Combos are also implemented, but nothing fancy, more like a couple of light attacks followed by a heavy attack. Also, when enemies are downed, you'll be treated to much more than a simple stomp, usually along the lines of decapitation or a nice skewering. Even though you'll usually fight more than one opponent, the dodge capability and the new camera control allows players to maneuver around enemies and emerge from most fights unscathed.

This is also quite a problem, since the game doesn't feel challenging anymore, especially since you can find a lot of healing items so even if you do take damage, it's irrelevant. You'll be glad to hear that the nurses are back once again, with their twitchy and erratic movement, but not very dangerous thanks to the dodge capability. The plethora of monsters is not exactly large, but they are as twisted as ever. Boss fights are a little more difficult, but not like in previous parts, especially when you consider that most can be finished with the first knife found, since it's such a fast weapon.

I also must mention that the loading screens that occurred whenever you would enter a door are now gone. Alex, as well as the monsters, is free to explore, opening doors and moving from one room to the other without interruption. The scenery is also filled with interactable items and locations. You will encounter doors that can only be opened when hacked with an axe and certain places where you can pass only after cutting some sort of material that stand in your way. The interesting part is that you will encounter some of them way before attaining the weapon or item required to open it, so a little bit of backtracking needs to be done.

The Silent Hill series has always had its share of interesting puzzles and Silent Hill: Homecoming is no exception although a tad on the easy side. I must confess I would have liked to see more puzzles like the coin puzzle in Silent Hill 2, or the library puzzle in Silent Hill 3. I think an option for selecting combat difficulty and puzzle difficulty would have been greatly appreciated, but I guess we can't have everything now.

Of course, The Otherworld will make a grand appearance as well, with the transition from the real world looking better than ever. Just like the movie Silent Hill, when the world starts changing, everything around you transforms and decays and this is excellently shown in the game. The music, composed once again by Akira Yamaoka goes from soothing to shattering in a heartbeat. Sometimes the music is so good that you just want to stand there and listen to it, making sure you won't be interrupted by any monster.

This seems to be the most cohesive Silent Hill so far, with not a lot of loose ends left at the end, and this is refreshing for a change, as you aren't left with a whole lot of unanswered questions like in previous parts. It's nice to have some fighting skills as well, but this, once again, detracts from the feeling of fear that came from playing as a normal person, not trained in combat and not knowing if you will survive the next encounter.