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Video Game Troll Site Destructoid has recently posted a hands-on article about Silent Hill: Homecoming
The writer seems positive about the game and it seems to be shaping up to be a respectable installment in the series.
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So I went in to my play time of Silent Hill: Homecoming not as a fan of the series, but as a fan of survival horror and actions games in general. And so far? Maybe things aren't as bad as fans are expecting them to be.
Spoiler:
You move Shepherd around the dimly lit hospital, an impressive lighting system casting eerie shadows and flickers across walls. You can pull up a map with Y; it's a standard Silent Hill style map, with red scribbles indicating doors you've been in, areas you can't pass, and areas that are locked. There's no loading between rooms; no door opening screens here -- everything is seamless.
Working through the hospital you encounter a creepy little child scrawling on a piece of paper with crayons. You can have a conversation with him, and are given various reply options (you'll help him, you won't, etc.) that are said to have an impact on the direction of the game (and ultimately the ending). You need to find a key code to open a cell, which ends up being scribbled on two pieces of X-Ray film. One is easily found, the other have to do some more searching for.
Hunting. Fetching. Exploring. Picking up papers with random bits of story information on them. Yup, this definitely feels like Silent Hill to me, and more importantly, like just about every other survival horror game.
Some control differences are notable, though, and I'd say they're a pretty big step up for the series (although not necessarily ground breaking in terms of third-person titles). For one, Shepherd can interact with the environment in a number of ways, tapping buttons to hop over things, or break glass with his elbow. Or stabbing a knife into a creepy, leathery looking wall and tapping X to slide the knife down, ripping an entrance to a new area.
Combat has also been updated, and makes handling the creepy (and dare I say busty and sexy) zombie nurses a bit easier. Pull the left trigger will ready a combat stance, and you'll use X and A to deliver various blows with your weapon of choice (I spent most of the time with a knife). It's possible to string different "combos" together, and pressing B will allow you to dodge attacks, giving you the opportunity to parry.
Even with the control tweaks, all in all, Homecoming feels like a Silent Hill game ... at least from a gameplay perspective. Because I didn't get too deep into it, it's hard to speak on the game's narrative or the overall ambiance, the thing that truly set the series apart from games like Resident Evil. You can scratch off the "dingy hospital" and "zombie nurses" on your Silent Hill checklists. And once I got to the game's spooky town of Shepard's Glen, there was plenty of dense fog.
Spoiler:
You move Shepherd around the dimly lit hospital, an impressive lighting system casting eerie shadows and flickers across walls. You can pull up a map with Y; it's a standard Silent Hill style map, with red scribbles indicating doors you've been in, areas you can't pass, and areas that are locked. There's no loading between rooms; no door opening screens here -- everything is seamless.
Working through the hospital you encounter a creepy little child scrawling on a piece of paper with crayons. You can have a conversation with him, and are given various reply options (you'll help him, you won't, etc.) that are said to have an impact on the direction of the game (and ultimately the ending). You need to find a key code to open a cell, which ends up being scribbled on two pieces of X-Ray film. One is easily found, the other have to do some more searching for.
Hunting. Fetching. Exploring. Picking up papers with random bits of story information on them. Yup, this definitely feels like Silent Hill to me, and more importantly, like just about every other survival horror game.
Some control differences are notable, though, and I'd say they're a pretty big step up for the series (although not necessarily ground breaking in terms of third-person titles). For one, Shepherd can interact with the environment in a number of ways, tapping buttons to hop over things, or break glass with his elbow. Or stabbing a knife into a creepy, leathery looking wall and tapping X to slide the knife down, ripping an entrance to a new area.
Combat has also been updated, and makes handling the creepy (and dare I say busty and sexy) zombie nurses a bit easier. Pull the left trigger will ready a combat stance, and you'll use X and A to deliver various blows with your weapon of choice (I spent most of the time with a knife). It's possible to string different "combos" together, and pressing B will allow you to dodge attacks, giving you the opportunity to parry.
Even with the control tweaks, all in all, Homecoming feels like a Silent Hill game ... at least from a gameplay perspective. Because I didn't get too deep into it, it's hard to speak on the game's narrative or the overall ambiance, the thing that truly set the series apart from games like Resident Evil. You can scratch off the "dingy hospital" and "zombie nurses" on your Silent Hill checklists. And once I got to the game's spooky town of Shepard's Glen, there was plenty of dense fog.
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