Silent Hill : Homecoming PS3 Review

Silent Hill Homecoming is a good representation of the franchise. It has come a long way since Silent Hill 3. They have a revamped combat system which is an improvement over the PS2. The story – line is as abstruse and weird as hell as usual. The lack of readily available weapons and ammo is as frustrating as it always was. Happenstance puts Alex in an empty town, sewer, cemetery, hospital, old hotel, and churches where there aren’t many legit reasons why guns and ammo would be lying around. The elusiveness of Save points is as exasperating as ever. In short, it is as it should be. Both hardcore fans like myself who have played all the games as well as newcomers who were first introduced to the Silent Hill universe, through successful video game movie have plenty to look forward to.

However it isn’t perfect. It could be better. The controls, through revamped for Homecoming, don’t hold a melting candle stub to Resident Evil 4. I found myself wishing for the stingily given amount of ammo in RE 4 which would seem extravagant by comparison. Thankfully there are several walkthrough available online. I tried the ones on Mahalo, Wikichats and Neoseskers and found Neoseekers to be the most detailed if not the most readable for the migraine getting set. The two types of attacks which are supposedly quick with the X button and not so heavy using the Square button leave much to be desired. Opening and closing doors shouldn’t be as hard as it is. You can dance all around a door trying to find just the right spot to trigger it. I wouldn’t expect a fighting engine like Soul Calibur, but some better and more exciting moves would have been welcome considering the advance in the PS3 software and how other games have taken fighting more seriously than they seem to have in Silent Hill. Alex also has a disappointing dodge move by using the O button which does little when trying to dislodge the Swarm which are blood drinkers.

Aside from the few complaints about what it doesn’t achieve it does one thing exclusively well. It’s scary. This game has one of the best done if not the best sound track and music. Homecoming evokes a shudder reaction as you turn corners and enter darkened hallways. It isn’t just the now characteristic and much copied blood spattered hallways. Or the shambling, no-armed zombies that glow and pulsate. Not only are the partly human, flesh and tooth headed creatures disgusting, but the whole miasma of grossness is orchestrated with perfect horror timing. When bloody crap squishes down off the ceiling, or a swarm flies up at you it has the taint brought by a movie directors eye. Add to the surprise moments a DualShock controller and the combination is still freaky after all these years.