I have to pin the sponsor comment for legal reasons, but I wanted to leave something in case anyone is confused I’ve had to reupload this video. It's been out for a couple of weeks now, but for some reason, along the way, the algorithm flagged this video, demonetised it and age restricted it. I’ve triple checked all the rules, it DOES NOT BREAK ANY OF THEM. I appealed with this information, the appeal was rejected within 5 minutes. I went to TH-cam support directly, who refused to actually review the video, instead they referred me to the rules and said I was breaking them (Very Helpful). After multiple emails back and forth, yesterday, I discovered that almost every single comment on the video has been deleted by TH-cam, I took to twitter to get help, they also just returned with the rules, didn’t even answer why all of the comments where gone So I have no idea what is going wrong, but the video is being targeted (Why would the algorithm target a video game review, I do not know) but rather than suffer with this mess, I’ve cut anything that could be remotely deemed excessively violent and I’m trying to re-upload, wish me luck, sorry for the long and confusing mess, I hope it’s sorted now!
Yeah, I pretty sure I watch this already. I wanna write something about YT, but worried it might cause some trouble in the eye of AI algorithm.. which then cause trouble to your vid as you mention. So anyway, guess I watch it again. Just to make the view up back. Wish the best to you and keep post more vid.
I hate how prolific Pyramid Head has become. He was James PERSONAL torment, not some executioner for the order. He was a metaphor for James hatred for himself, for what he did to Mary. Making him anything else waters down the idea and makes it less interesting. But I get it "Popular character=money'.
Same thing with the Bubblehead Nurses which represent his sexual frustrations due to Mary’s unavailability which probably made him lustful for the nurses at her hospital.
I always saw the manifestations as permanent fixtures on the town, regardless of if the person who accidentally created them was able to fix their problems or not. Kinda like how even if you were forgiven/forgave someone for something super bad, it's still a thing that was done and can never truly be undone.
The worst part about this game is that it had so much potential; it had an interesting premise that hadn't been done before (dealing specifically with military PTSD), pretty good voice acting, and an absolute banger of a Soundtrack from Yamaoka.
I agree, like say what you will about the character of Alex Shepard, but I'll admit that Brian Bloom is a damn good VA who at least does a pretty solid performance with what he's given to work with.
This games plot had so much potential, a soldier who has seen the horrors of war being tormented by the town is an idea with lots of potential and so is the "unwanted son" stuff about his parents planning on sacrificing him his whole life, really is too bad they dropped the ball on the execution of those ideas
I seriously don't understand why the hell they went with the "Nope, kid wasn't a vet, but a loony" - like, nothing about the story would change if he just had joined the army and repressed his memories instead of that, and so much story potential was lost with him being insane.
And they COULD have worked in a figure who was similar to Pyramid Head as a manifestation of potential guilt for lives taken during war, but Konami said fuck it and decided that Pyramid Head HAD to be in the game. Those poor designers man…
They could have done a Jacobs Ladder plot with the character in cutscenes going on daily life and the “horror scenes” are just prolonged gameplay elements exploring twisted nightmare worlds as you find more about yourself and how you died.
I think the plot would have been less contrived if Alex actually _was_ a vet. He got sick of his parent's neglect and overt favoritism, ran away and enlisted before his family knew what happened. His parents were forced to sacrifice their youngest son, but because Alex was the intended sacrifice (maybe it had to be firstborns, I dunno), it didn't work and all the monsters started appearing. That way, it would make sense that Alex would be so good at fighting and it wouldn't feel like so much of a ripoff of _Silent Hill 2_ playing the whole "blocked out killing his loved one" card and Alex would looking for Josh without having any reason to assume he was dead. Then the game could have used survivor's guilt as a running theme; he saw good men die out in the field and feels responsible for it, and Josh's death could have been avoided if he didn't leave. His parents would blame Alex for destroying their family, perhaps one of them joining the cult in hunting Alex, only to come to the realization that it was them who did it by the end. Alex coming to terms with himself by the end being the "Good Ending" and going mad trying to survive the Otherworld as though it were Vietnam being the "Bad Ending."
Him having the jacket isn't even a big issue. Might've bought it at a surplus store. But yeah, good point with survivor's guilt. The games always have a theme of reflection. A darker and dirtier mirror if the trouble the protagonists have.
His way of fighting actually does very effectively foreshadow that he's not a vet though, since he uses big flashy videogamey movements instead of fighting the way an actual soldier would.
I for one really dislike when games/movies/shows needlessly make a character a cop or a soldier. Maybe a martial artist or someone who enjoys shooting would be a nice change of pace.
Well, you managed to fix some of the most jarring issues with the game, big congrats! I'm so scared about the SH2 remake & the other games Konami's going to release this year. Especially knowing Bloober Team is producing one of them. *shivers*
@@jacobstaten2366 This actually was a story that had a good reason for it though. Him being a soldier, or rather thinking he was one, was a driving factor behind his characterization, personality, and his story.
I have to pin the sponsor comment for legal reasons, but I wanted to leave something in case anyone is confused I’ve had to reupload this video. It's been out for a couple of weeks now, but for some reason, along the way, the algorithm flagged this video, demonetised it and age restricted it. I’ve triple checked all the rules, it DOES NOT BREAK ANY OF THEM. I appealed with this information, the appeal was rejected within 5 minutes. I went to TH-cam support directly, who refused to actually review the video, instead they referred me to the rules and said I was breaking them (Very Helpful). After multiple emails back and forth, yesterday, I discovered that almost every single comment on the video has been deleted by TH-cam, I took to twitter to get help, they also just returned with the rules, didn’t even answer why all of the comments where gone So I have no idea what is going wrong, but the video is being targeted (Why would the algorithm target a video game review, I do not know) but rather than suffer with this mess, I’ve cut anything that could be remotely deemed excessively violent and I’m trying to re-upload, whish me luck, sorry for the long and confusing mess, I hope it’s sorted now!
i was wondering why i thought i'd had watched this already, though i was going nuts tbh, sorry for YTs fuckups tho, you dont deserve that, love your vids
TH-cam has gone so spineless to their own independent youtubers that they found PEGI 18+ video games are considered to be real violence and demonetised + age restricted
I’m about 23 minutes in and I noticed that you cut out the parts referencing anything related to fetuses or babies (Like the one you can see within the first nurse you encounter) Maybe someone got freaked out by that or smth. I’m gonna watch through this again regardless of change because this is still a great video
Honestly, Medic in the military for a Silent Hill character would be amazing, he could struggle with not saving as many people or even make him a sort of Desmond Doss where he couldn’t shoot someone and got his allies killed by his actions.
@@ADumbMf_ broken people I'm wheelchairs or crawling with no legs, the unique sound would be a distorted scream: "HELP ME, SAVE ME!" This could be a great setup.
@@Khoriander The difference there was that every NPC in that game was dealing with their own personal trauma, aside from the little girl. The uncanny, dream-like acting cemented this point further and made every interaction with another person feel unnatural to really drive home how lonely you feel in Silent Hill. Homecoming doesn’t really have this. It tries, but it sucks.
@@Odinsday true, maybe homecoming would've been better without the extra people. Perhaps if Alex felt as if he was the only one left it'll make the game feel more isolating but keep in mind that the game was made by someone else's perspective of Silent Hill. Every nightmare is different for everyone and everyone has different nightmares.
I think his parents being split in half is indicative of how torn they were despite knowing what to do. It's clear both harbour deep regrets at how they treat Alex even if they knew it was necessary
Konami execs forced Pyramid Head into the game. The developers knew the lore, but had to follow Konami's decree. It's also where you get all the movie stuff
I could guess that, honestly. I mean, the game seems to have a solid identity of it's own, unlike downpour for example, this one clearly has plenty of elements I could draw from to make original enemies, yet drops this generic aspects on it that clearly felt alien and shoveled in there by outside sources.
Not everyone hated Homecoming. It's my favorite Silent Hill actually. My buddy and I JUST came back from Afghanistan and had 4 days off as soon as we got state side. I went and bought a few games so we could just spend 4 days drinking and playing video games in a hotel like 3 hours away from base because we just wanted to be away from the Army for a while. I played through that whole game (which was already a 4-5 year old game at the time I think) drinking the whole time. I think partly because of the alcohol and partly because of how much I related to Alex (way more than just the premise of coming back from a war) I don't remember it as a video game I played. I remember it like it happened to me. I never want to go back and replay it for that exact reason. There's no way it could live up to that. Right time, right place, right game.
If you put everything Homecoming and Downpour did right together, you'd get a decent game. It's weird how they both seemed to have weaknesses in the opposite directions.
@@shinbakihanma2749 In Downpour, thought the rain was an interesting take on the setting that was both appropriate and unfamiliar, the town itself was interesting and that the story was a little more focused thematically than Homecoming and had some real potential if they were willing to let their main character be a total scumbag. But it also had horrible monster design, the combat and running stages were terrible and didn't have the balls to really push the boundaries of its themes to any level that mattered. Homecoming had great monster designs, interesting premises they went all in on and was the more playable of the two (not good, but less bad), but was bogged down by too many ideas all at once which left a disjointed mess in the end, a whole bunch of blatant pandering to long term fans, a pretty railroady town and a lot of combat that felt repetitive.
@@evilminionnumber2 I remember saying something much akin to this before. But while I'll agree that the monster designs were still better in Homecoming (being actual monsters and all), I think their fleshy near-single-tone color pallets is still pretty bad. These monsters even seemed to kinda glow in the dark at times and the damage effect on them looked weirdly colored too. And of course the stun-lock combo combat made them all a joke. Because of that alone, I think the combat was still better in Downpour because it's absolutely terrible "boo I'm a scary human" enemies were at least somewhat of a threat in combat. Plus, the character wasn't doing dumb twirling spin attacks.
The randomness of the endings isn't even the worst part. The worst part is that the joke ending is thrown with the normal ones, with perfectly normal criteria. In the other games, you had to work to get the UFO ending, and you couldn't get in in your first playthrough, so basically you only really went after it if you _knew_ it was a thing. Here, you can play perfectly normally, not forgiving your parents for treating you like shit your entire life and planning to kill you all along, but still do the right thing with Wheeler, which is an understandable course of events... and you get a meme ending _out of nowhere._ SPOILER FOR SILENT HILL 2 Also, James doesn't always kill Maria, he kills Mary in his worst ending, but you're right. There's absolutely no randomness to it, it's very thematically appropriate to James and the player's behavior.
not to mention, you also unlock the Laser gun afterwards and just cheese your way through even more effortlessly than with the knife on your next gameplays even on the highest difficulty lmao
SH2 came out around 20 years, screw spoilers. James killed Mary, his wife, this is canon, Maria is the one dressed like Christina Aguilera who wasn't real, in the good ending, James takes her out of Silent Hill and she coughs as they drive away, implying she too will get sick just like Mary. The other endings have James either driving into the lake or him and Laura walking out of Silent Hill after he promises to take care of her. The dog ending is the best one though.
Gotta admit this videogame analysis are way more entretaining than i expected. The Silent Hill ones feel specially nostoalgic. Keep it up and i can't wait for the Silent Hill 4 analysis!
Every soulless reference to the movie in this game while watching this video made me roll my eyes to the back of my skull. I'm convinced nobody who made this game knew anything about the original series, just watched the movie.
Yeah, that's someething I only noticed after watching this vid because I didn't watch the movie in ages or play the game in any close timeframe of the movie, but after having it pointed out, it seems insane they went so all in on the movie when the movie had middling reviews at best.
@@mlpfanboy1701 I agree, it changed up the aesthetic in a cool way with the mining town vibe but there's no reason every game going forward had to adopt the same mining town aesthetic, was my point
The developers knew the lore, it didn't matter. They were told to add movie references, and Pyramid. At the same time this was going on, their producer had them try to remove most references to the Order because he never liked the cult aspects
What are you talking about ⁉️ That trash movie "sh" and "sh2"⁉️.. That is something that imbeciles watch❗ Never saw anything so awfully bad , that tried to ride on game's success❗
Ya know i think the idea of an ex military protag could actually work amazingly well in silent hill if they actually learned into it with the other world instead of the classic rusty look imagine if the other world looked like a war zones so one area is covered in sand and cave walls to represent Afghanistan for example or even one area inspired by the trenches of ww1 even
Idk… he’s have to actually HAVE been to war to have memories to be haunted by. Imagination alone wouldn’t be enough I’d think. Also, his dad shunned him when he could, so it’s not like he remembers being told war stories by his dad to fuel his madness. This game wasn’t well written at all. Nothing felt original or thought through. It’s as if they watched the movie and went: this is what silent hill is…and some faucet of SH2
13:08 I remember a comment on the original video talking about how this could be representative of the abuse Alex had to got through because like you said it's "just another day" for him and he wouldn't expect his mother to react anyways. The devs could have definitely worked on that by adding some interesting dialogue options like the mother asking what happened and Alex being like "it's nothing"
BC you aren't writing between the lines, the mother allowed the abuse of Alex, and Josh by his father, a more agressive mother, will just end the beast by herself. This action of Alex is similar to Laura Palmer to her mother on Twin Peaks, the mother figure was almost like a shadow in the house, the father vanished her into him. Lilian should end Adam,. like Angela did with his father.
Scarlet is my favorite boss at least design wise. She scared me so much as a kid. Shame the rest of the game couldn’t even come remotely close to scaring me. Genuinely how did they make every human character look so bad?
