Silent Hill: Homecoming... It's been seen as a sort of black sheep amongst its sister games since its release in 2008. It's gained a reputation as a convoluted, poorly made stain on a generally well received series. Does its reputation proceed it? Does it live up to the hype as a terrible game? Honestly... No, I really don't think so. Put down your great knife, Silent Hill fans, I'm going to explain.
(SPOILERS! SPOILERS! Oh god, spoilers all up in here! We're discussing the game in its entirety here, if you don't want the game spoiled for you, you may want to read on. We may be discussing a few other games in the series, but with less detail. Just understand that spoilers are inevitable, read at your own risk. By the way, thanks for the spotlight, guys.)
So, Homecoming... What's it about? For those of you haven't played this supposed stinker, it began development around '04 as Silent Hill V, despite being the sixth main entry in the series. (Origins being the fifth) It was the second game to be developed by a western studio, Double Helix Games. Composer Akira Yamaoka began dropping hints about the game, dismissing the claims about its supposed subtitles, pointing out that it may not end up as Silent Hill V at all. Eventually, the game was finished and released for the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 in 2008. It was met with average to above-average reviews, but immense hatred from fans of the series.
The story feels a little odd to me, honestly. In some ways, it feels like a bizarre mash up of Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2, and we'll get to that later. To sum it all up, you're a soldier named Alex Shepherd. The game opens with a nightmare that, hilariously enough, feels ripped right out of Jacob's Ladder. While exploring a hellish infirmary, Alex comes across his younger brother, Joshua. After a few puzzles, a fetch quest, and a trip to what appears to be the Otherworld of Silent Hill, Alex wakes up from his nightmare and the story begins proper...
Why hello there, Travis!
Apparently Silent Hill characters like to car pool, as Alex has been hitching a ride with Origins' star Travis Grady, offering a little closure Travis's story. Alex is dropped off in his hometown, Shepherd's Glen. Coincidentally, Shepherd's Glen just happens to a neighboring town of, you guessed it... Silent Hill. The town has gone to Hell. Fog covers the streets, stores and homes are boarded up and abandoned, and the few people left are shocked to see Alex. What happened? Where is everyone? More importantly, where's Josh? You start your investigation by heading to your house to speak with your parents.
Speaking to your mother, you notice something's off. Your mom is sitting alone, no lights on, eerily rocking in an old creaky chair barely aware of your presence. You ask her about your dad and Joshua, and all she says is "I miss your brother, Alex..." This is a recurring theme that gives you a bit of foreshadowing for the one oddly predicable plot point revealed later in the game - no one responds to you directly when you ask about Josh or your past. There's a good reason for this, and we'll get to it later. For now, though, Alex notices the gun in his mother's lap and, not getting the best feeling about the distraught woman carrying a fire arm, takes it form her. Then he notices that her dress is wet, and there are wet footprints coming from the basement. He asks what happened, and she only replies with "the basement..."
Once in the basement, we see our first monster - The Lurker. I've seen quite a few examinations of this creature, and my favorite involves a huge spoiler, so we'll come back to that. You kill the Lurker, travel around in search of gas for a pump to drain the flooded basement. Here we get a look at one of the more subtle moments in the game that people simply ignore. As you quickly learn, this was your father's space. There's a large piece of plastic blocking your entry into the room adjacent to the room where he would dress the animals he had killed while hunting, and we get a rather ominous flashback about this. But before you cut this plastic, take a good look at it. You'll notice the silhouette of Alex's dad, Adam, standing in your way. Slice the plastic and it's revealed to be a dismembered mannequin. With that done, Alex takes to the streets to look for information regarding Josh and his father.
A closer look at the Lurker
Now, I can't provide a play by play examination for the entire game, so now that the opening is out of the way, I'll just start summarizing the more important moments. Let's start with my favorite aspect, the bosses...
Now, I can't really analyze these monstrosities without getting a little back story. You see, Shepherd's Glen was founded by a group of Silent Hill residents, and members of The Order, who wanted to escape the town. To keep its evil aura from reaching their new home, the founding families - Shepherd, Fitch, Bartlett, and Holloway - must sacrifice a child of their family every fifty years to please the god of The Order.
The bosses in Silent Hill: Homecoming are the monstrous manifestations of the latest batch of sacrifices. Their forms represent their interests in life as well as their cause of death. While I personally find the overall story of the game interesting enough, its this aspect that kept me playing. You learn more about the children as you collect photographs from Josh's collection scattered across Shepherd's Glen and, later, Silent Hill. These photographs give you a chance to learn about these kids, the relationship with their parents, and, worst of all, the things that may shape their appearance once you finally meet them face to face.
The first child was Joey Bartlett. According to his photo, he and Josh were known to play around in their tree house. He had a love of plant life, and when it was once again time for the sacrifice, the mayor of Shepherd's Glen, Sam Bartlett, took him to Silent Hill and buried him alive in the greenhouse. When the manifestation of Joey appears, it attacks and kills Mayor Bartlett - either for revenge, or because Bartlett's own guilt had summoned it.
This creature is known as Sepulcher, and its appearance is that of a body fused to a tree-like trunk. Its mouth seems to be clogged with dirt or a root-like growth. This is Joey - a plant loving, tree climbing kid who felt at home among dirt and flora, buried alive at nine years old. This is what I love about the bosses. They're so intricately designed, but their symbolic nature is simultaneously simple and complex. If you hadn't found the photographs up to this point, you may only partially understand Sepulcher's design, namely his representation of Joey's death.
We also get to see how the parents have been effected by this sacrifice. After Joey's death, Mayor Bartlett became a bit of an alcoholic and spent his days digging up the graves in the Shepherd's Glen cemetery. He clearly felt guilty about what he had done, and unearthing other corpses was his way of dealing with his guilt. When we see him in the green house, he reveals a bit of information in his drunken ramblings. He had given Joey a great life before his sacrifice. He mentions giving him every gift he possibly could, and this is another recurring theme we'll explore later. But he isn't the only guilty party here, let's move on to the Fitch family...
Scarlet Fitch was a young girl seemingly obsessed with dolls. Like Joey, Scarlet's father, Dr. Martin Fitch, tried his best to give her a perfect childhood, supplying her with constant love and a steady supply of the dolls she loved so much. Scarlet lived a good life, but when it was his turn to sacrifice his beloved daughter, Fitch had no choice but to comply or risk the town's safety.
He dismembered Scarlet with a scalpel and, as punishment for himself, began cutting himself constantly. Notes scattered around Fitch's home indicate that he was seeking help for his depression but had recently missed several appointments. He seems to be the only guilt ridden parent that did try to move on after the sacrifice.
