Life after Silent Hill: Origins and Homecomping

I love Silent Hill, as a universe, as games, as a phenomenon and in the end, as a thing that is tightly connected with me. I went through the first 4 parts in one gulp within a month in the 20th year, dreary and cold autumn, not the most cheerful period for me and heated my endless sadness and longing was helped by Team Silent Games. Regarding the future fate of the series, I behaved like a simple person, closing the question with the Western games thesis "Well, they are all there". And so, years are going on, and there are not enough quiet hills in life and rumors about constant remakes, restarts and continuations cause only nervous shoes, forcing to get bored more and more around the foggy town. Meanwhile, Konami themselves make add -ons for Dead by Daylight, or forgive Lord Merch in the form of skateboards, which makes even the most desperate, in fact, desperate. However, once recently, rumors around the circuits have been becoming hotter, and according to unconfirmed data, we are waiting for a plus or minus ten games on Silent Hill, 20 of which are from Konami, one and a half from Poles from Bloober Team and one such silence from Kojima, of course, I still decided to subside into the western segment of the series and already end up with all the more or less sane parts.

Since the people are mostly known as:

Some prequel that went out at the PSP and seemed to be even like the game.

A full -fledged continuation, which no one at all liked, probably ..

Something incomprehensible, either a sequel, or a remake, or restart with a rethinking, also on WII with its nunchaki.

And finally, the game, which, in principle, is known only by the fact that Silent Hill was simply finally buried and no matter what it was.

I will not act here as a devil’s lawyer, as I planned initially, but I can’t just recognize the disgust of these games. This material will not be for everyone at all, because I will not somehow retell the plot (because yes, I thought of it late before) I will talk about how it is launched, how it is played and how it feels so that you would conclude for myself in the future, but is it worth it to climb into this swamp, into which I decided to climb for you.

Origins

After the Team Silent finally fell apart, Konami passed the development of the Western studio Climax Group, behind which there was a lot of things, but somehow in the void, but on all kinds of consoles (Xbox, Gameboy Color, PlayStation and PSP). And since the next Silent Hill should be a neat spinoff on the portable, then Konami and turned her attention to the guys from Climax. At first, Western developers made a smart face, saying how important it is to make a special game, adding something new to it, but at the same time preserving the spirit of the series. But soon, due to problems with production and littered deadlines, the project from the American unit was taken and given to finish the “origins” of the British branch of Climax. In the initial vision, the developers wanted to “shake” a little series, which had already managed to fill in. For an example, they took the Resident Evil 4, which focuses at an increased pace and drivers. So, in the first gameplay presented by the main character of the game-Trevis, having a camera from behind him, famously moved around the foggy town, could normally aim from a pistol, leaving all the misses on the player's conscience, and also said about the “barricades” mechanics that the main character could arrange in order to slow down the monsters. At such a pace, by the time of the dissolution of the American unit, only four hours of gameplay were ready. Actually, all of the above went to the furnace when the project moved to the British. And in the end we got what we received.

Silent Hill Origins is, as many people know, to the very first part of the series, the plot will tell you about that very ill -fated day when a bunch of fanatics decided that burning young children, this is a great idea. According to a happy (or not) circumstance, at this very moment, the trucker Trevis Grady was passing past the city, seeing a little Assa on the road, the hero gives the brakes so as not to kill the child. Then he decides to walk and literally stumble upon a burning house, in which still living Aessa is just smoked. Trevis saves the baby, but he loses consciousness, that is, in principle, for the entire current paragraph on the 10th anniversary of the forward, our main character is responsible-Trevis Grady.

