SHH Evading & Weapons...? Just me?

[Piece0fSheet666]

So, when I played the game I really had a hard time evading attacks. I just couldn't calculate when the monster would hit and when I tried evading I always ended up being hurt more compared to just fighting! So I just used the crowbar but especially the knife to pwn everything 'cause it was super-fast and effective.
Also, when equipped with the axe [maybe the knife too] when I used a heavy attack without charging my weapon was instantly changed to the crowbar by itself! Did I miss something? Maybe a control tie button or interaction? I actually didn't find charging that helpful 'cause it too needs calculation and you'll probably get hit (maybe good for Crawlers, which I still killed using the crowbar or even the knife I have to admit[!] - it just felt easier).
Did you have any similar experience or I'm a tard??

[AlvinTheLanche]

No reply for 3 years? I think it's a good topic 'coz we have the same experience. LOL! I guess I'm a tard too? nah.

[OneFreeMan]

On my first playthrought I did but I got used to it.
But....

REVEAL SPOILER

with the laser gun I hardly ever need to dodge.

[Augophthalmoses]

Sometimes topics just go ignored. But I liked the fighting system in Homecoming. It made fights (especially the boss fights) much more fun and involved. The controls were odd at first but once you get used to them and realize you need to time your dodges (and not just mash on the button repeatedly whenever you get attacked) and strikes things begin flowing nicely.

All Homecoming did was further verify that the fanbase is more diverse than we think with different ideas of what Silent Hill is supposed to be. Some people don't mind combat being upgraded and having a bit more strategy to it. Others think combat never was meant to be one of the main focuses of Silent Hill thinking it should be restricted.

Which makes me wonder how these people ever managed to get through the first four games (especially SH3 - that title alone first started towards the gradual shift of spending more time inside buildings. Let's not forget it added the ability to block, ability to equip health & ammo, crazy weapons like the maul, a silencer, a flak jacket, unlockable health bar, multiple action difficulty levels, and a submachine gun...even an unlockable infinite ammo SMG).

The main improvements Homecoming needed were towards ironing out glitches, more effective atmosphere and unnerving sounds and imagery, and better monster design.

[Wren]

The OP isn't alone. The only SH game I ever successfully got the hang of dodging in was SH3. I didn't like the combat in Homecoming much, but that's my issue more so than the game's.

[clips7]

I agree...the combat in homecoming was lacking...it was awkward and choppy.....most of it came down to mindless pattern remembering and if you were off in executing the pattern, it almost always ended up with you being continuously hit...that's just annoying and not very fun at all...especially that police station section with the schizms? i believe?...i hated dealing with them.

The combat function being broken is even more fully realized when you hear people constantly saying that they have to whore out the knife functions...you can basically clear the entire game by mashing the knife...the combat itself was just extreme on both sides of the spectrum...it needed to be balanced, but having enemies "zero-in" on you on an invisible rail then having to redundantly remember patterns made the combat dull and unfullfilling.

A bit more time fine tuning it would've done a world of difference. Tbh that was my main gripe with homecoming outside of a few art direction decisions and color themes. I liked the helldescent and otherworld house levels and i thought all of the bosses were crafted and designed well.

[Augophthalmoses]

You don't even have to use the knife if you don't want to. I usually used the crowbar or axe because they were more fun to fight with. The weapons are more balanced in this game. You can just as easily take down a monster using those weapons as you can the knife, but it's going to take a bit longer since they're slower weapons.

That aspect of the fighting system is no more broken than SH1 in which you could easily play the entire game using only the handgun. And memorizing patterns was also a part of earlier Silent Hill games too especially if you were trying to use melee weapons. You'd wait until they attacked then counterattacked. So I don't see why people have a problem with that concept when it was used in earlier games. If anything it's a bit better in Homecoming because the monsters have a bit more variety in their attacks than the monsters in earlier games. While the game does make you rely on pattern recognition more than earlier games it's not something that didn't exist in Silent Hill until Homecoming came along. It was always going to factor into the fighting when you went melee which unfortunately for some people is what the majority of Homecoming's fighting revolved around.

Combat did need some tweaking regardless. Main thing that needed balance is how the rest of the monsters will just ignore you while you're focusing on one, have a guard function in addition to dodging (since some people seem to have problems with that function for some reason), and throw out some more health. And having more difficulty levels than just Normal and Hard like in SH2 & 3 so you can accommodate those who actually want a challenge and those who just want to play through for the story.

[Wooden Plank]

This is what SH:H's difficulty ratings SHOULD have been.