When you find Fitch in the Otherworld, he begins pouring blood from his old wounds, and in a bit ripped right out of Eraserhead (And believe me, it hurts making that connection), the doll Alex had brought to him falls into his pooling blood and slowly sinks into it. Scarlet's manifestation emerges. Fitch tries to apologize and stress the fact that he's sorry and feels guilty about his actions. For a moment, she does hold him like her doll as if she forgives him, but then she feels the need to punish him for his actions and stretches her mouth open wide to snap his head off, tossing his beheaded body to the side.
As said, Scarlet was obsessed with dolls. Her photograph points out that she never came outside to play with the other kids, choosing to isolate herself with her dolls instead. On the surface, that's about the only thing influencing her monstrous appearance. But take a closer look at her limbs. While jointed like her beloved dolls, they also represent her dismemberment. The joints represent the points at which Fitch cut her, and applying this twisted image to the girl herself makes this boss more disturbing than it already was. But that isn't all Fitch's story has to offer...
Much like Adam's shadow in the basement, this detail was outright ignored. It's nothing significant, mind you, but it is rather creepy. Examine the bed in Scarlet's room when you're exploring the Fitch residence. You're able to see a shadow or imprint of scarlet's body. For all the claims about Homecoming lacking subtle scares, there sure are a lot of eerie moments that you could just walk right by without noticing, huh? Anyway, it's time for the Holloway family...
The Holloways had to sacrifice their child through strangulation, and this boss purely embodies that in every way possible, right down to the name - Asphyxia. As in, asphyxiation. In life, Nora Holloway was a bit of a bookworm - no pun intended. While Joey and Josh were playing outside and Scarlet was with her dolls, Nora was holed up in her room studying and reading. Her favorite book was Alice in Wonderland, according to Josh's photograph. Josh comments that she loved the caterpillar character, and this fact is reflected quite brutally in her appearance.
Nora wasn't given the pampered life that Joey and Scarlet were, but no notes or documents point to her living a poor life, either, despite her mother's later actions. Her oldest daughter, Elle, was passed over for the sacrifice for reasons unknown. When the time for sacrifice came, as said above, her mother strangled her with her bare hands.
While the other parents felt guilty about their actions, judge Margaret Holloway showed no remorse in killing her daughter. In fact, Judge Holloway ends up becoming the major human antagonist of the game, attempting to kill Alex personally at one point and having her other daughter, Elle, packed off to be killed by another Order member. Alex intervenes, of course, and the satisfaction of bringing this loon down belongs to Alex rather than Nora. But that didn't stop her from trying - Asphyxia did go after Margaret before her boss battle, but Alex, not knowing about Holloway's actions behind the scenes, saves her.
In another bit of subtle foreshadowing, when Alex is exploring the hospital in the beginning of the game (Said to be Alchemilla), he comes across an X-ray of a human head with a spike driven into it from the chin. When Alex finishes off Holloway, he does so by turning her power drill on her and ramming it into skull through her chin and jaw.
Nora's manifestation takes the form of a caterpillar-like creature composed of human body parts linked together in a chain. It has no feet, only hands, putting an emphasis on the fact that she was strangled. An extra set of hands jutting from its shoulders constantly cups is mouth or grasps at its neck, driving the point home. This is, without a doubt, one of the most disturbing monsters I've ever seen in a video game. Period. But maybe that's just me. Things get a bit complicated with the Shepherd family, so try not to get lost...
This boy is the illusive Joshua Shepherd. He's nine years old, loves photography and insects, and seems to idolize his older brother Alex despite his constant teasing. One night, his father called to him and said he needed to show him something. He handed him a ring and told him that it's a priceless family heirloom held by him, his father, his grandfather, and so on. He can keep the ring now on one condition - he doesn't tell anyone, and that includes his brother.
One night, Alex wakes him up to go out onto Toluca Lake in their dad's boat. It seems like Alex just wanted to give him a bit of a scare, but what started as innocent teasing quickly turns dangerous when Josh decides to show his brother up by flaunting his new gift. Alex snatches the ring and taunts him with it. Josh starts to pull on the chain attached to the ring in an attempt to reclaim it, but when Alex lets go, he stumbles off the boat, snapping his neck and sinking into the lake. This also accounts for the Lurker's supposed mermaid-like appearance.
Alex's father manages to get out to the lake quick enough to find his son's body, and Alex doesn't quite understand the gravity of the situation. Josh is dead. Here's the problem... Joshua wasn't meant to be the sacrifice for the Shepherd family. Alex was chosen before Josh was even born, and with Josh dead, Adam can't go through with his sacrifice. Alex had a breakdown and lost his mind. Adam couldn't kill him, so he shipped him out to Silent Hill for treatment at Alchemilla Hospital.
Alex was never wounded in battle, he was never even a soldier. The jacket and dog tags he's wearing? They belong to his father, who was a decorated war veteran. No one could answer your questions about Josh because the few who knew about his fate knew that he was dead, and no one mentioned your past because they either thought you really were in the military (Supposedly because Adam spread this story to the kids and people who weren't in the Order, though I don't agree with this theory), or they knew where you really were all this time. In fact, when you talk with Kurtis Ackers early in the game, he says something along the lines of "hey, weren't you... Nevermind." hinting that some people did know about Alex's treatment and decided not to explain. The final boss is rather interesting, but before we get to that, let's talk about the Shepherd family a bit more...
When exploring the Shepherd home during one of your several visits, take a look at all the pictures hanging around. Notice anything odd? There isn't a single one featuring Alex. There's a reason for this, and it plays an integral role in the plot. Rather than trying to give his sacrificial offspring a perfect or even normal life, Adam Shepherd decided to completely neglect his son to make the sacrifice easier on himself and his wife, Lillian. This is expanded upon when you meet Adam in the church toward the end of the game.
You first run into him in a confessional booth. He doesn't realize who's on the other side, and he tells his story. The player is given a choice here - either they allow Alex to forgive his father or condemn him for what he had done. This decision will impact the ending received, and since we don't quite know which ending is canon at this point, we'll go with the good ending. Alex comes across Adam tied down later on in the church. He drops the bomb on Alex and explains his past actions, assuring him that he did love him as much as Josh, but couldn't allow himself to show that love.
Here, it's explained why Alex immediately turned to the soldier persona when he cracked. "I'm a soldier, like you always wanted." Adam may've loved him, but Alex didn't know it. He was raised on hatred, and that bred a hatred of his father. When he finally snapped, he tried to appeal to his father by emulating him - he became a soldier in his own mind, hoping to help people like Josh and win his father's love as a soldier. Unfortunately, as the two are coming to an understanding, a certain creature appears to punish his father for his misdeeds - either due to his attitude toward Alex, or his failure to complete the ritual. I won't reveal this creature for a little while, though. He'll come up when we discuss the complaints people have with the game.
