I thought since Zelda and Final Fantasy have their own general topics I might as well give Silent Hill one too.
Well basically I just need a place to vent.
I know I'm a bit late to the game (literally) but just how bad is Homecoming?
It's so bad I actually consider not finishing it and I never have felt that way before.
What strikes me the most is just how lazy the producers must have been, they've been given such a great Franchise and they threw out this half arsed attempt of a game.
First of all the graphic.
Bloody awful. The game is a bit old now but even 3 years ago this was sub PS2 standard. The characters lack details (seriously the main characters (Alex) mum looks like an extra in a FF game) and the surroundings are dull and lack inspiration. The designer probably thought there isn't much point dialing up the graphics if they just hide it under a cloud of fog anyway. And boy they do, if the graphics aren't disguised by fog they are hidden in darkness. This is Silent Hill yes but where is the point to have a flash light if you still can't see a damn thing?
Especially during the sewer levels I had to up the brightness to the fullest to be able to see a bit ahead.
What is also laughable is that there is no reflection in the mirrors.
Seriously in this day and age? All you get to see is a blurred mess.
Inexcusable given that Origins on the PSP featured Mirrors as a main plot device and showed perfect reflections.
Fair enough bad graphics I can overlook (even though I never had to with a SH game before) but what kills the game is the atrocious combat system.
Okay this has been done by a Western *coughamericancough* team so obviously there has to be more fighting (and also more gore and violence which I don't mind but it feels a bit off), given Alex is a soldier it makes even sense that he is more adept to fighting than the former main characters.
Then again this team just couldn't be asked.
I really don't mind a challenge when gaming, I really don't but at least make it rational and solvable with the right tactics and/or weapons. The controls are just totally sluggish and unresponsive.
Pretty much every normal enemy turns into a major boss fight (I kid not) cause of bad controls, uneven balance of inflicted damage (seriously when an standard monster kills you with one hit on normal difficulty something is wrong). I think the idea was that for every monster you have to figure out the right tactic and optimal weapon to defeat it, which is fair enough, but the tactic is basically always dodge, hit, dodge, hit, dodge, hit. Again that would be fine, thing is just the dodging controls
simply don't work.
Dodging often takes a second or two to response in which time you get beaten a lot, it is also not scripted, meaning you dodge doesn't mean you don't get hid, often you still do, simply because the monster turns with you when you dodge or your dodge is just half cause there is a wall or sometimes simply because Alex isn't in the mood to run around the whole way.
That is incredibly frustrating because unlike other games where using tactics is simply a means of saving amo and health items while senseless bashing works just as well too, Homecoming forces you to use tactics or you die. The enemies are just that hard to defeat. Especially when the "Schism" appear.
Schisms have almost instant kill moves and take and incredibly large amount of hits before dying.
One of them is already a challenge but when they first appear you have to defeat two. True while one attacks the other one just stands and watches but they do so in turns. So if you beat away on one it can suddenly stop moving and you get attacked by the other from behind (meaning you die).
So you defeat 2 of those, big relieve, till the wall crumbles and 3 (!) more come at you. WT actual F!!!
It took me two days to beat this sequence and what do you know you ran two rooms further and another 2 of those monsters come at you and after that another one.
This is just unnecessarily frustrating and stupid, in the end I only managed it by running away from all of the Schisms (which is hard enough as they follow you across rooms and are quick as well and I also don't like runnign away from things i want to kill them!)) so even with running away I took enough hits to reach then exit almost dead.
If you wonder why not just shoot the buggers, well forget it, amo is so frigging rare in this game it's only topped by health items which are even harder to find.
I just wonder why? Yes combat was never a major point in Silent Hill games but nobody cared. Everyone loved it as it was and nobody wanted a more "sophisticated" combat system so why went ahead and think this is an improvement the game desperately needs? And then why go and make it shit?
What also lets the game down is the lack of atmosphere.
It starts of nice enough; Alex comes to town everything is foggy, hardly any people are left, his mum is all weird and his kid brother is missing, Monsters everywhere. Silent Hill as usual.
What already is weird is that Alex is totally unfazed by this, he hardly minds the complete destruction of his hometown and its inhabitants and is simply interested in finding his brother. Who btw he keeps running into but Josh (the brother) takes off every time Alex comes close. Which Alex also doesn't strike as odd.
Alex also keeps shouting at people where his brother is when he perfectly well knows his brother is actually upstairs behind a door you're just trying to find the keys to. Weird person.
It is also weird that the side character are so short with Alex. Bare in mind these are not strangers like in other SH games but family members and childhood friends. You'd think they'd be a bit more talkative but they're as cryptic and weird as the next one. There are other little things too like in one scene you see Alex and Josh in a flashback in their room at night. The age difference between Alex and Josh is 11 years which already makes it seem unlikely they ever played together with toys since Alex was almost a teenager when Josh was born yet the game pretty much pretends they grew up together the same age. Josh even looks exactly the same as he does in the present even though Alex is much, much younger. Josh is also fully dressed with shoes in bed supposedly about to go to sleep. Again overall laziness comes to mind.
All this and more little thing would be fine on their own but put together just spoil the atmosphere drastically and what is SH without atmosphere?
Even the influences from the film (the transition from fog world to hell world via paint peeling off, pyramid heads design etc.) which is kinda cool at first later on also just seems like a cheap way to spare effort on own design ideas.
The scare feel is also relaying more on shock rather than on fear of the unknown.
There is probably more I don't like but this is pretty much the worst.
Silent Hill used to be such a big name in gaming and the games were usually instant hits.
What happened?
I'm a big fan of the series and I even liked the 4 part which so many see as the worst (It was different, different doesn't mean bad!).
Obviously a big chunk of the blame goes to Team Silent who for what ever retarded reason thought it would be just a terrific idea to give the game to another developing team but then again Origins was done by Climax and they did a decent job. Fair enough they stayed very close to the formula and didn't take any risks.
I'm upset and angry!
This post has been edited by Astron: Nov 6 2011, 13:15
Silent Hill, Where did it go wrong?
Nov 5 2011, 13:07
) I add some more relevant stuff.
