Presupposing that a game series has been successful then reviewing a sequel – especially the fifth instalment in a long-standing series – should be about as straightforward as game reviews can get. There are a very clear series of questions that gamers will be asking themselves in regard to the new addition, the responses to which will often polarize the franchise’s core fanbase even before the game in question has hit the shelves (best exemplified, ironically, by the Xbox’s Silent Hill: The Room). Does it stick to the fundamental framework that popularised the series in the first place? Does it innovate on what has come before, or does it retread similar ground? Does it manage to retain the heart and soul of the original title, or is it a hollow cash cow? And – most importantly of all – is it actually necessary – that is to say, does it extend the game universe in a productive way, or does it just exist for the sake of it?
All of which is a roundabout way of admitting that reviewing Silent Hill: Homecoming doesn’t quite conform to the usual measures of a sequel’s worth. All the elements are there, for sure – so much so that anyone who has played a game in the last fifteen years would probably recognise what series it fits into from any single given screenshot – but somehow the spirit and immediacy of the great Silent Hill games (1-3) was left back in Japan when development moved over to the States. Under any normal circumstances, we would quickly file Homecoming under ‘nearly-ran’ and have done with it, but only a few minutes into the game one fundamental factor becomes abundantly clear: Silent Hill: Homecoming has no desire to be anything whatsoever except Silent Hill 2. It even has Pyramidhead pop up momentarily – in the most desperate, laboured cameo since Stan Lee appeared in [insert any Marvel movie title here] – to try and capture the sense of gravitas and mystique the PS2 classic emanated like thick fog. In short, Double Helix’s game needs to be judged under an entirely different set of criteria; one that looks at this new instalment as much as a homage as a true continuation, as much a greatest hits package as an original instalment. And on these terms – because it can provide an adequate skeleton on which to hang an adventure, but fails to flesh it out in any meaningful, spiritually rewarding way – it is only a partial success.
However, this is just our overall reaction, and there are plenty of individual components that work well enough to be considered worthwhile successors to what has come before. Akira Yamoaka’s sound work, for example, is incredible, and in many ways deserves a better title in which to be showcased. The Freudian feedback of monsters, retro-tarded animals and conjoined humans that cross your path is as unnerving as it should be. The environments themselves are suitably decayed and upsetting. Nonetheless, the game’s plot and structure – which sees action split between Silent Hill and the almost-identical-and-therefore-should-probably-have-just-been-Silent-Hill-anyway town of Shepherd’s Glen – don’t come close to hitting the mysterious flow of previous titles.
Likewise, some of the lead character’s actions and motivations can be likened to the original games in that they don’t make much sense on any human level – which is fine if you’re a Japanese developer creating something on your own terms, but pretty weak when you’re an American developer just trying to be quirky and mysterious – while incidental characters might as well be wearing Starfleet uniforms, just to highlight how likely it is that they will die three minutes later.
Of course, much of the series’ legacy has been cemented because previous instalments have followed ‘everyman’ protagonists (that is to say, unskilled Joe Ordinaries who might as well be any of us for the lack of fortitude they possess), and this is a fine example of how Homecoming ticks all the boxes but still kind of misses the point anyway. Here, our ‘hero’ Alex Shepherd is a war-broken psychological wreck – the introductory level actually takes place inside his tortured dreamscape – but being a soldier he is far more physically adept than previous Silent Hill protagonists. This basically translates as ‘being able to dodge about a bit more than usual,’ but even still it adds a slightly different dimension to the proceedings… and one which actually makes the game less scary than it otherwise would be.
Now, obviously action and fear can go hand-in-hand – as Dead Space recently demonstrated to a near-faultless degree of brilliance – but the fact that Homecoming ties itself so inextricably to an eight-year-old game in nearly every other respect means that there is just no way for the tension to carry through. In essence, many of the things that made Silent Hill scary at its inception (the clumsy movement, the heavy fogging, the endless stream of painted-on doors that ensured your non-escape) were based on technical limitations as much as creativity.
Homecoming is, like Shepherd himself, torn between two worlds; it tries to adapt in a few small areas, while steadfastly refusing to do exactly that nearly everywhere else. As a result, while it’s a serviceable suspense-horror game with a few standout moments and more than a few hair-standing-on-end incidents, you might well find yourself wishing the developer had either just remade the first trilogy with updated tech or done something original altogether.
