There’s good things about it, and there’s bad.
The Bad: I’ve already been reading about the motion controls taking several goes to finally respond during the flight sections. This is not good at all, and a serious detriment to the game if it isn’t fixed by October. One of the most long running and pervasive complaints about 3rd party Wii games is that the controls are often unresponsive and gimmicky. The last thing that Climax wants to do on its first Wii outing is prove this an immutable law.
I also am a tad skeptical concerning the enemy design. The only enemies we’ve seen so far are these burn victims. that are chasing Harry. They don’t seem to be as imaginative as what was made for SH2, but they could be worse. They could all be Colin from the SH movie (CURSE YOU GANS!).
The Tundra otherworld is an interesting concept on the whole, and I’d really like to get a look at some other interpretations of the otherworld, as was hinted at in SH2. I don’t know if anyone remembers, but the otherworld in SH2 was not the one in SH1 and 3. It was moldy and damp rather than fusty, bloody, and occasionally fiery. I think that the decision is a good one that could conjure some Thingesque atmosphere, but I feel it’s being poorly executed.
The "tundra world Seems to just feature some solid, clear ice walls, a few ice spires, and some blue outlines on the doors. Fail. I want a massive blizzard, shrouded bodies trapped in the unforgiving ice, murky ice that I can’t see through with more harsh surfaces, the always surreal sight of blood spilled on the snow, and shadows and objects creating eerie shapes, fooling us into thinking that they’re monsters ready to spot us and give chase. Make a truly horrifying Tundra, not some way to show off the distortion abilities of the Wii’s "graphics engine." Designing a game to show off the Wii’s graphics engine is like putting fine silk sheets on the beds of a cheap roach motel. If they wanted to show off a graphics engine, then they should have gone with the PS360 batch of consoles.
Which brings me to the final possible bad point; the game looks like the PG-13 version of Silent Hill so far. Seriously, it feels like the game has been severely toned down in order to appeal to a "broader base." Need I say anything more about that aspect?
The Good: The reboot (which is what they actually are saying when they use the word "reimagining") of the series was a good choice. Frankly, after playing SH:H, it saddened me how much the Christophe Gans film had come to define the visual style of the series. Gans’s complete inability to utilize subtlety had completely turned the series into a Hellraiser knockoff. Not to mention the whole section at the end of the game was seriously channeling Hostel. The last thing I want in my SH game is an Eli Roth reference. What’s next, one of the enemies is going to be a flesh eating virus that consumes all the main... you get my point. Taking the series back to the root concept, a horror game inspired by the works of Lovecraft and King, was a desperately needed step. I like the more psychological thriller/ghost story direction they’re taking the series in, and it actually feels more mature for the first time in a long time.
The psychology aspect of the game’s engine, no matter how little it ends up affecting the main story in the end, is a good touch that reminds me a lot about what we learned in SH2 regarding the nature of the town and otherworld. This was referenced in SH3, but nothing was ever really done with it, and the otherworld in SH4 really never seemed very interesting past the first stage. The otherworld in Origins was just a copy of the otherworld from the Alessa/Heather/Cheryl story and brought nothing new to the table, and Homecoming revealed to us that despite the fact that everyone was viewing a different otherworld... everyone was really not viewing a different otherworld....?! This new mechanic should prove a nice addition.
The running mechanics actually look quite visceral and seem to truly give an accurate simulation of true flight and terror. I especially loved the moment where Harry knocks a locker down in an attempt to cut off the monsters’ pursuit. It felt so real and exciting. It reminds me that this is what Climax wanted to do with Origins, but couldn’t because in the SH universe at the time they had to make Travis a fighter to maintain consistency yada, yada, yada.
Lastly, the Half-life style of puzzles where manipulation of the world and some common sense is all that will be needed to get past puzzles is quite promising. Though I love the puzzles in SH1 and 2, the puzzles in 3 had become just fucking weird in its attempt to outdo the puzzles in 2, and this caused the developers so much stress that by 5 they had simply abandoned puzzles altogether. Origins brought back the puzzles, but after 3 games worth of cryptic riddles, there was little challenge to be found in Origins cognitive aspect, and Homecoming committed the greatest sin of all by adding a fucking sliding puzzle (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!). What’s next for SH, a rubic’s cube? The direction of utilizing puzzles that have solutions demanding the player to manipulate the environment is a breath of fresh air for the series.
Overall there’s enough to make an argument either way at this point. My one problem right now is that Climax is sooo confident in their product right now that the major flaw of the unresponsive controls may go unattended to, and we all know that a broken control system equals a broken game. It doesn’t matter how good everything else is. The game is up (it’s a pun, get it?). So as of this moment, I’m personally looking forward to seeing it, but I’m not going to be all that excited about it. I’m more excited about Alan Wake right now.
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