The Positives of Silent Hill Homecoming.

[rollerfan222]

My favorite along with 2

Creepy and dark atmosphere.

IMO best sound effects and ambience in the series

IMO best vocal tracks and overall best soundtrack along with 2

character design

best voice acting in the series

Flawless monster design, big kudos to kenzie lamar ( lead character and monster designer)

Elle holloway, my favorite secondary female character along with maria.

BAD-ASS bosses, specially scarlet.

excellent enviroments and overall ambient.

great combat system.

Alex is my favorite protagonist along with Heather for his natural and realistic reactions to the events and people around him.

i seriously can't believe all the crap this game was given, it puts downpour to shame in terms of development,story and atmosphere.

[clips7]

I still like Alex as the best main character in the series...i liked his reactions to the horrors around him. And his interactions with the characters seemed more genuine.

Even tho i liked Downpour better overall...i connected with Alex alot better than Murphy who just seemed kinda dark and drawn away from everybody...he wasn't very likable as Alex was.

The helldescent levels and the otherworld house levels were great.

Homecoming has some of the best boss designs the series has seen to date.

The monster designs in Smog and Siam were great...

The voice acting is the best in the series...it's either better or on par with Downpour.

[rollerfan222]

I still like Alex as the best main character in the series...i liked his reactions to the horrors around him. And his interactions with the characters seemed more genuine.

Even tho i liked Downpour better overall...i connected with Alex alot better than Murphy who just seemed kinda dark and drawn away from everybody...he wasn't very likable as Alex was.

The helldescent levels and the otherworld house levels were great.

Homecoming has some of the best boss designs the series has seen to date.

The monster designs in Smog and Siam were great...

The voice acting is the best in the series...it's either better or on par with Downpour.

I agree with you on Murphy completely. I didn't dislike him but he wasn't as likeable as other characters in the series.
He is the least likeable in my opinion (don't mess with Henry )

[Mercury]

I really liked the atmosphere. It was unlike the traditional feeling with SH, but it was really interesting and I liked that. I love buildings like City Hall and Overlook Pen. The addition of Shepard's Glen was also nice and I liked seeing some new history added.

I'm glad that there's at least one action-oriented entry and that this fulfills it. I understand people disliking that, but this game is really fun and that's what it was going for. On that note, I love that you could "upgrade" weapons.

I like that the story was a new take on The Order arc. It was really nice to see them involved for once without the resurrection of god coming into play. I love that they turned ritual and precise human sacrifice into a mass of sacrifice born out of fear. It felt really doomsday-ish. I've seen it compared to Hostel, which I can agree with, but I feel it had more depth and purpose in HC.

The acting and the music were definitely pluses.

The monster design was really great imo. Despite what I said in the negatives thread, I absolutely love how they recreated the movie nurses in-game. They were creepy and had so many cool sounds. My favorite enemies had to be the bosses. I love how they revolved around things the sacrificial kids loved and it turned out so perfect. I especially liked Nora.

A major thing I really enjoyed was how mentally unstable everyone had become. The fact that Alex wasn't so much repressed but rather losing touch with reality was really interesting to me. The plot-line with his family was very easy to relate to as well.

[Mr.E.Nygma]

My favorite along with 2

Creepy and dark atmosphere.

IMO best sound effects and ambience in the series

IMO best vocal tracks and overall best soundtrack along with 2

character design

best voice acting in the series

Flawless monster design, big kudos to kenzie lamar ( lead character and monster designer)

Elle holloway, my favorite secondary female character along with maria.

BAD-ASS bosses, specially scarlet.

excellent enviroments and overall ambient.

great combat system.

Alex is my favorite protagonist along with Heather for his natural and realistic reactions to the events and people around him.

i seriously can't believe all the crap this game was given, it puts downpour to shame in terms of development,story and atmosphere.

I agree with all of that although I like DP and HC equally.

[frostfire]

I thought the plot was good, although I still have no idea why

REVEAL SPOILER

alex thought it was a GOOD idea to take his young brother out for a boat ride at 2 in the morning

The enemy designs were great, especially the bosses (and especially scarlet, still freaks me out)
It does borrow from the movie quite a bit, but only aesthetically, which let's face it, was the best bit from the movie.

It's still one of my favourites from the franchise.

[Mr.E.Nygma]

I thought the plot was good, although I still have no idea why

REVEAL SPOILER

alex thought it was a GOOD idea to take his young brother out for a boat ride at 2 in the morning

The enemy designs were great, especially the bosses (and especially scarlet, still freaks me out)
It does borrow from the movie quite a bit, but only aesthetically, which let's face it, was the best bit from the movie.

It's still one of my favourites from the franchise.

REVEAL SPOILER

He wanted to get Josh away from the house. he either didn't want Josh to snitch on him/he didn't want his dad to find them.

[TeamSilent4Life]

I'm considerin trading in Borderlands 1 (boring game!) for this. Is it as bad as people say it is? From bits & pieces I've seen it looks like an awesome entry. It looks genuinely creepy & the creatures look typically SH-esque. The combat looks pretty visceral from what i've seen. I loved Downpour so will I love this?

[ÆNEMA]

I haven't played much Downpour, but if you didn't have a problem with the combat in that game, Homecoming's shouldn't bother you either. It's essentially figuring out a strategy of when to block and when to take the opening for a heavy vs quick hit. (& no breakable weapons- thank god) My biggest complaint with the combat was that the monsters will chase you relentlessly through the level, so you have to kill them if you can't get to the next area quickly and if you mess up, the monsters will annihilate you, so it's very easy to get stuck with zero health items if you don't catch onto the patterns quickly.
A lot of fans enjoyed the boss fights, and from my observation, they're still many people's favorites in the series.

