Silent Hill: Homecoming preview discusses combat, branching conversations

by Nick Doerr { Jun 19th 2008 at 8:30PM }

Are you still worried about Silent Hill: Homecoming being in the hands of a Western developer instead of Team Silent? Konami producer William Oertel put it pretty well: "Much of it is very deliberate. You don't have to go into every single detail. You leave it to the fans to decipher...In a sense, the whole game is like a puzzle." This is part of the ideology of the development staff -- to keep the game more on the psychological level like the legendary Silent Hill 2 and less on the literal side, like the first and third installments. We support this move.

A preview of the game doesn't go into the storyline very much, since they claim it is quite on-track with previous titles and wish to refrain from spoiling anything. However, they do comment on the new battle system and how it, actually, works in favor of the Silent Hill style of play. Every weapon as a finishing move, dodging is challenging ... combat is, essentially, more difficult. Enemies detect sound and light pretty viciously now -- they reacted before, but now it's clear when you knock over any of the surrounding stuff, the enemy comes running.

Conversations branch, too. During some of the games discussions between characters, you can choose from a couple of different answers that will yield different reactions or get you a little more background information. It doesn't sound overly complex, but it'll be interesting to see if these branches actually influence the type of ending you get. All in all, it's sounding pretty well done.

Tags: double-helix, konami, silent-hill, silent-hill-5, silent-hill-homecoming

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Josh @ Jun 19th 2008 9:15PM

I've got high hopes for Homecoming, please don't let me down!

Organic_Shadow @ Jun 19th 2008 10:16PM

I didn't think 1 & 3 were too literal. I think they just followed the main SH storyline, whereas SH2 was a separate occurrence and a different perspective. Because of SH2 I hate the SH movie because it tried to whore some of SH2's concepts- which don't make sense seeing as "the silent hill effect" thing that the main characters go through is different depending on what their personal demons were. Harry had no pyramid head, so why turn him into a girl? Then throw in pyramid head because he's the most famous enemy? LAME.

THAT'S what I think SH5 is going to be like. I feel like they are going to miss the point entirely. Sure, their words about it being a puzzle and up to your own interpretation are welcoming, but I've been deceived by developers like this again and again. I feel like SH died after SH3, and I'm still coming back looking for it... like my dead wife... that I still think may be alive... even though I know she's dead...

Kenny @ Jun 19th 2008 10:48PM

thank you for sharing the same thoughts i have for this game. if this game is just going to use all the elements of the movie as its base, its going to be mediocre and let the series go downhill even faster.

Jerses @ Jun 20th 2008 10:02AM

Agree. I see the same problem with this game... its like the SH movie... it looked like silent hill but you dont feel the psycological fear its just another horror movie where you have to run, hide, run, hide from the bad guy that appears in every corner. Just release this game wait for the massive failure and let sh6 be made in japan.

combat system? really? the video gameplay where the dog was attacking the main character looks horrible just like a guy with a blind hitting a piñata...he wasnt really looking at the dog he was just looking down...so strange

Fx @ Jun 20th 2008 3:17PM

dude, u r kinda right but my perspective about the SH movie is that they combined certain things about the past SH games (except for the crappy 4) for example:
SH 1: basically the story or plots
SH 2: the enemies (all enemies are from SH2 except for the child demon)
Sh 3: a main female character? yeah i think thats about it

Kenny @ Jun 19th 2008 10:51PM

silent hill 4 was amazing in my eyes just because of the art style of the trailers. this game is bleh.

Comtar @ Jun 20th 2008 12:01PM

I remember being at E3 watching the Silent Hill 4 trailer and just saying to myself... "This is some pretty fucked up shit." The trailer was just absolutely horrifying. It's a shame I'm not getting that same vibe from Homecoming, but I am getting it from Siren, and even the trailer for Condemned II, which in my opinion has replaced Silent Hill for a while until Silent Hill gets scary again... just hope Homecoming doesn't disappoint.

Thomas @ Jun 20th 2008 3:12PM

i havent realy played silent hill 3 or 4. but 1 was quite good. and 2 was absoloutely amazing. it just got scarier and scarier. hopefully this will be as good as 2

Fx @ Jun 20th 2008 3:21PM

Yeah but i had a different perspective and its that the director of the SH movie tried to combine certain things about every SH game (except for the "room 302" aka SH4)
for example:
SH1: The main plots, storyline
SH2: All the enemies except for the child demon
SH3: Female lead character? yeah thats about it