Silent Hill Homecoming

Infobox VG |title = Silent Hill Homecoming


caption = Boxart for Silent Hill Homecoming
developer = Konami Digital Entertainment
Double Helix Games
publisher = Konami
distributor =
designer =
series = "Silent Hill"
engine =
released = vgrelease|NA=September 30, 2008cite press release |title=KONAMI ANNOUNCES INNOVATIVE LINE-UP FOR 2008 AT GAMER’S NIGHT|url=http://www.konami.com/ctlimg/konami/pressrelease/2008_05_15_GamersNightPR.pdf|publisher=Konami|date=2008-05-14|accessdate=2008-10-09] |EU=October 30, 2008
genre = Survival horror
Psychological horror
modes = Single-player
ratings = vgratings|ESRB=M|BBFC=18|USK=rejected (uncut)
platforms = PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
Microsoft Windows
media = Blu-ray Disc (PS3)
DVD-DL (Xbox 360)
Steam
requirements =
input = Gamepad
Keyboard, Mouse (PC)

"Silent Hill Homecoming" is the sixth installment in the "Silent Hill" survival horror video game series, developed by Foundation 9 studio, Double Helix Games. The game was announced on July 11, 2007 by Konami at their E3 press conference, and was originally entitled "Silent Hill V".cite web|url=http://www.gamespot.com/news/6174357.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0|title=Konami's 15-Minute Press Event Raises Eyebrows|publisher=GameSpot|date=2007-07-11|accessdate=2007-11-11|first=Brad|last=Shoemaker] This entry in the horror series follows the journey of protagonist Alex Shepherd, a soldier returning from war, to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen, where he finds the town in disarray, and his younger brother missing. As he continues on his search to find his younger brother, he discovers more about the Order – the cult of Silent Hill – as well as the town's history, and his own past.

The game was released on September 30, 2008 in North America for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, whilst the Microsoft Windows version will be distributed exclusively through Valve's Steam digital content delivery service. The game received mixed reviews from critics, with positive reaction to the graphics, audio and environments, and less favourable reaction to the game's plot and scenario, and some of the gameplay and horror elements; however, overall, reviewers were largely appreciative of the development of a main, home console instalment of the franchise by an external Western developer.

Gameplay

The player assumes the role of the protagonist, Alex Shepherd, a Special Forces soldier who returns home from an overseas tour of duty to find that his father and younger brother are missing, and that his mother has gone into catatonia. Alex begins to search for his brother, leading him to Silent Hill after searching his hometown of Shepherd's Glen.

Overall gameplay is similar to past entries in the series. The player, as Alex, explores the various environments and locales, searching for clues to advance the plot, such as photographs, drawings and other items which are placed inside Alex's journal, which the player may read at any time. To assist the player, Alex will turn his head towards items and clues to inform the player that the object may be picked up; other recurring items include weapons and ammunition, which give off a glow as a visual cue to the player, and health drinks. Puzzle elements also play a part in the game, and Alex's journal may be used to refer back to photographs and other items that can help the player decipher such puzzles as keypad entries. For the first time in the series, the player may select responses when engaging in dialogue with other characters he encounters in the game, which in turn may affect how the player sees the plot unfold.

In addition to exploration, combat is another major element to the gameplay, and the player must fight the various monsters that appear. In contrast to the more naive protagonists of previous games, combat in "Homecoming" takes into account Alex's experience as a soldier. The player is able to perform light and heavy attacks, or mix them to perform combinations,cite web|url=http://cheatcc.com/xbox360/rev/silenthillhomecomingreview.html|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming Review|accessdate=2008-10-09|publisher=Cheat Code Central|first=Matthew|last=Walker] and may also perform a variety of finishing moves to ensure that the monsters are dead. Attacking enemies also leaves wounds in them that match the motion carried out by Alex in inflicting the attack. In terms of controlling Alex, the player may also perform new maneuvers such as targeting the enemy before attacking them, dodging enemy attacks, and performing counter-attacks. As well as melee weapons, pistols, rifles and shotguns are available as firearms, which can be upgraded to stronger versions later in the game. In addition to the changes in combat, and unlike previous entries in the series, the player is also able to fully control and rotate the camera as they choose; one analog stick controls player movement, and the other controls the camera.

Plot

"Silent Hill Homecoming" follows 22-year-old Alex Shepherd, a soldier wounded in combat and recently released from hospital. At the start of the game, Alex has a nightmare concerning his younger brother, Josh; he wakes up to find himself travelling to Shepherd's Glen, hitching a ride in a truck driven by Travis Grady. The town is covered in fog and deserted, with several roads having fallen into disrepair or simply collapsed into nothingness. At home, he finds his mother in a near catatonic state, murmuring about his father leaving to find Josh, as well as a Lurker creature terrorizing the waterlogged basement. Alex leaves, promising to find Josh.

