A Shocking Come Back for the Silent Hill Series!
After playing Silent Hill: The Room. I was quite weary of playing Silent Hill: Homecoming. Though, once I decided to play the game. I started the game with a very unbiased outlook.
Right from the get go I was brought in by the first person like feeling that the intro gave me. The game starts of with Alex (the main character) being pushed on a gurney through what looks to be a hospital. Immediately you find out that this hospital is not helping anyone. After you become free to roam through the hospital you find Alex's little brother, who seems not to be interested in Alex one bit. Throughout the story Alex chases after his brother, all while trying to figure out what is happening to his home town.
Some of the setting in the game were kind of screwy. I found it very hard to get the lighting just right. You are given a chance to adjust the brightness of your TV at the beginning of the game. To do so you try to bend in a picture of a TV, so that the black line on the picture of the TV blends in with the background. Even after doing so I some times found that my screen was completely black afterward. But I also did not want to brighten it so much that I could see all of the monsters ahead of time. Eventually I found a good setting.
Once I found a proper lighting. I noticed the great shadows that the flashlight cast on the walls. The shadow of items in the room and of the monsters made me jump more than the disturbing detailed environments. I noticed that the shadows were kept in the proper ratio. As monsters became closer to the flashlight the shadows they cast would become much bigger. Almost making the monster look bigger.
It was great to see that all of the puzzle solving was still a big part of the game. None of the puzzles were to hard nor to easy. It definitely added some extra game play time for the first run through. There is one glitch that all players should be aware of in the game. Witch can hinder progress through the game if it is not prepared for. It is caused by a puzzle later in the game. So create multiple saves and save often. Also as we all know the creators of Silent Hill love easter eggs. That players can unveil from multiple runs through the game.
I also noticed that it seemed that the creators added a some of the aspects used by the developers of Resident Evil 4. In order to make the player feel like their are more apart of some of the characters actions. The button mashing definitely does what it was intended to to do. But, neither makes or breaks the game. Very stoked though that, that was all they took from Resident Evil 4. I would have hated to see the game become more of an action game than a survival horror.
There are lots of moments that made me feel like the production of the game might been rush. Like when finishing a boss you character uses a weapon that he was not holding to kill it. There is one other noticeable mess up. I will leave it out of the review though because I don't want to spoil a part of the game for anyone who doesn't know about a certain option in the game.
After one play through the story mode, I feel that the fear factor of the game was very well done. The story of the game was not the best but still made me interested enough to willingly playing the game for long periods of time. The game has plenty of replay value. I would strongly recommend the game to anyone that loves survival horrors.