Following the unexpected announcement of Konami's new music game, Rock Revolution, the projection screen faded from the candy-colored lights of the concert stage and transitioned to the glowing embers of the title Silent Hill: Homecoming. As it was still early on in the presentation schedule, excitement brewed amongst the audience as game designer Jason Allen took to the mic to deliver the low down on what to expect for the fifth title in the Silent Hill franchise.
It's a terrifying responsibility to create a Konami sequel out of Konami's house (aka, at The Collective). For a series that represents a significant and beloved turning point in horror and suspense games, will Silent Hill: Homecoming play steady as an 'evolution' as opposed to a 'revolution' of the series ? Will it manage to satisfy the standards of the games' die-hard fans? Hit the jump for more details of Allen's presentation, and my personal hands-on experiences with the game while at Konami's Gamer's Day.
Jason Allen cut straight to the chase by outlining the challenges and outlook that The Collective encountered when given the fortuitous (and/or cursed) duty to create the fifth Silent Hill game. Since none of the original Silent Hill team was on board during development, The Collective was tasked with transposing the qualities that truly define the franchise into the sequel, while additionally implementing features that would potentially open the game up to a new audience. Note that the smell of 'new' is particularly discerning in this context.
Creating a visual ambience of horror
Pointing out the unmistakable qualities of detailed artwork and atmosphere in the previous Silent Hill games, Allen demonstrated Homecoming's equally chilling landscape in a few of the game's introductory scenes. One scene involved the protagonist Alex Shepard suddenly waking up in Silent Hill and exploring the street to understand his location. As Alex moves down the sidewalk, the atmosphere aptly captivates a mute and unsettling hush over the landscape, met by a blanket of uncomfortable grey around every corner. So: spooky weather and petrifying void of sound...check.
The ratio and effect of light to dark was also very well rendered while playing the game. The majority of the spaces are entirely engulfed in darkness until revealed by Alex's flashlight, providing the right amount of suspense-laden limited perspective. A faint yet constant film grain effect is also used across the screen to adhere the worn and uncertain visual ambience over damp hallways and darkened hospital rooms.
Combat
Due to the fact that Alex was an overseas soldier (discharged early due to a sequence of disturbing dreams), the combat system in Homecoming is a lot more interactive and manageable than in previous games. When an enemy approaches, Alex can utilize a targeting system implemented by the left trigger to hone his flashlight in on a singular beast for attack. A combination of properly timed light and heavy jabs or chain attacks, in succession with perfect dodging to either side of the enemy, will do the trick. Imperfect dodging will still allow Alex to defend himself, but not without receiving a little damage in turn.
Alex will encounter a variety of weapons over the course of his journey, including the knife, pipe, and axe that were shown in the combat demonstrations. Each weapon will also have a unique finishing move, which will have a unique reaction for every creeping, flesh peeling thing that you encounter. In some instances, regardless of your dodging techniques, you're required to act fast on do-or-die button actions to avoid a killer attack from, say, that hammer-head split-neck thing shown above.
I had an opportunity to try the combat system upon running into a couple of classic nurses in the hospital. The targeting system is easy enough, and truly helps orient the player for attack. Upon initial play, it was hard for me to decipher the moments when I would need to dodge, but eventually I became more familiar with the enemies' signals for attack and learned to defeat them with ease.
While the targeting system is of great help compared to the meager and frustrating attack moves from the past, I felt as though this combat-oriented aid greatly diminished the sensibility of helplessness that was so essential for harboring the terror and fear that defined the experience in the previous games. At one point, some nurses were stumbling up directly in front of me while I was trying to figure out my attack moves, wallowing around in a sort of repetitive AI manner. Once I had figured out how to use my weapon again, I came to realize that I wasn't at all afraid of these monsters — that they were more like enemy bodies waiting for aim than looming figures of impending doom.
Scare Tactics
Finally, Allen closed his presentation with a definition of Silent Hill's distinctly Japanese horror sensibility, citing that the use of subtle terror is key to delivering fear. Pairing once again with composer Akira Yamaoka, players can expect a unique and disturbing soundscape that will take advantage of surround sound while progressing through the game. This includes a uniquely composed soundtrack, as well as random and indeterminable sounds that appear and disappear with no source.
Allen then showed a sequence of Alex being wheeled down a dingy hospital corridor, strapped to a gurney towards an unknown destination. Frantically viewed from Alex's first person perspective, the screen rapidly cuts in between shots of the figure in blood-splattered scrubs that's pushing you and side views of passing by hospital rooms in which shadowed bodies are being dismembered and disposed. Mystery and confusion is plentiful in this instance, but had a very familiar feel as the sequence was almost identical to a scene from the movie Hostel.
Another unrelated scene followed, upon which Alex tiptoes into a dark basement filled with water. With the water occasionally bubbling as he slowly wades in, a seemingly placid patch of water suddenly reveals a split-face monster, à la the most westernized method of jack-in-the-box scare tactics. Thinking back to how Allen prefaced the definition of fear in earlier in his explanation, I couldn't help but wonder whether he was actually showing examples that met his ideology.