He soon discovers that many more people have gone missing in Shepherd's Glen since he left, and finds childhood friend Elle Holloway still pinning "missing" signs to a board outside the police department. As Alex explores the town, he finds himself teleported to Silent Hill, where he encounters "the Bogeyman" – familiar to players of "Silent Hill 2" as Pyramid Head – and Mayor Bartlett in the Grand Hotel. His son Joey is also missing, but after speaking with Alex he is crushed by Sepulcher, a giant subterranean monster. After Alex defeats it, he is returned to Shepherd's Glen, where he allies himself with Deputy Wheeler in the police department however they are separated when a portion of the ceiling caves in. Alex meets with Elle and they travel through the sewers where they eventually separated. Alex heads to Dr. Fitch's office and encounters him bleeding badly he retreats to his office Alex follows and is transported to the Otherworld. Alex finds Dr. Fitch back in the depths of the hellish Otherworld, he has also lost his daughter Scarlett, and has been cutting himself to "repent for his sins". Soon after discovering him, Fitch begins to bleed from every pore, and his head is devoured by another giant monster, the stocky doll-like Scarlett. Alex eventually learns that the town's four founding families – Shepherd, Fitch, Bartlett and Holloway – are connected to the horrific events taking place, and after visiting home once again, soldiers from the Order (the cult which worships Silent Hill's god) kidnap his mother.

Alex, Elle and Wheeler chase after the soldiers across Toluca Lake, but are intercepted by the Order before they can reach Silent Hill. Elle and Wheeler are taken to Silent Hill's penitentiary, where Alex attempts to rescue them. In the Otherworld version of the prison, he finds his mother, Lillian, strapped to a stretching rack by the Order; here, the player make a decision regarding whether to kill her out of mercy, which will affect the outcome of the game. Alex rescues Wheeler, who is later captured again by Asphyxia, a long caterpillar-like monster composed of many arms and torsos. After defeating Asphyxia, Alex finds the Order's church, where his father is imprisoned. Alex's father reveals that Alex was never a soldier, and has been in a mental hospital since "the accident", before he is skewered and cut in half by the Bogeyman. Alex continues on to find the Order's underground facility, where they have taken and murdered most of the population of Shepherd's Glen.

In the facility, Alex is captured by Elle's mother, Judge Holloway, who reveals that everything that has happened is due to a broken pact. One hundred and fifty years ago, the four founding families broke away from Silent Hill's Order to move to Shepherd's Glen. They were allowed to do so on the condition that once every fifty years, they would sacrifice one of their children in a pre-ordained fashion. On this occasion, while Joey Bartlett, Scarlett Fitch and Nora Holloway were successfully sacrificed by their parents, the Shepherd sacrifice was botched. Thus, the Order had been reformed to try to appease the gods of Silent Hill. Judge Holloway tries to kill Alex, who gains the upper hand and lodges a power drill through her skull. Alex rescues Elle from the facility and after finding Wheeler gravely injured, continues on alone to find Josh. He eventually finds the sacrificial chamber with each families' sacrifices inscribed. His name is listed, confirming Alex as the intended sacrifice for the Shepherd family.

As Shepherd enters the final chamber, he experiences a flashback showing Josh's true fate. When Alex was younger, he had taken Josh rowing out on the lake, jealous of the attention he was receiving from his parents. He gave his brother a hard time, they struggled momentarily and Josh accidentally slipped, breaking his neck and falling into the lake. Unable to accept Josh's death, he was sent to a mental hospital, making the sacrifice impossible and breaking the Order's pact. Alex fights Amnion, a giant and bloated spider-like monstrosity, and upon defeating it is faced with Josh's corpse. Alex is given one final chance to face reality and say goodbye to Josh for the last time, before leaving his brother and the facility.

There are Five endings available, which depend on the player's actions during the game, including whether the player saves Alex's mother, forgives Alex's father, and saves Deputy Wheeler. These range from the single positive ending to the game – the "Good" ending, where Alex comes to terms with his past actions and reunites with Elle to leave Shepherd's Glen – to four endings where Alex's fate is negative. In addition, the tradition of a UFO ending also returns, where both Alex and Elle are abducted by a UFO.

