Horror games have certainly blossomed as a genre since the days of "Resident Evil." "Silent Hill," the second great horror series that emerged on PlayStation, relied on disturbing images and sound design to craft psychologically scary atmospheres, rather than simply having zombies jumping out of dark corners. This formula was so successful that the best horror games of today, such as the "Condemned" and "F.E.A.R." series, strongly rely on the same strategy. Suddenly, a room covered in blood isn't quite as scary as it once was, simply because it's been done.
Gamers would hope that "Silent Hill: Homecoming," the series' first installment on this-generation consoles, would use today's technology to surpass the previous installments in terms of spooky atmosphere, but the results are mostly mixed, and the gameplay isn't much better either.
"Homecoming" starts off with a great hook: you wake up strapped to a moving gurney in a "Hostel"-esque hospital until something kills your captor and you can escape. Without spoiling what happens next, it soon becomes clear that your character, Alex Shepherd, is searching for little brother Joshua in their sleepy hometown of Shepherd's Glen, which has undergone some disturbing transformations. The narrative does an excellent job of getting the player to care about the characters and their predicaments, despite the occasionally stiff dialogue.
Though the game takes a break from the horrifying environment at the beginning when in Shepherd's Glen, the scenes get more and more disturbing as the game goes on. Up close, the visuals aren't quite up to par with what's expected for this generation, but taken together, the decrepit environments look fresh and unsettling, with plenty of gory details. Exploring these locales is the highlight of the game, although none will make you jump out of your seat.
The enemies are a mix of the generic (dogs), the peculiar (vomiting, belching Smogs) and the downright disturbing (almost everything else). By far the best part of combat is watching how these monstrosities behave. Alex can make a fast attack or a power attack and dodge enemies, meaning most encounters with one enemy aren't too difficult once you get the hang of it.
The game tries to compensate for this by occasionally pitting you against multiple enemies at once, but this just gets frustrating, as the targeting system doesn't really allow you to fight several enemies very easily. Ammo isn't really scarce during the game, as long as you don't play guns blazing the whole time. All of this results in combat that's passable, but not especially entertaining or scary. The game does feature some great boss battles, however.
The occasional puzzles also mix up gameplay, and their difficulty is generally well balanced; you probably won't blow by them, nor will you get super frustrated trying to figure them out.
It's necessary to mention that "Homecoming" has some real quirks. For instance, your flashlight lights up about three feet in front of you which, rather than contributing to the sense of dread, can get really annoying. Save points tend to be spaced a bit far apart, which can get really bad if you're playing on a higher difficulty level.
"Homecoming" will appeal to fans of the series as well as anyone looking for some scary thrills and a deep narrative (and who doesn't mind wading through some generic combat in the process). But it's not going to hook many people who don't already have an interest in its premise.
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
