Silent Hill: Homecoming (PS3)

Because home is where the horror is.
10/2/2008 7:28 PM | 1 Comments | Page 2 of 2

While the series' controls have been revamped for Homecoming, it's still not quite on par with -- or as successful as -- the overhaul that Resident Evil 4 received two years ago. Gone, finally, is the ancient, tank-like d-pad control scheme of previous installments. I wouldn't exactly call Alex nimble, but he is far more agile than James Sunderland (SH 2) or Travis Grady (Origins) were in their respective games. Alex has two types of attacks: light (X button) and heavy (Square button). Alex can also lock onto a target, and use a dodge move (O button) to get out of the way before an incoming blow. Fortunately, creatures telegraph their blows in such obvious ways that they may as well hold up sign that say, "GET READY TO DODGE BECAUSE I AM GOING TO TRY TO HIT YOU NOW."

The PlayStation 3 game looks -- and plays -- almost identically to its Xbox 360 cousin. If anything, the load times on the PS3 version seem to be a fraction of a second shorter than they are on the 360. And for the install-phobic, there is no painfully lengthy install at the game's start, which is a good thing. Silent Hill veterans will also likely prefer the PS3 version simply because of their inherent familiarity with the DualShock controller. (The series has made its home almost exclusively on PlayStation platforms, with only an obscure exception here and there.)

As usual, the characters in the game still spout corny, unbelievable dialogue -- example: "It seems as if the whole town has gone mad" -- when a more believable response would be to go insane on the spot at the sight of ground-pounding, mannequin/soiled-pillows thing.

Which brings me to another gripe: Giving these creatures cutesy nicknames diminishes whatever terror value they might inherently have. Being attacked by a shambling, no-armed zombie with a glowing, pulsating chest? That's scary. But after learning that the game refers to these creatures as "Smogs," it's significantly less scary. These nicknames make these creatures quaint and relatable, when instead they should be "things" that must be dealt with.

Yet the game's biggest flaw, aside from a couple of terribly obscure puzzles, is that it's a tedious and overly familiar experience. Look at what Quantic Dream is doing with Heavy Rain, and Homecoming's traditional save points/hoard your First-Aid kits/defeat-the-boss structure seems borderline primitive. Beyond that, I trekked backward and forward through the same old hotels, through the same old sewer systems and churches, using what must be weakest flashlight in history. I spent hours walking around in the near-dark trying door after door only to be told time and again that "THIS DOOR IS JAMMED AND CANNOT BE OPENED." It's in these moments -- beyond the been-there-haunted-that feel of the game -- that I wondered what kind of masochist would bother putting himself or herself through all of this misery. Put simply, I shouldn't have to work so hard for a halfway decent creep-out.

This review was based on a retail copy of the game purchased by Crispy Gamer.