It'd be very funny if one of the many, many holes and pits Alex jumps into just didn't lead anywhere. Like he keeps jumping into them just on instinct, under the assumption it's the way towards progress, but imagine if at one point it was just a hole and he got stuck.
I love that it's like a walk through.. but with the best commentary and then explanation of why people love and hate the games.. your channel is seriously my new favorite.
My biggest issues with homecoming: 1. the load screen giving hints totally takes you out of the atmosphere and into some cheap arcade shooter 2. The monsters. They just threw nurses in in random places like the town hall and other places that make no sense. Then pyramid head shows up for some reason. The smog creature is neon purple and yellow for some reason. Not creepy at all. 3. Too much talking! The whole original atmosphere in the first 4 games revolved around being isolated and going through the town alone. I mean I was surprised they didn't just give Alex a pip boy and tell him to just go liberate settlements
A silent hill game that has to be made is one where you are one of the children of the town. Just imagine. Imagine the horrors, imagine only being able to escape by using your tiny size as the only advantage, dodging the awful monsters created only by adults that completly forgot their only purpose.
Or you play as Laura and the game just becomes Abandoned Town Simulator 2022 and James is fighting for his life while you kick keys away and lock him in rooms while blowing raspberries unaware of all the horrors happening around you.
The nurses don’t respond to light and sound, that’s the mannequins. They changed it for the movies so it was the nurses instead. So that feature is not from previous games, it’s exclusively from the movies.
I love the Monster designs in this game especially Amnion, Scarlet, and Asphyxia honestly Amnion is probably my favorite Silent Hill boss monster design in the entire series it’s absolutely creepy and terrifying
The inclusion of the Nurses feels a bit forced though considering how specific they were to James’ sexual frustration in combination with his wife’s hospitalization. They really have no place in this game.
I've always wanted someone to remake games that were crappy, unnoticed, or unappreciated in its time. Taking what we know now as to what went wrong with games or with how people never gave certain games a chance or simply forgot about them; the nostalgia for them would probably interest a large audience. A part of me wants to do this myself however, building a team willing to take that risk and getting funding for a project like that would be a crazy challenge itself.
A silent hill where a combat medic after killing someone in self defense and letting his friends die by worrying about himself he's driving mad and thus he finds himself in silent hill would be a neat idea
Thanks for keeping a positive outlook despite all this game's flaws. It must suck to be on one of these dev teams, working your entire ass off on assets and whatnot, only for it to flop. So I appreciated when you pointed out that an area looked good or was well designed.
look up some interviews with the team leads of double helix.... it's disgusting how they praise their own game while completely shitting on the previous titles about how bad they played and how the stories didn't make sense and had no emotional impact and blablabla... for that alone, i'm glad the game bombed massively
@@stefanforrer2573 To be fair, Silent Hill, just like Resident Evil and the other survival horror games at that time, were quite a bit clunky. Not saying they're bad games, just that they were developed at a time when devs still had to figure out how 3d survival horror works right. That counts for SH, RE, Parasite Eve, Dino Crisis, etc On the other hand, stuff like tank controls (which are basically 1st person controls in a 3rd person game) gave the player a handicap that makes the survival part much more threatening. If we look at the RE remakes, we get a good idea what people expect nowadays, but that doesn't make the originals any worse.
Wow for some reason hadnt considered it but yes 100% there must be staff who worked super hard and it must of been crushing to have the game be so bad in aspects they had no control over.
@@fernie-fernandez Whatever the case, it's clear the main devs were talentless hacks, with maybe a few people who knew their stuff (the people who were in charge of designing the bosses clearly knew how to represent the causes of their deaths with a Silent Hill flair, hope they went to better projects after this clusterfuck)
I genuinely liked wheeler, yea his character is out of place in this series, but it was so cool having someone fighting with you who’s fully aware of the monsters, nice sense of comradery the series didn’t really have before.
it also gives him a good reason for locking you up at gun point he's been the same shit as you and isn't up for a surprise carotid remodel but you tell him something that lines up and he immediately changes his tune meaning if nothing else he wanted to be nice to you
The monsters are brilliant in this game, the soundtrack is also amazing (especially Scarlet's theme...so haunting and beautiful). The lore is tragic...the sacrificing of children and them turning into monsters is depressing/horrifying. I like the idea of Alex forgetting what's happened, reminds me of SH2 What's the most annoying thing about the game is the gameplay...the use of combat, the camerawork during fighting (wtf, it's not an action game), the buggy shit going on and having to mash buttons at certain points. The environment feels very...open, there aren't a lot of places that make you feel safe like small rooms in SH3 for example, or the room in 302 before the hauntings. It introduces a lot of characters as well, and barely any of them are memorable/important or likeable ESPECIALLY Joshua (who we're trying to protect/save/find and who should at least be likeable to give us some motivation) It takes away from the experience of the game, you're supposed to be scared/anxious not annoyed at your dumbass brother. I also don't like the introduction of choice between dialogues, it removes you from the cutscene and takes away from the character's personality All of those things make me not want to repeat this game, it makes me uncomfortable and I get no nostalgia from it. 10:56 rofl
If it helps you understand the combat scheme, the protagonist Alex is believed to be a soldier.. when he was sent to a loony home. He could’ve been delusional and just did military training for no reason. That’s the internet theory so far.
@@IamOkita Because you forget one important detail, he is already gone when the game started, like Jacob's Ladder, we are seeing the journey to afterlife of a young man that was torture by his family, therefore Silent Hill granted his last wish to be a hero for his brother. This game is the most similar to Jacob's ladder than the others, like Jacob he wants to be a hero for Gabriel, a son that he believe he lost in a car accident, and Jacob was the driver, which is actually wrong, Gabriel was a manifestation of the person that he loves most, and the one that won't let him move forward. Similar to Alex with Josh, his only family was Josh, and he actually didn't murder him, he thought that, because the fate of Alex is more dark, he was sent into a mental hospital by his abusive family, in there he was end by doctors with a lobotomy, in this last moment of life, Alex big wish was to be again with Josh, his true family, and his only friend.
"Now look I have 2 little sisters. I love'em more than anything. But if either of those 2 dipshits decided to run deeper into hell hospital for shits and giggles they're dead. That's on them." That's the line that pulled me into this video.
Never played this Silent Hill but from what I see from the intro with the protagonist being wheeled through hospital hallway's is a direct rip from the very film what inspired the Silent Hill franchise to begin with! That film of course, is Jacob's Ladder.
Yeah, because they failed to explore Alex as a young soldier, that means teenager topics should be blend in the mix, like his high school,. a teenager story without high school WTF Double Helix, you did a game about Buffy, High School is a hell. That will separate this from Jacob's Ladder, and look more like a sequel of the movie, bc in Jacob Ladder is the father to suffer, this time will be the son like figure. But also this people was clueless about SH past, there is a big military lore of SH, that they could explore in this game, I mean even the OG Team wanted a game about a soldier.
You can knock the game on a lot of things, but it can also be acknowledged that despite being developed by an entirely dofferent team, they were at least trying to pay attention beyond a surface level.
This game feels like a fan rendition. "Let's put Pyramid head in, everyone loves Pyramid head" "everyone loves the nurses, the spooky dogs-" without understanding why people loved them in the first place. The behavior of people and logic progression does not make sense and makes it near impossible to get invested.
The thing about pyramid head is that while his appearance here kind of fits the red hooded boogeyman description from the stories told to the children and he only kills the father and leaving alex alone, the devs should have used a different design for him, like give him a schism like head (like the actual schism used to represent the whole family in that one scene) covered in a red hood and wielding a large ring like weight on a chain which looks like the item the brother was killed over
I agree, seeing his movie design in homecoming while representing something COMPLETELY different was a little jarring and didn’t sit quite right with me. They definitely needed to change his design up seeing as his purpose in this game is different than the film or SH2.
@@artemis1993I would say 2 and 3 are comparable. It’s a crime that team silent disbanded, the next game might have been another genre defining classic. I’ll always see SH4 as one or two decisions short of being of the same caliber. It’s the last time anything actually felt like silent hill 😢
I heard that team silent had a choice, to either go in the style of silent hill 1 or silent hill 2 for SH3. They went with following silent hill 1. They then later regretted the decision after they felt sh3 underperformed and they went back to the psychological thriller for sh4. The issue is, once the franchise shifted hands, the new developers hardly understood the importance of subtlety in horror, a more prominent trend in Eastern cultures than Western, as well as everything having a twist protagonist-an unfortunate legacy of sh2. So in short, I half agree. SH2 is a deserving great game and set the bar very high, but I think the issue is team silent stopped being active and became reactive in their story to tell before disbanding and western companies try to break SH into a formula with checkboxes and in-your-face style horror.
@@artemis1993 3 is also horrible in terms of gameplay? Bloated weapon and item roster, monsters that overuse stock sound effects and don't have any significant symbolism (ooo look at the big fat man!) And a handful of instakill scenarios that you'll either never see coming or in the instance of the hallway chase controls so poorly that you're nearly guaranteed to take a death from it. Thinking about it now, I also don't really care much for 3's story outside of the Heather-Alessa plotline and that one scene with Vincent. The rest of it is basically filler with the BS about "thE rEbIrth Of gAwd" and Claudia being a total cartoon villain.
I had a lot of problems with this game, but when I was in high school I played through it multiple times. The game had some decent ideas, but once you get to the point where you’re fighting order members it all went out the window I actually got the joke ending my first run (unintentionally).
I honestly really like this game. It's not a great game, but it was ok. That ending, though, would throw somebody off. What if you just didn't want to forgive your parents but were like Wheeler has been helping me every step of the way the least I could do is patch him up 💀. Then come around to the end of the game and you're getting freaking abducted by aliens lmaoo
One thing I will say this game is amazing with: The monster designs. Damn near every enemy and boss has a design that is just uncanny enough to be a horrifying design.
Maybe- but the cool thing about the originals was the *purpose* of the designs, the designs being good is not a merit of the game, because the thought process was the exact same as yours, they looked at the design said "looks cool" and added in the game.
One reason why Alex can roll around and does those overexagerated moves when attacking, is because he thought he was a soldier, so in his mind thats how soldiers fight and move. It might be a strecht and western devs are just idiots, but still cool to think it was that way.
And I guess his military father also made sure to teach him to spin 360 degrees when brandishing a knife because giving the enemy a clear shot of your back is the smartest move ever in close combat?
I love how you deeply analyze each and every game you play that you make even the worst games look good, You're fr one of the best gaming channels I've ever found
Matt: "Well that *is* a satisfying shotgun." Pat: "It is! I like how the framerate dies every time you shoot it." Matt: *Laughs like a goblin* Had to re-post that quote, since it's one of my personal favorite moments from the old Two Best Friends Play LPs.
My favorite moment was them encountering the first nurse enemy and Pat asking "Did you feel scared?" and Matt replying "I felt more aroused than scared." Pat: "That's the issue.."
@@MrPikaGammer That was one of my favorite moments too, "This is where the axe from Downpour went! It fell onto the other side of this huge pit!" Which I believe Pat even pointed out that thanks to Silent Hill logic, that isn't outside the realm of possibility.
Hello fellow kids who are down with the devil~ My favorite part of the LP is when a common glitch basically whipped out their save file. The only way I'll fully experience this trash game again is through that LP too, as my first and only trip through the game was an infuriating experience.
Maaaaan i watched and rewatched the original and now you had to "fix" for TH-cams standards. Cheers man! Love your content and I can't wait to see more, hopefully a Dead Space or Resident Evil game.
This game had a lot of bad, but I think it has a lot of gold in it too. The music for one, is incredible. "Witchcraft" is one of my favorites. Shepard's Glenn is a great foil to Silent Hill, the adults in town sacrificing their children to a lovecraftian entity and so now they're being punished for it is not only great classic horror, but it also subtley conveys that the cult may have spread outside of Silent Hill, but the cult, and by extension any one the cult converts over to their perverse religion, cannot escape Silent Hill's punishment. Someone on this dev team knew what they were doing, but the execution fell short.
I've always been in love with Asphyxia, and was so excited when I stumbled across the artist and got to talk to them about the design. I actually like this game, I just don't consider it much of a Silent Hill game lol (which I feel says a lot about it).
The plot about a cult sacrificing their kids to a god to abate it and that going awry when one of the people fucks it up and so on, while predictable to a degree, would've been an enjoyable story if it wasn't a SH game and just tried aping the movie and SH2's plot so much. Imo they really hamstrung themselves with that IP put on the game, since the combat, if reworked, could've been ok since it's not a silent hill property anymore with expectations attached.