I will immediately touch on the technical moment, I passed Origins on the PS2 emulator, unfortunately, I did not have a choice, I had a choice, or play in an acceptable resolution, but to lose part of the lighting with a flashlight, or to receive PS2 Experience Roads, I ran and so, in the end, the most gifting artifact was present in both versions. A disgusting, terrible, echoed noise effect. I understand here the atmosphere at the stake and, of course, the noise, it’s already 70 percent of this atmosphere, but just imagine that you are walking along a dark corridor, you have half a working lantern, you have this granularity on the screen, you hear a monster, and when the enemy is near, then a film filter is put on top, in addition to this, the monster itself is some kind of winging torso, and without all this, which is without all thisVisual feast is not so easy to notice. The experience is not very pleasant.

The most stupid thing is that the developers considered the option with passing without this filter, but only at the end of the first passage of the game. I looked on the Internet by the solution of this crime against humanity, but, unfortunately, I did not find anything worthwhile, neither according to the fixation of the flashlight, nor by the Angok function with the noise disconnecting.

As for gameplay, in my opinion it is the weakest part of the game. I understand that many people believe that in all parts of Silent Hill, in principle, the gameplay is not the first echelon, but in the past it played into the hands of the atmosphere of helplessness and uncontrolled the situation with the player. Origins in this regard causes only irritation and laughter. Firstly, the management has become not responsive, I don’t know, maybe this is again the problem of the emulator, but we have what we have, you need to press some buttons of action several times, and the time through which Travis will react to a closed run button can quite reach a second and a half and it is felt right.

Secondly, innovations on the combat system are mostly useless, just due to sour control. Trevis, like Henry from the 4th part, learned to climb into the inventory without opening a separate menu, but do it directly during gameplay. In addition, Trevis aki, a real man can demolish the monsters of the face with fists, because hand-to-hand weapons can break (again in 4-ke) and then the adversar. Trevis can fill the pockets with hand -to -hand weapons to the comic, sticks, knives, mounts, divorce keys, katans and droppers are used, this, of course, is very strange. There were few such oddities, so Trevis has a separate tab with special weapons, these are ... TVs, toasters, some kind of a skill of hawthorn, the chip of these weapons is that from one blow they can send a monster, but at the same time these household items are disposable, although they are burst into sufficient numbers in sufficient quantities.

It would seem that it sounds very useful, but it wasn’t there, because the opponents in Silent Hill Origins are constantly wiping with the attacking attacks, not only is very annoying and draws far from an ideal gameplay very much, but any blow passing along Trevis at the time he holds the next TV, leads to the fact that he drops him and he breaks up and he breaks up. Here we remember that in the game super non -responsive control and, in principle, delete the mechanics. Regarding the firearms, there is quite standard set for the series, but the number of cartridges is much higher. It also repels any fear, so the pervisor of the whole game can be quite clumsy and lazily to shoot monsters, which, incidentally, very willingly fall with a sparing number of bullets.

A little more personal pain on the topic of the doors, because as you know, "does not open, the castle is broken". There is such an important and inconspicuous lever with these doors in Silent Hill, when the player goes into a large location with several possible passages, he cannot give himself a break, he just escaped from the monsters outside, ran to some hotel and is now forced to look for something in it. Therefore, checking one door after another player, every time he calmly exhales when this door does not open in any way, that is, you can forget about it, you don’t need to worry that there is danger there, you don’t need to think about how and how it can be unhooked. And for more calm on the map, such doors are crossed out by a red marker. So in Origins, this lever was somehow not so interpreted that the already not small multi-level locations are simply strewn with useless, forever locked doors. Here we smoothly flow into exactly one good solution from Climax. Now we ourselves are free to move into the wrong side of the city through mirrors, which can be found on locations. This is cool, since it is really interesting, innovation, deepening gameplay. BUT. You remember about countless doors on locations? Now multiply them by two and accept the fact that if some door in our world has been locked forever, it can be open in the inside, and vice versa.

All this unpleasantly strangles the player, outgoing him by surprise, only if at the same time there was a feeling of horror in the past parts, then it was replaced by irritation.