That said, there's another small bit that people failed to notice here. Like basically every other major even in the story, Adam's death is foreshadowed earlier in the game. During the opening where Alex is being wheeled through the hellish infirmary, the doctor pushing him actually uses the same model as Adam. Just before you wake up, when this doctor leaves the room, you see him stop in front of a window and the weapon the aforementioned creature uses kills him in the same way Adam dies later.
In another emotional scene, Alex is given the chance to give his mother a release from her psychological and physical pain. You come across Lillian on a rack-like device later in the game. As it slowly stretches her beyond her limits, she pleads to Alex, asking him to finish her before the contraption rips her in two. For the good ending, you end her suffering and get a rather emotional scene. With all that out of the way, let's look at the final boss. I'm warning you, this thing is just plain disgusting...
This... Thing... Is known as Amnion. While it may look like a jumbled mess at first, analyzing its individual parts will make its symbolic nature much easier to grasp. As I said, Josh had a love for insects, as evidenced by his bug collection in the Shepherd home. As such, Amnion has eight spider-like legs.
Once again, this aspect of the fight was foreshadowed through one of Josh's photographs. In the part toward the beginning of the game, you'll find a picture of a toy soldier posed as if fighting the spider seen in frame with it. Probably the least subtle of the photograph hints, but if you didn't have an epiphany upon seeing Amnion's spider-like appendages coming at your soldier-like avatar... You probably didn't find the picture.
Beyond the legs, Amnion also has a strange, telescoping neck. This is said to represent the lens of Joshua's camera, which telescoped in and out when focusing. The fact that it disconnects Amnion's head from its shoulders may also represent his broken neck. Finally, there's the strange tube connected to its mouth and body. This supposedly represents Josh's drowning, as it's said to be a tube constantly sending water or God-knows-what liquid through its body.
On a more creepy note, the name is said to refer to the amniotic sack that covers a fetus in the womb, and that may mean that the aforementioned tube symbolizes an umbilical cord. This may sound far fetched, but childbirth is actually a very strong recurring theme in the game. Many monsters, the Lurker in particular, have features that evoke vaginal imagery, and the countless fleshy roadblocks Alex encounters in his adventures invoke rather disturbing images of birth when he slices them down the middle and crawls through them.
To drive this point home, when Alex finishes Amnion off, he cuts its bloated belly open in a way reminiscent of a cesarean section procedure and Josh's corpse slides out. Alex says his goodbyes, asks his brother for forgiveness and leaves Silent Hill with Elle. (And the cop, Wheeler, depending on whether or not you save him.)
"What'd you see down there, Alex?"
"What I needed to..."
With that, the game ends. We aren't done, though! Oh, no. Now we're going to address some specific complaints with the games, and I'm going to try my best to weigh in on these complaints without coming off as a bit of an ass. First of all, let me say that I have no issues with people disliking this game, I understand that it's not for everyone. Let me also point out that some of these complaints come from a few internet personalities whom I respect and whose work I do enjoy. I won't point fingers out of respect, but any viewer of Channel Awesome's few remaining talented, humble posters will instantly know who they are. That said, let's get to work...
(SPOILERS! SPOILERS! Oh god, spoilers all up in here! We're discussing the game in its entirety here, if you don't want the game spoiled for you, you may want to read on. We may be discussing a few other games in the series, but with less detail. Just understand that spoilers are inevitable, read at your own risk. By the way, thanks for the spotlight, guys.)
So, Homecoming... What's it about? For those of you haven't played this supposed stinker, it began development around '04 as Silent Hill V, despite being the sixth main entry in the series. (Origins being the fifth) It was the second game to be developed by a western studio, Double Helix Games. Composer Akira Yamaoka began dropping hints about the game, dismissing the claims about its supposed subtitles, pointing out that it may not end up as Silent Hill V at all. Eventually, the game was finished and released for the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 in 2008. It was met with average to above-average reviews, but immense hatred from fans of the series.
The story feels a little odd to me, honestly. In some ways, it feels like a bizarre mash up of Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2, and we'll get to that later. To sum it all up, you're a soldier named Alex Shepherd. The game opens with a nightmare that, hilariously enough, feels ripped right out of Jacob's Ladder. While exploring a hellish infirmary, Alex comes across his younger brother, Joshua. After a few puzzles, a fetch quest, and a trip to what appears to be the Otherworld of Silent Hill, Alex wakes up from his nightmare and the story begins proper...
Why hello there, Travis!
Apparently Silent Hill characters like to car pool, as Alex has been hitching a ride with Origins' star Travis Grady, offering a little closure Travis's story. Alex is dropped off in his hometown, Shepherd's Glen. Coincidentally, Shepherd's Glen just happens to a neighboring town of, you guessed it... Silent Hill. The town has gone to Hell. Fog covers the streets, stores and homes are boarded up and abandoned, and the few people left are shocked to see Alex. What happened? Where is everyone? More importantly, where's Josh? You start your investigation by heading to your house to speak with your parents.
Speaking to your mother, you notice something's off. Your mom is sitting alone, no lights on, eerily rocking in an old creaky chair barely aware of your presence. You ask her about your dad and Joshua, and all she says is "I miss your brother, Alex..." This is a recurring theme that gives you a bit of foreshadowing for the one oddly predicable plot point revealed later in the game - no one responds to you directly when you ask about Josh or your past. There's a good reason for this, and we'll get to it later. For now, though, Alex notices the gun in his mother's lap and, not getting the best feeling about the distraught woman carrying a fire arm, takes it form her. Then he notices that her dress is wet, and there are wet footprints coming from the basement. He asks what happened, and she only replies with "the basement..."
Once in the basement, we see our first monster - The Lurker. I've seen quite a few examinations of this creature, and my favorite involves a huge spoiler, so we'll come back to that. You kill the Lurker, travel around in search of gas for a pump to drain the flooded basement. Here we get a look at one of the more subtle moments in the game that people simply ignore. As you quickly learn, this was your father's space. There's a large piece of plastic blocking your entry into the room adjacent to the room where he would dress the animals he had killed while hunting, and we get a rather ominous flashback about this. But before you cut this plastic, take a good look at it. You'll notice the silhouette of Alex's dad, Adam, standing in your way. Slice the plastic and it's revealed to be a dismembered mannequin. With that done, Alex takes to the streets to look for information regarding Josh and his father.
A closer look at the Lurker
Now, I can't provide a play by play examination for the entire game, so now that the opening is out of the way, I'll just start summarizing the more important moments. Let's start with my favorite aspect, the bosses...
