Enemies visually taking more damage is a nice touch.
There is some problems that holds the combat system back. That is the inconsistent AI and lack of I frames. Enemies in SH Homecoming will either be two things:
They will either stand around and let you whail on them until they die or they will interrupt your combo, you try to anticipate their moves and dodge but will get hit anyway since the dodge rarely if ever gives you I frames so what feels like a game of intense fights where you barely get by feels like an inconsistent game of luck.
Overall, SHH just feels like a basis for SH2R much like Splinter Cell Conviction was for Blacklist, Hitman Absolution was for World of Assassination or RE6 for RE4R if you like SH2R it's worth looking into this game or trying again if you disliked SHH.
No comments:
Post a Comment