Due to censorship laws, the game was banned in Australia until February 2009, and even then, only the PlayStation 3 version was released. Noticeable modifications were made to certain scenes to supposedly make them less explicitly violent.

Before playing the game, it is recommended that the player reads three diaries written by Alex, Elle and Wheeler which provide backstory to the narrative.

Silent Hill: Homecoming is the sixth installment in the Silent Hill survival horror series. The game was developed by Double Helix Games and published by Konami.

When Adam is later cut in half by the Bogeyman, as the camera pulls back to reveal the scene, his remains have completely vanished. The player can still examine the scene, and Alex will still comment "Dad's remains", despite there being none.

Margaret reveals that the protection is no longer there because, while three of the families made the sacrifice recently, one family, the Shepherds, failed to do so. Mayor Bartlett sacrificed his son, Joey, Dr. Fitch sacrificed his daughter, Scarlet, and Margaret sacrificed her daughter, Nora. Adam Shepherd was supposed to sacrifice one of his boys, but he didn't do so. Because of this, the protection from the Order's god is no more. Margaret goes on to say that there is no longer any choice for the town but to return to the old ways of the Order and Silent Hill. Therefore, she and her fellow faithful have been kidnapping, torturing, and murdering everyone in Shepherd's Glen that refuses to go along with them.

Inside, Alex encounters a shadowy man in a confession booth. The conversation between Alex and the mysterious figure implies that it is Alex's father, or his conscience, asking for forgiveness for the way that he and his wife have always treated Alex. The figure also speaks more of having been given a choice between his two sons, echoing what was said in the note that Alex found in his attic earlier. He also says that he and his wife have always loved their son, but that they couldn't show him. They couldn't let him see the wonderful things in life, like love and joy. While the reasoning behind this has been strongly hinted at this point in the game, it is still not explicitly stated. The player is then given a choice of whether to forgive this person or not.

As the game begins, the echoes of heavy artillery and explosions are heard. The game's protagonist, Alex Shepherd, is bound to a gurney and being wheeled through a dilapidated hospital; a silent doctor pushes him down a dimly lit hallway, and they pass by rooms in which doctors are committing strange and horrifying acts upon patients including dismemberment, strangulation and live burial. Once wheeled into a room and left alone, Alex struggles with his restraints as the doctor leaves the room. Through the blurred glass of the double doors, Alex watches in horror as a mysterious assailant impales the doctor with a giant blade.

Further to the mixed reception of the plot, some critics expressed disappointment at the predictability of the main twist in the story regarding Alex's predicament, while others found it "genuinely shocking." The twist is that Joshua is dead, Alex has repressed memories, and Alex is responsible for Joshua's death. This is similar to the plot of Silent Hill 2 which also has an unreliable narrator as a protagonist. However, unlike Mary's death, Joshua's death was accidental.

Alex meets back up with Wheeler, and they proceed to travel through the Otherworld version of the penitentiary, finding Elle's mother, Margaret Holloway, strapped to a chair. Alex releases her, but a caterpillar-like monster grabs Wheeler through a hole in the wall and pulls him in, prompting Margaret to run. As she leaves, Margaret's face changes from a feigned expression of fright to reveal a more sinister intent. Alex defeats the monster, Asphyxia, and sees his brother, whom he follows outside and into a church.

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The soundtrack was composed by Akira Yamaoka. Vocals for One More Soul to the Call, This Sacred Line, Alex Theme and Elle Theme were by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. A remix of Alex Theme called Alex Theme (Machine Head Mix) was released on the Silent Hill Sounds Box.

In several interviews, Akira Yamaoka hinted at a return to the psychological roots that were present in Silent Hill 2 and that the team was interested in setting the game's atmosphere in a "sunny environment gone wrong", an idea that was apparently abandoned and discarded considering the dark fog in the final version of the game. Yamaoka said that the game's title may not be Silent Hill V, and it was later confirmed to be Silent Hill: Homecoming.

Alex eventually encounters his childhood friend, Elle Holloway, outside of the Shepherd's Glen Police Station putting up missing persons fliers. She is preoccupied and upset, and she is annoyed with Alex for leaving for the military without ever saying goodbye to her. After talking with him, she gives Alex a walkie talkie, and Alex continues his search for Joshua. He then finds his way to a junkyard belonging to Curtis Ackers, the town mechanic, whom he asks for information. Alex gives Curtis his father's revolver as thanks for his help and Curtis gives Alex a handgun, claiming that he likes a fair trade. Alex then leaves and heads to the tomb of the Bartlett family, one of the four founding families, where he finds a watch. A siren sounds, causing him to black out.