All in all, I left the Homecoming experience a bit mystified about what direction the game is actually headed in. While key elements such as the detailed and eerie atmosphere seem to carry over in proper fashion from previous Silent Hill games, elements like the crisp, focused combat and the occasional suprise attack scare that were demonstrated seem to cater Homecoming towards more Western ideals. One can only hope that these opposing details won't clash too greatly when playing through the entire game. What a scary thought that would be.
Excellent writing Collette. I'm so happy you're such a big SH fan. Even though it's not the happiest of first impressions, I still have lots of faith in the title! I mean...maybe the recipe calls for disaster, but maybe the clashing of ideals will result in something great.
My girlfriend feels for you Colette. She LOVES Silent Hill but the thing she hates most are American remakes of Japanese horror.
So, this one isn't looking too good to her.
This is looking more and more like a piece of shit. Ever since I saw the interview with the douches that are making this I lost interest.
Stupid fucking yanks, "Oh yeah man, we'll like beef up the combat system and stuff. No more running away in our Silent Hill lolz"
Chain attacks, dodging. What the fuck, this is Silent Hill not fucking Fight Night. These poo monkeys are just taking the name and slapping it on a Res Evil clone. It's supposed to be more psychological horror not an action game.
I too am worried about my Silent Hill. I'm slowly replaying #3 and even though I've been through it before and know what to expect, I still find myself taking a huge breath before running through an enemy filled corridor and then letting out a sigh of relief once I get to the next door.
I don't think its right to be supportive of crappy combat systems for the "sense of helplessness." When I heard the chainsaw rev up in RE 4, I always felt a sense of fear and I could see the enemies. Blame it on the enemy AI or on the ambience they're creating, but don't blame a lack of fear on the fact the game is trying to update it's extremely outdated combat system. I will be annoyed if weapons break again though.
I just hope they don't pull a RE. So far it looks like they're staying pretty close to the roots, and tightening up the combat. Time will tell, I suppose...
I LOVE YOU, TIFF! This is JUST what I needed! I had a shitty day today and this makes everything wonderful! A fog-covered, Yamaoka soundtrack driven wonderful!
While there is room for improvement in the control scheme, the inclusion of combos and making combat (close range no less) a big part of the game is a step in the wrong direction.
Have a look for the dev interviews. The people working on this new installment seem to have totally missed the point of the series. They're all "action action action, combat combat combat". Seems like they are trying to make something like RE4 but set in Silent Hill to me.
As a die hard Silent Hill fan I have to say this game is looking like absolute shit.... Also, do we really need nurses ripped straight from the terrible movie? I have a feeling this is just gonna be a fan service wank fest.
I haven't seen Hostel, but this sounds a LOT like Jacob's Ladder to me. It was a MASSIVE visual inspiration for he original, not to mention the main characters sound exactly alike. So...maybe a good thing to see again?
I think the combat shown in this is a bit of a problem. Silent Hill is about everything scaring the fuck out of you. When you can suddenly kick everythings ass, that ability to be scared diminishes, and makes enemies that can't be fought this way simply frustrating.
I think it is a much better idea to simply make every enemy terrifying in that fighting it should be hard, best avoided, and never pushed on you.
I really feel they've missed the ball with this one. The atmosphere is all wrong, monster design is mediocre, and whats with this combat system? (as many of my fellow toids mentioned before me) the whole reason the original silent hill's combat systems was so good, was because it installed a sense of hopelessness in the player. Each and every monster had the ability to turn you into a gory pulp and the only thing that could prevent that from happening was the rusty stub of a pipe your character nervously clutched in his hands. This guy, on the other hand, looks like hes some kind of cyborg Jesus. I wouldn't be surprised if the last cut scene in the game was our "hero" body slamming the pyramid head into submission, followed by a boisterous "M-M-M-MONSTER KILLLLL!!!!"
"I wouldn't be surprised if the last cut scene in the game was our "hero" body slamming the pyramid head into submission, followed by a boisterous "M-M-M-MONSTER KILLLLL!!!!"
That made me snort out loud.
I was thinking something similar, maybe they should rename this Streets of Silent Hill and call the main character Axel or Adam or summat.
I played Silent Hill 2 on medium, and the combat was so easy (although very clunky) that I had no trouble in killing any of the monsters once I got the lead pipe. It's the atmosphere that made it scary, not the crappy combat, so I, for one, am glad that they're making the combat better. As long as make the enemies really hard to kill, they keep those stupid skinless dogs to a minimum, and have a twisted, awesome story, this should be pretty good. Those dogs are the only enemy in this game that I've seen that looks out of place.
It's not the fact that they are overhauling the combat, it is the fact that they are making combat something that would better fit in a fighter.
If you can't see that melee combo attacks, dodges etc. have no place in Silent Hill then you can't be that familiar with the type of games they are (were).
I wish it wasn't so, but it seems to me that Silent Hill 3 was the last great Silent Hill game. I was excited for SH5, because I figured they couldn't do any worse than what they did with 4. The only way to go from the bottom is up right? I'm apparently wrong, and that's sad.
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Maybe I've seen the last of the SH that I really love.