Silent Hill Homecoming deserves the title of Silent Hill V, or 5, or Five.

However reception was cold. Also, there was some release date issues, namely Europe only got the game a bunch of months later than the USA. That's why I had to import the game, I just couldn't wait.

This news is sad. Their Silent Hill entry is great for a variety of reasons, most important of which is the story, and second most important is how right they managed to get the tone. There are flubs, like the Hostel inspired torture scenes, but these are very small when compared to how well the game flows, and how great the story really is.

I even sent an e-mail to Double Helix, congratulating them for their work. I didn't get a reply, but I hope I made someone there smile.

Climax or whatever studios, the guys behind SH: Origins, which failed to grab me (correct me if it's awesome, folks), get rewarded with development of the new Silent Hill Remake for the Wii. While the guys that managed to create an engrossing tale and weaved it into the existing mythos get shafted and are now in dire straits. UNFAIR.

Homecoming was awesome. I loved Dead Space, but Homecoming actually managed to scare me a lot while Dead Space only made me tense.

The only problem with Homecomming was the combat, but I liked the direction they were going in.

I recall the main complaint over Homecoming back when it came out.

I think it went "JAPAN DIDN'T MAKE IT? THEN ITS SHIT, WHAT? COMBAT IN A SILENT HILL GAME? THEN ITS SHIT"

Fanboys of a series sure are an open minded lot, never mind that the game was great and captured the atmosphere of the universe very well, no, no, no, you could fight and Japan didn't make it obviously that's a good reason to boycott something.

Homecoming was a lot better than most people gave it credit for. But as a huge fan of the series, what irked me the most was its visual nods to the cinematic abortion Silent Hill movie. And sorry, but you're never going to fully convince me Pyramid Head had any place in that game. But a good game nonetheless, and one that definitely deserved a wider audience.

That being said, I hate to hear about the studio going through trouble like this. They're obviously a talented team.

Best of luck to those who were let go.

Homecoming had some high points (I REALLY liked the enemy design, and I didn't mind the new combat system; I think it was a step in the right direction), but it just was too much like the movie and older Silent Hills. They didn't branch out much.
Though, to be honest, the worst part was it wasn't scary, at all. The psychological terror I associate with Silent Hill games was completely nonexistant. Also, wheelchairs. And why was Pyramid Head in it? To ruin the meanings behind SH2?
Still, I'm relentlessly devoted to the series, so here's hoping the next one is better.

Homecoming treaded way too much water. Basically it was The Collective's way of putting their foot in Konami's door for more business. It was horrible simulacrum of the previous games that nobody wanted in the first place.

Shattered Memories is basically what Homecoming should have been.

This guy said it best: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/284-Silent-Hill-Homecoming

As for me, I generally liked the game but had major problems with the story and enemy design. I really loved the drawings of Joshua and the idea of Pyramid Head as the Boogeyman. If they centered the story around that and the sacrifices (while leaving out the baggage from older Silent Hill stories (games and the movie) they could have had a classic on their hands.

The enemy design is hit-and-miss. All the bosses are great (representative of the children they are based of off), but the regular enemy design is off. Yahtzee already addresses some problems in his video (sexy nurses (shouldn't they have been asylum nurses?), HammerHeadMan?), but what about the elephantiasis arm-guy being reused from 3? Or fighting the Order soldiers later on (how's it scary to fight actual humans (as regular enemies)?). I will give credit to the spider enemies and the smokelung monster (both are obvious and good references to Joshua. I wish they weren't the only regular enemies with such good design).

The puzzles are absolutely weak. Most don't take any deep thought (except for the last one, and that's just annoying).

Back to Pyramid Head, I did read that he might have something to do with Alex's Dad, rather than Alex himself, but if it does (which I like) they weren't obvious enough about it. I know that subtlety is par-for-the-course for this series, but I feel that that might have been too subtle (or at least not used enough to give the player clues).

Don't get me wrong, Homecoming is a decent game that almost manages to capture the feeling of the earlier games, but it's held back by what I feel was a fear from the developers of screwing with fans too much (I really think they had some great ideas that they didn't use for fear of repercussion from fans. If only they realized that fans would criticize no matter what, maybe they would have gone through with them).

@Solivagant
I'm really looking forward to Shattered Memories. I read some reviews (along with the Zero Puncutation) that said that Origins wasn't very good, but I won't judge the developers of it and SM on that game. From what I've seen, SM is a breath of fresh air to the franchise.

I'm especially interested in the "no fighting monsters" and branching storyline (your decisions will decide the story and even how some of the characters act (Cybil will either be friendly, serious, or slutty depending on how you answer a psychological examination at the beginning).