After solving a puzzle to reveal a door behind an enormous pipe organ, Alex finds his father, Adam, tied up, similar to how he found his mother in the prison. Alex begins questioning his father as to whether or not he knows where Joshua is and it is revealed that Alex was never a soldier. While he thought that he was in the hospital due to wounds sustained during the war, Alex has actually been in a mental hospital. Adam shows Alex the family ring necklace, but does not explain why he has apparently taken it back from Joshua. The Bogeyman appears and slices Adam's body in half before retreating down a staircase. Following after the Bogeyman, Alex disguises himself as an Order Soldier, but is soon captured by Curtis and the Order.

Arriving at his childhood home, Alex notices many pictures of his parents with Joshua which, oddly, do not feature himself. Alex comments to himself about his parents' behavior, feeling that his parents had always favored his brother over him. Alex finds his mother, Lillian, in a near catatonic state. After telling Alex that she misses Joshua and that his father has gone to look for him, Lillian refuses to speak to Alex any more. Alex notices his father's revolver on his mother's lap, and he takes it from her before leaving. He suddenly hears a noise from the basement and heads toward the sound. While investigating the basement, Alex comes across a room that his father, Adam, uses to butcher the animals that he hunts, prompting him to have a flashback. In the flashback, young Alex opens the door to his father's hunting room, causing his father to turn around and scold him fiercely. After leaving the house, Alex eventually finds himself traveling through a graveyard near his house, and while there, he sees two tombs belonging to two of the town's founding families.

Along the street, Alex finds Fitch and follows him into his clinic, where he finds a slightly disturbing collection of dolls before being attacked by a group of Nurses. Alex finds a key which unlocks a small box containing another doll and as he touches it, the floors and walls peel away to reveal a rusted, bloody, metal world: the Otherworld called Hell Descent. Alex finds Dr. Fitch in a large room where he is seen cutting himself to "repent for his sins". Alex questions him and learns that Fitch's daughter, Scarlet, has disappeared as well. Fitch, now going into a state of depression, says that he forgot to bring Scarlet her present. Once Alex hands him his present, Scarlet's doll, Dr. Fitch's cuts proceed to multiply. He begins to bleed profusely from his wounds and his blood forms a pool around him. As he endures the pain, Dr. Fitch drops the doll and it sinks into the blood pool. The doll then arises now transformed into a large porcelain mannequin-like monster, Scarlet. As Dr. Fitch begs for forgiveness, seemingly to his daughter, the monster kills him by biting his head off, and then attempts to do the same to Alex. After defeating Scarlet, Alex awakens in the clinic, finding a key that leads him to the town hall.

Margaret then begins to torture Alex by running a drill into his thigh and eye and fortunately, he breaks free from his restraints, and turns the drill to Margaret's chin, killing her. After running through the Order's compound for a while, Alex finally finds Elle, who is being tortured by Curtis Ackers. He manages to kill him and frees Elle. They then find Wheeler tied to a chair with several knives protruding from his abdomen. The player is given a choice of whether or not to save him with a medical kit or to let him die. Regardless of the choice made, Alex then goes on without Elle to face the end alone. Alex pushes further through, finding the tombs of the four families whose children have been sacrificed throughout the years. On each of the tombs are four names: those of the children who have been sacrificed by each family over the years since the town's founding. On the Shepherd family tomb, Alex finds his own name, confirming that his parents chose to sacrifice him and let Joshua live, which explains why his parents were so distant and cold toward him, and favored Joshua; they couldn't bear to love Alex knowing that they would have to kill him one day.

In terms of controlling Alex, the player may also perform new maneuvers such as targeting the enemy before attacking them, dodging enemy attacks, and performing counter-attacks. In addition to the game's melee weapons; a pistol, rifle, and shotgun are available as firearms, which can be replaced with stronger versions later in the game.

Similar to Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 4: The Room, it is unknown which ending of Homecoming is canon and so it is unclear if Alex and the other characters survived the events of the game. The endings are only named in the official strategy guide. There are a total of five endings and a bonus scene. The three factors involved whether or not Alex mercy kills his mother (i.e. shooting her is mercy killing), whether or not Alex forgives the man in the confession booth who is either Adam or symbolic of him (choose "sounds like you can change" to forgive and "you don't sound sorry" to not forgive), and whether or not Alex uses a first aid kit on Wheeler at the end.

