Silent Hill: Homecoming is a strange game. Not because of the gross-out enemy designs or the peculiar environments and characters you’ll meet, or the oppressive fog that invites you to explore and simultaneously warns you to not take a single step further. It’s not strange because of the relentlessly creepy mood set by the intense and haunting music and sound effects or even the plodding, convoluted story.

No, Silent Hill: Homecoming is strange because it seems at odds with itself, trying to deliver an atmospheric, deliberate horror experience while also trying to provide an up-to-date action game, with a combat system that, for the most part, works hand-in-hand with the pace of the game, but still manages to frustrate and appear archaic in a world where survival-horror has successfully transitioned into the realms of action-orientated horror. Fans of the genre may be left cold as the game tries to invite newcomers by making the experience slightly more accessible, but muddies that experience along the way, failing to approach anything that resembles the kind of reinvention and reinvigoration that a game such as Resident Evil has achieved.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Silent Hill: Homecoming for the PS3.