Development

Chief designer of "Silent Hill Homecoming", Masashi Tsuboyama, announced the game's development in a 2004 interview with Eurogamer,cite web|url=http://eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=56340|title=Silent Hill 5 coming to next gen|date=2004-08-17|accessdate=2004-08-18|first=Tom|last=Bramwell|publisher=Eurogamer] in which he also debunked previous internet rumors that it was to be called "Shadows of the Past". No information was initially imparted about the platform the game would appear on, other than it would be appearing on the next generation of consoles, which had yet to be released. Around two years later, an interview with composer/producer Akira Yamaoka revealed more information; he hinted that they had hoped to carry on "plans of the earlier Silent Hill platforms", and that the team were creating a title with the idea of "fear in daylight", with similar psychological roots to "Silent Hill 2".cite web|url=http://kotaku.com/gaming/konami/akira-yamaoka-talks-silent-hill-5-223716.php|title=Akira Yamaoka Talks Silent Hill 5|first=Michael|last=McWhertor|date=2006-12-21|accessdate=2008-10-08|publisher=Kotaku] The suggestion that the story and gameplay would be more like that of the second entry in the series in the way the player is directed, and in the character's behaviour, was reaffirmed in a later interview, along with the idea of creating the game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms.cite web|url=http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=162394|title=Silent Hill 5 details emerge|date=2007-04-20|accessdate=2008-10-08|first=Gavin|last=Ogden|publisher=CVG]

However, most of the ideas previously hinted at were not found in subsequent information releases. At E3 2007, a new teaser trailer was displayed by Konami that revealed the title of the game to be "Silent Hill V", and that the game would be released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.cite web|url=http://kotaku.com/gaming/e307/silent-hill-v-first-screens-developer-named-277532.php|title=Silent Hill V First Screens, Developer Named|publisher=Kotaku|accessdate=2008-10-08|date=2007-07-11|first=Michael|last=McWhertor] Further to this trailer, Konami executives also revealed that the developer would not infact be Team Silent as in previous iterations, but that, like , it would be developed by a Western developer, The Collective. The Collective had merged with Backbone Entertainment in 2005 to form Foundation 9 Entertainment, and Foundation 9 then merged The Collective with Shiny Entertainment to create Double Helix Games. [cite web|url=http://www.doublehelixgames.com/studio.html|title=doublehelixgames.com|quote=Double Helix Games was formed in 2007 from the combination of veteran game developers Shiny Entertainment and The Collective.|accessdate=2008-10-08] The team had been working on the production of "Harker", another survival horror title, but this was placed on indefinite hiatus during "Homecoming"'s production.cite web|title=Foundation 9 buries Harker|url=http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6189687.html|accessdate=2008-10-08|date=2008-04-22|first=Tom|last=Magrino|publisher=GameSpot]

Double Helix drew inspiration not only from past instalments in the game series, but also from the first "Silent Hill" movie adaptation; this is most evident in the transition from the normal world to the Otherworld, whose "ripping" effect almost matches that found in the movie. Other similarities from the same source includes the reaction of nurses to light, and the bug-like creatures seen in the movie.cite web|url=http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/874/874245p2.html|title=Silent Hill Homecoming Hands-on|first=Jeff|last=Haynes|accessdate=2008-10-09|date=2008-05-15|publisher=IGN] Homages to previous games in the series include a reference to the long-running joke of the lead character placing their hand in a toilet bowl to retrieve items. Despite the change in development team, Akira Yamaoka returned from past instalments in the series to be the game's producer, as well as to create both music and sound effects for the game.cite interview |last=Yamaoka |first=Akira |subjectlink=Akira Yamaoka |interviewer=Jayson Napolitano |title=A New Kind of Fear: Silent Hill Homecoming Interview with Akira Yamaoka |callsign = Original Sound Version (OSV) |date=2008-09-26 |accessdate=2008-10-09 |url=http://www.originalsoundversion.com/?p=562] Yamaoka wrote 70 minutes of music for the game, and insisted on working with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn to provide vocals, as fan reaction to her voice on previous Silent Hill titles has been favourable.

The game had difficulties in passing censors in some countries before it could go on sale. The Australian classification board, the OFLC, refused to classify the game, due to "impact violence and excessive blood effects".cite web|url=http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/914/914566p1.html|title=Silent Hill Aussie Ban Update|first=Narayan|last=Pattison|date=2008-09-29|accessdate=2008-10-08|publisher=IGN] The objectionable scenes included various body parts being drilled into, as well as the bisection of the lead character by an enemy. This had the effect of banning the game for sale in the country, and representatives for publisher Atari mentioned that they would be asking Konami to tone down the violence to allow the game to receive the needed MA15+ rating for its sale to be permitted in early 2009. The German version of the game was also postponed to 2009 in order for cuts to be made to pass the German censors.cite web|url=http://silenthill5.net/2008/09/22/silent-hill-homecoming-delayed-until-q2-2009-for-germany.html|title= Silent Hill: Homecoming delayed until Q2 2009 for Germany|author=Furin|date=2008-09-22|accessdate=2008-10-08|publisher=silenthill5.net]