How to fix this game: -Make Alex an actual war veteran struggling with PTSD. Specifically, he’d be a Vietnam veteran, thereby making this a prequel. This would also have multiple implications for the story, from monster representations, to themes, to plot. -During Fogworld exploration, the gameplay would be similar to previous games. In the Otherworld, Alex would become more aggressive and violent, leading to a more combat heavy experience. -The siren heard during the Otherworld transitions would represent the sirens that would sound when Alex’s base was under attack, thereby putting him in a combat ready state. -The monsters would represent things Alex saw and did during the war: -Lurkers represent the Vietcong soldiers who would lie in wait before ambushing passing G.I.’s. This would also explain why they’re the only monster to scare Alex, since it was his biggest fear in the war. -Smog represents those killed by white phosphorus and other chemical weapons -Schisms represent Alex’s interpretation of his fellow soldiers, who would often swing back and forth between pleasant people and monsters -Needlers represent the mangled bodies of his friends the Vietcong often left behind -Siams represent Alex’s sexual frustration (Siams are wearing bondage gear if you look closely). More specifically, the female bodies on their backs are the Vietnamese prostitutes while the dominant male bodies represent the sexual beast Alex would become. -Dogs represent the feral animals, scavengers, and dangerous predators that were attracted to the carnage. -The bosses and Shepard’s Glen storyline would remain the same. Additionally, the Shepard’s Glen incident would be a catalyst to the other games, since The Order would feel pressured to accelerate their plans, knowing they’re the last sect in existence. -The game’s overall theme would be sacrifice, since Alex views the sacrificed children as similar to the GI’s sacrificed by the government for the war. -The good ending would be Alex coming to terms with his PTSD and forgiving himself. Additionally, he would no longer compare the war to Shepard’s Glen after realizing his friends _chose_ to lay down their lives voluntarily (irl only 1/3 of Vietnam vets were drafted), unlike the children who had no choice. This realization would cause Alex to conclude that he doesn’t have to be a monster and can still choose to be something better. Unlocked by avoiding combat except bosses and scripted fights while also helping and forgiving other people. -Neutral ending would be Alex partially moving past his trauma, but only to the point of accepting that he did what he had to for survival. Alex would still be resentful and bitter to everyone else, believing people have only ever used him his entire life, and will continue to do so. Despite leaving Shepard’s Glen, Alex still sees the Fogworld overlayed with the real world, but free of monsters, representing his permanently grey and empty existence -The bad ending would be Alex giving in to his murderous side, proving he had always been a monster, and deserves his place in hell. Unlocked by engaging in heavy combat, particularly going out of your way to kill monsters in the Fogworld and in areas not related to your objectives. Additionally, being cruel and ruthless to people is also a factor.
What’s sad, is that a few key changes in story, gameplay, and fixing bugs like what you mentioned could have made this game on the level of the first 4 silent hill games
Likewise my dude. While there were a bunch of things I wasn’t completely smitten with, the game definitely had some gripping moments. That boss fight was ‘mwah’ (chef’s kiss).
I could be dumb but I only realized this after years I played this game: pyramid head could have a sense in this game, he represents self guilt, but this time he's not here for us, but for Adam. That's why he never attacks Alex
As someone who grew up with Silent Hill 2 - 4 and bought a PS3 specifically for Homecoming (seriously a next gen silent hill game? my hype was through the roof) I still to this day haven’t finished Homecoming because of how much I hated it. And now kiddos that grew up with Homecoming being their first Silent Hill game are rabid defenders of the game not being “that bad” and it makes my eyes roll so hard that I’m worried they’re gonna get stuck looking inward at my brain.
The shift to the otherworld and Pyramid heads design are straight out of the movie. So if you just imagine it taking place in that universe, instead of the games, it makes it a bit better
The fact that you start things with a QTE and the main character fights monsters before like his 5th line of dialogue was such a terrible thing for me. Looking back to the amazing monologue of James Sunderland and all that build up of Heather mason being a teenager just does so much for setting tone and character. There’s so much wrong with this game from story to models to voice acting but what murders the game for me is all the reasoning of why this character is so combat centric and action savvy wasn’t even genuine. It all falls apart at the concept.
Not to mention the opening is almost a direct rip from the movie Jacobs Ladder (from the scene at the end of the movie.) It’s like every single aspect of this game is a poor amalgamation of copies of someone else’s ideas.
@@theunknown3370 You're right. The first Silent Hill titles had a lot of inspiration from a bunch of other media. But it never felt like it was actually copy-pasting.
I agree about combining Downpour and Homecoming. The former had exploration, better graphics and combat you could avoid. The latter had better theming and monster design.
The core story seems good but it has some unfortunate decisions made by the dev team. There also isn't any of that loneliness you usually feel in Silent Hill games.
TH-cam being a jackass towards their own creators as usual. Leaving a comment to help out the video, although with how good this one is it barely needs it. Keep on rocking on!
Hell, they do it do user posts too! I can't tell you how many times I've had whole comments of mine deleted for no rhyme or reason due to utterly benign words or phrases youtube's algorithm deems offensive in some way. Even get shadowbanned from some channels with no warning or explanation. TH-cam _really_ doesn't like onomatopoeia...
@@hippocratesnoah8642 Indeed. Mine got deleted for trying to tell someone my name on wat-pad. I have to try and spell things all weird just to not tick off the algorithm. It's annoying.
@@mfisher9977 Where you can post on channels but no one actually sees your comments. Easy way to check is to make an alt, highlight your comment (click on how long ago the post was made), then switch accounts. If your post is not showing up, you've been shadowbanned. You can also do it by logging out too I think. TH-cam does it for the most bizarre of things. I think getting reported for "bullying" is just an automatic ban. How am I supposed to not call a falt-earther an idiot!? XD
I have a soft spot for this one cause I was just a kid and this was my first SH ever. To me it was amazing, the combat, the monsters and the environment was crazy good and had me playing at night just wondering who was behind me. As a fun fact, I only bought SH2 cause I saw James fighting Pyramid Head and thought that looked cool and discovered the real Silent Hill lore. I think this game is the definition of wasted potential, a stranger in your own home is a relatable feeling sometimes, a disfuncional family with only siblings looking after each other could have also worked and the monsters representing children added a whole layer of depth to stuff making it more creative than just manifestations of the protagonist like SH2. If it had better writers I think it would have been a great Silent Hill, a better defined story, a more clever twist, more attention to detail would have made it great. Anyway, wonderful video, it’s always nice to go back and pass time with these games since nowadays it’s hard to find the time to actually play them.
I remember having such a bullshit time with the technical issues with this game. Fighting Curtis, the room wouldn’t load, so all I could hear was the sound of a table saw, and previous to this I got stun-locked by a nurse til I died lol.
Honestly these videos are so refreshingly well done. The commentary is very entertaining and insightful, and I love learning about these obscure or less popular games that I probably wouldn’t play otherwise.
Agreed they could have just gone with a different better twist than the generic *You were in a mental facility that whole time* ...it just doesn't make much sense in the context ..
16:22 My only excuse why she doesn't notice, is that in lore wise. Silient Hill looks different for each individual, that's why she may not be as aware. Also a bonus ending if you get all the photos, where when he gets back home, notice a puddle of water, and he sees his brother and took his picture with a polaroid camera.
Yeah, not gonna lie, I actually like Homecoming quite a bit, and imo a lot of his criticisms in this video are things he wouldn't bat an eye at in other games. Like he bags on the characters for not reacting to something in this one even though in others they do the same thing and it's considered normal. I feel like he was a little bit nitpicky in this video just to cater towards the overall feelings of the community
@@SirAlexOfTheGuitar I thought the same. I do agree that the combat is clunky but other than that I feel like it's not as bad as the community thinks it is. Also I agree with the NPC thing, almost every other SH game I can think of has totally oblivious NPCs that seem to be unaware of what's happening. It's not like Homecoming was the first one.
@@dibidabua I actually never found the combat to be all that clunky; it was just disappointing because I ended up using the knife the whole game as it was ridiculously quick and OP. It was actually pretty interesting to play a SH game that actually had a combat emphasis. The monster design and everything was pretty interesting too, I think they focus too much on everything having symbolism instead of just being viscerally disturbing, which is ok sometimes. IMO downpour is worse; it just doesn't have the same eerie feeling that I got at some points in homecoming.
40:43 Best part of the entire game by far. I would legit play through this entire shit show of a game just to behold that tiny knife in all its glory for myself.
I really struggled with fighting any monsters in this game. Until I found out if you use the knife, you can essentially stun lock every enemy. What a not good game. Shame. The devs seemed more concerned with tying the game as much as possible with the movie rather than the Silent Hills lore.
This was actually my first silent hill game. This game scared the heck out of me. I know people complain and I can see why after playing the older ones, but this game was my first step into horror games and it did the job
"The idea of the Order Spreading Silent Hill's influence to another town could have been an interesting way the explore the series." I uh........I don't know how to tell you this. There was a pitch for a Silent Hill game that was LITERALLY EXACTLY THAT. And the Main character would have been a Priest (And Exorcist to be specific.) sent to prevent this, which would have been probably the first, if not only instance, of a Silent Hill Protagonist walking into Silent Hill/The Order's Hellscape fuckery KNOWINGLY AND ON PURPOSE. Alas, that game did not get made........which sucks cause that was one of the strongest suggestions for a Silent Hill game I've seen. "Main Character Doesn't react to the monster." All right, full disclosure, on the argument on which of the 2 (Homecoming and Downpour.) is better or worse, I'm one of the people who falls into the category of Downpour being the better game. Here's example one. Murphy upon seen Silent Hill's fuckery FREAKED THE HELL OUT, possibly more than any other Protagonist (Perhaps in no small part that, given Backstories, he might actually be the most normal and even mentally stable, not that that is a high bar, Protagonist of the Series (Possibly Ignoring the Vita and Arcade games, which I know little of.). Our boy here IS A SOLDIER after all, so he's......honestly he's just the Main Character of Origins. Those 2 (This game and Origin's Protagonists.) react possibly the least, and respond to Hellscape monsters by just going "Oh snap, better whup their ass." (Though the guy from Origins takes the cake for beating the shit out of Hellscape Monster WITH HIS BARE HANDS! Apparently Truckers are better suited for the Apocalypse than Soldiers. 'Shrugs'). Speaking of, Monster Designs. Despite the above...........yeah this game definitely has Monster Designs over Downpour (Though to Downpour's Credit, not all the Monsters are Murphy's Inner Demons which makes it stand out a bit in that regard, and more importantly They didn't crib any monster from other games in the franchise.). Now to the feel. ...... Ok I'll give Homecoming this, it looks and in some places FEELS more like a Silent Hill game. .... BUT Homecoming does alot of cribbing off the movies and other games (Including stealing monsters from them, where No one in Homecoming would have ANY connection to them. Those have no place in Homecoming.) whereas Downpour all the monsters are from that game, and are the demons of 2 different Characters. They aren't particularly well designed true, but they are Reflective of the People in Downpour. And That to me is worth more than simply looking like a Silent Hill game. The Endings in Homecoming are just terrible. Like full stop they are shit, some of Downpour's are as well, but at least thought was put into it. All right we are at the end, Let me ask a few questions about Homecoming's Plot. A. I asked this in the comments on the Super Best Friend's LP of this and I will ask it again. What if something wiped out one of the Family's bloodline before Sacrifice Day? I mean anything, an Accident, Murders, a Fucking Bear. Bears don't care about what Silent Hill wants. Is Silent Hill gonna punish Shepherd's Glen because of a particularly hungry Bear? B. Why is Silent Hill so specific with the Sacrifices? Like yeah the wrong son died, but he still died even if accidentally and the other 3 families went through with it, why does it have to be THAT specific? C. Inversely, why hasn't it been made a policy for these families to have a shitload of kids? As it stands, only 2 of the 4 families had more than 1 kid, unless those 2 families had another kid afterwards, and that's assuming the family is purely the male sides and not the female's and that the Mother hasn't gone through Menopause yet, then what? D. What the hell is the Cult even doing in this game? Not as in why are they in the game, as in why are they trying to accomplish in the game? If you stop to think about it the game's plot is all over the place and confusing. It's been years since I watched the Matt and Pat playthrough these 2 games, and Homecoming actually feels worse in this than I remembered, whereas Downpour is about the same, make of that as you will.
"B. Why is Silent Hill so specific with the Sacrifices? Like yeah the wrong son died, but he still died even if accidentally and the other 3 families went through with it, why does it have to be THAT specific?" This one actually makes sense, and is probably the most interesting thing about the game even though it's severely understated in-game. The sacrifices were only specific because the cult believed in it to an extreme degree. The families in Shepard's Glen were only punished for two reasons: because they believed that they had to be punished, and because they wanted to be punished. Breaking the ritual was the catalyst that makes them think they're going to be punished, but the reality is that the botched sacrifice exposed just how broken the families were over having to commit atrocities for the sake of their religion, and their collective guilt and generational trauma was what manifested the events of Homecoming. Every single parent who dies to a Silent Hill manifestation is a cult member who begs for forgiveness from their child. There is only one cult member who sacrificed a child and didn't succumb to guilt over it, and that's Judge Holloway, which is why she's initially able to escape her death. Alex didn't really save her, she was spared because she didn't believe she deserved to be punished.
The thing about punching monsters and.not really reacting to them in Origins is that it oddly fits in thematically with the story considering how the game emphasizes on Travis's hidden serial killer tendency and repressed hatred through the portrayal of the Butcher which tortures and kills monsters especially the female based ones such as the nurse and two-back (note that Travis had a shitty childhood because of his mother who tried to kill him)
Downpour and Shattered Memories are the 2 only SH games I have not finished of the western games (aside of book of memories) Meanwhile I have beaten Origins about 2 or 3 times and Homecoming 3 times (good ending, bad ending and UFO ending) Downpour just bored me extremely and SM was just confusing to get through when i played it.
Harry and Heather are the sanest people in the games. Harry was taking Cheryl there on vacation, not knowing any of the shenanigans going on and Heather got pulled into it because the cult wanted her to birth god.