Easy: A mode for those new to Horror games, or for those who want to play not for the challenge, but the story.
Normal: A mode for confident players. This is the recommended difficulty.
Hard: A mode for seasoned players. For those who want the thrills.
Extreme: A mode for the toughest, most fearless players of them all. Good luck.

[NarooN]

Extreme X: For hardcore masochists only.

[Wooden Plank]

Extreme X: For hardcore masochists only.

Extreme L: For the most batshit crazy, mentally defunct players ever. Or for those who want glory.

(There is only one round(bullet) in the whole game, you only get the Combat Knife and the Mk. 23, enemies kill in one hit.)

[NarooN]

LOL @ one bullet in the entire game. I guess it's for if the player decides to commit suicide.

[Brispir]

I was able to time the dodge right, but the problem is that Alex didn't always dodge in the direction I wanted him to go. When those spider things (can't remember the name) would swing with their right leg and I had to dodge to Alex's right, the game made me "dodge" to the left, right into the attack. This is one thing that really pissed me off the most about the game. Otherwise, it wasn't too bad.

[Floodclaw]

Whenever I specified a direction while dodging, it always went where I wanted, to my memory. Are you just dodging or moving the stick with it?

[ÆNEMA]

I had difficulty dodging as well, but it was more like the button would be unresponsive. Or, like the person above, Alex would move in the opposite direction of what I wanted.
Or, even better, monsters would somehow land hits without even actually touching Alex.

So I mostly just used the knife since that didn't allow any time for that stuff to matter.

[captain crowbar]

I've got that shit on lockdown...and then I ran into the nurses in the Hotel.

[Augophthalmoses]

I guess some people just can't get a hold of the system. Sure, in the beginning I had some difficulty adjusting, but once I figured out how everything worked it became easy to handle.

Dodging is easy to pull off so long as you remember to time the dodges and be sure of where you want to dodge not just mashing on the button in a panic expecting to go somewhere. It's one of those those things that requires snap decision making in from time to time so not everybody is going to be able to handle stuff like that.

The only real bugs I noticed are when you go to finish an enemy sometimes it takes a few seconds for the killing animation to kick in.

I just hope Downpour doesn't take us back to an extremely dumbed down and overly simplified fighting system. It looks good so far and we at least have a guard ability for people who didn't care for the dodging system.

[Brispir]

Whenever I specified a direction while dodging, it always went where I wanted, to my memory. Are you just dodging or moving the stick with it?

I was moving with the stick, and Alex STILL didn't dodge the direction I wanted him to. Should I have tried without the stick?

[KLan]

I found SH:H's difficulty weird too...
Only normal and hard.
Also I found it funny that the graphics options only had "med" or "high" settings. Where's "low"?? Lol. Not that I need low settings, just found it funny.

I just hope Downpour doesn't take us back to an extremely dumbed down and overly simplified fighting system. It looks good so far and we at least have a guard ability for people who didn't care for the dodging system.

I certainly hope they take us back to the original SH1-4 combat style, even though it's not gonna happen considering it's gone outside of Japanese developers. Do not like this resident evil-style combat at all. If I want action, I'd go and play RE4. Combat completely ruins the atmosphere for me, especially since SH5's atmosphere isn't even that great.
This turns into the usual western-style action game vs traditional Japanese horror game. To each his own.

[Floodclaw]

Western-style action game? You DO know that Resident Evil is Japanese, right?

[Augophthalmoses]

This is hilarious considering the first Silent Hill got a good deal of inspiration for its basic combat system (which is apparently the holy grail fighting system in survival horror every single SH game must regurgitate in order to "feel" like Silent Hill) from Resident Evil.

The tank controls, shoulder button to aim weapon, X to shoot, lock on system, square for run...Heck, the controls are fairly identical to early Resident Evil games.

And both Resident Evil and Silent Hill were developed by Japanese companies in order to appeal to the Western market. RE simply draws inspiration from B horror and action movies while SH gets inspiration from multiple sources. Some obscure, some popular, some not even horror related (i.e. Kindergarten Cop).

So no we do not need to restrict the combat. You can have tension, challenge, and fear with combat intact. It just requires creative effort on the developer's part.

Heck, SM did away with fighting completely yet people still though the earlier titles with fighting mechanics were scarier and more heart pounding than SM. If combat "ruins the atmosphere for you" then I don't see how you managed to play through the first several Silent Hill games. Especially SH3. That game sticks you inside buildings and closed off areas more than the first two putting you in plenty of situations where you either have to fight off monsters to get them out of your hair or do some fancy dodging.