Further reducing the terror is the fact that Alex is completely capable in combat. The bugs decided to take on the Orkin Man once and for all. This simply cheapens the experience with poor design choices, making the fear that you experience tamer than that which you'd find at an amusement park's haunted house. In fact, you'll frequently need to run up on something to notice that the flashlight is on. Even if you are in a darkened area with the flashlight on and the brightness option cranked up all the way, you'll have trouble seeing in front of you, which doesn't make the game scary at all. On top of this, it's blatantly obvious that the designers attempted to ratchet up the scares by making it impossible to see where you're going with a flashlight that barely illuminates anything. This doesn't create or contribute to the claustrophobic sense of dread a player should feel going through these games in any way. Even worse are the sections where the title continually triggers a number of respawning monsters until you move to a certain portion of the environment and trigger a cutscene. Instead, you frequently come off as bored or unsurprised that a creature comes through a door or a gate, primarily because you won't have been attacked in so long that you'll start to expect something to step out of a shadow or a hallway up ahead. The placement of jump moments are extremely predictable, so you never feel like you're put on the edge of your seat because of something that'll suddenly attack you seemingly out of nowhere. To a degree, this "straying away" from the well known characters or elements from the previous games would be fine if the title maintained the frightening aspects of the franchise, but that just doesn't happen. Alessa and Dahlia don't show up, and even the few sequences where Pyramid Head pops up are more like brief guest appearances for fans, although he does have a great scene towards the end of the game. Apart from the aforementioned cameo and a brief mention of Cybil, many of the other story regulars have been excluded. Homecoming eventually feels more like a subplot to a larger, unfinished tale with tenuous connections to the rest of the series. However, even with all of that going on, the main twist related to the game can easily be figured out before it happens, leaving a rather bland taste when it's finally revealed. There are a number of nods to both the Silent Hill film from a few years ago as well as the movie Jacob's Ladder, which adds a couple of layers to the development of the characters as well as the situations they find themselves in. Homecoming doesn't radically attempt to revamp the established universe that's existed for almost a decade, but tries to tie the plot of Alex's adventure to pre-established canon. The tale itself is a decent one - players that have gone through a number of Silent Hill stories before will gain a new perspective on the communities bordering Toluca Lake.Ĭlick here to watch the video review. As Alex investigates his family's disappearance and the incidents going on, he eventually discovers the dark secret of Shepherd's Glen, its connection to Silent Hill, and how his family plays a significant role in these events. People have been disappearing in increasing numbers, including Alex's father and little brother, the streets are shattered and in disarray and strange creatures roam the town. Once he eventually gets back to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen (thanks to a quick cameo of a previous Silent Hill character), he discovers that things are truly bad at home and only getting worse. Homecoming is the story of Alex Shepherd, a recently discharged soldier who has disturbing dreams that seem to plague him during his waking moments, many revolving around his younger brother Joshua. What's more, released more than a month after the console version, the PC version is plagued by control and visual issues. While the monsters and strange environments of the game return, the overall experience just isn't scary, which is a major letdown for a title with such a great horror pedigree. Unfortunately for the series, the latest installment from Konami and Double Helix, Silent Hill: Homecoming, manages to drain the emotional and psychological elements from the game. That, in turn, imparted a sense of panic and concern in the player because they weren't guaranteed to emerge from a fight unscathed. Whether it was wandering the fog enshrouded streets of Silent Hill or the rusty, industrialized hallways of the Otherworld, the characters were normal people - not fighters - stranded in a situation that was completely out of their control, forced to survive any way they could against unnatural monsters. The Silent Hill franchise has always been known for its ability to trip the player's psychological levers, instilling a significant amount of unease, fear and even dread at the situations that they find themselves in.
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