My biggest problem w/ Homecoming was this:
LIGHTINGIt was completely obliterated in this game. It was demolished. Stomped, danced and spat upon. So many times in the game is was far too dark to even see anything. All I was often looking at, especially in the Silent Hill Underground area, was darkness. I couldn't see anything. I would fight by doing nothing but button mashing and listening to the sounds to try and keep Alex relatively close to the Order Soldiers. Even in cutscenes is was too dark too see. In the final cutscene w/ Elle, Alex looks back at Elle from the shadows and doesn't even look human anymore. His face is highlighted in such a way that it appears ragged, aged and creature-like. Other times, such as the first meeting between Elle and Alex, the oppressive atmosphere is almost totally lost by the blinding grey. It is so bright I wonder why the characters are no squinting like I am.
I thought the lighting most of the time through the orange Otherworld was not bad. It was all washed out, spread out and ultimately the play between light and dark was more then tolerable to look at. Not to say that I liked it, I just didn't hate it. There was only one scene that I know of that I ABSOLUTELY LOVED from the lighting aspect. Yes, the graphics are sloppy and unpolished, but the lighting was beautiful in
this cutscene. The under lighting paired w/ the cloaking shadows played perfectly together. Alex in the spot light as Josh runs away into the total darkness, nothing but a shadow by Alex's backlighting. Fantastic. In fact this entire scene is amazing. It is my favorite cutscene of the entire game. The way Alex is under the microscope, tight close ups on his (sadly unmoving) face, showing the (complete lack of) emotions play across his face as his offering is rejected and his brother runs away into the darkness, away from the protector. Amazing.
Other than lighting, my problems w/ the storyline abound. I really, REALLY liked the base story of the brothers. I really felt attached to Alex, more ways then I care to go into, but I very much played the older protector to the younger sibling I love dearly. I adore the idea of the intended sacrifice accidentally killing the golden child. I've never seen anything quiet like that and it was very thought-provoking. BUT when they through in the added bonus of being crazy and the story of Silent Hill, it is shot to hell. It is beaten about the head, neck and face. Over and over. There was nothing w/n the original Cultic ideology that called for the sacrifice, other then super special situation to bring god to life, not just keep it from getting all pissy. There is the fact that Alex has so many opportunities to die, but doesn't. He almost drowns at 8 yet Doc Fitch risks his life to save him. Why would Doc Fitch risk his life to save Alex if 1) Alex is doomed to die anyway and 2) Doc Fitch is going to have to off his kid in a couple yr.s? On top of that, why was Josh not accepted? He was killed (conveniently) the way the Shepard Family agreed to kill their children. In the special alter room, it says something like "We the Shepard Family do.... by means of water." or something to that effect. It doesn't say that the parents have to physically drown the child--and even if it does, the Holloway family didn't follow it word for word either. Judge Holloway doe not hang Nora but strangled her. So if the Holloway Family took certain liberties, why were the Shepard Family not allowed to do so?
The more I look at the plotine's finer details, the more holes I seem to be finding.
It comes down, to me, this game would be so much better as a stand alone game, completely removed from the SH universe. It just tries so hard to fit in and fails miserable. And I say that w/ all the love I have for the game.
OH and BTW. I keep getting the goddamn Drowning Ending WHICH DOESN'T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE AT ALL! That ending is stupid. He is in his current clothes but... it takes place before--you see where I am going? Fuck you, his parents didn't deserve forgiveness. It ain't something you just get to ask for on you death bed and are granted, at least not in my eyes.