I hope this one doesn't get deleted, this was a well made video and I feel like lately TH-cam has done what ever is possible to make this platform worse and worse for content creators and viewers alike.
Silent hill has always been the type of game i love to hear about but haven’t got the nerve to try. It’s an odd paradox where i hate being scared but love horror games. Anything that i’ve played that was remotely close to a horror game would have to be the evil within and a little bit of the original resident evil 2 as a child, but roughly a half hour of it before i got scared as wet myself from it. That does make me want to ask, honestly, what the first thing others got scared by, be it tv, video games, movies, what was something that genuinely terrified you to the point of making you stay up late at night in fear of having bad nightmares about it? And no judgement either, this is a judgement free thread, unless you try to judge someone, in which case we’ll judge and belittle the accuser until you buzz off.
I know this is a dumb reply, but I never really got scared by games or movies, until I found the Battington tapes. Again I know this is dumb, but that was the first "horror" media I saw that made my fight or flight kick in. Specifically it was the whole "What's the matter foxy? I thought you wanted an audience" sequence. Now that I think of it though I can't remember if it was squimpus' originals or the Battington remakes, but point is it scared the shit outta me.
Two things of note to make this game really easy, dodging forward turns into a block. The knife stun locks everything and can be used all the time on every enemy.
Fun thing, if you kill Siam on xbox 360, you get an achievement ""Shades of James" meaning that likely James did go through with the rituals to bring Mary back and now they're together forever, with her being the female figure on his back
I remember being 11 and my buddy letting me borrow a resident evil 4. Hearing that truck engine and knowing that the only back up you had is gone... I had a hard time making it past the first three enemies after that. Leon turning around and saying "shit". Genius! Besides dead space I can't think of another game that gives me so much anxiety.
Your channel is hands down one of my favorites. I found you just before you started these in-depth game essays just about a year ago. You've really grown man I love your content keep it up.
Seems to me, the final room of the mission is actually the same as the final mission from the Dead Messenger mission with the Psion boss. They just added the engine for us to destroy.
If homecoming and downpour were combined it would make for an amazing SH, the monster designs, bosses and some grotesque areas plus the atmospheric feeling of isollation from downpour and the puzzles
The first time I played through this game, I got the UFO ending. That confused me so much. I didn't think UFO endings were possibly on first playthroughs in Silent Hill games. At least it gave me a cool ray gun as a reward.
I actually really enjoyed homecoming. It’s nowhere near the same quality that Team Silent created, but for what it’s worth, it’s a good bit of fun and super creepy. I replay it every now and then for kicks
@@awetistic5295 If your choice is garbage gameplay or garbage gameplay with infinite stunlock and no semblance of thrill then maybe the game just sucks.
@@yoursonisold8743 Maybe as a connoisseur of bad games, my tolerance for gameplay is just incredibly high. On my first playthrough, I used regular weapons and only found out about the knife thing at the very end. Still, I didn't have issues with the gameplay - it wasn't great, but it did the job. Slashing away at everything that moved with the knife was kind of hilarious and gave me time to enjoy the atmosphere that isn't all bad. The original Silent Hill has... let's say, rather clunky gameplay as well and it's still one of my favorite games ever. Everyone's different, I guess. I'm probably the only person that unironically enjoys tank controls.
The game implies Alex was already born with a mental disturbance (which only got worse after losing Josh), but I think what mental disturbance is going to depend on how you play with him through out the game. It can be "Peter Pan syndrome" (Hospital ending), Anti-social disorder (Pyramid Head ending), or my condition, which is Asperger (Good and "Drown" endings). After all of this, I like to believe the canon ending is the "Drown". I don't think it was all a dream in that ending. I think a miracle was performed. One similar to when the original Goddess was born through the Man and the Woman's prayer.
So the best (or most broken part) part of this game is that the basic knife combo stun locks most enemies, so you get ample ammo for the few enemies that suck to melee. It had so much potential, but was an easier 1000 gamer score at the time.
This, so much. Once I realized you just have to get the knife to destroy everything in your way, I started to enjoy the game quite a bit. It was so dumb, but also hilarious.
These were both bad Silent Hill games, but I actually enjoyed Homecoming more than Downpour. Something about the atmosphere left me with that lonely/empty vibe as if I were playing one of the classic games, while I can't say Downpour ever did this to me. The soundtrack also stuck with me, and the monster design was more well thought out. It wasn't anywhere near the original games but still more enjoyable to me personally than Downpour.
I really liked how we had a character other than the player that saw the monsters. Shame it happened in the worst one. Another thing I’d love to see would be more reactions from characters. While it may seem dumb that one guy jokes around, that’s an actual coping method for people experiencing extreme stress. In the games from my notice we mostly get denial or fight- but there’s SO many different emotions. Why can’t we see a side character freeze up in fear and get ‘game ended’ for that? Or what about someone getting overly paranoid and falling prey to that?
As much as combat is not the focus of survival horror games, it's important for it to be well designed cuz you can't be scared if you're getting mad at the same
59:53 I know this is a nitpick, but "maternity" refers strictly to the mother. I believe you got "maternal" mixed up with "parental", which refers to both parents. But yeah, Aminion's pregnant appearance could refer to Alex and Joshua's mother, Lillian. And the fact that Amnion refereces the amniotic sac, which surrounds the fetus.
I believe pyramid head shows up and hunts who ever had some sort of guilt depending on what they did since he’s a executioner, I like the idea of pyramid head to do with judging people and hunting them down until the people understand what the issue was so pyramid head would move onto the next victim which makes a lot of sense which the movie does really well with him hunting rose because she adopted his master alessa’s other half so he was testing her to see how much she would be willing to hunt for Sharron and what side she was one, pyramid head feels like a judge aswell, there has been references to pyramid early on through the games before he even made his first debut, the first clue was a keychain of his giant knife on a desk somewhere, I can’t remember where it is exactly but it is in silent hill 1 as I remember so it’s like a hint that he does exist in the towns lore somehow, maybe he use to be a living executioner in the medieval ages and eventually died, maybe alessa’s mothers family we’re linked to it somehow, i wish there was a origin story to do with this explaining the guy that did his job until he was killed and eventually became the monster pyramid head years later by alessa’s dark magic, that lore would dig even deeper into pyramids history
I always knew something was wrong with Homecoming when they stole that opening gurney sequence literally straight out of Jacob's Ladder. Since Silent Hill Homecoming was made by an American team it feels like they took inspiration from hollywood films like the SH movie and Jacob's Ladder, and basically copied everything from there instead of thinking of things themselves like original Team Silent did. I was a huge silent hill 1 fan when that game first came out so I studied them a ridiculous amount and read lore like crazy back on GameFAQS when that's all we had. Also: I think the PC version otherworld transition definitely looks off, it did not look that awkward on the console when I played it. Maybe it's the high resolution its not supposed to be viewed in.
Silent Hill was always very much inspired by Jacob's Ladder, especially the second game. So yeah, I didn't mind the opening, even liked it back then, but overall, Homecoming is the definition of heavy-handed and unsubtle.
37:54 That tiny hole isn't just you, everybody agrees that's the best part of the game. I think I spent like 20 minutes walking around the entire basement and building above trying to figure out wtf to do.. I think someone in stream told me there's a tiny ass hole in the wall, impossible to spot unless you're looking for it lol. It should've been telegraphed, seeing as it's the first one the player will find, so they'll know they need to look for those in the future.
As mediocre Downpour was, I'm still glad they at least knew to not use Pyramid Head as the big bad monster to represent Murphy Pendleton. Like you said, Pyramid Head was JAMES' character... So seeing him appear again was weird.
Yeah, I think it was pretty obvious to a lot of us that Silent Hill homecoming takes its inspiration from the movie But it honestly seems like it takes its inspiration EXCLUSIVELY from the movie (The first transformation scene being an almost shot for shot remake of the bathroom transformation scene from the movie) The result of Silent Hill homecoming being something like a broken game of telephone Due to the movie taking inspiration reference from multiple games rather than just one It's interesting because I know the movie is divisive among a lot of fans I personally can see how much the creator of FIRST film genuinely loved the franchise and was trying to pay homage to it as best he could with the studio looming over him While Silent Hill homecoming very much felt like a homework assignment trying to check boxes or desperately meet a word count
back in the day i liked the movie but was upset it wasn't exactly as the first game, but after re-watching it now, i totally get it, you have only one chance at making the movie and you want to throw the best stuff in. now, that doesn't apply at the games, that's just being lazy and don't understanding the franchise at all
Dam I heard the original vid got taken down. I just want to reinforce that I love Homecoming and adore all the 8 games of the franchise. Hope this doesn't get taken down again as I felt this was a really good video.
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I have to pin the sponsor comment for legal reasons, but I wanted to leave something in case anyone is confused
I’ve had to reupload this video. It's been out for a couple of weeks now, but for some reason, along the way, the algorithm flagged this video, demonetised it and age restricted it.
I’ve triple checked all the rules, it DOES NOT BREAK ANY OF THEM.
I appealed with this information, the appeal was rejected within 5 minutes.
I went to TH-cam support directly, who refused to actually review the video, instead they referred me to the rules and said I was breaking them (Very Helpful). After multiple emails back and forth, yesterday, I discovered that almost every single comment on the video has been deleted by TH-cam, I took to twitter to get help, they also just returned with the rules, didn’t even answer why all of the comments where gone
So I have no idea what is going wrong, but the video is being targeted (Why would the algorithm target a video game review, I do not know) but rather than suffer with this mess, I’ve cut anything that could be remotely deemed excessively violent and I’m trying to re-upload, wish me luck, sorry for the long and confusing mess, I hope it’s sorted now!
@@TotallyPointlessTV I which you luck as well
@@TotallyPointlessTV oh ok I was so confused lmao
stay strong boss
Yeah, I pretty sure I watch this already. I wanna write something about YT, but worried it might cause some trouble in the eye of AI algorithm.. which then cause trouble to your vid as you mention. So anyway, guess I watch it again. Just to make the view up back. Wish the best to you and keep post more vid.
I hate how prolific Pyramid Head has become. He was James PERSONAL torment, not some executioner for the order. He was a metaphor for James hatred for himself, for what he did to Mary. Making him anything else waters down the idea and makes it less interesting. But I get it "Popular character=money'.
Same thing with the Bubblehead Nurses which represent his sexual frustrations due to Mary’s unavailability which probably made him lustful for the nurses at her hospital.
i always thought that since in the water is the canon ending his suicide left a stain on silent hill so he became a permanent fixture
He's also kind of goofy looking and oddly specific.
I always saw the manifestations as permanent fixtures on the town, regardless of if the person who accidentally created them was able to fix their problems or not. Kinda like how even if you were forgiven/forgave someone for something super bad, it's still a thing that was done and can never truly be undone.
@@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtrollp
The worst part about this game is that it had so much potential; it had an interesting premise that hadn't been done before (dealing specifically with military PTSD), pretty good voice acting, and an absolute banger of a Soundtrack from Yamaoka.
They should've taken notes from Jacob's Ladder
@@dt3947 Didn’t they already take inspiration of the twitching effect from Jacob’s Ladder?
@@dt3947 The hospital opening was ripped straight out of Jacob’s Ladder too
As far as the horror element. Or perhaps the western touch just takes the fear of the unknown out.
I agree, like say what you will about the character of Alex Shepard, but I'll admit that Brian Bloom is a damn good VA who at least does a pretty solid performance with what he's given to work with.
This games plot had so much potential, a soldier who has seen the horrors of war being tormented by the town is an idea with lots of potential and so is the "unwanted son" stuff about his parents planning on sacrificing him his whole life, really is too bad they dropped the ball on the execution of those ideas
Agreed. They instead decided to go down the road of “oh no he’s just a loony who thought he was in the military”.
@@MrSlendyMannn i think that's the same as ending a story with "but then it was all a dream"
I seriously don't understand why the hell they went with the "Nope, kid wasn't a vet, but a loony" - like, nothing about the story would change if he just had joined the army and repressed his memories instead of that, and so much story potential was lost with him being insane.
And they COULD have worked in a figure who was similar to Pyramid Head as a manifestation of potential guilt for lives taken during war, but Konami said fuck it and decided that Pyramid Head HAD to be in the game. Those poor designers man…
They could have done a Jacobs Ladder plot with the character in cutscenes going on daily life and the “horror scenes” are just prolonged gameplay elements exploring twisted nightmare worlds as you find more about yourself and how you died.
I think the plot would have been less contrived if Alex actually _was_ a vet. He got sick of his parent's neglect and overt favoritism, ran away and enlisted before his family knew what happened. His parents were forced to sacrifice their youngest son, but because Alex was the intended sacrifice (maybe it had to be firstborns, I dunno), it didn't work and all the monsters started appearing.
That way, it would make sense that Alex would be so good at fighting and it wouldn't feel like so much of a ripoff of _Silent Hill 2_ playing the whole "blocked out killing his loved one" card and Alex would looking for Josh without having any reason to assume he was dead. Then the game could have used survivor's guilt as a running theme; he saw good men die out in the field and feels responsible for it, and Josh's death could have been avoided if he didn't leave. His parents would blame Alex for destroying their family, perhaps one of them joining the cult in hunting Alex, only to come to the realization that it was them who did it by the end. Alex coming to terms with himself by the end being the "Good Ending" and going mad trying to survive the Otherworld as though it were Vietnam being the "Bad Ending."
Him having the jacket isn't even a big issue. Might've bought it at a surplus store.
