gameplay | discountedgame: May 28, 2008

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Silent Hill: Homecoming

gmaes Developer(s) : Konami Digital Entertainment The Collective
gmaes Publisher(s) : Konami
gmaes Series : Silent Hill
gmaes Platform(s) : PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
gmaes Release date : EU September 2008
gmaes Genre(s) : Survival horror, Psychological horror, Action, Supernatural
gmaes Mode(s) : Single player
gmaes Rating(s) : ESRB: Rating Pending (RP)
gmaes Media: Blu-ray Disc, DVD
gmaes Input methods: Xbox 360 Controller, SIXAXIS controller, DualShock 3

Silent Hill: Homecoming will be the sixth installment in the Silent Hill survival horror video gmaes series, currently being developed by Foundation 9 studio, The Collective. On July 11, 2007, Konami officially announced Homecoming, then known as Silent Hill V, at their E3 press conference. The gmaes is currently being developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Although plot details are scarce, this upcoming entry is about a soldier (presumably a Green Beret) who returns from a war to search for his missing brother.

Plot and gmaes play

The official announcement of Silent Hill: Homecoming named the protagonist as Alex Shepherd, a war veteran who returns home from an overseas tour of duty to find that his father and younger brother are missing, and his mother has gone into catatonia. Alex begins to search for his brother, leading him to Silent Hill after searching his hometown of Shepherd's Glen, where he will have to traverse real world areas covered in fog, and also the "Otherworld" version of the same maps. EGM magazine confirmed that there will be a female supporting character named Elle, who is an old school friend of Alex. It is unknown whether she will be a playable character at the moment. A trucker speculated to be Travis Grady of Silent Hill: Origins also appears to transport Alex to Silent Hill.

Combat in the gmaes will take into account Alex's experience as a soldier, and the psychological aspects of other installments of the game will have a part in Homecoming. Confirmed enemies in the gmaes include the nurses and a new androgynous creature called "Siam", as well as "Schism", a humanoid with a massive, seemingly pointed head split down the middle, and "Smog", an emaciated corpse covered in boils who spews poisonous gas which resembles the Lying Figure from Silent Hill 2. The gmaes play will feature real time wounds that show up on both Alex and his enemies. New fighting techniques will be offered as way for Alex to deal with enemies, including grappling and evasive maneuvers. Enemies will have upgraded artificial intelligence, adding new ways to attack or avoid enemies. The game engine used allows all this, and also incorporates realistic physics. For example, if the player bumps into a table, the table itself will move as well as any objects on it. Such interactions with anything in the environment can bring a monster's attention to Alex.

It is rumored that the developers are once again planning to create multiple endings based on the way players do things in the gmaes, continuing the tradition of the other gmaes in the Silent Hill series. Acts of aggression, kindness and interactions with other people met in the gmaes will impact how it ends. It is unknown if the tradition of including a spoof "UFO Ending" will be continued in this installment.

Development

Alex Shepherd, Silent Hill V's new protagonist is seen searching in a hospital.

Chief designer of Silent Hill: Homecoming, Masashi Tsuboyama announced the game's development in a 2004 interview with Eurogamer. Tsuboyama first clarified rumors that it wasn't going to be called Shadows of the Past as previously reported. In the same interview, he stated that Konami wasn't sure which next-generation console it would be released on. Although dodging the question, composer/producer Akira Yamaoka recently shed some light upon the question with, "We cannot say yet, but we are hoping to carry on the plans of the earlier Silent Hill platforms."

In several interviews, Akira Yamaoka has revealed some information regarding the fifth release. In Famitsu Magazine, around December 2006, Yamaoka confirmed his return as the composer for Homecoming, stating, "I will be composing the music which has started being made now, but I am far from finished. I cannot say anything about the music or the type I'm making but I can say that fans of the previous soundtracks should be pleased with its outcome." He hinted at a return to the psychological roots that were present in Silent Hill 2 and that the team was working on a unique game atmosphere of a 'fear in daylight' or a 'sunny environment gone wrong'.In April 2007, Yamaoka told GamePro Magazine that he wasn't able to comment much about the story or progress at the moment, but confirmed that Homecoming would resemble the second installment in terms of the way the player is directed and the characters' behavior.

On July 11, 2007, gaming website Kotaku confirmed that Silent Hill: Homecoming will not be developed by Team Silent but instead by Foundation 9 studio, The Collective.

Watch out for gmaes Silent Hill: Homecoming at discountedgame for pre-ordering period