Now, I can't really analyze these monstrosities without getting a little back story. You see, Shepherd's Glen was founded by a group of Silent Hill residents, and members of The Order, who wanted to escape the town. To keep its evil aura from reaching their new home, the founding families - Shepherd, Fitch, Bartlett, and Holloway - must sacrifice a child of their family every fifty years to please the god of The Order.
- The Bartlett family must bury their child alive.
- The Fitch family must dismember their child.
- The Holloway family must strangle their child.
- The Shepherd family must drown their child.
The bosses in Silent Hill: Homecoming are the monstrous manifestations of the latest batch of sacrifices. Their forms represent their interests in life as well as their cause of death. While I personally find the overall story of the game interesting enough, its this aspect that kept me playing. You learn more about the children as you collect photographs from Josh's collection scattered across Shepherd's Glen and, later, Silent Hill. These photographs give you a chance to learn about these kids, the relationship with their parents, and, worst of all, the things that may shape their appearance once you finally meet them face to face.
The first child was Joey Bartlett. According to his photo, he and Josh were known to play around in their tree house. He had a love of plant life, and when it was once again time for the sacrifice, the mayor of Shepherd's Glen, Sam Bartlett, took him to Silent Hill and buried him alive in the greenhouse. When the manifestation of Joey appears, it attacks and kills Mayor Bartlett - either for revenge, or because Bartlett's own guilt had summoned it.
This creature is known as Sepulcher, and its appearance is that of a body fused to a tree-like trunk. Its mouth seems to be clogged with dirt or a root-like growth. This is Joey - a plant loving, tree climbing kid who felt at home among dirt and flora, buried alive at nine years old. This is what I love about the bosses. They're so intricately designed, but their symbolic nature is simultaneously simple and complex. If you hadn't found the photographs up to this point, you may only partially understand Sepulcher's design, namely his representation of Joey's death.
We also get to see how the parents have been effected by this sacrifice. After Joey's death, Mayor Bartlett became a bit of an alcoholic and spent his days digging up the graves in the Shepherd's Glen cemetery. He clearly felt guilty about what he had done, and unearthing other corpses was his way of dealing with his guilt. When we see him in the green house, he reveals a bit of information in his drunken ramblings. He had given Joey a great life before his sacrifice. He mentions giving him every gift he possibly could, and this is another recurring theme we'll explore later. But he isn't the only guilty party here, let's move on to the Fitch family...
Scarlet Fitch was a young girl seemingly obsessed with dolls. Like Joey, Scarlet's father, Dr. Martin Fitch, tried his best to give her a perfect childhood, supplying her with constant love and a steady supply of the dolls she loved so much. Scarlet lived a good life, but when it was his turn to sacrifice his beloved daughter, Fitch had no choice but to comply or risk the town's safety.
He dismembered Scarlet with a scalpel and, as punishment for himself, began cutting himself constantly. Notes scattered around Fitch's home indicate that he was seeking help for his depression but had recently missed several appointments. He seems to be the only guilt ridden parent that did try to move on after the sacrifice.
When you find Fitch in the Otherworld, he begins pouring blood from his old wounds, and in a bit ripped right out of Eraserhead (And believe me, it hurts making that connection), the doll Alex had brought to him falls into his pooling blood and slowly sinks into it. Scarlet's manifestation emerges. Fitch tries to apologize and stress the fact that he's sorry and feels guilty about his actions. For a moment, she does hold him like her doll as if she forgives him, but then she feels the need to punish him for his actions and stretches her mouth open wide to snap his head off, tossing his beheaded body to the side.
As said, Scarlet was obsessed with dolls. Her photograph points out that she never came outside to play with the other kids, choosing to isolate herself with her dolls instead. On the surface, that's about the only thing influencing her monstrous appearance. But take a closer look at her limbs. While jointed like her beloved dolls, they also represent her dismemberment. The joints represent the points at which Fitch cut her, and applying this twisted image to the girl herself makes this boss more disturbing than it already was. But that isn't all Fitch's story has to offer...
Much like Adam's shadow in the basement, this detail was outright ignored. It's nothing significant, mind you, but it is rather creepy. Examine the bed in Scarlet's room when you're exploring the Fitch residence. You're able to see a shadow or imprint of scarlet's body. For all the claims about Homecoming lacking subtle scares, there sure are a lot of eerie moments that you could just walk right by without noticing, huh? Anyway, it's time for the Holloway family...
The Holloways had to sacrifice their child through strangulation, and this boss purely embodies that in every way possible, right down to the name - Asphyxia. As in, asphyxiation. In life, Nora Holloway was a bit of a bookworm - no pun intended. While Joey and Josh were playing outside and Scarlet was with her dolls, Nora was holed up in her room studying and reading. Her favorite book was Alice in Wonderland, according to Josh's photograph. Josh comments that she loved the caterpillar character, and this fact is reflected quite brutally in her appearance.
Nora wasn't given the pampered life that Joey and Scarlet were, but no notes or documents point to her living a poor life, either, despite her mother's later actions. Her oldest daughter, Elle, was passed over for the sacrifice for reasons unknown. When the time for sacrifice came, as said above, her mother strangled her with her bare hands.
While the other parents felt guilty about their actions, judge Margaret Holloway showed no remorse in killing her daughter. In fact, Judge Holloway ends up becoming the major human antagonist of the game, attempting to kill Alex personally at one point and having her other daughter, Elle, packed off to be killed by another Order member. Alex intervenes, of course, and the satisfaction of bringing this loon down belongs to Alex rather than Nora. But that didn't stop her from trying - Asphyxia did go after Margaret before her boss battle, but Alex, not knowing about Holloway's actions behind the scenes, saves her.
In another bit of subtle foreshadowing, when Alex is exploring the hospital in the beginning of the game (Said to be Alchemilla), he comes across an X-ray of a human head with a spike driven into it from the chin. When Alex finishes off Holloway, he does so by turning her power drill on her and ramming it into skull through her chin and jaw.
Nora's manifestation takes the form of a caterpillar-like creature composed of human body parts linked together in a chain. It has no feet, only hands, putting an emphasis on the fact that she was strangled. An extra set of hands jutting from its shoulders constantly cups is mouth or grasps at its neck, driving the point home. This is, without a doubt, one of the most disturbing monsters I've ever seen in a video game. Period. But maybe that's just me. Things get a bit complicated with the Shepherd family, so try not to get lost...
This boy is the illusive Joshua Shepherd. He's nine years old, loves photography and insects, and seems to idolize his older brother Alex despite his constant teasing. One night, his father called to him and said he needed to show him something. He handed him a ring and told him that it's a priceless family heirloom held by him, his father, his grandfather, and so on. He can keep the ring now on one condition - he doesn't tell anyone, and that includes his brother.