But yeah, good point with survivor's guilt. The games always have a theme of reflection. A darker and dirtier mirror if the trouble the protagonists have.
His way of fighting actually does very effectively foreshadow that he's not a vet though, since he uses big flashy videogamey movements instead of fighting the way an actual soldier would.
I for one really dislike when games/movies/shows needlessly make a character a cop or a soldier. Maybe a martial artist or someone who enjoys shooting would be a nice change of pace.
Well, you managed to fix some of the most jarring issues with the game, big congrats!
I'm so scared about the SH2 remake & the other games Konami's going to release this year. Especially knowing Bloober Team is producing one of them. *shivers*
@@jacobstaten2366 This actually was a story that had a good reason for it though. Him being a soldier, or rather thinking he was one, was a driving factor behind his characterization, personality, and his story.
I have to pin the sponsor comment for legal reasons, but I wanted to leave something in case anyone is confused
I’ve had to reupload this video. It's been out for a couple of weeks now, but for some reason, along the way, the algorithm flagged this video, demonetised it and age restricted it.
I’ve triple checked all the rules, it DOES NOT BREAK ANY OF THEM.
I appealed with this information, the appeal was rejected within 5 minutes.
I went to TH-cam support directly, who refused to actually review the video, instead they referred me to the rules and said I was breaking them (Very Helpful). After multiple emails back and forth, yesterday, I discovered that almost every single comment on the video has been deleted by TH-cam, I took to twitter to get help, they also just returned with the rules, didn’t even answer why all of the comments where gone
So I have no idea what is going wrong, but the video is being targeted (Why would the algorithm target a video game review, I do not know) but rather than suffer with this mess, I’ve cut anything that could be remotely deemed excessively violent and I’m trying to re-upload, whish me luck, sorry for the long and confusing mess, I hope it’s sorted now!
Classic yt
i was wondering why i thought i'd had watched this already, though i was going nuts tbh, sorry for YTs fuckups tho, you dont deserve that, love your vids
TH-cam has gone so spineless to their own independent youtubers that they found PEGI 18+ video games are considered to be real violence and demonetised + age restricted
fuck youtube.
I’m about 23 minutes in and I noticed that you cut out the parts referencing anything related to fetuses or babies (Like the one you can see within the first nurse you encounter)
Maybe someone got freaked out by that or smth. I’m gonna watch through this again regardless of change because this is still a great video
Honestly, Medic in the military for a Silent Hill character would be amazing, he could struggle with not saving as many people or even make him a sort of Desmond Doss where he couldn’t shoot someone and got his allies killed by his actions.
And maybe there's an enemy that guilt trips you for failing/not saving them
@@ADumbMf_ broken people I'm wheelchairs or crawling with no legs, the unique sound would be a distorted scream: "HELP ME, SAVE ME!"
This could be a great setup.
the problem is it would just be a bad copy of Silent Hill 2, which is the only game in the series based on the main character's inner demons
@@aaron75fy I mean, that’s sorta what Silent Hill is, an area where the manifestation of one’s demons can arise.
@@ADumbMf_ it could’ve even been someone he considered a brother and lives with that regret, we could also delve a bit into war PTSD.
My biggest issue with this game, gameplay aside, there's too much human interaction. That hopeless feeling of isolation simply isn't there.
This! Oh, and also, I love your pfp
Silent hill 2 had a lot of human interaction
@@Khoriander granted the NPCs were so enthralled in their own traumas that interacting with them felt more isolating than friendly or familiar
@@Khoriander The difference there was that every NPC in that game was dealing with their own personal trauma, aside from the little girl. The uncanny, dream-like acting cemented this point further and made every interaction with another person feel unnatural to really drive home how lonely you feel in Silent Hill. Homecoming doesn’t really have this. It tries, but it sucks.
@@Odinsday true, maybe homecoming would've been better without the extra people. Perhaps if Alex felt as if he was the only one left it'll make the game feel more isolating but keep in mind that the game was made by someone else's perspective of Silent Hill. Every nightmare is different for everyone and everyone has different nightmares.
*Basement has fish demon people*
Alex: Hm, nothing unusual here.
*Curtis has boots and gloves*
Alex: Woah what the heck?
Goes to show that he is not very stable
hahahahha :DDD
😂😂
I think his parents being split in half is indicative of how torn they were despite knowing what to do. It's clear both harbour deep regrets at how they treat Alex even if they knew it was necessary
Konami execs forced Pyramid Head into the game. The developers knew the lore, but had to follow Konami's decree. It's also where you get all the movie stuff
I could guess that, honestly. I mean, the game seems to have a solid identity of it's own, unlike downpour for example, this one clearly has plenty of elements I could draw from to make original enemies, yet drops this generic aspects on it that clearly felt alien and shoveled in there by outside sources.
feels like 99% of the time a game’s (or really any medium’s) development would be better off with the producers taped to a wall for the duration.
There it goes - fuck konami is forever.
@@oscaranderson5719that’s how you get feature creep and development hell
I mean if you think of pyramid head as a personification of guilt then it kind of makes sense for him to be there?
Not everyone hated Homecoming. It's my favorite Silent Hill actually. My buddy and I JUST came back from Afghanistan and had 4 days off as soon as we got state side. I went and bought a few games so we could just spend 4 days drinking and playing video games in a hotel like 3 hours away from base because we just wanted to be away from the Army for a while.
I played through that whole game (which was already a 4-5 year old game at the time I think) drinking the whole time. I think partly because of the alcohol and partly because of how much I related to Alex (way more than just the premise of coming back from a war) I don't remember it as a video game I played. I remember it like it happened to me. I never want to go back and replay it for that exact reason. There's no way it could live up to that. Right time, right place, right game.
This was cool to read.
If you put everything Homecoming and Downpour did right together, you'd get a decent game. It's weird how they both seemed to have weaknesses in the opposite directions.
@@shinbakihanma2749 In Downpour, thought the rain was an interesting take on the setting that was both appropriate and unfamiliar, the town itself was interesting and that the story was a little more focused thematically than Homecoming and had some real potential if they were willing to let their main character be a total scumbag. But it also had horrible monster design, the combat and running stages were terrible and didn't have the balls to really push the boundaries of its themes to any level that mattered. Homecoming had great monster designs, interesting premises they went all in on and was the more playable of the two (not good, but less bad), but was bogged down by too many ideas all at once which left a disjointed mess in the end, a whole bunch of blatant pandering to long term fans, a pretty railroady town and a lot of combat that felt repetitive.
@@shinbakihanma2749 Except it did plenty of things right, while Homecoming was utter garbage all around.
@@evilminionnumber2 I remember saying something much akin to this before. But while I'll agree that the monster designs were still better in Homecoming (being actual monsters and all), I think their fleshy near-single-tone color pallets is still pretty bad. These monsters even seemed to kinda glow in the dark at times and the damage effect on them looked weirdly colored too. And of course the stun-lock combo combat made them all a joke. Because of that alone, I think the combat was still better in Downpour because it's absolutely terrible "boo I'm a scary human" enemies were at least somewhat of a threat in combat. Plus, the character wasn't doing dumb twirling spin attacks.
@@keystrix3704 I think you mean downpour in last couple sentences
@@theitfactorjameswheezer2852 Oops. Fixed! Thanks for the catch~
The randomness of the endings isn't even the worst part. The worst part is that the joke ending is thrown with the normal ones, with perfectly normal criteria. In the other games, you had to work to get the UFO ending, and you couldn't get in in your first playthrough, so basically you only really went after it if you _knew_ it was a thing. Here, you can play perfectly normally, not forgiving your parents for treating you like shit your entire life and planning to kill you all along, but still do the right thing with Wheeler, which is an understandable course of events... and you get a meme ending _out of nowhere._
SPOILER FOR SILENT HILL 2
Also, James doesn't always kill Maria, he kills Mary in his worst ending, but you're right. There's absolutely no randomness to it, it's very thematically appropriate to James and the player's behavior.
What if it isn't a meme ending but the actual canon ending?
not to mention, you also unlock the Laser gun afterwards and just cheese your way through even more effortlessly than with the knife on your next gameplays even on the highest difficulty lmao
This. The game makes you hate the parents and like Wheeler. It really does feel like the game is setting you up to get the UFO ending.
SH2 came out around 20 years, screw spoilers. James killed Mary, his wife, this is canon, Maria is the one dressed like Christina Aguilera who wasn't real, in the good ending, James takes her out of Silent Hill and she coughs as they drive away, implying she too will get sick just like Mary. The other endings have James either driving into the lake or him and Laura walking out of Silent Hill after he promises to take care of her. The dog ending is the best one though.
I got the joke ending on my first playtrough. Idiotic decision on devs part...
I think it'd be cool if he used his cool, dramatic flourishes in the dream, but used more realistic and simple motions once the game started.
Gotta admit this videogame analysis are way more entretaining than i expected. The Silent Hill ones feel specially nostoalgic. Keep it up and i can't wait for the Silent Hill 4 analysis!
Every soulless reference to the movie in this game while watching this video made me roll my eyes to the back of my skull. I'm convinced nobody who made this game knew anything about the original series, just watched the movie.
Yeah, that's someething I only noticed after watching this vid because I didn't watch the movie in ages or play the game in any close timeframe of the movie, but after having it pointed out, it seems insane they went so all in on the movie when the movie had middling reviews at best.
So far the only thing i found wrong with the movie was it was not entirely accurate to the games lore, as a stand alone movie its a great one.
@@mlpfanboy1701 I agree, it changed up the aesthetic in a cool way with the mining town vibe but there's no reason every game going forward had to adopt the same mining town aesthetic, was my point
The developers knew the lore, it didn't matter. They were told to add movie references, and Pyramid. At the same time this was going on, their producer had them try to remove most references to the Order because he never liked the cult aspects
What are you talking about ⁉️ That trash movie "sh" and "sh2"⁉️..
That is something that imbeciles watch❗ Never saw anything so awfully bad , that tried to ride on game's success❗
What that dog represent. “ It represents you mum. What do you want from me” best line 10/10 😂
Ya know i think the idea of an ex military protag could actually work amazingly well in silent hill if they actually learned into it with the other world instead of the classic rusty look imagine if the other world looked like a war zones so one area is covered in sand and cave walls to represent Afghanistan for example or even one area inspired by the trenches of ww1 even
@volpe and have the enemies look like soldiers or different branches. The pyramid man type entity should be a general
The Blair Witch game kind of did that
you mean like death stranding
Idk… he’s have to actually HAVE been to war to have memories to be haunted by. Imagination alone wouldn’t be enough I’d think. Also, his dad shunned him when he could, so it’s not like he remembers being told war stories by his dad to fuel his madness. This game wasn’t well written at all. Nothing felt original or thought through. It’s as if they watched the movie and went: this is what silent hill is…and some faucet of SH2
@@pandamonium9255 yeah i know alex didn't actually but i'm saying i think if they actually did a real ex military protag could be amazing
13:08 I remember a comment on the original video talking about how this could be representative of the abuse Alex had to got through because like you said it's "just another day" for him and he wouldn't expect his mother to react anyways. The devs could have definitely worked on that by adding some interesting dialogue options like the mother asking what happened and Alex being like "it's nothing"
Shut pubgmobile
BC you aren't writing between the lines, the mother allowed the abuse of Alex, and Josh by his father, a more agressive mother, will just end the beast by herself. This action of Alex is similar to Laura Palmer to her mother on Twin Peaks, the mother figure was almost like a shadow in the house, the father vanished her into him. Lilian should end Adam,. like Angela did with his father.
Scarlet is my favorite boss at least design wise. She scared me so much as a kid. Shame the rest of the game couldn’t even come remotely close to scaring me. Genuinely how did they make every human character look so bad?
It'd be very funny if one of the many, many holes and pits Alex jumps into just didn't lead anywhere. Like he keeps jumping into them just on instinct, under the assumption it's the way towards progress, but imagine if at one point it was just a hole and he got stuck.
That kind of happens in SH2
@@202cardlinethe bottom of the well kinda one?
Silent Cave: Nutty Putty
I love that it's like a walk through.. but with the best commentary and then explanation of why people love and hate the games.. your channel is seriously my new favorite.
Imagine giving Wheeler the med kit, only for him to go "Shieeet. Knife to see you too, Alex!"
My biggest issues with homecoming:
1. the load screen giving hints totally takes you out of the atmosphere and into some cheap arcade shooter
2. The monsters. They just threw nurses in in random places like the town hall and other places that make no sense. Then pyramid head shows up for some reason. The smog creature is neon purple and yellow for some reason. Not creepy at all.
3. Too much talking! The whole original atmosphere in the first 4 games revolved around being isolated and going through the town alone. I mean I was surprised they didn't just give Alex a pip boy and tell him to just go liberate settlements
A silent hill game that has to be made is one where you are one of the children of the town.
Just imagine. Imagine the horrors, imagine only being able to escape by using your tiny size as the only advantage, dodging the awful monsters created only by adults that completly forgot their only purpose.
Thanks for the nightmares just imagining that
@@shadowrosegaming3566 a child running and crying while an abomination that represents an abusive father screams curse words at you
That would be awesome! Too bad Silent Hill is dead.
Or you play as Laura and the game just becomes Abandoned Town Simulator 2022 and James is fighting for his life while you kick keys away and lock him in rooms while blowing raspberries unaware of all the horrors happening around you.