Still, from the advantages I would like to note how Climax managed to reproduce the atmosphere of the first Silent Hill, which is not surprising, because initially the developers wanted to make a remake of the first part. Apparently, despite the change in the course, Climax has modified some past ideas and added them to the game.

I will touch the plot a ANCHOR will be here little, which surprisingly has a value, like the personal story of Trevis, in the gameplay we see what gradi is a cruel and fighting man and this is reinforced by a very difficult childhood of a boy. But at a global level, as a prequel to the first part, history behaves quite mediocre. To better convey what I want to say, you need to remember that absolutely all parts of Silent Hill are trying to family values ​​and drama. Talking about love, about terrible mistakes, about the pain that we can cause to our loved ones, reinforcing it with the iron motivation of the protagonist. In the first part, Harry was looking for his daughter, in the second, James was looking for his wife, in the third, Hizer, wanted to take revenge on the order for the death of his father and find out who she was actually, in the fourth, Henry, tried to solve the secret of the room and get out of her (the antagonist took on family dramas here). And in Silent Hill Origins, Trevis Grady accidentally gets into the city, saves Little Assa after which he wants to make sure that everything is in order with her, he first goes to the hospital, then to the psychiatric hospital (which is generally very strange, to make one hospital first, and then more, but more). And at some point, the motivation of the hero simply dissolves in the stream.

As a result, the most classic Silent Hill was obtained, but the formula does not work for the second time. The developers took the responsibility to tell about something a friend, but at the same time they were afraid to go to the end, only defamation of the poor Lisa Garland. With the exception of this, events do not explain and do not complement the original parts. The characters here still say abstract things and behave as if they were banging the dose of sedatives, there is a feeling that others sometimes specifically ignore Trevis, as a person who came to a party at which he was not called and ruined everyone's mood. Let it be so, but because of this literally everything that concerns the general story.

The question "Why?»Inadvertently arises throughout the game, and if at first the motivation of Trevis is clear to us, then then he simply goes into a specific location, pokes in all the doors, which in this part is simply to the unbearable, gets the key to the next location and goes there and so the whole game goes there. In parallel, Grady’s heavy fate tells us and this is really an interesting plot, but the end in the motel is so stretched that even the very nearby will understand what happened in Trevis’s ill-fated childhood and because the player’s emotions are so shrugged-the sensations from the twist are lubricated.

Understand correctly, if for some reason you do not digest the first part for how it is played now or looks, then, in principle, you can try to go through Origins, I really do not regret that it has taken up for it, since the atmosphere is still capturing, and the segment with the motel is at all a good fright. But, in essence ... in Japan, this part came out with the Zero subtitle and it perfectly reflects it, it is just zero, it does not need this series, it feels “budget” and “portable”, of all people, it seems to me that Akira Yamaok, an almost permanent composer of the series, once again issued several worthy songs.

Returning to the previously shown gameplay from the American unit, it seems to me that it was completely wrong with the “quiet hills”, the British apparently also calculated and made Silent Hill 1.5, but it seems to me, even if you polish the gameplay there, remove the delay, camps from opponents, it will still be felt secondary. In the future, Climax will still understand where the series can move and the second attempt by the studio will give fruit, but more on that later ..

HomeComing

After such a little shaky adoption, Konami entrusted the next part to the guys from Double Helix, who were recently formed from two other companies The Collective (mainly engaged in movie-licenses) and Shiny Entertainment (responsible for the first two worms of jims and matrix games). Silent Hill Homecomping originally wore the coveted number five in the title, that is, this is a full -fledged continuation of Japanese games.

After a year of development on E3 2008, we have already been presented with a familiar heading, in the same year, in the fall, the new Silent Hill came out and ... everything was already much more sad here. The game was scolded literally for everything, including for the fact that this is no longer Silent Hill, but such a maximum Americanized submarine. This approach seemed interesting to me and once began about personal ..

