I am going to start this comment by saying the following; this is my opinion of the Silent Hill series and of Homecoming in particular, my opinion is not stated as fact (but there will be a little bit of fact thrown in, not my own of course) and shouldn’t be taken as such, if your views don’t match up with mine that is okay, good even, but by no means am I speaking a fact that should affect your own opinion nor do I claim to have the authority to speak fact about the Silent Hill series. I am just a fan, with an opinion and I’ve been hurt…

Silent Hill Homecoming was, and likely will forever be, the most disappointed I have ever been with any video game ever. I’m a Silent Hill fan, maybe a bit more than a fan, and I’m proud of this fact. Like with the Rocky Film series I have spent likely tens of thousands of dollars on collecting Silent Hill…thingies. From posters, to cardboard standups, to REAL recreation of certain weapons from the games (I have a real Great Knife… I can’t hardly even pick it up, so wield it… yeah right.) Silent Hill was and is, my favorite video game series. I forgave Origins because it was a hand-held title and although not great, it wasn’t all that bad either. I mean the story wasn’t good, at all, not even if you use drugs, but still it wasn’t terrible.

So I preordered Homecoming at the moment I heard a 7th generation Silent Hill was going to happen. You see and may remember that the earliest information claimed that the game was going to deal with non-movie events formed around a soldier, who would be finding his way through the town of Silent Hill looking for a friend from the past who sent this soldier a strange letter. Yeah… that is Silent Hill 2 (best in the series) but I could have forgiven that. Time dragged on, over a year before I heard any real information and what I heard made me die a little inside.

The designers decided to change everything. The character would be an unpleasant crazy person, the army buddy became a little brother and the town even moved over a few miles and fell right in the middle of “Where the fuck now?” Village. Then of course, as is standard for American horror games, the game would focus primarily on combat (which isn’t always bad). I could have forgiven that… I really could have, but fuck me if they didn’t go further to make me regret getting excited.

They added another one of those American game requirements I’ll never fully understand by adding a Love Interest that follows you about and cracks wise, greatly subtracting from the ideals that Silent Hill put forth. Those being; 1. Alone in a crazy but strangely normal town, 2. BEING alone, really alone even if there are other people that don’t act at all normal, 3. Enemies that both look and act disturbing AND are relevant to the overall theme of the game in question. Item one and two might sound the same but they are different and somewhat used in hyperbole.
So here ...

You must have hated Resident Evil 4 and 5 then, they are much more action then survival horror.

I'd be lying if I said Homecoming didn't disappoint me some, but I still had some fun with the game.

They aren't gonna be making SH8, some company in the Czech Republic is gonna be making it, so you won't have to worry about giving them anymore money.

Well I didn't hate Resident Evil 4 because it wasn't disappointing. Resident Evil never started out as anything but a B-movie in video game format and I respect that. Of course the series decided to start taking itself very, very seriously right around the release of RE 4, which lead to another disappointment known as RE 5, not a bad game but not good either, run of the mill, in the middle, dare I say average. Of course the fact that Silent Hill Homecoming was an action game rather than survival horror wasn't the reason I hated it, it was the sloppy storytelling and required by law (not really of course that is hyperbole) additions of a love interest and/or ethnic stereotype sidekick that video game designers insulting assume that American consumers need to feel comfortable.

But you're right there is some fun in it, to bad it is all covered in sticky boring smelly dog mess. But yeah my fist play through wasn't terrible and I will admit that if Silent Hill Homecomings had been under a different title and dealing with a different canon universe then I'd have likely been a huge fan of it. It played well and the graphics could be breathtaking.

I'm glad they are staying out of the next Silent Hill, I heard the same (from a friend in the Czech Republic) but I'm still not sure Silent Hill can still be what it was. Of course I don't prejudge video games so I'm hoping to be delighted rather than demoralized by this next entry.

I'd kind of argue that RE4 was ridiculous enough to still qualify as a B movie styled game. I mean, the president's daughter has been kidnapped and they send a special forces agent to solve the problem. Along the way he winds up running into a former love interest and army pal that are both on opposing sides.

It was after the critical acclaim of RE4 that they really shifted into trying to milk the franchise for the [i]wonderful[/i] stories. RE5 was a critical and somewhat financial success, so expect them to try again with a sixth.