Too bad children will never experience the horrors of Silent Hill since they were innocent humans. That was proven by Laura herself in sh2.
The nurses don’t respond to light and sound, that’s the mannequins. They changed it for the movies so it was the nurses instead. So that feature is not from previous games, it’s exclusively from the movies.
I love the Monster designs in this game especially Amnion, Scarlet, and Asphyxia honestly Amnion is probably my favorite Silent Hill boss monster design in the entire series it’s absolutely creepy and terrifying
Yeah, as much as i love the older silent hill games, the bosses always sucked
The inclusion of the Nurses feels a bit forced though considering how specific they were to James’ sexual frustration in combination with his wife’s hospitalization. They really have no place in this game.
Scarlet is probably one of the creepiest boss fights, especially combined with the music that plays during the fight
I remember dolls name but that was a cool boss
YESSSS. The doll boss is something that will haunt me in the best way for forever 🖤🖤
I've always wanted someone to remake games that were crappy, unnoticed, or unappreciated in its time. Taking what we know now as to what went wrong with games or with how people never gave certain games a chance or simply forgot about them; the nostalgia for them would probably interest a large audience. A part of me wants to do this myself however, building a team willing to take that risk and getting funding for a project like that would be a crazy challenge itself.
A silent hill where a combat medic after killing someone in self defense and letting his friends die by worrying about himself he's driving mad and thus he finds himself in silent hill would be a neat idea
Thanks for keeping a positive outlook despite all this game's flaws. It must suck to be on one of these dev teams, working your entire ass off on assets and whatnot, only for it to flop. So I appreciated when you pointed out that an area looked good or was well designed.
look up some interviews with the team leads of double helix.... it's disgusting how they praise their own game while completely shitting on the previous titles about how bad they played and how the stories didn't make sense and had no emotional impact and blablabla... for that alone, i'm glad the game bombed massively
@@stefanforrer2573 To be fair, Silent Hill, just like Resident Evil and the other survival horror games at that time, were quite a bit clunky. Not saying they're bad games, just that they were developed at a time when devs still had to figure out how 3d survival horror works right. That counts for SH, RE, Parasite Eve, Dino Crisis, etc
On the other hand, stuff like tank controls (which are basically 1st person controls in a 3rd person game) gave the player a handicap that makes the survival part much more threatening.
If we look at the RE remakes, we get a good idea what people expect nowadays, but that doesn't make the originals any worse.
Wow for some reason hadnt considered it but yes 100% there must be staff who worked super hard and it must of been crushing to have the game be so bad in aspects they had no control over.
@@stefanforrer2573 Was it Double Helix…or Collective!?
Or…were they to say it by KONAMI…!?
@@fernie-fernandez Whatever the case, it's clear the main devs were talentless hacks, with maybe a few people who knew their stuff (the people who were in charge of designing the bosses clearly knew how to represent the causes of their deaths with a Silent Hill flair, hope they went to better projects after this clusterfuck)
I genuinely liked wheeler, yea his character is out of place in this series, but it was so cool having someone fighting with you who’s fully aware of the monsters, nice sense of comradery the series didn’t really have before.
it also gives him a good reason for locking you up at gun point he's been the same shit as you and isn't up for a surprise carotid remodel but you tell him something that lines up and he immediately changes his tune meaning if nothing else he wanted to be nice to you
Aren't you forgetting somebody?
Spoilers for Silent Hill 4
Like Eileen? You end up in the Otherworld together and she can attack enemies with you
@@paragonjones13 but henry isnt a solider, or thinks he is one.
Hilarious in the ufo ending
"Sense of comradery" in a series that always tried to emphasize your loneliness and powerlessness is another wrong thing about this game.
The monsters are brilliant in this game, the soundtrack is also amazing (especially Scarlet's theme...so haunting and beautiful).
The lore is tragic...the sacrificing of children and them turning into monsters is depressing/horrifying. I like the idea of Alex forgetting what's happened, reminds me of SH2
What's the most annoying thing about the game is the gameplay...the use of combat, the camerawork during fighting (wtf, it's not an action game), the buggy shit going on and having to mash buttons at certain points.
The environment feels very...open, there aren't a lot of places that make you feel safe like small rooms in SH3 for example, or the room in 302 before the hauntings.
It introduces a lot of characters as well, and barely any of them are memorable/important or likeable ESPECIALLY Joshua (who we're trying to protect/save/find and who should at least be likeable to give us some motivation)
It takes away from the experience of the game, you're supposed to be scared/anxious not annoyed at your dumbass brother.
I also don't like the introduction of choice between dialogues, it removes you from the cutscene and takes away from the character's personality
All of those things make me not want to repeat this game, it makes me uncomfortable and I get no nostalgia from it.
10:56 rofl
If it makes you happier the children don’t turn into monsters and it’s just manifestations of the parents guilt
If it helps you understand the combat scheme, the protagonist Alex is believed to be a soldier.. when he was sent to a loony home. He could’ve been delusional and just did military training for no reason. That’s the internet theory so far.
@@IamOkita Because you forget one important detail, he is already gone when the game started, like Jacob's Ladder, we are seeing the journey to afterlife of a young man that was torture by his family, therefore Silent Hill granted his last wish to be a hero for his brother.
This game is the most similar to Jacob's ladder than the others, like Jacob he wants to be a hero for Gabriel, a son that he believe he lost in a car accident, and Jacob was the driver, which is actually wrong, Gabriel was a manifestation of the person that he loves most, and the one that won't let him move forward. Similar to Alex with Josh, his only family was Josh, and he actually didn't murder him, he thought that, because the fate of Alex is more dark, he was sent into a mental hospital by his abusive family, in there he was end by doctors with a lobotomy, in this last moment of life, Alex big wish was to be again with Josh, his true family, and his only friend.
"Now look I have 2 little sisters. I love'em more than anything. But if either of those 2 dipshits decided to run deeper into hell hospital for shits and giggles they're dead. That's on them." That's the line that pulled me into this video.
Cringe
@@ippoverseI bet you were banned from the Crayola factory for eating all the crayons.
Weird projection @@TheDragon975
@@TheDragon975 You're gay
Lol same, had to pause just to let out a good chuckle.
Never played this Silent Hill but from what I see from the intro with the protagonist being wheeled through hospital hallway's is a direct rip from the very film what inspired the Silent Hill franchise to begin with! That film of course, is Jacob's Ladder.
You aren't wrong at all, this game is the most similar to that movie, which is interesting, and unveil the truth of the whole plot.
Yeah, because they failed to explore Alex as a young soldier, that means teenager topics should be blend in the mix, like his high school,. a teenager story without high school WTF Double Helix, you did a game about Buffy, High School is a hell. That will separate this from Jacob's Ladder, and look more like a sequel of the movie, bc in Jacob Ladder is the father to suffer, this time will be the son like figure.
But also this people was clueless about SH past, there is a big military lore of SH, that they could explore in this game, I mean even the OG Team wanted a game about a soldier.
Yeah you lost me as soon as you said “never played this silent hill”. Maybe just stfu then, how about that?
You can knock the game on a lot of things, but it can also be acknowledged that despite being developed by an entirely dofferent team, they were at least trying to pay attention beyond a surface level.
This game feels like a fan rendition. "Let's put Pyramid head in, everyone loves Pyramid head" "everyone loves the nurses, the spooky dogs-" without understanding why people loved them in the first place. The behavior of people and logic progression does not make sense and makes it near impossible to get invested.
The thing about pyramid head is that while his appearance here kind of fits the red hooded boogeyman description from the stories told to the children and he only kills the father and leaving alex alone, the devs should have used a different design for him, like give him a schism like head (like the actual schism used to represent the whole family in that one scene) covered in a red hood and wielding a large ring like weight on a chain which looks like the item the brother was killed over
I agree, seeing his movie design in homecoming while representing something COMPLETELY different was a little jarring and didn’t sit quite right with me. They definitely needed to change his design up seeing as his purpose in this game is different than the film or SH2.
@@Trigger__Happy PH being in the movie says some effed up things about Alessa.
Or no character like that at all. Only SH2 had that concept of punishment because neither Harry, Heather, or Henry felt guilty about anything.
I thought the movie design was better but I think the original design should've stayed in the games
yeah lore wise his design is also based on the towns executioners so yeah they should probably change his uniform person depending
I think the real issue for the SH franchise was that SH2 set the bar so high that there was nowhere to go but down.
Guess you can say things went downpour
I respectfully disagree. Personally, i found SH 3 a better game overall
@@artemis1993I would say 2 and 3 are comparable. It’s a crime that team silent disbanded, the next game might have been another genre defining classic. I’ll always see SH4 as one or two decisions short of being of the same caliber. It’s the last time anything actually felt like silent hill 😢
I heard that team silent had a choice, to either go in the style of silent hill 1 or silent hill 2 for SH3. They went with following silent hill 1. They then later regretted the decision after they felt sh3 underperformed and they went back to the psychological thriller for sh4. The issue is, once the franchise shifted hands, the new developers hardly understood the importance of subtlety in horror, a more prominent trend in Eastern cultures than Western, as well as everything having a twist protagonist-an unfortunate legacy of sh2.
So in short, I half agree. SH2 is a deserving great game and set the bar very high, but I think the issue is team silent stopped being active and became reactive in their story to tell before disbanding and western companies try to break SH into a formula with checkboxes and in-your-face style horror.
@@artemis1993 3 is also horrible in terms of gameplay? Bloated weapon and item roster, monsters that overuse stock sound effects and don't have any significant symbolism (ooo look at the big fat man!) And a handful of instakill scenarios that you'll either never see coming or in the instance of the hallway chase controls so poorly that you're nearly guaranteed to take a death from it.
Thinking about it now, I also don't really care much for 3's story outside of the Heather-Alessa plotline and that one scene with Vincent. The rest of it is basically filler with the BS about "thE rEbIrth Of gAwd" and Claudia being a total cartoon villain.
I had a lot of problems with this game, but when I was in high school I played through it multiple times. The game had some decent ideas, but once you get to the point where you’re fighting order members it all went out the window I actually got the joke ending my first run (unintentionally).
I honestly really like this game. It's not a great game, but it was ok. That ending, though, would throw somebody off. What if you just didn't want to forgive your parents but were like Wheeler has been helping me every step of the way the least I could do is patch him up 💀. Then come around to the end of the game and you're getting freaking abducted by aliens lmaoo
One thing I will say this game is amazing with: The monster designs. Damn near every enemy and boss has a design that is just uncanny enough to be a horrifying design.
Shame they still felt the need to rip designs from SH2.
Too bad they get less scary when you completely destroy them in combat
@@NotAGoodUsername360 It really is, isn't it?
Put their stories together, use Homecoming's soundtrack and designs, and Downpour's gameplay.
Maybe- but the cool thing about the originals was the *purpose* of the designs, the designs being good is not a merit of the game, because the thought process was the exact same as yours, they looked at the design said "looks cool" and added in the game.
I’d respect Homecomings monster designs a lot more if half of them weren’t recycled from other Silent Hill games or from the movie.
One reason why Alex can roll around and does those overexagerated moves when attacking, is because he thought he was a soldier, so in his mind thats how soldiers fight and move. It might be a strecht and western devs are just idiots, but still cool to think it was that way.
Alex did not imagine that. His father was in the military and taught him combat skills
@@nguyenquyetthang1326 From dark souls maybe. Not something an actual soldier would do.
@@nguyenquyetthang1326 You ever try rolling around with a vest full of kit on?
And I guess his military father also made sure to teach him to spin 360 degrees when brandishing a knife because giving the enemy a clear shot of your back is the smartest move ever in close combat?
@@ZorotheGallade honestly fits. He idolizes soldiers and thinks they're cool so he does all these fancy moves like an army weeb.
I love how you deeply analyze each and every game you play that you make even the worst games look good, You're fr one of the best gaming channels I've ever found
Matt: "Well that *is* a satisfying shotgun."
Pat: "It is! I like how the framerate dies every time you shoot it."
Matt: *Laughs like a goblin*
Had to re-post that quote, since it's one of my personal favorite moments from the old Two Best Friends Play LPs.
If there's anything good that came out of this game it was that LP.
@@fbmb1337 It turned a simple Fire-Axe into a long endearing character.
My favorite moment was them encountering the first nurse enemy and Pat asking "Did you feel scared?" and Matt replying "I felt more aroused than scared."
Pat: "That's the issue.."
@@MrPikaGammer That was one of my favorite moments too,
"This is where the axe from Downpour went! It fell onto the other side of this huge pit!"
Which I believe Pat even pointed out that thanks to Silent Hill logic, that isn't outside the realm of possibility.
Hello fellow kids who are down with the devil~
My favorite part of the LP is when a common glitch basically whipped out their save file. The only way I'll fully experience this trash game again is through that LP too, as my first and only trip through the game was an infuriating experience.
Maaaaan i watched and rewatched the original and now you had to "fix" for TH-cams standards. Cheers man! Love your content and I can't wait to see more, hopefully a Dead Space or Resident Evil game.
Ooooooh he Had to re-upload the video I thought I was just going crazy
@@DURPInc he's done it with some of his older vids like Downpour and Man hunt i believe
I was like bro I watched this a week ago it felt like but it says 3 hrs I was genuinely getting worried I lucid dreamed its existance.