One night, Alex wakes him up to go out onto Toluca Lake in their dad's boat. It seems like Alex just wanted to give him a bit of a scare, but what started as innocent teasing quickly turns dangerous when Josh decides to show his brother up by flaunting his new gift. Alex snatches the ring and taunts him with it. Josh starts to pull on the chain attached to the ring in an attempt to reclaim it, but when Alex lets go, he stumbles off the boat, snapping his neck and sinking into the lake. This also accounts for the Lurker's supposed mermaid-like appearance.
Alex's father manages to get out to the lake quick enough to find his son's body, and Alex doesn't quite understand the gravity of the situation. Josh is dead. Here's the problem... Joshua wasn't meant to be the sacrifice for the Shepherd family. Alex was chosen before Josh was even born, and with Josh dead, Adam can't go through with his sacrifice. Alex had a breakdown and lost his mind. Adam couldn't kill him, so he shipped him out to Silent Hill for treatment at Alchemilla Hospital.
Alex was never wounded in battle, he was never even a soldier. The jacket and dog tags he's wearing? They belong to his father, who was a decorated war veteran. No one could answer your questions about Josh because the few who knew about his fate knew that he was dead, and no one mentioned your past because they either thought you really were in the military (Supposedly because Adam spread this story to the kids and people who weren't in the Order, though I don't agree with this theory), or they knew where you really were all this time. In fact, when you talk with Kurtis Ackers early in the game, he says something along the lines of "hey, weren't you... Nevermind." hinting that some people did know about Alex's treatment and decided not to explain. The final boss is rather interesting, but before we get to that, let's talk about the Shepherd family a bit more...
When exploring the Shepherd home during one of your several visits, take a look at all the pictures hanging around. Notice anything odd? There isn't a single one featuring Alex. There's a reason for this, and it plays an integral role in the plot. Rather than trying to give his sacrificial offspring a perfect or even normal life, Adam Shepherd decided to completely neglect his son to make the sacrifice easier on himself and his wife, Lillian. This is expanded upon when you meet Adam in the church toward the end of the game.
You first run into him in a confessional booth. He doesn't realize who's on the other side, and he tells his story. The player is given a choice here - either they allow Alex to forgive his father or condemn him for what he had done. This decision will impact the ending received, and since we don't quite know which ending is canon at this point, we'll go with the good ending. Alex comes across Adam tied down later on in the church. He drops the bomb on Alex and explains his past actions, assuring him that he did love him as much as Josh, but couldn't allow himself to show that love.
Here, it's explained why Alex immediately turned to the soldier persona when he cracked. "I'm a soldier, like you always wanted." Adam may've loved him, but Alex didn't know it. He was raised on hatred, and that bred a hatred of his father. When he finally snapped, he tried to appeal to his father by emulating him - he became a soldier in his own mind, hoping to help people like Josh and win his father's love as a soldier. Unfortunately, as the two are coming to an understanding, a certain creature appears to punish his father for his misdeeds - either due to his attitude toward Alex, or his failure to complete the ritual. I won't reveal this creature for a little while, though. He'll come up when we discuss the complaints people have with the game.
That said, there's another small bit that people failed to notice here. Like basically every other major even in the story, Adam's death is foreshadowed earlier in the game. During the opening where Alex is being wheeled through the hellish infirmary, the doctor pushing him actually uses the same model as Adam. Just before you wake up, when this doctor leaves the room, you see him stop in front of a window and the weapon the aforementioned creature uses kills him in the same way Adam dies later.
In another emotional scene, Alex is given the chance to give his mother a release from her psychological and physical pain. You come across Lillian on a rack-like device later in the game. As it slowly stretches her beyond her limits, she pleads to Alex, asking him to finish her before the contraption rips her in two. For the good ending, you end her suffering and get a rather emotional scene. With all that out of the way, let's look at the final boss. I'm warning you, this thing is just plain disgusting...
This... Thing... Is known as Amnion. While it may look like a jumbled mess at first, analyzing its individual parts will make its symbolic nature much easier to grasp. As I said, Josh had a love for insects, as evidenced by his bug collection in the Shepherd home. As such, Amnion has eight spider-like legs.
Once again, this aspect of the fight was foreshadowed through one of Josh's photographs. In the part toward the beginning of the game, you'll find a picture of a toy soldier posed as if fighting the spider seen in frame with it. Probably the least subtle of the photograph hints, but if you didn't have an epiphany upon seeing Amnion's spider-like appendages coming at your soldier-like avatar... You probably didn't find the picture.
Beyond the legs, Amnion also has a strange, telescoping neck. This is said to represent the lens of Joshua's camera, which telescoped in and out when focusing. The fact that it disconnects Amnion's head from its shoulders may also represent his broken neck. Finally, there's the strange tube connected to its mouth and body. This supposedly represents Josh's drowning, as it's said to be a tube constantly sending water or God-knows-what liquid through its body.
On a more creepy note, the name is said to refer to the amniotic sack that covers a fetus in the womb, and that may mean that the aforementioned tube symbolizes an umbilical cord. This may sound far fetched, but childbirth is actually a very strong recurring theme in the game. Many monsters, the Lurker in particular, have features that evoke vaginal imagery, and the countless fleshy roadblocks Alex encounters in his adventures invoke rather disturbing images of birth when he slices them down the middle and crawls through them.
To drive this point home, when Alex finishes Amnion off, he cuts its bloated belly open in a way reminiscent of a cesarean section procedure and Josh's corpse slides out. Alex says his goodbyes, asks his brother for forgiveness and leaves Silent Hill with Elle. (And the cop, Wheeler, depending on whether or not you save him.)
"What'd you see down there, Alex?"
"What I needed to..."
With that, the game ends. We aren't done, though! Oh, no. Now we're going to address some specific complaints with the games, and I'm going to try my best to weigh in on these complaints without coming off as a bit of an ass. First of all, let me say that I have no issues with people disliking this game, I understand that it's not for everyone. Let me also point out that some of these complaints come from a few internet personalities whom I respect and whose work I do enjoy. I won't point fingers out of respect, but any viewer of Channel Awesome's few remaining talented, humble posters will instantly know who they are. That said, let's get to work...
It Borrows From the Movie...
Y'know what? Homecoming does borrow from the movie, I'm not here to argue otherwise. What I want to know is... Why is this a bad thing? Yes, the movie butchered the first game's story, that goes without saying. But can you really argue that the movie got the visuals wrong? The transition to the Otherworld is absolutely amazing. Seeing the real world flake off to expose the rust covered, fleshy Otherworld is just plain creepy.
