I’m back with another round of pre-review scribbling, this time for the mildly horrifying Silent Hill: Homecoming. Being a fan of the series, I had a lot to think about while playing and reviewing this game and therefore took many notes during the gameplay process. Here’s what I was thinking as I played:
good thing the first save point is called "nightmare" or else i actually would have felt suspense and surprise
ooh, a siren, and f***ed-up-ness. feels like good ol silent hill.
weak/strong/stronger melee attacks. i like choices. still a bit clunky, though. maybe it’s just me
the stop-motion of these nurses is cool. lighting is good, too.
i can’t tell if this camera is terrible or if it’s just my fault for being unskilled with non-inverted vertical controls. in any case, there SHOULD be an option to switch that.
mash the a button to keep your arm!
that basic drum beat ramp-up isn’t really all that cool. maybe if the timing was better/it was used very sparingly
the map operates agreeably, but why does shepherd’s glen have the same fog problem as silent hill?
and is it normal to be welcomed home in the middle of the night by some lady near a creepy monument?
nice house, but who has this many locked doors in their house?
i figured it out. it’s the move/strafe look/turn combo. doesn’t fit survival horror somehow
i like this combat camera. dramatic.
this game just insulted my intelligence by giving multiple hints to what was so obvious i could barely call is a puzzle.
facial expressions are very good. obviously the best graphics in a sh game
that industrial, static-filled soundtrack is true to sh, and still heart-pounding
as if a foggy, devastated shepard’s glen wasn’t creepy enough, here i wake in silent hill. time to party
now there’s a familiar….head
guns are actually useful!
wtf, do enemies respawn?
love the real-time transition to otherworld
bosses seem to be alright. not just blasting away.
Cut scenes are very nicely directed. Dramatic camera angles along with clean graphics and ambient lighting.
The game feels more like a dark action game than typical horror. I find myself waiting for the psychological mind-f*** that characterizes the sh games of old to suddenly kick in, but it never does, and i’m left just wandering from dark place to dark place fighting monsters.
the early signs of plot cohesion and thematic content still strike me as being weakly applied.
this is not the triumphant return to form that i expected from this installment in the silent hill series, but it is an improvement over the unfortunate misstep that was sh:o.
there’s a delay between input and action for these context sensitive commands
i’m fighting order members. i suddenly have lots of ammunition. again, this doesn’t feel like the horror game i’m used to. i’m using 3d move/strafe, look/turn controls to shoot guns at humans. they’re humans. feels wrong.
there are some good puzzles mixed in
slow to start, but this game is getting interesting and tying together at the end. getting sorta nuts.
good game, but it’s no silent hill of old
like an action-horror flick shot with a camcorder, as opposed to a psychological thriller shot with professional grade filming equipment.