I have such polar emotions about Homecomping, on the one hand, I really fell in love with her because she was trying to tell a more integrated and large -scale story, fell in love with the approach of the developers, in terms of design. The game really looks expensive, starting with a common picture, ending with a stylish interface. I fell in love with the fact that Double Helix breathed a new life into gameplay, and now it has become much deeper and more interesting. And since it went to that, then I think that it was in this direction that it was worth moving the original version of Origins from Climax, and not engage in grunting gameplay from the fourth part of the monastery.

But damn it, on the other hand, I hate this game, I just can’t stand it, countless rajiquiks and flying buttons from the keyboard will confirm my words. Silent Hill Homecomping is tightly broken, the problems began at the launch stage, when the game did not see my gamepad and somehow clumsily determined it, so I had to arm myself with a keyboard and mouse. But this all applies to the technical side and gameplay, and about these things, traditionally later.

I remind you that initially, the first Silent Hill 1999 was inspired by the Jacob's Staircase of the 90th year, which tells about Vietnam veteran with PTSR. So the developers from Double Helix, apparently also aware of this and instead of inspiration, decided to directly quote the film in the initial titrates of the game. The protagonist of the game Alex Shepard, having been injured in battle, lives a nightmare that serves us to teach the main mechanics of the game, getting acquainted with the concept and the main motivation.

The main character of the "stairs"

When the nightmare ends, Alex comes to his senses at the wheel of which the Trevis Grady battered by the life of Silent Hill Origins sits, here we understand that the new part is modestly built into the canon by the first and third part. After that, Grady makes the radio louder and here is played by the most beautiful theme of Alex, performed by Akira Yamaoki and Mary Elizabeth McCgi, though he plays from the strength of the seconds of 15, after which he fades. As if Double Helix were afraid to catch a striking from Yamaoki for the use of licensed music. Among other things, a rather important detail is the fact that the protagonist was brought to the town, which is called Shepads Glen. Still, Trevis agreed to visit the resort salet of Hill, be that as it may, the miracles of those who are going on in Shepard are not inferior to the usual foggy town, it is not surprising, as I understand the native city of Alex, is on the other side of the notorious Lake Toluk, who wander from the game to the game of Silent Hill.

So the experience conducted in Shepard-Glen will be quite tantamount to rest in the "quiet hills". The main and main motivation of Alex during the misfortunes will be the search for the younger brother Joshua, whose ... Apparently, the astral trace we will pursue the whole game. And this, for me personally, is already an order of magnitude better than hyper-beams, completely, someone else's 30-year-old man behind a burned seven-year-old, who, with her pheromones, moved him according to the plot. Alex turned out much more lively, like a character, and it is interesting to follow the disclosure of his background and the intrigue holds to the end, correctly revealing the twists. The characters here are in the spirit of the original parts, behave abbreviated as if modest guests in their own bodies, they say strange phrases that are strangely tangled by the real world, and this is all in contrast, with a completely intelligible protagonist.

Elections were also brought to the game, there will be only anything during the passage, and those that will affect the end will be three. All of them are reduced approximately to yes/no/sarcasm, but we have what we have. By the way, Trevis is not the only link with the past parts of the series. One of Alex’s acquaintances, an employee in the police recalls Sibil Bennett, who disappeared without a trace in Silent Hill. Also, the Order of Fanatics did not go anywhere, only in Homecomping he found well -defined ministers and here is another stumbling block lies. After all, the local ministers are one to one in the Christopher Hans, the guys in protective costumes and gas masks shown in the film. Moreover, photosensitive nurses also migrated from the film, through which Alex would crept out just like a Rose in the film, and the fog in Homcoming has the same ash origin. This all causes rather double emotions.