What were the changes? I didnt watch the original before it was removed
@@mreggshells8020 my best bet, removal of scenes and the deaths of characters, haven't seen it, but knowing TH-cam, it was the npc deaths
This game had a lot of bad, but I think it has a lot of gold in it too. The music for one, is incredible. "Witchcraft" is one of my favorites.
Shepard's Glenn is a great foil to Silent Hill, the adults in town sacrificing their children to a lovecraftian entity and so now they're being punished for it is not only great classic horror, but it also subtley conveys that the cult may have spread outside of Silent Hill, but the cult, and by extension any one the cult converts over to their perverse religion, cannot escape Silent Hill's punishment.
Someone on this dev team knew what they were doing, but the execution fell short.
I would love to see PointlessTV do the whole Silent Hill series
I'm waiting on him to do a review/playthrough of silent hill 3
I've always been in love with Asphyxia, and was so excited when I stumbled across the artist and got to talk to them about the design. I actually like this game, I just don't consider it much of a Silent Hill game lol (which I feel says a lot about it).
The plot about a cult sacrificing their kids to a god to abate it and that going awry when one of the people fucks it up and so on, while predictable to a degree, would've been an enjoyable story if it wasn't a SH game and just tried aping the movie and SH2's plot so much. Imo they really hamstrung themselves with that IP put on the game, since the combat, if reworked, could've been ok since it's not a silent hill property anymore with expectations attached.
How to fix this game:
-Make Alex an actual war veteran struggling with PTSD. Specifically, he’d be a Vietnam veteran, thereby making this a prequel. This would also have multiple implications for the story, from monster representations, to themes, to plot.
-During Fogworld exploration, the gameplay would be similar to previous games. In the Otherworld, Alex would become more aggressive and violent, leading to a more combat heavy experience.
-The siren heard during the Otherworld transitions would represent the sirens that would sound when Alex’s base was under attack, thereby putting him in a combat ready state.
-The monsters would represent things Alex saw and did during the war:
-Lurkers represent the Vietcong soldiers who would lie in wait before ambushing passing G.I.’s. This would also explain why they’re the only monster to scare Alex, since it was his biggest fear in the war.
-Smog represents those killed by white phosphorus and other chemical weapons
-Schisms represent Alex’s interpretation of his fellow soldiers, who would often swing back and forth between pleasant people and monsters
-Needlers represent the mangled bodies of his friends the Vietcong often left behind
-Siams represent Alex’s sexual frustration (Siams are wearing bondage gear if you look closely). More specifically, the female bodies on their backs are the Vietnamese prostitutes while the dominant male bodies represent the sexual beast Alex would become.
-Dogs represent the feral animals, scavengers, and dangerous predators that were attracted to the carnage.
-The bosses and Shepard’s Glen storyline would remain the same. Additionally, the Shepard’s Glen incident would be a catalyst to the other games, since The Order would feel pressured to accelerate their plans, knowing they’re the last sect in existence.
-The game’s overall theme would be sacrifice, since Alex views the sacrificed children as similar to the GI’s sacrificed by the government for the war.
-The good ending would be Alex coming to terms with his PTSD and forgiving himself. Additionally, he would no longer compare the war to Shepard’s Glen after realizing his friends _chose_ to lay down their lives voluntarily (irl only 1/3 of Vietnam vets were drafted), unlike the children who had no choice. This realization would cause Alex to conclude that he doesn’t have to be a monster and can still choose to be something better. Unlocked by avoiding combat except bosses and scripted fights while also helping and forgiving other people.
-Neutral ending would be Alex partially moving past his trauma, but only to the point of accepting that he did what he had to for survival. Alex would still be resentful and bitter to everyone else, believing people have only ever used him his entire life, and will continue to do so. Despite leaving Shepard’s Glen, Alex still sees the Fogworld overlayed with the real world, but free of monsters, representing his permanently grey and empty existence
-The bad ending would be Alex giving in to his murderous side, proving he had always been a monster, and deserves his place in hell. Unlocked by engaging in heavy combat, particularly going out of your way to kill monsters in the Fogworld and in areas not related to your objectives. Additionally, being cruel and ruthless to people is also a factor.
What’s sad, is that a few key changes in story, gameplay, and fixing bugs like what you mentioned could have made this game on the level of the first 4 silent hill games
I actually love the scarlet boss fight. Some of the monsters were really well done. The game is just okay.
There always be positive and negative in game designs
Same, she’s an amazing boss design and her music is really cool
It is my favourite boss fight in the SH games as well
Put this game's designs, OST, and bits of the story into Downpour and you'd've easily had a worthy successor to the franchise.
Likewise my dude. While there were a bunch of things I wasn’t completely smitten with, the game definitely had some gripping moments. That boss fight was ‘mwah’ (chef’s kiss).
I could be dumb but I only realized this after years I played this game: pyramid head could have a sense in this game, he represents self guilt, but this time he's not here for us, but for Adam. That's why he never attacks Alex
It could also represent taking life seeing as how he is meant to look like an executioner.
As someone who grew up with Silent Hill 2 - 4 and bought a PS3 specifically for Homecoming (seriously a next gen silent hill game? my hype was through the roof)
I still to this day haven’t finished Homecoming because of how much I hated it. And now kiddos that grew up with Homecoming being their first Silent Hill game are rabid defenders of the game not being “that bad” and it makes my eyes roll so hard that I’m worried they’re gonna get stuck looking inward at my brain.
The shift to the otherworld and Pyramid heads design are straight out of the movie. So if you just imagine it taking place in that universe, instead of the games, it makes it a bit better
The fact that you start things with a QTE and the main character fights monsters before like his 5th line of dialogue was such a terrible thing for me.
Looking back to the amazing monologue of James Sunderland and all that build up of Heather mason being a teenager just does so much for setting tone and character.
There’s so much wrong with this game from story to models to voice acting but what murders the game for me is all the reasoning of why this character is so combat centric and action savvy wasn’t even genuine. It all falls apart at the concept.
Not to mention the opening is almost a direct rip from the movie Jacobs Ladder (from the scene at the end of the movie.) It’s like every single aspect of this game is a poor amalgamation of copies of someone else’s ideas.
@@DisDatK9 Every Silent Hill was said to have been inspired by that movie so that’s a strange thing to complain about
@@DisDatK9 In fact 2 and 3 name drop it if I’m not mistaken
@@theitfactorjameswheezer2852 You're mistaking inspiration for copying.
@@theunknown3370 You're right. The first Silent Hill titles had a lot of inspiration from a bunch of other media. But it never felt like it was actually copy-pasting.
I agree about combining Downpour and Homecoming. The former had exploration, better graphics and combat you could avoid. The latter had better theming and monster design.
The core story seems good but it has some unfortunate decisions made by the dev team. There also isn't any of that loneliness you usually feel in Silent Hill games.
One of the only games where the conveyance of isolation is nearly non existent. I think that’s what truly is missing
TH-cam being a jackass towards their own creators as usual. Leaving a comment to help out the video, although with how good this one is it barely needs it. Keep on rocking on!
Hell, they do it do user posts too!
I can't tell you how many times I've had whole comments of mine deleted for no rhyme or reason due to utterly benign words or phrases youtube's algorithm deems offensive in some way.
Even get shadowbanned from some channels with no warning or explanation. TH-cam _really_ doesn't like onomatopoeia...
@@hippocratesnoah8642 Indeed. Mine got deleted for trying to tell someone my name on wat-pad. I have to try and spell things all weird just to not tick off the algorithm. It's annoying.
@@hippocratesnoah8642 What's a shadowban?
@@mfisher9977 Where you can post on channels but no one actually sees your comments.
Easy way to check is to make an alt, highlight your comment (click on how long ago the post was made), then switch accounts. If your post is not showing up, you've been shadowbanned. You can also do it by logging out too I think.
TH-cam does it for the most bizarre of things. I think getting reported for "bullying" is just an automatic ban.
How am I supposed to not call a falt-earther an idiot!? XD
@@hippocratesnoah8642 Wow i had no idea. It all makes sense now
Incredibly funny that the mayor in this was digging graves when a local town near me has a mayor who's one of the owners of a funeral home.
Watch out for rubber gloves and boots !
I have a soft spot for this one cause I was just a kid and this was my first SH ever. To me it was amazing, the combat, the monsters and the environment was crazy good and had me playing at night just wondering who was behind me. As a fun fact, I only bought SH2 cause I saw James fighting Pyramid Head and thought that looked cool and discovered the real Silent Hill lore.
I think this game is the definition of wasted potential, a stranger in your own home is a relatable feeling sometimes, a disfuncional family with only siblings looking after each other could have also worked and the monsters representing children added a whole layer of depth to stuff making it more creative than just manifestations of the protagonist like SH2. If it had better writers I think it would have been a great Silent Hill, a better defined story, a more clever twist, more attention to detail would have made it great. Anyway, wonderful video, it’s always nice to go back and pass time with these games since nowadays it’s hard to find the time to actually play them.
I remember having such a bullshit time with the technical issues with this game. Fighting Curtis, the room wouldn’t load, so all I could hear was the sound of a table saw, and previous to this I got stun-locked by a nurse til I died lol.
Honestly these videos are so refreshingly well done. The commentary is very entertaining and insightful, and I love learning about these obscure or less popular games that I probably wouldn’t play otherwise.
The whole combat is doubly stupid when you realize Alex was never in the military....
Agreed they could have just gone with a different better twist than the generic *You were in a mental facility that whole time* ...it just doesn't make much sense in the context ..
“His plastic, vampire looking ass” 😂 I’m loving this series by the way. So nostalgic and fun. Thanks for the content!
16:22 My only excuse why she doesn't notice, is that in lore wise. Silient Hill looks different for each individual, that's why she may not be as aware.
Also a bonus ending if you get all the photos, where when he gets back home, notice a puddle of water, and he sees his brother and took his picture with a polaroid camera.
Yeah, not gonna lie, I actually like Homecoming quite a bit, and imo a lot of his criticisms in this video are things he wouldn't bat an eye at in other games. Like he bags on the characters for not reacting to something in this one even though in others they do the same thing and it's considered normal. I feel like he was a little bit nitpicky in this video just to cater towards the overall feelings of the community
@@SirAlexOfTheGuitar I thought the same. I do agree that the combat is clunky but other than that I feel like it's not as bad as the community thinks it is.
Also I agree with the NPC thing, almost every other SH game I can think of has totally oblivious NPCs that seem to be unaware of what's happening. It's not like Homecoming was the first one.
@@dibidabua I actually never found the combat to be all that clunky; it was just disappointing because I ended up using the knife the whole game as it was ridiculously quick and OP. It was actually pretty interesting to play a SH game that actually had a combat emphasis. The monster design and everything was pretty interesting too, I think they focus too much on everything having symbolism instead of just being viscerally disturbing, which is ok sometimes. IMO downpour is worse; it just doesn't have the same eerie feeling that I got at some points in homecoming.
Honestly, Silent Hill homecoming needs a remake like a proper rewrite
40:43 Best part of the entire game by far. I would legit play through this entire shit show of a game just to behold that tiny knife in all its glory for myself.
Mmm baby I think I need you in my life 😘
"You don't know anything about Silent Hill!"
Bet the devs haven't heard THAT before. Sad to say, they walked right into that.
48:45 - "Even the camera couldn't be asked to keep playing" 🤣☠
I really struggled with fighting any monsters in this game. Until I found out if you use the knife, you can essentially stun lock every enemy. What a not good game. Shame. The devs seemed more concerned with tying the game as much as possible with the movie rather than the Silent Hills lore.
This was actually my first silent hill game. This game scared the heck out of me. I know people complain and I can see why after playing the older ones, but this game was my first step into horror games and it did the job
I haven’t played any yet and I want to get this one should I?
"What a great time to be alive"
Sarcastically said by everyone at least once in their lives
"The idea of the Order Spreading Silent Hill's influence to another town could have been an interesting way the explore the series."
I uh........I don't know how to tell you this.
There was a pitch for a Silent Hill game that was LITERALLY EXACTLY THAT.
And the Main character would have been a Priest (And Exorcist to be specific.) sent to prevent this, which would have been probably the first, if not only instance, of a Silent Hill Protagonist walking into Silent Hill/The Order's Hellscape fuckery KNOWINGLY AND ON PURPOSE.
Alas, that game did not get made........which sucks cause that was one of the strongest suggestions for a Silent Hill game I've seen.
"Main Character Doesn't react to the monster."
All right, full disclosure, on the argument on which of the 2 (Homecoming and Downpour.) is better or worse, I'm one of the people who falls into the category of Downpour being the better game.
Here's example one. Murphy upon seen Silent Hill's fuckery FREAKED THE HELL OUT, possibly more than any other Protagonist (Perhaps in no small part that, given Backstories, he might actually be the most normal and even mentally stable, not that that is a high bar, Protagonist of the Series (Possibly Ignoring the Vita and Arcade games, which I know little of.).
Our boy here IS A SOLDIER after all, so he's......honestly he's just the Main Character of Origins.
Those 2 (This game and Origin's Protagonists.) react possibly the least, and respond to Hellscape monsters by just going "Oh snap, better whup their ass." (Though the guy from Origins takes the cake for beating the shit out of Hellscape Monster WITH HIS BARE HANDS! Apparently Truckers are better suited for the Apocalypse than Soldiers. 'Shrugs').
Speaking of, Monster Designs.