A few enemies fell into this argument, too. Most notably the nurses. The nurse's designs are ripped right out of the movie, which were straight from Silent Hill 2, disregarding the bubble head design. While I agree that this was an odd choice, it was justified, and it does make sense. Let's take a look at the nurses, as well as an excerpt from Alex's diary, which was published in blog form as a promotion for the game before its release... (Hey, if people bring up the Book of Lost Memories all the time, I can bring in an outside source, too. )
August 25
The food here is terrible. My bed is stiff. There's only one thing that makes it bearable: The nurses.
These girls are incredible. They have these pristine white uniforms cut right above the knee, their breasts spilling out from their shirts. Look, I don't want to sound like a dirtbag or anything, I'm just saying I appreciate the military providing us with this one thing to brighten our days. Maybe it's sort of like payback for getting us stuck in this place to begin with. I don't know. All I can say is, “thank you.”
Now, I've had an argument about this. As stated before, Alex was never really in a war, he never really came in contact with any military nurses. However, he was hospitalized for quite a while. To me, this was Alex's twisted view of the nurses who were caring for him at the hospital. That seems to be the most accepted theory. He makes mention of their breasts and skimpy outfits, and that's obviously what influences their sexual appearance. By the way, the pregnancy imagery? Shine a flashlight onto one of them. In the right light, you can see a fetus' silhouette on their belly. Subtle, but it makes perfect sense in context.
Next up are the cult soldiers who appear later in the game. Though the designs are largely different, they do wear mining gear similar to the cult members in the film. However, you have to keep in mind that these aren't residents of Silent Hill, these are people from Shepherd's Glen, including Curtis from earlier in the game. Supposedly, the Order's gods give some protection to the cult members in the Otherworld, which would explain why Dahlia was there in the original toward the end without being directly attacked, and this has happened with other members throughout the series. But the entire plot of Homecoming revolves around sacrifices to keep the town safe. From what I understand, the equipment is used as a sort of "armor" to protect the now unsafe Order members of Shepherd's Glen safe when traversing the Otherworld. Speaking of the Order Soldiers... Can we stop complaining about Alex killing humans? Remember that poor schmuck, Eddie? The guy who couldn't even defend himself after he ran out of ammo?
It's Just Too Western and Too Violent
This is one complaint that just gets under my skin. Partly because I'm a fan of horror in general, whether it's from the US, Spain, Japan, Canada, the Moon, whatever. When people claim that the western world doesn't understand horror, they're not only ignoring countless great horror movies, they're ignoring Silent Hill's greatest inspiration...
So, how about that Jacob's Ladder? Y'know, that one film that's the known inspiration for much of Silent Hill's imagery, plot, twists (And that goes double here), and general vibe. Yeah, that was directed by Adrian Lyne, an English born director. Hell, Jacob's Ladder practically invented that creepy, high speed head bobble that the monsters in Silent Hill are known for. On top of that, next time you're playing, take a look at a map of Silent Hill or Shepherd's Glen... Notice how all the streets are named after famous names in western horror - Barker, King, Kubrick, etc. My point is, the series has always had a strong western influence. Homecoming is no more western than any other entry in the series.
As for the violence... Do I even need to go into that? Silent Hill has had bodies wrapped in barbed wire suspended from walls, violent rape of monsters by bigger monsters, grilled dogs, coughed up fetuses and more. And let's not forget the insanely violent deaths in Silent Hill 4. I still feel sorry for old Braintree... The series has been plenty violent from its inception, and I hope that never changes. No, I know what people are referring to here.
The scene with Judge Holloway's death toward the end of the game is often compared to Hostel or Saw due to the graphic nature and focus on torture. For all I know, the writers may've been influenced by said films, but to me, this scene is a standard torture scene. It's Holloway and Curtis trying to punish Alex, Elle, and other residents of the city. Regardless of whether it was truly inspired by these movies, I have to ask... Does this three second scene really justify damning the entire game? I don't think so.
Pyramid Head!
Yep, that monster I mentioned in Adam's section was, indeed, Pyramid Head. Or, to be more accurate, the Bogeyman, as he's known in Homecoming. Honestly, I agree with the opposition on this point. Really, he's just fanservice. Unlike the nurses, I can't really see any reason for him to be here beyond the fact that people seem to like him quite a bit. But though I disagree with many theories on Pyramid Head's appearance here, it's unfair for me to ignore the theories people have come up with to explain it...
One theory revolves around one of the Child's Drawings collectables. One mentions that something - a creature - is taking the residents of Shepherd's Glen. This could mean that Pyramid Head is a punisher in general, punishing Shepherd's Glen for failing to complete the ritual. This makes sense, considering Pyramid Head's origins are based on the executioners of Silent Hill's past. The people of this town are descendants of Silent Hill dwellers, there's a very strong chance that they saw the same painting of the executioner that James had seen. Makes sense to me.
Another theory is that he's the manifestation of Alex's hatred of his father, which we detailed above. Others say that he may be Adam's personal punishment, a manifestation of his guilt over his treatment of Alex. Again, this could make sense, as Adam has a history in Silent Hill and hides out there for the entirety of the game. Justified or not, I do understand the complaint here. Though he has been in other - seemingly canon - material like a comic packaged with the Silent Hill Origins soundtrack, he is the iconic monster of Silent Hill 2. But despite his iconic status, he could very well be a creature of the town itself, similar to Valtiel. It's obvious that some entities within Silent Hill are creatures all to themselves rather than manifestations of one particular person's guilt, anger, etc. Pyramid Head could be a sentient entity that punishes those who step out against the cult or impede the town.
I won't argue that Pyramid Head isn't overused, though. I mean, most of his appearances are in spin offs and crossovers - The movie, Silent Hill: The Arcade, Konami Krazy Racers, New International Track and Field - but he has taken an odd position as the series' go-to guy for marketing, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. That said, he WAS featured prominently in Homecoming, and I do understand why people may have a problem with this. I'm not saying it's wrong to complain here, I'm just throwing out some explanations for this appearance.
The Combat Sucks
This an entirely subjective point, so I won't attempt to force my opinion as fact here. I will say that it doesn't look like people will ever be pleased with the combat in this series. It was called stiff and clunky in the earlier games, people complained that Origins' combat relied too much on breakable objects, people complained that Shattered Memories had no combat, they complained that Homecoming's combat was too easy and action oriented, and I've already seen complaints about Downpour's potential inventory system allowing only one weapon at a time. You may prefer the early combat, I may prefer Homecoming's, but there's one thing we can all agree with... No one will ever agree on this topic.
It's a Silent Hill 2 Clone
Picture unrelated... I just like seeing that Lurker take one in the throat.