"Homecoming" was released in North America on September 30, 2008 for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. The PC version, which is only available via the Steam content delivery network and was intended to launch on the same date as the console versions, was delayed.cite web|url=http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55073|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming PC Delayed|publisher=Shacknews|accessdate=2008-10-09|date=2008-10-02|first=Blake|last=Ellison]

Reception

VG Reviews
1UP=Bcite web| title=1Up Reviews Silent Hill Homecoming| publisher=1Up | url=http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3170245&p=4&sec=REVIEWS=| date=| accessdate=2008-10-01 ]
GameRev=Bcite web|url=http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/ps3/silent_hill_5|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming - Xbox360 Review|date=2008-10-03|accessdate=2008-10-09|publisher=GameRevolution]
XPlay=4/5cite web|url=http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/reviews/1845/Silent_Hill_Homecoming.html|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming|accessdate=2008-10-09|first=Jason|last=D'Aprile|publisher=X-Play]
TX=8.4/10cite web|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming Review (Xbox 360)|publisher=TeamXbox|url=http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1584/Silent-Hill-Homecoming/p1/=|date=|accessdate=2008-10-01]
GamePro=3/5cite web|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming (360)|url=http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/207292/silent-hill-homecoming-360/|first=Cameron|last=Lewis|date=2008-09-30|accessdate=2008-10-09|publisher=GamePro]
GI=6.5/10cite web|url=http://gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/05D21ADD-8DCC-482C-BB88-3F2C1BD1F73D.htm|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming|first=Ben|last=Reeves|accessdate=2008-10-09|publisher=Game Informer]
IGN=6.7/10cite web|url=http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/915/915002p1.html|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming Review|first=Jeff|last=Haynes|accessdate=2008-10-09|date=2008-09-30|publisher=IGN]
GSpy=3.5/5cite web|url=http://ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/silent-hill-5-working-title-rumor/916309p1.html?RSSwhen2008-10-03_165700&RSSid=916309|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming (PS3)|publisher=GameSpy|accessdate=2008-10-09|date=2008-10-3|first=Gabe|last=Graziani]
MC=72/100 (XBox 360)cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/silenthill5|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming (xbox360: 2008): Reviews|publisher=Metacritic|accessdate=2008-10-09]
72/100 (PS3)cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/silenthill5|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming (ps3: 2008): Reviews|publisher=Metacritic|accessdate=2008-10-09]
GR=76% (Xbox 360)cite web|url=http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/942060.asp|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming - X360|publisher=GameRankings|accessdate=2008-10-09]
75% (PS3)cite web|url=http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/942059.asp|title=Silent Hill: Homecoming - PS3|publisher=GameRankings|accessdate=2008-10-09]

Critical response for "Homecoming" has been mixed, with a "mixed or average" reception of 72 out of 100 at Metacritic for both console versions, and a 76% and 75% aggregate score for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions respectively at aggregate site Game Rankings. As the second external developer working on a Silent Hill entry, and the first for a home console iteration, Double Helix were under scrutiny from reviewers and Silent Hill fans to see how a Western developer would handle the franchise; many reviewers found the change in developer to be a positive move overall, whilst some, acknowledging faults in the final product, expressed interest in seeing further Silent Hill games from the same developer.

Positive reviews were given to the graphics and the environments in the game, described as "fantastic", with Shepherd's Glen in particular being "rendered brilliantly", and "the upgraded visuals bestow a filmic quality to everything and the world's eerie transformations look better than ever". Some surprise was expressed at the darkness of the game, with the flashlight seemingly having less effect than in previous games, and making some markers, such as doors, hard to spot.

Also adding to the atmosphere is the audio, with music written by series regular Akira Yamaoka. Yamaoka's music and ambient audio was received well, being "atmospheric, moody and beautifully presented"; combined with "an amazing score", the audio goes "a long way toward establishing the expected Silent Hill mood", though some concern was expressed that the music was "somewhat misplaced" with the game and did not fit in so well. Voice acting, which has traditionally been seen as one of the series' weaker points, was reviewed as better than the series' usual attempts, but occasionally "flat" when more emotion was needed.

The game's plot received a largely mixed reception. Whilst some reviewers graded it positively, describing it as "intriguing and disturbing", it was also noted that it "isn't particularly original, and there are no great surprises", even though it "still makes for a very involving journey into the macabre". Several reviewers likened the story to a subplot of the main Silent Hill mythos which, whilst able to "stand on its own", "barely mentions certain characters which fairly dominate the backstory of previous SH games". Further to the mixed reception of the plot, some critics expressed disappointment at the predictability of the main twist in the story regarding Alex's predicament, whilst others found it "genuinely shocking".

References

External links

* [http://online.konamimobile.com/KDEOnline/SilentHill_Widget/index.html Official site (English)]
* [http://konami.jp/gs/game/sh5/ Official site (Japanese)]