In the scene where Margaret Holloway drills into Alex's leg, a hospital bed is conveniently placed in front of the camera, obscuring the actual drilling.[2] When the drill is pushed into Margaret's face, the screen is merely black with the sound still heard in the background.[3] When Margaret falls to the floor, the drill is no longer lodged in her jaw, and completely missing from the scene.

Also adding to the atmosphere is the audio, with music written by series regular Akira Yamaoka. Yamaoka's music and ambient audio was received well, being "atmospheric, moody and beautifully presented" combined with "an amazing score" the audio goes "a long way toward establishing the expected Silent Hill mood," though some concern was expressed that the music was "somewhat misplaced" with the game and did not fit in so well.

Returning home, Alex realizes that the dagger, aside from being a weapon, is the key that unlocks his father's hunting room door, as well as the other doors featuring the same type of lock. In the hunting room, Alex finds a key that unlocks the attic and there, another flashback scene commences. The scene shows Adam giving Joshua the family ring; he tells Joshua that the ring has been passed down through generations, is incredibly important and special, and is not to be shown to anyone, even Alex. After the flashback, Alex finds a note written by his father stating that he was told he had to "choose just one of his sons". Judging by the preferential treatment that Adam and Lillian Shepherd have always shown Joshua, the family ring that was secretly given to him, and this mysterious note, it would seem that Joshua has been chosen for some special purpose by his parents and the Order, which is an organized cult that is present in Silent Hill. Alex, with the new-found information from his father's note, attempts to question his mother about Joshua once again, only to be interrupted by members of the Order who beat Alex and kidnap Lillian. The house then transforms into an Otherworld version of itself, which Alex escapes by solving puzzles involving the past and guilty consciences of each of his family members.

After breaking free from his restraints, Alex ventures further through the hospital and encounters his brother, Joshua Shepherd, drawing with crayons. Upon request, Alex retrieves a rabbit doll for his brother. However, Joshua runs away and continues to do so whenever Alex gets close to him. Further progressing through the hospital, Alex follows Joshua's trail into an elevator. During its descent, Alex hears the screeching of metal, and the elevator car shakes violently before a huge blade is thrust through the door towards him.

Alex has a flashback: on the night after Adam gave Joshua the family ring, Alex took Joshua out on a boat on Toluca Lake. While there, Alex teased him, whom he felt jealous of due to his parents' preferential treatment. To counter Alex's taunts, Joshua showed him the family ring, prompting Alex to grab it in anger. Joshua stood up in the boat, attempting to take the ring back, however, he fell backwards while struggling with Alex and had a concussion on the boat before falling into the lake and drowning. Adam then retrieved Joshua's body and scolded Alex fiercely, telling him that he doesn't know what he's done. He says that "they" chose Alex, but now Alex has ruined everything, and that everyone else will suffer for Alex's mistake. Alex then goes into mental shock right after Adam's scolding, repeating over in his mind that there was a way he could save Joshua, despite that he was dead. It is implied that many people in the town were told that Alex went off to war rather than that he was institutionalized, as Elle scolds him earlier in the game for not saying goodbye.

The game's plot, written by Patrick J. Doody and Chris Valenziano, received a mixed reception. While some reviewers graded it positively, describing it as "intriguing and disturbing," a review by G4TV felt it "isn't particularly original, and there are no great surprises," but it "still makes for a very involving journey into the macabre."[5]

Homecoming received a Metacritic of 71 out of 100 for the PlayStation 3 version, and 70 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version. Aggregate site GameRankings gave a 71.82% aggregate score for the Xbox 360 version, and a 71.28% for the PlayStation 3 version. Out of all the Silent Hill mainline games, it is considered the "black sheep" by most of the fandom.

The story follows Alex Shepherd, a young man who returns to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen following a supposed military discharge and time spent in a hospital for combat related injuries. Alex returns home only to find that his father and younger brother, Joshua, have vanished without a trace, as have many others throughout the town. He finds his mother in a depressive, near catatonic state. Alex searches through the town for his missing brother while uncovering the causes behind the strange events and the dark secrets of the neighboring town of Silent Hill.

The game also marks the first time in the series where the camera never "cuts" to a perspective chosen by the developers, allowing the player to be in full control of the camera outside of cutscenes, puzzles, and sections where the player must select dialogue options.

The game was released on September 30, 2008 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in North America and on November 6, 2008 for the PC on Steam. All versions were simultaneously released in Europe on February 27, 2009, including an European retail PC version. The Xbox 360 version is also available as a digital download for the Xbox 360, as well as the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S via backwards compatibility. The PlayStation 3 version is disc-only.