To be fair, Resident Evil 4 you were generally alone, or with a completely useless person (Not to say Computer AI sheva was anything but) but I thought RE4 was the perfect blend of action while still keeping a spooky kind of atmosphere.

RE5 gave you a newly introduced character (Instead of one we would have liked Jill, Barry, etc) and it was all taking place in mostly brightly lit areas with your partner making it in all seriousness just action, sub par action at that. Co-op was fun though.

Anyway I actually had this game for a while and it wasn't bad, pretty fun actually, not the best but certainly not the worst one.

Sadness... but it is true, I kind of forgot just how silly the story was in RE4 because I enjoyed the game so much. But I'll have to admit it was a little bit bananas at *pause to ponder* you know what, I don't think there was a single point in the story that I felt myself thinking "Yeah, I believe this." So err, okay RE has story problems but it doesn't make them a bad story just a little bit crazy.

Not quite Metal Gear Solid crazy but damn close. But then again Metal Gear Solid has like 40,000 pages of dialogue (as a series) and
Resident Evil likely has around 1000 pages so well you see where I was going.

RE 4 and 5 suck as survival horrors, in my view, these games are a shame to the series. Ok, ok, these games never had such an amazing storyline, it's kinda ridiculous in RE1, but they managed to do do it worse in 4 and 5, adding very generic action plot and action gameplay, and taking away the adventure features, that made the series what it is in nowdays. I hated it.

Resident Evil 4 wasn't bad I agree with you. Resident Evil is not really what means "survival-horror". Metal Gear Solid series is more "survivalish" especially the 3rd game but moreover. I think in my opinion is that the story was not horrible but it was not the best compared to the previous games. The plot was a little close (not much but a little) to the movie which is what made you upset about it I guess. Lots of parts were from the movie-wise. But if they took off the Pyramid Head, cult members, then it would be a typical Silent Hill game and more enjoyable I bet. I heard the new one Downpour will not even have Pyramid Head OR the cult members. YAY! :D

Yeah I kinda expected to really be amazed with it's graphics being on the PS3/360 but I never found myself really in awe of it like I'd hoped. Again the transition looked cool though. I think the problem was this team didn't quite understand the series despite thinking they did.

So did you like SH4 more than this one?

Yes, for sure. It has some really interesting ideas (but seriously screw those damn ghosts!) It's story is pretty good overall but I have to say Henry isn't that much of a factor to it. He's just the unlucky one that moved into that apartment so I'd say he probably could have been developed better.

I hated those ghosts. They were frustrating since you cannot do anything....

I take breaks of vacuuming up ghosts with luigi. XD

It relieves stress, you should try do something like that Phelous. XD

Oh, when I saw this, I thought you were gonna totally bash on it, but you were pretty damn fair to it. Sounds like you don't hate it, you were just disappointed by it.

I liked the game myself, not my favorite game in the series, but I had fun with it.

How many copies of the game do you have anyway? I thought I saw around five different versions of the game.

I've seen from your Twitter you don't have high hopes for SH8 atm, though we only have a trailer so far, so it's way too early to tell.

And yeah, It'd be cool to see a Let's Play of the first or second game from you sometime in the future. You better hurry before Dena does it! Hehe.

Yay for repeat comments?

Haha I think I am actually going to do a LP on SH1 coming up. Dena might do one too! BUM BUM BU!!!!!!!!

I've done LP's of the first four Silent Hill games, myself. It was a real blast reliving those scares. :)

nope, watched it hours ago on Phelous' own website. Rated it here when it appeared. 5 stars most deserved.

Bah you edit makes my comment out of place! I made it when it asked if people were just voting without watching. *chuckle*

But that isn't always a problem, it wasn't that the production company was American, or that is wasn't a Japanese company in charge. It was that the staff were all fans of the series, or at least that is what I take away from it, and being a fan of something doesn't always make you the best person to be involved in a project dealing with your worshiped subject. Too much self interest. Silent Hill Homecoming just felt like a lot of fan wankery that completely missed the point of a Silent Hill game.

Weird, but I knew it too! Americans can't get it, enough said.

And people are complaing about Metroid other M, look what have they done to SH and RE... damn.

I can't wait for next week when Phelous returns to reviewing Puls......i mean the usual crappy horror flicks.

OMG!! Phelous in a nurse outfit! Must avert eyes!
Nice review though.

