| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| Xbox 360 | 6.90 |
| Overall | 6.90 |
|
Silent Hill Homecoming was the first Silent Hill game to be outsourced to an outside developer, the results were less than great. The good news is that Homecoming is a very traditional Silent Hill game, complete with open areas to run around, buildings with many rooms to explore, a mix of puzzles and survival. The problem is in nearly every single category one of the past Silent Hill games did it better than this one. Nothing really stands out; if there was a Silent Hill random game generator this is what would come out. Being a traditional Silent Hill title has its benefits, especially today since they don't make games like this anymore. You mean I get to play a horror game where I don't run around and kill 300 enemies!? Wow! Or the flip side, its not some gameplay less horror crap *stares at Shattered Memories* yay! I miss old school survival horror so I was thrilled to play it even if it is a poor version of it. Lets start with the positive, the combat is the best in the series. Though having the best combat in a Silent Hill game is the equivalent of having the best smelling shit. Melee combat has better mechanics where the camera locks into an enemy which gives you a good view of the action. You will need to pay attention to enemy movement as evading is now a critical part of the combat; if you dodge at the right time you can get in a critical hit. The different weapons of various speeds and combos. You will find a specific pattern that works for each enemy which makes each subsequent battle be mostly repetition. Also the basic knife you get at the very start stuns almost all enemies with its quick strikes making it over powered. It is better than before but nothing great. Gun play now has RE4 like over the shoulder aiming, there are so few bullets it hardly even matters. But who plays SH for the combat anyway, its about the crazy scary stuff and interesting puzzles. The game has a few interesting areas that make the creepy meter go high but a lot of the game looks like places you have visited before if you have played earlier games in the series. The best parts of the series is when the environment plays with your expectations, scaring the player with the unknown. I never felt the same level of ingenuity with those scares as I did in past SH games. There are a few exceptions like the hell version of your home and a few parts at the end. The puzzles are lackluster as well, only the last puzzles puzzles require any real thought process. Even though there is a part of a town to explore this game feels like the most linear of the "open" Silent Hill games. Normally there would be all sorts of hidden areas to find, strange items to acquire that lead to vastly different endings. In Homecoming all the routes are conveniently closed off so that the player can only really go in one direction. There is one area that is optional in the entire game, which is ridiculous for this kind of game. The multiple endings are handled so poorly, all coming from basic dialogue trees that change nothing but what ending movie is played. There are a few boss battles and since they do fall into the combat category they are better than most in the series. A few actually have a decent pattern based battle with multiple forms, a the traditional boss battle. Everything about this game is fine. There are a few glitches with work arounds, nothing game breaking. The gameplay is traditional silent hill. It does not have any stupid new gameplay additions like the shit ghosts from SH4. There aren't any really boring areas, it just doesn't have many great areas either. It is basically an average Silent Hill game, I enjoyed playing it but I won't really remember anything from it. |
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Posted by Dvader Thu, 28 Aug 2014 05:56:04
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Dvader (5m)
I do love that its a true survival horror style adventure game, that is definitely not the problem just like the style of Resident Evil Zero wasn't the reason for it being the worst of the old RE's. Its simply just not as great a game.
That's why I hate when people say the old style RE games got stale & that's why it needed to be changed. No, it didn't get stale, REmake was incredible. They just need to develop a BETTER game.
(Not that Zero was a bad game. Just not comparable to the other RE games)