Homecoming received some criticism due to various elements of the game, ranging from strange continuity errors to odd design choices:

In the town hall, Alex proceeds to use the key to unlock an underground passage where he finds a Ceremonial Dagger. He also finds portraits of the town's founders, the heads of four families who left Silent Hill to found Shepherd's Glen many years ago. Oddly, the portrait of the Shepherd family's head, Alex's own ancestor, has been taken down from the wall. He also finds some Ancient Books, detailing the founding families and their pact with God.

"They say war is hell - but there are worse things. War changes you and nobody back home could ever understand. They never understood me. They say you can't go home again but they're wrong. I just don't want to."

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In addition to exploration, combat is another major element to the gameplay, and the player must fight the various monsters that appear. The player is able to perform light and heavy attacks, or mix them to perform combinations, and may also perform a variety of finishing moves to ensure that the monsters are dead. Attacking enemies also leaves wounds in them that match the motion carried out by Alex in inflicting the attack.

After Silent Hill: Origins the team which was previously in charge of the series (Team Silent) disbanded for various reasons, one of which was the desire from Konami to give the series a "different feeling", according to Silent Hill: Homecoming artist Kenzie LaMar.[1]

Alex awakes to find himself locked behind bars in a holding cell. The town deputy, James Wheeler, questions him for a while before being convinced of Alex's good intentions and letting him out of the cell. The two make their way through the Shepherd's Glen Police Department building, only to be separated. Alex then encounters Elle and they both escape into the sewers where they also eventually become separated. Arriving back on the street, Wheeler radios Alex and tells him to meet up with him so they can find a man named Dr. Martin Fitch, who is also a descendant of one of the four founding families of Shepherd's Glen.

Praise was given to the graphics and the environments, described as "fantastic" with Shepherd's Glen in particular being "rendered brilliantly" by GameSpy and "the upgraded visuals bestow a filmic quality to everything and the world's eerie transformations look better than ever" by GamePro. The monster designs were generally praised and many players found them to be strange and terrifying, moreso than installments such as Downpour. Character models, however, were criticized for appearing doll-like and unpolished. Another criticism of the game was the lack of lighting: many environments were made difficult to navigate due to this, even with the flashlight. Players also noted Alex controls tightly and responsively, although some wish he could be able to run as his maximum running speed is a light jog.

Upon awakening from a nightmare, a startled Alex realizes that it was only a dream as he sits in the passenger seat of an 18-wheeler driven by Travis Grady. Arriving at Shepherd's Glen, Travis says "Good luck, soldier." This, along with Alex's military jacket and the sounds of warfare heard in the beginning of the game, imply that Alex is a soldier returning home from war. Having been dropped off in his hometown of Shepherd's Glen, Alex discovers that the town is not the same as he left it; thick fog covers the town, all the streets are in a state of heavy disrepair, and almost no people can be found. Alex encounters Margaret Holloway, a judge and the mother of his childhood friend, Elle Holloway. Both Alex and Margaret Holloway are descendants of the four families that founded Shepherd's Glen hundreds of years ago; those families being Shepherd, Holloway, Fitch, and Bartlett. Shepherd's Glen is, in fact, named after Alex Shepherd's own ancestor. Margaret Holloway seems surprised to see Alex and tells him to go see his mother.

Escaping the house, Alex meets back up with Elle and Wheeler, stating that they must go to Silent Hill to save everyone. While traveling via boat, the Order assaults them and kidnaps Elle and Wheeler, leaving Alex to wash ashore in Silent Hill. Receiving radio calls from Wheeler, Alex is led to the Overlook Penitentiary where he fights multitudes of monsters and Order members before rescuing Wheeler. Alex asks if he knows where Elle is and Wheeler says that he doesn't know for sure, but he heard members of the Order talking about taking a woman to the Solitary Confinement block.

In contrast, Croshaw's Zero Punctuation review was generally negative, stating that while the level design, story and combat were all competent and Homecoming isn't "that bad a game", the game had little to do with what he liked about the Silent Hill series and would have been better served as a completely different franchise.[4]

When Alex comes to, he finds that he has been mysteriously transported to the neighboring town of Silent Hill. There, he sees his brother run into an abandoned hotel. Following Joshua into the building, Alex is stalked by numerous monsters before encountering a humanoid creature with a large, metal, pyramid shaped mask locked over its head: the Bogeyman. The Bogeyman notices Alex, who is hiding behind a shoddy barricade of broken furniture and turns to stare at him briefly before moving on. After this encounter, Alex encounters Sam Bartlett, the mayor of Shepherd's Glen, in a large, circular greenhouse elsewhere in the hotel. Mayor Bartlett, like Alex, is also a descendant of one of the founding families of Shepherd's Glen. Alex learns that Bartlet's son, Joey, has also disappeared mysteriously. After questioning Bartlett, Alex is horrified to see a monster, Sepulcher, rise from a hole in the ground and kill the Mayor. Alex manages to kill it, only to fall into Sepulcher's hole and black out again.