After a year of trying to stay neutral on this subject, I've had a change of heart. I'm actually going to argue about this... Okay, like I said before, the twist is similar... But I thought about this, and I'm changing my stance. Josh's death? It's not a twist. At all. It's made blatantly obvious that Josh is dead from the game's outset. He's practically a ghost when you do see him, no characters seem to mention him, he's constantly impeding your progress as some sort of sick revenge against his brother... No, that's not the twist. The twist is Alex's supposed stint on the front line. Josh being among the... Living impaired... was simply a red herring to throw players off the trail of the real twist.
Then we have the use of similar monsters. I've already touched upon the nurses and Pyramid Head personally, but I do have a bit of a bone to pick here. Remember those big ass bugs you fought in SH2? Creepers. The same Creepers you fought in the first game, only with slight design changes. Then there are the Closers from SH3, which are eerily similar to the Mandarins from SH2. Dogs are constantly used in the series, too, with only minor design tweaks. (SH3's being my personal favorites...) Rather than complaining about a handful of monsters throughout the series that bare a resemblance to each other, let's take the time to appreciate the original, horrifying monsters.
It Lacks Subtlety and Symbolism, It's Too Shallow
Well, here's the thing about this one... It's wrong. Plain and simple. I'm not trying to be an ass or anything like that, but come on, this one is full of shit and we all know it. Let me be straight; Silent Hill is known for its subtlety, eeriness, and general creepy vibe. Yes, the gore and creepy monsters may attract some people and give us all a good scare ever so often, but it's the subtle scares that really grab us, right? Some people claim that Homecoming lacks these subtle moments and... Well, like I said, that's bull.
Lets take a look back at some of the earlier points... First of all, the opening area of the game is filled to brim with symbolism and foreshadowing. We have the X-ray forecasting Holloway's death, we have Adam's model being used for a doctor that intends to torture and hurt Alex being killed by a great knife, etc, etc. But the silliest thing I've ever seen said about this game was something along the lines of "You can tell it's not a Silent Game within the first ten minutes. 'Hey, I know, let's have it open with a bunch of people dieing!' Really subtle..."
Why's this so silly? Well, to understand, you have to look at this scene a bit closer...
(Credit goes to Youtube user Bundeswehr007)
You see, those people that are dieing? They're being killed the same ways the kids are meant to be sacrificed. More importantly, this hearkens back to a previous point of mine; Josh's death isn't meant to be the big twist of the game, rather a simple distraction. Pay attention to the kids' models. Notice anything? That's right, they're all Josh.
But it doesn't end there. Notice the instruments positioned over Alex's head. Those are the same torturous doodads that appear on Amnion's model. This is all the very first area of the game, people. As we progress, we do see a lot more small hints at future events and such. The aforementioned absence of Alex in all the Shepherd family photos really is the most potent. But take a closer look at the above example of this. Notice that the jacket Adam is wearing in that photo is the same one Alex wears now. A bit of foreshadowing for the real twist, compounded when Adam points out how glad he is that Alex still wears his old dog tags.
Josh's photographs as well as his drawings also shed some light on things. The photos of the sacrificed children give us a look into their history and give us clues that help explain their monstrous forms. The photograph of Alex that he doesn't seem to remember foreshadows the secret ending. We already touched upon the photo in the playground bringing up the battle with Amnion.
The Drawings are a beast all their own, and terrifying just based on appearance. Some are water damaged, referencing Josh's death by drowning or the method of sacrifice for his family. The drawings show us everything from Scarlet's sacrifice to the predicted deaths of Josh himself as well as the possible deaths of Lillian and Adam - All illustrated by Robbie caricatures, for added creepiness. They even shed some more light on Pyramid Head's involvement. When collected, they complete a poem that tells the story of the Boogeyman punishing bad boys and girls. Sound familiar? This indicates that the theory of Pyramid Head manifesting as both a punisher for Adam and an extended hand of the Order's god reaching out to collectively punish the citizens of Shepherd's Glen for failing to complete the ritual does, no pun intended, hold some water.
The monsters manage to be fairly symbolic, as well. I hate to get repetitive, but I realize how long this has gotten, a recap can't hurt. The nurse's are with child, and you can see this upon shining a light on their belly. The Lurker has a mouth reminiscent of a vagina dentata. The Schism is split down the middle and has a twisted, broken arm on one side - it's easy to assume that it's a call back to Alex's dementia and delusions. Family, birth, and insanity seem to running themes, and they're well represented. To really drive the point home, we have the Needlers.
When the Needler isn't climbing walls and ceilings while making me shit my pants in terror, it's standing in a rather awkward, yet symbolic, way. Its front legs - the bladed ones, FYI - are positioned in a way that mimics legs in stirrups. The head is seemingly being forced out of its... Well, birth symbolism, you get the picture. Gets the job done. Beautifully, I might add.
So, sure, we've got the usual bugs and dogs that don't seem to mean a thing in any of the games, but we've got some fantastic and very fitting designs and design changes that really drive this particular game's themes deep into our skulls. It's not the deepest game in the world, but between the well thought out foreshadowing and the oft beautifully morbid creature designs, Homecoming is in no way inferior to the past games in its subtlety or symbolism.
Closing...
Alex is confused by your complaints...
I could keep going, but this crossing out of blog territory and into editorial land, so I'll cut it off here. I'm not saying Homecoming is a fantastic game, I'm not saying it's better than the Team Silent games. I'm simply saying that it gets nowhere near enough credit. Its story, though a bit vague at times, is well told and beautifully foreshadowed. Its characters, Alex in particular, are quite likable. It houses quite a few scares. Its atmosphere is pure Silent Hill. It simply isn't half as bad as people like to think. Clearly, more thought and effort went into it than many want to admit.
Am I writing this to justify my love of this hated gem? Maybe, but there's more to it than that. With yet another western studio taking a crack at Silent Hill with Downpour, I want everyone open their mind a bit. Don't ignore another potentially horrifying Silent Hill game just because it's being handled by a western developer. Go back and really play the games from Climax and Double Helix, and I mean really play them. Don't go in with an extreme bias toward the Team Silent games and write off any fun you could have with the games. Go in fresh, and actually look for the more subtle nods and scares. I'm not asking for the moon here, I just want people to really give Downpour a chance, and maybe pick Homecoming back up with a fresh look at it. Who knows, maybe you'll really enjoy it this time.
(I apologize for the length here. I just couldn't find a nice place to stop. If enough people want me to, I'll split it up into two blogs in a bit. Hopefully some of you stuck with me here, this is one blog I put far more effort into than I usually do. Thanks to everyone who read, Silent Hill fans in particular. Please rate, comment, subscribe, and if at all possible get this thing featured so I'm not preaching at a brick wall. Thanks again for reading, have a great night... And watch out for the fog, okay?By the way, huge thanks to Youtube user nickq2006 for his video pointing out a few of the more subtle moments in the game. - This is, unfortunately, one of my less polished blogs from the old site. Shame, considering I like the content quite a bit. But hey, lots of people have enjoyed it in the past, maybe it'll find a new audience here.)