I thought the secondary plot revolving around Silent Hill itself was cheesy and done poorly, but the main focus on Alex was good. I wasn't impressed with the monster designs at all, but if you like what you've seen, give it a shot. The only way to really know if you'll enjoy it is to play yourself.

[WhiteClaudia]

I haven't played much Downpour, but if you didn't have a problem with the combat in that game, Homecoming's shouldn't bother you either. It's essentially figuring out a strategy of when to block and when to take the opening for a heavy vs quick hit. (& no breakable weapons- thank god) My biggest complaint with the combat was that the monsters will chase you relentlessly through the level, so you have to kill them if you can't get to the next area quickly and if you mess up, the monsters will annihilate you, so it's very easy to get stuck with zero health items if you don't catch onto the patterns quickly.
A lot of fans enjoyed the boss fights, and from my observation, they're still many people's favorites in the series.

I thought the secondary plot revolving around Silent Hill itself was cheesy and done poorly, but the main focus on Alex was good. I wasn't impressed with the monster designs at all, but if you like what you've seen, give it a shot. The only way to really know if you'll enjoy it is to play yourself.

Well said, me friend. Well said.

[rollerfan222]

I'm considerin trading in Borderlands 1 (boring game!) for this. Is it as bad as people say it is? From bits & pieces I've seen it looks like an awesome entry. It looks genuinely creepy & the creatures look typically SH-esque. The combat looks pretty visceral from what i've seen. I loved Downpour so will I love this?

It's a great game, expect a darker atpmosphere than Downpour and obviously better monster designs.

Oh and the combat system has been improved a little.

[poorjack]

The monsters are better, but Downpour is quite a bit darker and more depressing. Homecoming comes in short on personality, and feels like a copy-paste Silent Hill with elements outright stolen, mostly from 1, 2.

But it DOES has some great boss fights. Outright epic. It is worth playing for boss design alone, which Downpour was really lacking.

[HalfTransition]

I don't think the game is bad as people says. In terms of atmosphere, it managed to still feel like Silent Hill (the environments design, the otherworlds, the monsters). The main problem to me is the cliché end twist, the awful endings, the fact that monsters from previous games where re-used for no reason, etc... But I still enjoy this game more than downpour because as I said, in Homecoming I feel like I'm actually playing silent Hill.

To me HC is still a bad SH game, but it's not that terrible either.

[devil hunter]

I think you have to play the games for yourself to decide which one is darker to you.

I have to disagree with you Transition, you named some examples why it felt like SH, but it just copied some of those things from earlier games (mainly SH 1, 2 and the movie - which was based on the first game).

I don't think there's really this "feel" in SH games. TS was always experimenting with new things, gameplay changes, different atmosphere etc. Each game is different. Newer games have lots of in common with what's established in SH games in general and people say that some should've been its own thing, nothing connected to the SH series.

That's something I can't understand, I guess SH fans can't really decide what they want, what's Silent Hillish for them etc.

I'm not kidding. We got SH Origins and people complained that it's too similar and that's why it sucks, they wanted something different. Then we got SM and people complained that it's something new.
I remember when people complained how the town looked bland, uninteresting and lacking details in Homecoming. Downpour was atmospheric, had lots of details in environments etc. but people complained that those details don't make it feel Silent Hillish, how it's just like every other abandoned town.

Hell for some people Downpour went back to the series roots, for some it doesn't feel like a SH game.

Fans simply can't be pleased.

[HalfTransition]

About the Silent Hill feel, we've discussed this many times so I don't feel like arguing with this anymore. I just want to say that I'm not the only one who think there is indeed a Silent Hill feel.

SH1,2,3 and 4 had similar atmosphere even if the games where different from each other because of the art direction and the typical american atmosphere of the town.

About Origins, I think most people complained about the story nonsense (illogical re-use of SH2 monsters,etc..) but at least it captured the atmosphere of the older ones. It's not enough to make a good SH game but I prefer playing this over Downpour.

It's not that SH fans don't know what they want. The thing is, SH tried so many different things, so of course it divided the fans. Some of them liked the cult stuff, other fans liked the psychological aspect. There's tons of different fans who want different kind of things so it's impossible to satisfy all fans at once.

[poorjack]

Fans can not be pleased because team silent is not behind the helm. If Konami lied, and said Homecoming was done by team silent, it would have been a classic.

[HalfTransition]

Fans can not be pleased because team silent is not behind the helm. If Konami lied, and said Homecoming was done by team silent, it would have been a classic.

No. Absolutely not. Remember when SH4 came out, fans weren't afraid to call this game a piece of crap.
So imagine team silent would have done a SH game with scenes ripped of from SH2 and the movie... oh wait. They would never have done this.

[poorjack]

At least people wouldn't complain about western devs destroying the series when it is konami doing all the destroying.

[HalfTransition]

At least people wouldn't complain about western devs destroying the series when it is konami doing all the destroying.

No. Konami only chooses the team. The team develops the game and make it good, or bad. If the game is bad, it's because of those who developed it, not because of the publisher (konami). It's like saying a book sucks because of the publisher instead of the actual author.

[poorjack]

This is the positives of homecoming. Let us move this conversation to the Negatives thread.

Great bosses in Homecoming tho. Can't stress that enough.