Listener Review: Silent Hill Homecoming by Primebuster

PS Nation Listener Reviews are (surprise!) game reviews submitted by our listeners. We don’t always have time to read every review we receive so we’re happy to finally be able to share them. Please note the views expressed within are not those of the PS Nation hosts or staff. Reviews are normally posted as submitted, but may be slightly edited for readability. We are not responsible for your bad grammar. ^__-

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Prime doesn’t quite review: Silent Hill Homecoming

Hullo folks! Prime here without a review of Silent Hill 5! Silent Hill Homecoming sees relatively young Alex Shepherd coming home (what a hu

ge plot twist!) from active duty in the armed forces. Discharged with honours and medals etc, he gets dropped off by a clay-bearded trucker to his hometown of Shepherd’s glen (they’re great with names). After shaking the truck driver’s hand he gets out and starts walking to his house. But the town seems different. If it were me, I’d have said ‘This place looks a lot like silent hill‘ but thats just me. I say that every night it’s really foggy. All I need now is a torch and a radio constantly set just slightly off a chat station and I’m set.

Anyway, he walks into his house, everything’s pretty desolate and he eventually finds his mother, turns out his dad has fecked off somewhere and his brother’s missing. WHAT? NO! Not his younger brother (by quite a few years might I add) Joshua. And so sets up the story for the game. It reminds me a lot of the first game, except instead of a father looking for his daughter, it’s a big brother searching for his little brother. If I said any more, It’d be spoilers, so I’m just gonna talk about gameplay/graphics and sound etc.

The gameplay is relatively solid. As you would expect, Alex being a soldier has given him an edge in battle opposed to the ‘average joe’ protagonists from the earlier games. I read a lot about how the gameplay was far easier and balance wasn’t addressed seeing as he’s been given the ability to dodge and counter attacks now. But I didn’t find that in this game. It was just as crazy/hectic/challenging as the previous games. The creature designs ranged for relatively generic to obscenely freakin’ cool. Along with their designs came the way they moved and attacked. Each monster fought differently, instead of just plain attacking, some, for instance the needler had the tactic of jumping up to the roof if it was in trouble. Which was very freaky.

I played the PS3 version and I don’t know about anyone else, but the analogue sticks seemed very sensitive while playing the game. I found I had to accurately re-center them to stop Alex from slowly walking/turning. This same problem made the puzzle solving sections in the game very tedious as you can imagine the game violently flicking through the selectable items in a puzzle and shifting them randomly if you didnt re-center the sticks properly.

The music, as you may very well expect, was fantastic as always. Akira Yamaoka reprises his role for the musical pieces in the game. The audio I found even more amazing when the sound was turned up and the room was dark. There were some parts, however, where audio didn’t sync up properly and there wasn’t really a lot of random scary sounds throughout the game, but thats a minor, forgivable offense. Especially since it wasn’t Team Silent working on the game. The graphics were top notch as well with only a few nagging problems I could see. The character textures other than Alex seemed less polished, the monster designs looked great, but other people in the game didnt seem as well made as the protagonist. Also, what’s with all the women in the game having their hair up? Couldn’t double helix do long hairstyles? At least for ONE of the three women in the game? Also, I was slightly saddened with the fact they didn’t seem to add in any technically amazing background animations, the kinda stuff that was everywhere in silent hill 3. The technology is there, there wasn’t really any excuse.

All the negative I’ve mentioned here, though, still doesn’t outweigh the fact that the game is still really good. And the story is what you’re playing silent hill for anyway, next to the scares and screams. And that, overall is something I really can’t detail too much without giving away plot points.

What I Liked: The story, Monster Designs, Music, Gameplay, Alex was a cool protagonist. The game was pretty good scare-wise as well. I also liked the weapons, and how they get upgraded.

What I Disliked: Just the minor things they could have sorted during production. Analogue stick sensitivity, some audio synching, maybe some better textures on the other characters. There was a lack of trophy support too, even though the game just came out here in the UK a couple of months ago. Kinda annoying, seeing as the 360 version has achievements. Be nice if they could patch them in. But even if they don’t its no big deal.

In conclusion; From beginning to end, the game had recaptured what I loved about Silent Hill. The franchise is one of my personal favourites and this game is a good, if not GREAT addition to the series. This game is by no means perfect, but it’s definately worth it’s price tag. I rate it: a wheelchair on its side, with one wheel spinning slowly with a grainy filter effect on it, out of a great knife swung around by pyramid head.

Confused by my review? Well, you should be. Just buy it.