12 Abusive Video Game Sequels That Completely Missed The Point

9. Silent Hill: Homecoming

The Silent Hill franchise was lauded for its intense atmosphere, especially during the first three games, which made the likes of Resident Evil seem like Pee Wee's Playhouse by comparison. In addition to the immersion factor, we cared about the characters, and though the plot was undeniably loopy, we were gripped the entire time. Things took an ambitious turn with the not entirely successful Silent Hill: The Room, but it still captured the creepy essence of the series, and was in no way a failure. However, it all started to go wrong with the sixth game, Homecoming. I will applaud the game for its decent graphics and excellent aural presentation, but the story and characters are total non-entities. The protagonist, Alex, is just a bit of a cipher really, and due to his lack of personality, it's hard to warm to him and root for him to survive as I did with most of the Silent Hill "heroes". Also, the storyline is just not as involving as the previous games, and the twist ending is shocking only in its predictability and its lazy similarity to a twist in one of the previous games. Silent Hill has typically put its story at the forefront, ahead of anything else, yet Homecoming somehow got away from that, and the series has never really recovered, with the last main game, Downpour, being slated by critics.