Silent Hill: Homecoming

[PrayforMojo]

Glad yah stuck with it mojo!

I'm glad I stuck at it too. It did have moments I won't forget in a hurry.

Prison section spoiler -

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Rescuing Elle from that chainsaw wielding maniac being a particular highlight. That got the blood pumping. Hearing her screams echoing around the corridors gave the feeling that you were against the clock, even if you weren't.

I liked the way the story panned out too. It wasn't as predictable as I first thought.

[abigsmurf]

I'll admit the clock puzzle had me stumped. Not least due to the 'clue' on wall which had me trying to hear for different ticks. Had to look up the answer in the end. I actually got a couple of puzzles by pure chance. The medal one I got on the first go without thinking, I just planted all of the medals on and surprised it unlocked it.

The final dial puzzle I did cheaply by going through all the combinations (only took a couple of minutes). The suit guys were a poor design choice. Humans are not scary and using knife combos they were the easiest enemies in the game to beat (apart from the gun toting ones).

Also I looked up the conditions for the endings and

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the conditions for the UFO ending are actually incredibly easy to stumble upon! The three factors that determine the ending are: killing the mum, forgiving your dad and saving the cop. You could complete the game not doing anything special and get the comedy joke ending. Not cool.

[Extra Terrestrial]

As an enthusiastic fan of the original and it's sequel, truth be told, I am kind of enjoying and appreciating my return to Silent Hill in Homecoming.

I didn't particularly think much of the hospital area you start the game in because all the Silent Hill clich?s are featured too heavily; more locked doors than there should be, it is overly (and unnecessarily) dark, predictable moments involving 'scares' as well as the rather woeful enemy encounters.

'What is in that room? Oh, let me guess... a nurse by any chance?

*walks into room*

Hey, it looks like I was right!'

I just didn't think it was Silent Hill enough, it was trying a little bit too hard at being Silent Hill if you understand what I am saying.

HOWEVER!

Once you are in Silent Hill, things get a little bit better - in fact, it gets increasingly better. After a slow and predictable start, Alex finds his feet firmly on the ground and takes you through his story.

You could argue that the characters are fairly lifeless, cold even (you won't find any Silent Hill 2 levels of character development) but they do their usual job of questioning their reasoning of being stuck in Silent Hill and they offer the player a foreboding sense of dread.

I'm at the

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hotel

now and the pieces to the puzzle (story) is slowly joining together.

The combat 'system' is good, marginally better than previous outings (the heavy attack is very useful) but the 'finishing move'... the developers could do without that, it looks fairly tasteless. On the subject of enemy encounters, they are no worse than the earlier series or maybe it gets busier later in the game.

So yeah, so far so good.

As long as you don't constantly think 'Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 2, Sile...' throughout the game, it's a nice if unoriginal return to Silent Hill.

[abigsmurf]

There're rumours Climax (who did this) are on board to remake the first game. Bit 'meh' at the prospect to be honest. They just don't have the creativity Silent Hill needs

[hush]

think i may have to find my copy of this and start to play more for it asd it has been sitting in a box since before Xmas

[abigsmurf]

The thing with SH:5 is that it's a fairly respectable survival horror, it just feels like a "best of Silent Hill" that pick and chooses elements they liked from the series and movies and constructed their own story around these things.

[Shozuki]

The thing with SH:5 is that it's a fairly respectable survival horror, it just feels like a "best of Silent Hill" that pick and chooses elements they liked from the series and movies and constructed their own story around these things.

Agreed. Having said that it was definately one of my picks for '08

[BaronSqwelch]

I am trying to enjoy this...havent played an SH since the original.

Why cant The camera axis be inverted?? Its ruining the experience for me completely!!

Have just done the slidy puzzle in the attic (took me AGES ) but I dont know if I can make myself go on...

[MrMarbles]

There're rumours Climax (who did this) are on board to remake the first game. Bit 'meh' at the prospect to be honest. They just don't have the creativity Silent Hill needs

Climax did the PSP game Silent Hill: Origins - it was Double Helix who made Homecoming.

I like the sound of a Wii remake of the first one - I'd always hoped for a remake on the PS2, so this is the next best thing; I look forward to pipe-bludgeoning waggle.

[crocky-chocky]

Ugh.

The odd flash of greatness is keeping me going, but this is a frustrating game.

There's so many little flaws. But my one real gripe is the spacing out of save points. Sometimes I'll get stuck with next to no health, and the next save point will be beyond a battle with 5 stabby nurses. Lots of game over screens there be.

It's one of those games where there's a nifty little moment for every bug and annoyance. So I keep playing to see the nifty bits, but come away from it a wee bit wound up.

I've faith it'll get better though. I do love Silent Hill, and it's certainly not as bad as some of the preview clips had me believe.

[Unwell Cat]

This is the first Silent Hill game I've played and I have to say I'm really enjoying it. I've played up the sliding puzzle in the crypt (which is doing my head in) and I'm finding it very atmospheric with an intriguing storyline.

Graphics are ok, certainly not bad.. Just ok. Although I do like the grain filter being used.

[crocky-chocky]

Finished this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it in the end.

It's not a classic for sure, but upon returning to Alex's house about 2/3's in, the game hits a fairly sweet pace and the story takes off. Lots of new locations, twists and old-school puzzles delivered in quick succession. The plot was okay, and some of the bosses were the best in the series...though they don't come close to Pyramid Head obviously.

I finally got over my gripes with the combat too, in that I discovered that the knife makes it all very easy, and a bit more fun.

There's some definite dips in quality early on, and the alternate Silent Hill looked more like something out of Dead Space or Metroid Prime, but overall I really liked it. It's certainly a better game to play than The Room was...

[abigsmurf]

The thing with The Room was it had great imagination behind it but was spoilt by backtracking and annoying unkillable enemies.

Silent Hill 5, although a decent enough game, didn't show any real imagination which was a big disapointment

[Spatial]

I've been plodding through this slowly and can't say I've enjoyed it much. It has it's moments - that final bit with

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Judge Holloway

made me actually go and check the box to see what rating they'd given this. It pissed all over The Darkness for gaming scenes involving

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drills

.

But overall I found it was a bit of a mess thanks to the combat frustrating the crap out of me. By the time I figured out that for most enemies it's light, light, heavy then it became a breeze, which in turn ruins the atmos.

Best example I can give of how this game just felt half-baked is what happened to me last night - I played through it making certain choices and got

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The Dog

end.

I mean seriously, what!?

They actually put something that was a series joke and made it so it was an actual ending that you could achieve by making legitimate decisions? Point well and truly missed.

[Spatial]

Just done all the endings.

Blargh!

The only decent ones were Judgement and Intensive Care - the latter being the one which most fitted in with the game's mood and made the most sense. But then I always was a sucker for the Water ending in No 2 which was just as bleak.