Silent Hill's Coming Home

You wake up chained to a hospital bed, being pushed down a corridor filled with screams of terror. As you witness saw-like murders and experiments being carried out on unwilling victims, you plead with the doctor pushing you down this corridor of hell, when he leaves you, alone, in an operating theatre. Your heart is pounding and your breath fills the room with a deafening echo. Suddenly the sound of scraping metal! Horror fills your mind as this can only mean one thing; The Executioner is here, The Bogeyman... coming to collect his prize.

Right from the start of the 6th instalment into the Silent Hill franchise you are thrown into the eerie, freaky, atmosphere expected of the series. The game really lives up to its genre as a survival-horror, as the tone of the game is set right from the beginning. The use of music, written by the legend that is Akira Yamaoka, (famous for writing the music for previous Silent Hill games), really puts the tone of the game into a freaky, unnerving feeling right from the title screen.

During the prologue it is quickly apparent that the voice acting for the protagonist you play as; Alex Shepherd, is performed extremely well. You have to congratulate Alan Bloom on doing playing the role so well, as the convincing voice acting suits the style of game perfectly. He really captures the emotion you would expect from someone in Alex's situation. It is far too common, these days, for games to include very bland and monotonic voice acting, with actors really not putting their all in. It's nice to see the developers have gone all out to create a well-balanced, very eerie, atmosphere.

As you'd expect, Homecoming features many enemies and features, experienced in earlier games of the franchise. We see the return of the one, the only; 'Pyramid Head', only this time he has a new name. Here, he is known as the Bogeyman, with many collectibles telling a story of what his role is.

It's not only the combination of; enemies, voice-acting and background music, which add to the eeriness of the game. But there is frequent use of environmental effects, such as roof tiles crashing down to the floor and wheelchairs rolling down stairs. You encounter this more at the beginning of the game, before you are faced with your first real enemy. Although there's no real imminent danger, the game still has you jumping for cover.

The game also presents many puzzle scenarios, which a veteran Silent Hill player would expect. These sections serve to add a touch of flavour to the mix, breaking the inevitable fear, with a slightly more frustrating tone. These puzzles come predominantly in the form of slider puzzles. They aren't too tricky and providing you take time to plan your moves before you start scrambling them all up they shouldn't take more than a dozen moves to complete. Other puzzles aren't that hard to complete either, as long as you take time to survey the area for clues. Unfortunately if you do make a few wrong moves with the slider puzzles, there is no way of resetting them to their original position without rebooting the game from the last save. This can be a very frustrating experience, particularly if you're playing through on one of the harder difficulties.

As you first jump into the alternate world, that is ‘The Otherworld’, you encounter your first enemy; a nurse, as featured in almost all previous Silent Hill games. At this stage, especially if playing on any difficulty below 'hard', it is quite easy to consistently hack a nurse with your knife - the only weapon available to you at that time. However, as you progress through the game, you encounter many different enemies. It's at this point, that you realise you cannot just hack and slash your way through every enemy as easily as in some previous games.

Each enemy has its own weakness whether it is a particular weapon or combo move. You really have to learn the movements and attack patterns of each different enemy, to avoid excessively taking health drinks and medi-kits. This adds to the difficulty of the game and requires you to use a bit of skill. Each new enemy you're introduced to also appears to be stronger and more resistant to attack, meaning you'll have to use the best of your skills developed over the course of the game.

There are a total of 6 weapons, each with an upgraded version which can be found later in the game. The first you receive is the knife, and you build up your arsenal as you progress through the game. There are also 2 bonus weapons which can be unlocked ready for a next play through.

The smog, infamous throughout the majority of the games in the franchise really adds to the eeriness, allowing you to see just a few feet in front. This allows enemies to lurk away awaiting the right moment to commit a surprise attack, leaving you defenceless and shocked.

As I mentioned earlier, the collectibles add a back-story to the history of Shepherds Glen, (your home town). You can also find writing etched into walls and headstones, written in books and flyers throughout the game. This really helps you get involved into the story, if you choose. But this method of storytelling allows you to ignore the boring parts and remain in the action if you choose to.

The action is perfectly combined with a deep storyline, which is empowered by the addition of moral choices. We've seen it used a hundred times before, in games of today. In most cases these can be poorly written and provide little than a momentary thought before moving on to the next poorly written sequence. However, Homecoming manages to reach you on a personal level, allowing you to become deeply involved in the decisions you make. Whilst these decisions don't really affect the course of the story, they do affect the ending of the game.

There are 5 endings to the game, each one explaining a different fate met by the protagonist. A couple make sense in the scheme of things, whereas a few seem disjointed to the overall storyline. There's also the classic 'UFO Ending', found in many previous Silent Hill games, that adds a comical element to the game.

The multiple endings, unlockable weapons and collectibles that you could miss all add to the replayability of the game. After the second play-through the game can become quite tedious due to the linear story. Perhaps, if the moral choices offered more reward than simply varied endings then you may enjoy playing the game through several times. There are achievements for making the different moral choices, and for receiving the different endings and acquiring the unlockable weapons, which also add to the replayability if you hold any value in raising your Gamerscore.

In-game the music adds to the tone of the game, particularly when coming into contact with enemies; the music often cuts out when they’re nearby, creating a tense atmosphere. Unfortunately, the music often fades into the background, with the static from the radio and the concentration of combat, diverting your attention away. The music itself is appropriate for the game and does add to the overall mood, it just doesn’t really stand out as a main focus of the game. During cut-scenes, however, the music does begin to prove itself; being stronger in dynamics and generally being creepier through the use of atonal notes. This works well as the gameplay isn’t mixed-up with complex music, but the atmosphere is amplified during cut-scenes, where the player is more involved in the storyline.

Overall the game implements a well balanced mix between, storyline, action, eeriness and puzzles. There is a big learning curve for any new player to the series, but veteran Silent Hill fans shouldn't find too much of a problem. The use of good music, voice-acting and general jumpy moments form a good mix, empowering the 'horror' genre.