Yeah Silent Hill really started getting crowded, in a bad way, when they started popping out a game every one or 2 years and recycling enemies like the nurses or making pyramid head cameos or making the gameplay more action orientated or just seeing the game series as a franchise. I mean come on how many original and intriguing stories you can make about some guy ending up accidentally in Silent Hill.

To be sincere I have allot of hopes for the next one that's being developed by a Czech team because in my recent experience European developers get horror. Just look at Cryostasis, Penumbra and STALKER, so here's my fingers crossed.

I hate that they are trying to make Silent Hill feel more like RE, when RE relied more on cheap scares and thrills and SH relied more on its stories and creepy imagery. Personally I found that the clunky controls added more of a fear to the games.

Honestly I never found them that clunky before, maybe it was because I played the crap out of SH and RE and got really used to that type of game play. Which now with neither series using I really miss.

Gone are the glory days of our collective youths. A time where control a man like a turret was the height of gameplay fashion. A time when dialogue didn't need any sort of actor behind it, the bum from down the street worked just a well... *wistfully ponders* I forgave games back then I guess, maybe because it wasn't always my money mayhap.

Well, it looks like Phelous' Pulse has finally stopped (sorry).
Good review, even if your opinions do match almost every other review I've seen on this game.
Are there any other horror games you like?

Haha of course, like I've said the previous Silent Hill titles are amazing and Resident Evil kicks ass as well.

thought this was a homecoming movie for a second :sick: great game review make me want to watch all you r videos

[color=green]I didn't like Homecoming myself...I thought of it as frustrating and dull.[/color]

I felt pretty much the same. The game just didn't feel quite like the other Silent Hill games. Just like you said Phelous, it lost quite a bit of atmosphere and general feeling of Silent Hill because of the new combat system.

Also, I didn't like the game being a retread of Silent Hill 2 in many ways. I really think all the Silent Hill games should have different stories almost every time because it gives the players new secrets to uncover about the world and the characters.

Anyway, good review Phelous. I always like seeing more of "I got a shotgun," and that bit at the end was pretty funny. I also liked how you presented your reasons for disliking the game. Good job. =)

Yay! Not a Pulse movie! I am a fan of the Silent Hill games but don't think that I will ever pick this one. I don't see why they didn't just take Josh and be like "Hey, we sacrificed him! We...just did it at home...yeah that's it."

I gotta say while I love your Comedic Movie reviews I think this is my favorite Review from you Phelous. I agree with allot of your points Especially the Pyramid Head point, I think The ending was just a rip-off of Jacob's Ladder and I thought the Combat was stupid. I actually enjoyed the first three games for there combat it made the Main characters feel more realistic. Anyways Great Review Dude =D.

I miss the Pulse series. It had truly grown on me.

Can we change the name of this film to Pulse: The homecoming?

And I thought THESE girls were scary...
[img]http:// i233.photobucket.com/ albums/ee201/ resident_evil_project_ali ce/Silent%20Hill%20Gifs/ silent_hill_movie_12.gif[ /img]

They have scarie hottie tities.

BWWWWOOOOOBBBBZZZZ

Does anyone know what the name of the last song is? Also Phelous in drag. Get out of here Nostalgia Chick! I have found a new crush.

Ohhhhhh...oh that's just wrong man. That image of Phelous may well haunt my nightmares forever, particularly when he grabbed his falsie. o_O

Hometown from Silent Hill 3.

oh snap, thanks... so what are you doing later, you wanna like hang out or something? Nah I'm just messing with ya, and great review.

I may catch some flak for this, but I actually did enjoy playing Homecoming. I agree that it was the most disappointing, though. There were some aspects that just irritated me, namely the love interest and fucking Wheeler. If Elle and Wheeler weren't even in it, or if they died early on in the game, I probably would have enjoyed it more.

That being said, I liked Alex as a character. He's a damn sight more interesting than what's-his-face from The Room. It bothered me at first that no one bothered to tell him that Josh was dead, but I got the impression that those who knew about the incident were aware of Alex's insanity and were afraid to contradict his warped world view for fear of him losing his shit on them.

I totally agree on the poor use of Pyramid Head and the human cultists. I enjoyed that they dipped more into the inner workings of the cult, at least.

I hope that Silent Hill does eventually get a worthy sequel that will provide the mood and atmosphere that fans want. I don't want to be put in a position where I just had to turn a blind eye to the glaring flaws like I did in Homecoming.