With Wheeler's help, Alex travels deeper into the prison and reaches solitary confinement, but instead of Elle, he finds his mother. Lillian is chained to a crucifix shaped torture device, which is slowly stretching her body beyond its limits. Lillian begs Alex to end her suffering, and the player is given a choice of whether or not to do so. If the player decides not to help her, Lillian is alive and conscious while the torture device tears her body in half. If the player decides to help, Alex mercifully puts a bullet in her brain, killing her right before the machine tears her body apart.

The world once again shifts to the Otherworld where Alex fights the final boss, Amnion. After defeating the creature, Alex cuts the monster open, and Joshua's corpse slides out. Finally finding closure with his brother, Alex laments and apologizes to Joshua and leaves.

As the second external outsourced developer working on a Silent Hill entry, Double Helix were under scrutiny from reviewers and Silent Hill fans to see how a new Western developer would handle the Japanese franchise. Some reviewers found the change in developer to be a positive move overall, while others, acknowledging faults in the final product, expressed interest in seeing further Silent Hill games from the same developer.

Silent Hill: Homecoming NA EU JP Development Team Director: Cordy Rierson Producer: Jeremy Lee Writer: Patrick J. DoodyChris Valenziano Composer: Akira Yamaoka Production Information Developer: Double Helix Games Publisher: Konami Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC Genre: Survival horror Modes: Single-player Release Date(s): September 30, 2008 (North America)November 6, 2008 (Steam)February 27, 2009 (Europe) Ratings ESRB: M PEGI: 18 CERO: 18/Z BBFC: 18 ACB: 15 Specifications Media: DVD-ROM, Blu-ray Disc, Digital Download Input: Controller (PS3, Xbox 360)Keyboard + Mouse (PC)

The PC version of the game had, by far, the most negative critique of any previous Silent Hill installment, receiving a mere score of 59.38% on Metacritic. This is likely a symptom of older PC ports having less effort and care put into them, as well as patches being less common in 2008. Issues commonly cited are a 30 FPS cap, a lack of optimization and the prevalence of glitches (some game breaking - although it is important to note that these glitches were not exclusive to the PC version). One of the most common complaints of the PC version was that it would crash while entering the Shepherd House. The PC version has received unofficial patches by fans to alleviate these issues.

The game was initially banned in Australia, but was subsequently released with the MA15+ rating and censored graphics. The Japanese release of the game was canceled altogether.

The game began development as Silent Hill V. Ex-chief designer of Silent Hill V, Masashi Tsuboyama announced the game's development in a 2004 interview with Eurogamer. Tsuboyama first clarified rumors that it was not going to be called Shadows of the Past, as previously reported from one website. A video teaser for Silent Hill V was released with a monolog by Alex:

The player assumes the role of Alex Shepherd as he searches for Joshua. Overall gameplay is similar to past entries in the series. The player, as Alex, explores the various environments and locales, searching for clues to advance the plot, such as photographs, drawings and other items which are placed inside Alex's journal, which the player may read at any time. To assist the player, Alex will turn his head towards items and clues to inform the player that the object may be picked up; other recurring items include weapons and ammunition, which give off a glow as a visual cue to the player, and health drinks. Puzzle elements also play a part in the game, and Alex's journal may be used to refer back to photographs and other items that can help the player decipher such puzzles as keypad entries. For the first time in the series, the player may select responses when engaging in dialogue with other characters encountered in the game, which in turn may affect how the player sees the plot unfold.

Alex awakens to find himself tied to a chair in a blood-stained room containing a drill and circular saw. Sitting in the room is Margaret Holloway, who reveals that the disappearances of all the children were all part of a ritualistic sacrifice system. She reveals that Shepherd's Glen was founded by four families from Silent Hill, who no longer wanted to take part in the doings of the Order and their demon worship. They were allowed to leave Silent Hill under one condition: every fifty years each of the four families must sacrifice one of their children. This sacrifice has since provided protection to Shepherd's Glen from the troubles that have been felt in Silent Hill, until now.