Downcoming

[Otherworld]

When Matt and Patt played this game, you could really see the massive issues with it.

Although TH saved it from it being a thousand times worse, it is a low point in the series.

[Xuchilbara]

I disagree. I think it is better than DP and probably Origins. It doesn't contradict canon. The story is actually consistent.

Though I think the game needed polishing and less influence from the suits. This is why it's a wreck.

[rodox_head]

I've actually never played the game myself, but from what I've seen, the majority of its flaws are rooted in presentation. Homecoming and 3 are the only ones where I feel the horrors are analogous to real life.

[Xuchilbara]

I've actually never played the game myself, but from what I've seen, the majority of its flaws are rooted in presentation. Homecoming and 3 are the only ones where I feel the horrors are analogous to real life.

Indeed. Alex being ignored, neglected, and abused by his family. While they favored Joshua and discouraged him from even speaking to Alex. I am not sure Alex even had friends at school.

[Norus_Rebirthed]

I'm glad Silent Hill Revelation used Homecoming imagery for Heather in the lift. But I would have took a Movie adaptation of this game.

[rodox_head]

I've actually never played the game myself, but from what I've seen, the majority of its flaws are rooted in presentation. Homecoming and 3 are the only ones where I feel the horrors are analogous to real life.

Indeed. Alex being ignored, neglected, and abused by his family. While they favored Joshua and discouraged him from even speaking to Alex. I am not sure Alex even had friends at school.

While not what I was referring to, I have seen this brought up as a point in the game's favor from a decent number of fans, particularly LGBT. It does coincide a little bit with what I was thinking, which is the overtones of war/tradition. The routine sacrifice of children, Elle's missing posters recalling 9/11 (possibly the Smog monster too), dogmatism taking control, Curtis saying "something's not letting them move on", all the parents are in positions of power (Fitch is somewhat debatable) as well as the past generation failing the future ones,. The game was developed in during the Bush administration, after all.

"the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

I didn't really start thinking heavily about this until the Russia/Ukraine war began and it all started to make sense to me. Constantly reading the phrase "throwing people into the meat grinder" in regards to that really made me think of the opening scene of the game. As much as a lot of dtractors like to pin the game as knocking off of SH2, it really feels more thematically similar to 3 with the lack of agency people like Heather/Alex and Douglas/Wheeler have against a corrupt system that has essentially predetermined their fate.

[Xuchilbara]

I've actually never played the game myself, but from what I've seen, the majority of its flaws are rooted in presentation. Homecoming and 3 are the only ones where I feel the horrors are analogous to real life.

Indeed. Alex being ignored, neglected, and abused by his family. While they favored Joshua and discouraged him from even speaking to Alex. I am not sure Alex even had friends at school.

While not what I was referring to, I have seen this brought up as a point in the game's favor from a decent number of fans, particularly LGBT. It does coincide a little bit with what I was thinking, which is the overtones of war/tradition. The routine sacrifice of children, Elle's missing posters recalling 9/11 (possibly the Smog monster too), dogmatism taking control, Curtis saying "something's not letting them move on", all the parents are in positions of power (Fitch is somewhat debatable) as well as the past generation failing the future ones,. The game was developed in during the Bush administration, after all.

"the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

I didn't really start thinking heavily about this until the Russia/Ukraine war began and it all started to make sense to me. Constantly reading the phrase "throwing people into the meat grinder" in regards to that really made me think of the opening scene of the game. As much as a lot of dtractors like to pin the game as knocking off of SH2, it really feels more thematically similar to 3 with the lack of agency people like Heather/Alex and Douglas/Wheeler have against a corrupt system that has essentially predetermined their fate.

These are all good points I never considered. I loved how Adam really did love Alex, but out of duty, and him having been in the military, was abusive to him. He regrets not thinking for himself at the end.