So if I got it right, Homecoming was made by an american group?
Sorry to say this, but what did you expect?
Of course they should have made it better, they could have, the problem is, that when other people who are from another country start to work on products from other countries they most probably ruin it.
If you take e.g. The Ring. The japanese original is completely different, because they highlight something else. In the USA everything tends to be more action oriented which ruins the originals concept.
Also Homecoming seems to be based on the movie rather than the games.

Haha well I think it wouldn't have been right to judge it JUST based on the fact it was made in the west. I liked the The Ring actually and I didn't think it was that off from the original Ringu.

[quote=frozencookie]So if I got it right, Homecoming was made by an american group?
Sorry to say this, but what did you expect?
Of course they should have made it better, they could have, the problem is, that when other people who are from another country start to work on products from other countries they most probably ruin it.
If you take e.g. The Ring. The japanese original is completely different, because they highlight something else. In the USA everything tends to be more action oriented which ruins the originals concept.
Also Homecoming seems to be based on the movie rather than the games.[/quote]

Ring really isint that good of a comparison because the first film is actually only thing that got lot better in translation. Japanese version had some good thing's going on like the sound design and the video image's were much more effective but other than that the film was very bland. The female actress did really bad job and only good actor in the film was the man that played the ex husband. The sequels of course are pile of shit and i personally fell asleep while watching the american version of Ring 2.

But in the end i wouldnt really recommend paying effort any Koji Suzuki's work than the short story collection called Dark Water which has some really good stories on it.

There of course is also that that Ringu (the Japanese The Ring if you didn't infer it from that title *grin*) was basically only a minor upgrade from what the Cinema Snob calls "Shot on Shiteo" the film looks like it was shot on news room cameras. Now as a Japanese America I'm in kind of a unique position... okay not at all unique but a position none that less I say! I watch movies from my homeland then I watch their American remakes... and from time to time I'm very much pleased. Other times I get angry and can only be calmed down with a nice bowl... but that is either here nor there.

America and Japan are so very, very different that I'm surprised video games (RPGs are the big one) even sell over here. Neither country is bad, or wrong, or right, just different and Silent Hill Homecoming was a victim of this issue. Silent Hill doesn't work as an action title with spunky female love interests and ethnic stereotype sidekicks.

Nice legs there Phelous XB But honestly, it would have been even funnier if you had gotten Joe for that part hahaha

Homecoming was a very decent game, but simply not what most people play a Silent Hill game for. They turned it into more of a Resident Evil game.

sexiest nurse ever

I'm not a Silent Hill fan, I have only ever played two of the early games, and at the time I was young enough that they freaked me out and I never wanted to play one again. I know how lame that sounds now it being years later and I'm in my 20s' (sad aint it). Resident Evil had a similar effect but I went back and played it after only a few months but Silent Hill was always so freaky that I couldn't keep from getting a bit too jumpy, until the movie anyway. Once the movie came out I lost the bit of fear I had playing the old games and was able to pick them up again for a little while. Sure once I remembered the freaky bits I was off watching the movie again to calm down but oh well. Anyway seeing as this game doesn't look anything like Silent Hill I might check it out, It kinda reminds me of another shyte version that just about ruined a great horror game series *coughs*residentevil4*cou gh*

Phelous in a nurse outfit scariest thing I've seen in years

Haha you need to see LordKat's "Robot Unicorn Attack" video then. XD

Phelous has balls for doing that though!

I think Spoony said it best when he reviewed this game. Silent Hill needs to change and Homecoming was the first step in that direction. Shattered Memories was the next one.
This game was awesome, it was different, it was difficult with the actual combat.
And if your going to nit pick at the design of pyramid head then lets just say its the sequel to the movie and call it good.

Pppttt Silent Hill shouldn't change into something the series wasn't. The majority seem to agree it was at it's best from 1-3. 4 didn't even change it up that much and it got scorn for it, which is mostly undeserved. Homecoming and Shattered Memories are step in two vastly different directions too. I'd like to see the Shattered Memories team take another shot at the series at some point though, just change up what they did there a bit and bring combat back into the picture.

Haha I just wanted to mention Pyramid Head using that design being irksome to me. It's hardly like that made or broke it but let's NOT call it a sequel to the movie... ever.