On the one hand, the Hans film is amazing, of course, and the scene with the nurses is really remembered, but, on the other hand, the guys in the gas masks looked somehow foreign and pretentious in the film. Although, on the third party, we have never seen the usual hard workers for all parts of the Silent Hill, this was especially strange in the third part, where the young Heiser fought against the whole cult, and in essence, against Claudia and Vincent, the latter, of course, made an interesting stuffing, forcing us to think about who we kill in the game, instead. I am to the fact that Homecomping has all the rights to such an interpretation of the order.

And here we smoothly approach the cherry on this cake out of ambiguity, controversial ideas and interesting concepts. The gameplay Silent Hill Homecomping is a mixture of already familiar mechanic, but with an updated combat system, the main character now deftly captivates various weapons of near-fight, which, finally, does not break up into atoms in a couple of pumpors on the enemy. In terms of battle, Double Helix did a lot of work, and then apparently tired.

Let's start with amenities. Animations in the game are juicy, dynamic battles, and the impact from use is straight at the fingertips, not least thanks to the chamber that finally strengthened by the protagonist’s shoulder, at the moments of heavy attacks, it begins to shake a little, which adds weights to the blows. Ricks and dodgers appeared in the game, which also deepens the combat system and makes you choose their tactics for absolutely every enemy. The level of complexity was my main mistake, I immediately went to Va-Bank and chose the way more difficult, explaining that the game seems to be so-so, more action than Survival Horror, so you can raise the bar for myself, “I have passed all the parts”. I was enough for an hour and a half of the game in this mode, at first I did not notice any tangible problems, but in some points it was difficult, here I noticed that the buttons somehow work strangely, or with a big delay, or only the second time, in the compass with difficulty, such things leave an unpleasant sedimentation.

The final point of my passage was a nurse from the hotel, she was only one, but for some unknown reasons, she killed me three times, leaning a couple of floors down, where I listened to the unrealistic dialogue three times, after which I went up to the nurse again. Still killing her, I moved a little further along the corridors, where two more representatives of the fair sex came to me. The game did not leave, I started it again, lowering the level of complexity, since after the start the difficulty can no longer be changed. At this stage, I made about 3 rangvkika, it is not so difficult, because the game can not be curtailed, otherwise it will not turn around.

The problem is that, having changed the level of complexity, the management remains the same, without sharing and not stopping the spam of attacks from monsters, instantly leading to Alex's death. You should at least once unsuccessfully miss a couple of blows, when suddenly a chance to get a deadly combo from evil spirits is growing rapidly. I already began to think that in the game simply one cannot fail to get damage, when suddenly in some guide I saw that the most effective weapon in close combat is a regular knife. Later, I myself was convinced of this, because with a knife, Alex stupidly waves faster, not allowing the enemy to strike in response. Of course, this does not work for everyone, but for many, so I conjure you, if you still want to touch Silent Hill Homecoming, do not see a big, formidable clock, it hurts, but slowly enough to die before it will swing it for the second time.

Riddles in the game do not represent much difficulty, such unobtrusive, pleasant tasks that you simply do by a hunch, except for idiotic spots, of course, which you decide several times per game (not strong in tags, so I condemn).

But they represent the complexity of the bosses, in particular Scarlet. Let us recall that the bosses in the Silent Hill series games were never difficult, except perhaps the final boss from the third part, whose pattern was important to take into account in order to understand at what moment and what exactly it was worth striking. Otherwise, these are usually some particularly clumsy creatures, slowly going, slowly swinging away and the main task of the protagonist was to pour as much damage into this sponge, simple, not protracted, they carry more a narrative and practical function for the player, with the victory over the boss, the player overcame some important stage on his way, understood something and achieved something and achieved something.

Homecomping in this sense goes further, improving the battles with bosses. I felt a specific boost of difficulties and depths on the second boss - Scarlet. I spent some countless attempts on it, there were three reasons at once.

Firstly, I reached the boss with seven cartridges on a pistol, half a HP and one hilk, that is, yes, I have to survive in the game. Action-explosive, but the game is a really difficult and even solitary enemy poses a mortal threat to the protagonist. The segment with the nurses has battered me exactly in front of the Scarlet, which also could not go the first time and, when, nevertheless, I joyfully forgot to raise another first-aid kit and irrevocably went to the boss.