Also, Judge Holloway's speech, right before she tortures Alex, on good vs evil being an illusion, it's really chaos vs order is one of the highlights of the game. I actually wish the game explored this more because the previous games imply a great deal about what is truly "evil" [Dahlia] and what looks evil but isn't. [Claudia]

[rodox_head]

These are all good points I never considered. I loved how Adam really did love Alex, but out of duty, and him having been in the military, was abusive to him. He regrets not thinking for himself at the end.

Also, Judge Holloway's speech, right before she tortures Alex, on good vs evil being an illusion, it's really chaos vs order is one of the highlights of the game. I actually wish the game explored this more because the previous games imply a great deal about what is truly "evil" [Dahlia] and what looks evil but isn't. [Claudia]

Honestly, the game has a lot of really good bits of dialogue throughout, and the voice acting is also done well. The final scene between Alex and Adam is a tragic one given the trope of soldiers being deterred from showing their feelings and free thinking, also tragically fitting that the two soldiers* are the ones that are blamed for the whole thing by the antagonists. Halloway's speech is a good one too that acts as a "mask-off" moment brought out from emotion, it doesn't just feel like an exposition dump, but to show her anger at the Shepherds' for their failure. It's kinda like how Vincent drops all formalities and just flat out says "Go ahead and kill this crazy bitch!".

Another good bit of dialogue I wanted to note is the one between Curtis and disguised Alex where he mentions how he likes his job as a mechanic because he believes he's gifted at fixing things, but now he has "direction" as a fixer of things, as if anything and anyone around him is just something he can "fix". The way he refers to Alex as just "soldier" after mentioning the importance of knowing who you are and then surprise attacking him in the back is hauntingly parallel to behavior of IRL fascist groups; fighting for the same goal, but still just a disposable tool once it's outlived its usefulness.

A major problem I see after all of this is that the pacing is really bad, and the story beats are misplaced. Having the final scene with Adam before the Halloway and Curtis moments really ruins the emotional gravitas of both. It would have been more fitting for it to have been put right before the Amnion fight. Also, I maintain that Josh's death was poorly written and the whole "looking for Josh" thread has less weight than Travis trying to figure out what happened to Alessa, best emphasized during the TBF playthrough when Josh is seen running away via security footage and Matt just yells "I don't care anymore!"

Maybe a better way to have the twist played out would have been sprinkling in moments where Alex brings up training himself in combat as a teen in a vein attempt to please his dad (explaining why he's skilled in combat without being in the military), something along the lines of bringing up seeing fallen comrades in battle, building up to a reveal where, instead of a boating accident, Josh died in a hunting accident. The setup could have been the same too, with Alex antagonizing Josh while they're out alone nearing the outskirts of Silent Hill ending with whatever other cause of death could happen. Cue the ambulance sirens, Alex warping the memory of Josh to one of a fellow soldier, and the town's pact is broken not only because the wrong child died, but via the incorrect method.

Even if Homecoming is the low point of the series, which I can understand and kinda agree with, it's really a C- at worst and doesn't really deserve the shit it gets.

P.S. Holy Wall of Text, Batman!

[Xuchilbara]

Tbh the story makes more sense than SH4 and is less inconsistent. (SH4's story is just downright bizarre. )I agree with you. The execution needed to be polished. The whole game should have had a couple of more months of polishing before being released in every area.

[Otherworld]

Tbh the story makes more sense than SH4 and is less inconsistent. (SH4's story is just downright bizarre. )I agree with you. The execution needed to be polished. The whole game should have had a couple of more months of polishing before being released in every area.

This is really what I meant regarding this game. It was unpolished and in many cases unfinished as one of our older members here shows how easy it is to glitch through the entire thing.

When you release a next-generation game and it hasn't been polished like its predecessors in the last generation and those last-gen games look, run, and play better than this one there is a big problem.

All of this ends up hurting the game (including Alex's combat ability) because those things should allow you to sink into the narrative and allow you to empathize with the characters' woes. But these technical issues pull you out of immersion and that hurt the game in a big way.