Hehe, nice costume there Phelan, kinda sexy ^^

I never got into Silent Hill, because all parts i played (1 and 3) gave me strong motion sickness. I was allways sad abaput this because the games looked very interesting, most people who played them like them, and I in general liked survival horror games.

Well Alas I think Ill give the Wii one a try.

Nice Review, and zhanks Phelous, I will stay away frim this "Brawler"

Although I would have loved to see both Phelous AND Dena talking about that game, this was a very good review. I agree with most points about this game, SH:Homecoming was the only SH that I never finished. I remember I made it out of that Garage with that cop and was so frustrated that you had to kill every darn monster just to pull a switch to lift a door (what happened to dodging monsters and running for your life?), that I quit.

I don't agree with the point that 'american developers' automatically make a bad game. Altho it is true that the Japanese are masters of that survival-psychological horror genre, Americans can do well there too.

BTW: You can see, that a new company will fail at making a good sequel to a good series, when the head developer in interviews before the release stresses the point that "they are all huge fans of the game" (*translation: They have seen someone play it, while they were drunk and 10 meters away from the screen, watching from the garden, through a dirty window).

See Fallout 3 for that.. I agree that Fallout 3 was a very good ego-shooter, but it had - story-wise - not much in common with Fallout 1 and 2.

Gosh, all those Silent Hill 2-references make me sick :sick:

Red Pyramid, Josh' death resembling Marys - and of course the name 'Shepherd'.
I mean, come on, so obvious: Alex Shepherd, Mary Shepherd-Sunderland - gosh, as if it is so hard to come up with something so simple as a name!

Great review, Phelous - more cross-dressing :nomnom:

Looks like this game failed to effectively raise your PULSE Phelous.

Okay, I'll go stab myself in the eye.

I agree with most of his points, like the fact that the protagonist is a former soldier (more or less) which is so overused or the boogey man's appearance just as a fan service. BUT, the combat was a big step in the right direction and you shouldn't try to hold it against the developers for doing something right. When I played on hard mode I noticed how extremely effective firearms were in that game. Although the game was inferior to most of its predecessors, making a game more action oriented isn't necessarily a bad thing. Take the Resident Evil franchise for example, despite the BS the idiots say who simply think SCARY=GOOD.

Hmmmm, so I'm an idiot for preferring the original Resident Evil trilogy and Code Veronica style over the hugely overrated RE4 style? Good to know, I'll just sit here and drool. The old style was clunky, but I had more fun on a recent play through of the original Resi than with ANY game I've played in the last few years....4 and 5 simply aren't in their league.
For the record, many people prefer the scary atmosphere over the action atmosphere...doesn't make them idiots, it means they have different tastes than you. For many, psychological scares and atmosphere are more effective than beat em up style brawling...hence the disappointment with Homecoming.

Your Homecoming review is really informative and entertaining. I also like that you cover the fact that the Silent Hill games (especially Silent Hill 2) are loaded with symbolism, as people can easily forget that fact, or even miss it entirely. It really is disappointing to see that Homecoming fell so short, especial...ly considering that it and Shattered Memories are the only ones I haven't yet played. Geez, and I thought the "Butcher" in Origins was a needless cameo, but Homecoming really beats it into your head. It's such a shame that it took such heavy inspiration from the movie, which generally didn't seem to be too popular, especially with the Silent Hill fans.

Also, your ending was amazing! You had amazing attention to detail, and the door from Silent Hill 4 was a great touch. Still, I think my favorite part was the way the credits screen looked. Wonderful job!

Silent Hill 4 is actually a legitimately good game, and it is directly related to the other Silent Hill games in terms of the town's mythos. It just has different gameplay mechanics.

Shattered Memories is a good game, a good Silent Hill game. Yes, its got its issues that prevent it from being a truly great Silent Hill game, but for what they were going for with Wii controls and a different take on the town and experiences it did damn well. Like Phelous mentioned, I'd very much would like them to another Silent Hill game using what worked and didn't with this one.

As for Homecoming; I like it to a point. I find it more playable then The Room, but that just makes it my second least favorite of the series. With Origins being third. Homecoming can be kinda fun, but its nothing to write home about.

I do look forward to Silent Hill '8', as I still think the series can do well and it looks so far to do some pretty interesting things. At the very least, its not a retread in its plot setup.

I'm also kinda surprised they've not ported "Silent Hill: The Arcade Game" (An on-rails shooter) to the Wii yet or put it on an American system since it already has English voice work.