Secondly, the boss really causes a number of difficulties, in words, it is nothing difficult, the timings are like sparing. I just only after a few attempts found out that for some reason to demolish the armor is worth a steel pipe, not an ax, then the matter, of course, went faster, but the third aspect intervened all the time.

Thirdly, the game is still incredibly curved. Yes, before the Scarlet waves back, the player has a second or so. But at this moment he should have time to leave the battle rack, which can not work out the first time, and have time to squeeze the roll, which also requires a certain amount of time. In principle, in the game with such an increased dynamics, make a combat rack on a separate button, in which Alex, instead of rifts, goes to sluggish dodgers - this is shooting in his knee. So the unrealistic management is constantly interfering with the rules of the game.
Add to everything else, an absolutely all-erect checkpoint in front of the boss-there is a manual save, after which the player needs to go down the stairs, catch the Vietnam and approach the door where the auto shift occurs (for some reason it will not work) after which there will be an incomplete dialogue with the options for answers and only then the boss.

All this was converted into the terrible experience, in which I had to experience the same thing over and over again, sometimes not because of my mistakes, but the person who tested the game and for some reason decided to keep silent that she was managed, as a pensioner who had been a relying sedative.

Further cooler. As I passed, I noticed another detail when the enemy begins to spit with an attack, he can cancel your animation of the roll in the middle, turning it into an animation, retracting from the damage received and while this animation is taking place, the monster manages to apply a certain amount of damage, which in 60% of cases can be fatal.

The rest of the bosses, personally, did not cause any problems, but even single, ordinary monsters can become the last that Alex will see in his path. From which it follows that despite the increased level of action, you should not relax, this game is still Survival Horror and if not deadly monsters and the lack of supplies will finish you, then the crooked control will say its word, clinging the last nail in the coffin cover.

Regarding the bestiaria, it is quite diverse here and as I said, almost everyone needs some kind of approach, as mentioned above, here we will even have the opportunity to fight with ordinary people, worship members, except for metal pipes, they will try to calm Shepard from firearms from firearms. And so we will have already familiar nurses and dogs, and another variation of the monster in the “Sunny shirt”, which was called here, who was called the player with a poisonous smog, almost sorting out the hp. Regarding the participation of the pyramid-headed in this frear-show, I did not experience much pain, yes, most likely it was added, simply because by the time Homecoming release, his image began to be tightly associated with the series, but he performs the same function as the second Silent Hill. That is, not a contradiction in any way, being the same embodiment of a feeling of guilt of Alex for his deeds in the past.

Having passed the game, I was a little disappointed with the final, which I received, but a little thought, I can accept such a denouement, despite all my crumpledness.

Silent Hill Homecomping - turned out to be a difficult game and it is not only about gameplay. I see that Double Helix wanted to bring something new, but not scare away the fans of past parts. And such an excessive experience, it seems to me, played a cruel joke with the developers. Sometimes the game strikes in a slightly American populated poppy horror, with tin for the sake of tin, simply forcing the player with cheap tricks to achieve attention to himself, instead of the hypnosis that caused original parts.

For example, this is absolutely not appropriate, funny screamer at the beginning of the game, perfectly reflects Helix light approach to Helix

But still in the game there are interesting developments cracked about the level of their performance. The same gameplay, having undergone changes in the direction of more convenient management, did not lose a drop in the struggle for survival, but rather overgrown with some kind of meat, but convenient control and depth of the combat system is also leveled by a clumsy response.

Be that as it may, my needs Homecoming satisfied, and I consider its existence more valuable than prequel from Climax. Two more interesting projects in the universe are waiting ahead, but for now I conclude that the games that were published after the Japanese four are not so much bad Silent Hill, but just bad games.