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Rating: Silent Hill is a town renowned for being one of the greatest examples of poor municipal management in history. "Poorly paved" roads, sanitation workers on strike, and marginalized non-citizen monsters who have moved in, merrily killing the residents, most of whom are mentally disturbed. It's the best place for aspiring suicides who want to take one last vacation after being laid off, perhaps reciting verses from Dante's Divine Comedy, excluding Paradise, on the deserted streets of Silent Hill. All dark artists also dream of living in Silent Hill to regain their lost inspiration.
Up until the third episode, the series maintained high levels as the best alternative to Resident Evil, offering, compared to the latter, a strong psychological component and disturbing atmospheres that made it a much deeper title than even the Japanese developers themselves could have imagined.
Silent Hill is the representation of the darkness that lurks in the depths of the human soul: that feeling of being engulfed in darkness while facing the demons of the past that have shaped who we are. The existential insignificance that comes to light as you journey through a nightmare between the unconscious and the subconscious.
Unfortunately, the fourth episode: The Room, was an obvious misstep, conceptually interesting but marred by disappointing game design choices.
No longer developed by the historic Silent Team, Homecoming is the work of Double Helix, a Californian software house not comprising any of the previous creators of Silent Hill except for the music composer. Obviously, changing developers changes the dynamics as well. To begin with, the narrative is much more American, and this was a sad fall in style, as the saga can be considered degenerated for the worse. Homecoming is far from possessing the charm and charisma of the first three Silent Hill titles: Double Helix failed to capture the essence of the setting. The cutscenes are far too many and sadly inspired by subpar Hollywood horror franchises.
As if that weren't enough, the game design aims at typical minimalism to appeal to casual gamers and especially console users. The puzzles are non-existent and furthermore, the developers chose to add battles against massive bosses that undermine the atmosphere and fit as much as a square peg in a round hole. Here comes another demerit: to face enemies, you have to switch from normal mode to combat mode, but it proves very inconvenient, especially against bosses. You cannot run and then attack without entering combat mode, giving enemies time to slice you up. Attempting a half-action turnaround to create something halfway between the old survival horror setup and Resident Evil 4, doesn't work, especially on PC. I don't doubt that dodging monster attacks and counterattacking could work well with a gamepad, but with a mouse and keyboard, it fails, especially for those who opted to play on hard difficulty.
As much as the graphics might be polished, the scenarios fail to leave a mark on the player's mind, as you quickly run from one place to another without ever feeling part of the setting. The whole is far from conveying the feelings of disorientation and anguish typical of masterpieces like Silent Hill 2.
In conclusion: Homecoming flows quite pleasantly but, aside from the foggy streets, deviates negatively from the spirit of the saga. The plot is a boring American-style story focusing on the protagonist's family and offers very few emotions. An asphyxiated game unworthy of the name it bears. It isn't awful, thanks to the developers' care in recreating the game world, but compared to Silent Hill 1 and 2, it's laughable.
Pros:
Beautiful graphics
Well-characterized monsters
Soundtrack still by Akira Yamaoka.
Cons:
Poor game design
Dull plot
Inconvenient combat system with mouse and keyboard
Ridiculous puzzles
Unlike its illustrious predecessors, it provides few emotions
Says nothing about the human condition
It's a crappy American-like take
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