Despite the above...........yeah this game definitely has Monster Designs over Downpour (Though to Downpour's Credit, not all the Monsters are Murphy's Inner Demons which makes it stand out a bit in that regard, and more importantly They didn't crib any monster from other games in the franchise.).
Now to the feel.
......
Ok I'll give Homecoming this, it looks and in some places FEELS more like a Silent Hill game.
....
BUT
Homecoming does alot of cribbing off the movies and other games (Including stealing monsters from them, where No one in Homecoming would have ANY connection to them. Those have no place in Homecoming.) whereas Downpour all the monsters are from that game, and are the demons of 2 different Characters. They aren't particularly well designed true, but they are Reflective of the People in Downpour.
And That to me is worth more than simply looking like a Silent Hill game.
The Endings in Homecoming are just terrible.
Like full stop they are shit, some of Downpour's are as well, but at least thought was put into it.
All right we are at the end, Let me ask a few questions about Homecoming's Plot.
A. I asked this in the comments on the Super Best Friend's LP of this and I will ask it again. What if something wiped out one of the Family's bloodline before Sacrifice Day? I mean anything, an Accident, Murders, a Fucking Bear. Bears don't care about what Silent Hill wants. Is Silent Hill gonna punish Shepherd's Glen because of a particularly hungry Bear?
B. Why is Silent Hill so specific with the Sacrifices? Like yeah the wrong son died, but he still died even if accidentally and the other 3 families went through with it, why does it have to be THAT specific?
C. Inversely, why hasn't it been made a policy for these families to have a shitload of kids? As it stands, only 2 of the 4 families had more than 1 kid, unless those 2 families had another kid afterwards, and that's assuming the family is purely the male sides and not the female's and that the Mother hasn't gone through Menopause yet, then what?
D. What the hell is the Cult even doing in this game? Not as in why are they in the game, as in why are they trying to accomplish in the game?
If you stop to think about it the game's plot is all over the place and confusing.
It's been years since I watched the Matt and Pat playthrough these 2 games, and Homecoming actually feels worse in this than I remembered, whereas Downpour is about the same, make of that as you will.
"B. Why is Silent Hill so specific with the Sacrifices? Like yeah the wrong son died, but he still died even if accidentally and the other 3 families went through with it, why does it have to be THAT specific?"
This one actually makes sense, and is probably the most interesting thing about the game even though it's severely understated in-game.
The sacrifices were only specific because the cult believed in it to an extreme degree. The families in Shepard's Glen were only punished for two reasons: because they believed that they had to be punished, and because they wanted to be punished. Breaking the ritual was the catalyst that makes them think they're going to be punished, but the reality is that the botched sacrifice exposed just how broken the families were over having to commit atrocities for the sake of their religion, and their collective guilt and generational trauma was what manifested the events of Homecoming.
Every single parent who dies to a Silent Hill manifestation is a cult member who begs for forgiveness from their child. There is only one cult member who sacrificed a child and didn't succumb to guilt over it, and that's Judge Holloway, which is why she's initially able to escape her death. Alex didn't really save her, she was spared because she didn't believe she deserved to be punished.
Downpour was far better...breakable weapons aside.
The thing about punching monsters and.not really reacting to them in Origins is that it oddly fits in thematically with the story considering how the game emphasizes on Travis's hidden serial killer tendency and repressed hatred through the portrayal of the Butcher which tortures and kills monsters especially the female based ones such as the nurse and two-back (note that Travis had a shitty childhood because of his mother who tried to kill him)
Downpour and Shattered Memories are the 2 only SH games I have not finished of the western games (aside of book of memories)
Meanwhile I have beaten Origins about 2 or 3 times and Homecoming 3 times (good ending, bad ending and UFO ending)
Downpour just bored me extremely and SM was just confusing to get through when i played it.
Harry and Heather are the sanest people in the games. Harry was taking Cheryl there on vacation, not knowing any of the shenanigans going on and Heather got pulled into it because the cult wanted her to birth god.
I hope this one doesn't get deleted, this was a well made video and I feel like lately TH-cam has done what ever is possible to make this platform worse and worse for content creators and viewers alike.
TH-cam is definitely s cesspool of censorship and overzealous moderators.
TH-cam treats content creators like silent hill treats tourists.
i think the beauty in SH2 was that u were always expecting something but it was hardly ever there
Silent hill has always been the type of game i love to hear about but haven’t got the nerve to try.
It’s an odd paradox where i hate being scared but love horror games. Anything that i’ve played that was remotely close to a horror game would have to be the evil within and a little bit of the original resident evil 2 as a child, but roughly a half hour of it before i got scared as wet myself from it.
That does make me want to ask, honestly, what the first thing others got scared by, be it tv, video games, movies, what was something that genuinely terrified you to the point of making you stay up late at night in fear of having bad nightmares about it?
And no judgement either, this is a judgement free thread, unless you try to judge someone, in which case we’ll judge and belittle the accuser until you buzz off.
I know this is a dumb reply, but I never really got scared by games or movies, until I found the Battington tapes. Again I know this is dumb, but that was the first "horror" media I saw that made my fight or flight kick in. Specifically it was the whole "What's the matter foxy? I thought you wanted an audience" sequence. Now that I think of it though I can't remember if it was squimpus' originals or the Battington remakes, but point is it scared the shit outta me.
Two things of note to make this game really easy, dodging forward turns into a block. The knife stun locks everything and can be used all the time on every enemy.
Fun thing, if you kill Siam on xbox 360, you get an achievement ""Shades of James" meaning that likely James did go through with the rituals to bring Mary back and now they're together forever, with her being the female figure on his back
I remember being 11 and my buddy letting me borrow a resident evil 4. Hearing that truck engine and knowing that the only back up you had is gone... I had a hard time making it past the first three enemies after that. Leon turning around and saying "shit". Genius! Besides dead space I can't think of another game that gives me so much anxiety.
Your channel is hands down one of my favorites. I found you just before you started these in-depth game essays just about a year ago. You've really grown man I love your content keep it up.
I've just discovered this channel also. It's absolutely fantastic.
Seems to me, the final room of the mission is actually the same as the final mission from the Dead Messenger mission with the Psion boss. They just added the engine for us to destroy.
If homecoming and downpour were combined it would make for an amazing SH, the monster designs, bosses and some grotesque areas plus the atmospheric feeling of isollation from downpour and the puzzles
One thing I’ve always loved about Homecoming, the transfer into the otherworld.
The first time I played through this game, I got the UFO ending. That confused me so much. I didn't think UFO endings were possibly on first playthroughs in Silent Hill games.
At least it gave me a cool ray gun as a reward.
I actually really enjoyed homecoming. It’s nowhere near the same quality that Team Silent created, but for what it’s worth, it’s a good bit of fun and super creepy. I replay it every now and then for kicks
The gameplay is horrid though and not in the intentionally clunky way of SH1 and 2. It's just garbage.
@@yoursonisold8743 Get the knife and you will never struggle again.
@@awetistic5295 If your choice is garbage gameplay or garbage gameplay with infinite stunlock and no semblance of thrill then maybe the game just sucks.
@@yoursonisold8743 Maybe as a connoisseur of bad games, my tolerance for gameplay is just incredibly high. On my first playthrough, I used regular weapons and only found out about the knife thing at the very end. Still, I didn't have issues with the gameplay - it wasn't great, but it did the job. Slashing away at everything that moved with the knife was kind of hilarious and gave me time to enjoy the atmosphere that isn't all bad. The original Silent Hill has... let's say, rather clunky gameplay as well and it's still one of my favorite games ever. Everyone's different, I guess. I'm probably the only person that unironically enjoys tank controls.
The game implies Alex was already born with a mental disturbance (which only got worse after losing Josh), but I think what mental disturbance is going to depend on how you play with him through out the game. It can be "Peter Pan syndrome" (Hospital ending), Anti-social disorder (Pyramid Head ending), or my condition, which is Asperger (Good and "Drown" endings).
After all of this, I like to believe the canon ending is the "Drown". I don't think it was all a dream in that ending. I think a miracle was performed. One similar to when the original Goddess was born through the Man and the Woman's prayer.
So the best (or most broken part) part of this game is that the basic knife combo stun locks most enemies, so you get ample ammo for the few enemies that suck to melee. It had so much potential, but was an easier 1000 gamer score at the time.
This, so much. Once I realized you just have to get the knife to destroy everything in your way, I started to enjoy the game quite a bit. It was so dumb, but also hilarious.
I actually really enjoyed Homecoming, particularly the lore and the main boss monsters and their symbolism.
These were both bad Silent Hill games, but I actually enjoyed Homecoming more than Downpour. Something about the atmosphere left me with that lonely/empty vibe as if I were playing one of the classic games, while I can't say Downpour ever did this to me. The soundtrack also stuck with me, and the monster design was more well thought out. It wasn't anywhere near the original games but still more enjoyable to me personally than Downpour.
I really liked how we had a character other than the player that saw the monsters. Shame it happened in the worst one.
Another thing I’d love to see would be more reactions from characters. While it may seem dumb that one guy jokes around, that’s an actual coping method for people experiencing extreme stress.
In the games from my notice we mostly get denial or fight- but there’s SO many different emotions.
Why can’t we see a side character freeze up in fear and get ‘game ended’ for that? Or what about someone getting overly paranoid and falling prey to that?
As much as combat is not the focus of survival horror games, it's important for it to be well designed cuz you can't be scared if you're getting mad at the same
59:53 I know this is a nitpick, but "maternity" refers strictly to the mother. I believe you got "maternal" mixed up with "parental", which refers to both parents. But yeah, Aminion's pregnant appearance could refer to Alex and Joshua's mother, Lillian. And the fact that Amnion refereces the amniotic sac, which surrounds the fetus.
I believe pyramid head shows up and hunts who ever had some sort of guilt depending on what they did since he’s a executioner, I like the idea of pyramid head to do with judging people and hunting them down until the people understand what the issue was so pyramid head would move onto the next victim which makes a lot of sense which the movie does really well with him hunting rose because she adopted his master alessa’s other half so he was testing her to see how much she would be willing to hunt for Sharron and what side she was one, pyramid head feels like a judge aswell, there has been references to pyramid early on through the games before he even made his first debut, the first clue was a keychain of his giant knife on a desk somewhere, I can’t remember where it is exactly but it is in silent hill 1 as I remember so it’s like a hint that he does exist in the towns lore somehow, maybe he use to be a living executioner in the medieval ages and eventually died, maybe alessa’s mothers family we’re linked to it somehow, i wish there was a origin story to do with this explaining the guy that did his job until he was killed and eventually became the monster pyramid head years later by alessa’s dark magic, that lore would dig even deeper into pyramids history
I always knew something was wrong with Homecoming when they stole that opening gurney sequence literally straight out of Jacob's Ladder.
Since Silent Hill Homecoming was made by an American team it feels like they took inspiration from hollywood films like the SH movie and Jacob's Ladder, and basically copied everything from there instead of thinking of things themselves like original Team Silent did. I was a huge silent hill 1 fan when that game first came out so I studied them a ridiculous amount and read lore like crazy back on GameFAQS when that's all we had.
Also:
I think the PC version otherworld transition definitely looks off, it did not look that awkward on the console when I played it. Maybe it's the high resolution its not supposed to be viewed in.
Not just the opening, the twist also...sadly
Silent Hill was always very much inspired by Jacob's Ladder, especially the second game. So yeah, I didn't mind the opening, even liked it back then, but overall, Homecoming is the definition of heavy-handed and unsubtle.
37:54 That tiny hole isn't just you, everybody agrees that's the best part of the game. I think I spent like 20 minutes walking around the entire basement and building above trying to figure out wtf to do.. I think someone in stream told me there's a tiny ass hole in the wall, impossible to spot unless you're looking for it lol. It should've been telegraphed, seeing as it's the first one the player will find, so they'll know they need to look for those in the future.
As mediocre Downpour was, I'm still glad they at least knew to not use Pyramid Head as the big bad monster to represent Murphy Pendleton. Like you said, Pyramid Head was JAMES' character... So seeing him appear again was weird.
To add something positive, I actually really enjoyed the hotel section of the game. Its the one part of it that felt like a legitimate horror game.
I finished this game and enjoyed it. I didn’t feel it was entirely a silent hill game, but I enjoyed playing it.
Yeah, I think it was pretty obvious to a lot of us that Silent Hill homecoming takes its inspiration from the movie
But it honestly seems like it takes its inspiration EXCLUSIVELY from the movie
(The first transformation scene being an almost shot for shot remake of the bathroom transformation scene from the movie)
The result of Silent Hill homecoming being something like a broken game of telephone
Due to the movie taking inspiration reference from multiple games rather than just one
It's interesting because I know the movie is divisive among a lot of fans
I personally can see how much the creator of FIRST film genuinely loved the franchise and was trying to pay homage to it as best he could with the studio looming over him
While Silent Hill homecoming very much felt like a homework assignment trying to check boxes or desperately meet a word count
back in the day i liked the movie but was upset it wasn't exactly as the first game, but after re-watching it now, i totally get it, you have only one chance at making the movie and you want to throw the best stuff in.
now, that doesn't apply at the games, that's just being lazy and don't understanding the franchise at all
Dam I heard the original vid got taken down.
I just want to reinforce that I love Homecoming and adore all the 8 games of the franchise. Hope this doesn't get taken down again as I felt this was a really good video.
I can listen to this man explain horror games all day
“You invalid” is such a fire and classy insult I’m gonna keep it