Even though this was very long, you gave a well detailed analysis. great job!
ReplyDeleteSince I don't have a PS3 of Xbox, I watched a bunch of walkthroughs for this game. Subjectively speaking, Homecoming was the most enjoyable Silent Hill game because I got invested in the story pretty early on.
Maybe it's just me, but Homecoming also felt kinda linear in gameplay. It felt like the puzzles were straightforward and somewhat easy to solve. Sometimes it felt as if the game would explicitly tell you where to get to the next area (the graveyard might be the biggest exception).
Here's the last of my few cents: I don't think Homecoming was lacking subtlety and symbolism. If one has played many Silent Hill games, some devices in storytelling will be easy to figure out intentionally or not. However, it all depends on how well everything is executed. Is twist A predictable? Does plot point B make sense based on what was previously shown? Etc.
Homecoming might have been too obvious with some of its imagery and symbolism which some might mistake for a lack of "depth", if you will. But then how you interpret what you experience is subjective.
Sorry for the long comment, but I really appreciate you defending this game. When her video comes out, I really do wonder how Dena really feels about this game.
Thanks! :)
I appreciate the comment, Melanie, I didn't think anyone would ever actually drop by once I parted ways with ScrewAttack. Nice to see someone enjoy this blog again. :)
ReplyDeleteI will say one thing about your last point; I don't think it's that its symbolism was too OBVIOUS, per se, but that some people just didn't give it a chance. It's kind of like... Okay, imagine someone playing the Resident Evil remake and RE4 back to back. One the one hand, you could argue that RE4 is a lot less scary and doesn't have that RE feel... IF you cruise through the game and ignore neat little moments like Del Lago jumping out of the lake and eating you. But despite this being an obvious scare to some, some people just won't go back and look for small things like that because of their previous feelings on that game. It's kind of like accidentally having an agenda when going into a game. >>
> feels ripped right out of Jacob's Ladder
ReplyDeleteSo far no one could explain me what was ripped off. So far no one remembered the bloody-rusty streets of Nightmare in Silent Hill, the M65 on our clerky James in Silent Hill 2 nor the bobbling monsters in SH3 and The Room. I despise these fans for their selective blindness.
Silent Hill is actually a mash up of tons of american books and movies. My friend said, it feels like Team Silent was locked up in a small room with the videotape-player and told to make a horror game for the US market.
> Others say that he may be Adam's personal punishment
Yup.
It's "iconic" to Silent Hill 2 (and "he's just fanservice", "I can't really see any reason for him to be here"), because everyone've forgotten how the Red Pyramid Thing got its looks. It's the cult's Executioner. That is not James's personal.
Who was the cult's black sheep? That was Adam. So it's obvious he got his own monster looking like the Executioner.
And everyone have forgotten, that the original team behind the first four games worked on the plot of Homecoming.
@Nekroido:
ReplyDeleteIt's mostly that one scene at the beginning that gives me the Jacob's Ladder vibes. But you're definitely right, the whole series is blatant with its inspirations from western horror. Didn't a few signs from Jacob's Ladder pop up throughout the series? And James' jacket does make me think of Singer's.
That's exactly what I've always thought, though I'm partial to the "he's not just punishing Adam, but the whole population of Shepherd's Glen" theory. But I brought it up to a certain internet personality recently and they just plain would not have it. I think some people just don't want there to be any justification for his appearance.
Who from the original team worked on the plot? I hadn't heard this. And all this aside, how did you like this?
That was an amazing read, Specter! Great job!
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that I never really liked this game, but I do have a different opinion of it after reading this post.
What really made this game stink, in my view, was the gameplay. While some people claim that the combat is too easy, I found it way too difficult and complex. Maybe I simply suck at videogames and like to play them for the story and the experience, rather than the gameplay, but the gameplay in Homecoming got in the way of my enjoyment several times with overly difficult sections and bosses. (The fact that they didn't feel like including an easy mode is ridiculous, but that's for another time.)
I did manage to finish the game, but the frustration made me overlook all the little details and kept me from enjoying the story (since I had to take long breaks to keep me from throwing my controller out of the window).
So yeah, thanks for the great post and for shining a light on all the cool stuff I didn't get to see when I played the game the first time. I'm actually feeling like playing Homecoming again. I never thought I'd say this!
This game is certainly better than most naysayers give it credit for, and yes, I agree that the symbolism is tighter than most give credit for, even if the big scares are really obvious. However...I still can't call it a solid Silent Hill game, and I have a hard time calling it more than "decent".
ReplyDeleteYes, the nurses and Pyramid Head are given some justification in this game (more so than f%&^ing 0rigins...), but it's really really weak. And I keep hearing defenders bring up this childbirth theme that you did. To which I say: So what? What does that theme matter, even tangentially? Was a character pregnant? Did somebody abort a child at some point? Where did this theme come from, and how was it represented in the story or characters? Even as far as the strong "family" theme goes, that was a real stretch. It's nice that the monsters had a guiding theme like that, but what did it amount to?
What drives me up the wall the most with this game isn't even any of those points, it's the cult members pulled straight from the movie. No real point to have the homages to the movie like that, but that's not what irks me. What irks me is that they're not characters, they're random enemies. Silent Hill has NEVER been about that (certain comments from Vincent aside...). Look at the original games: there are very few people wandering about, everyone between games has a unique name, and they all matter to the story. Yes, even in The Room where you can see everyday people walking and driving around, living their lives, the people you actually meet and interact with matter. The only times you kill real people are when they're turned into monsters (Leonard, Walter) or when they outright turn on you (Eddie). And either way, it has a CONSEQUENCE; the fact that somebody just DIED is treated as though it mattered, and mattered in a big way. Hell, according to many theories, the reason a second Pyramid Head even appears in SH2 is because of Eddie dying; a logical extrapolation of James's self-punishment. But the cult members dying at your own hands in Homecoming? I don't care if this is a different sect of the cult with its own traditions brought up over 200 years; this power still stems from Silent Hill, and should still follow a similar pattern. I have similar issues that there are people in the fog world and Otherworld that AREN'T members of the founding families, but that's not as big a deal as the protagonist killing people with zero physical or emotional consequence, whether or not they were trying to kill him first.
If this game ever gets a remake (hopefully not like a certain bundle of rereleases I could mention), it needs to ditch the cult members entirely somehow, or add something that makes the deaths a big deal. Then, even with the SH2 fanservice, I could be content with this one.