Being one of the most successful survival-horror franchises, the 'Silent Hill' series had its share of ups and downs.

With 'Silent Hill 2' still widely regarded as the pinnacle of the franchise, the series holds a warm glow in the hearts of gamers, even though the sequels thereafter felt slightly watered down and sorely lacking in the fresh-ideas department.

Being number five in the series, 'Silent Hill: Homecoming' is the franchise's first foray onto the current-gen systems and, with Konami handing over the reins to a Western development company for the first time, change seemed inevitable.

So with current hardware being utilised and fresh ideas from a new development team, the stage was set for a much needed overhaul, right? Not exactly.

The reality, much like this latest instalment, is a much more dreary, uneventful affair.

'Silent Hill: Homecoming' is pretty much a mish-mash of the previous instalments. Sure, there are minor tweaks here and there, the graphics — while being decidedly bland — is still a notch above the circa-PS2 games, but you'll experience an overwhelming case of déjà vu as you plod through the foggy streets of Silent Hill, and a seemingly adjacent town called Shepherd's Glen.

The game starts with an introduction that was probably intended to launch you into the narrative with a startling jolt, but ends up being a rather clichéd opener that, at best, might raise an eyebrow in mild disinterest.

You're Alex Shepherd, a war veteran recently returned to the town of Shepherd's Glen, and right now you're searching for your brother, who you'll constantly be seeing turning a corner in the distance, or running into an abandoned building, and always just out of your grasp.

Yawn. These scare tactics may have worked in the first couple of games, but their edge has been left decidedly blunt this time around.

Scantily clad faceless nurses with knee-jerk reactions, abominations with twitching limbs that hack desperately at you, skinless hounds baying for blood... You'll have seen it all before, from the empty echoing hallways of the hospital to the rust-coloured palette of the town gone to hell.

I understand that there's a certain aesthetic when it comes to 'Silent Hill', but giving us the same game with an update in resolution seems a bit of a cop-out. The puzzles lead you by the nose and, generally speaking, the solution will become apparent after a process of thorough elimination — so cerebral it definitely ain't.

Open doors will inevitably contain a key or puzzle element that will lead you to a previously closed door or unexplored area, and this process really is the essence of most of your journey through 'Silent Hill'.

Graphically speaking, the game is almost too foggy. Everything seems like it's viewed through a grain-filter, and while the effect is mostly cosmetic, it actually detracts from the gameplay experience as you'll be squinting your way through sections of the game. Textures are a mixed bag with the smoother surfaces (like bathroom tiles) looking great, but rougher textures like clothing or the bark of a tree looking atrocious.

Combat has received a bit of an overhaul with the choice of a quick weak attack, or a lumbering heavy attack. Certain combo's become available and it certainly works better than the awkward combat systems of the previous games. It's not perfect, but enemies can be dispatched with relative ease, which brings me to the next disappointment — the Boss fights. The creatures are mostly appropriately menacing in design, but killing them is a cinch. You'll often wonder afterwards if that really was a boss fight you just breezed through, or just a slightly-larger-than-usual regular enemy.

The narrative holds few surprises, but does a decent job of at least keeping you playing, if just to find out how it all pans out in the end (of which there are five different endings, depending on your choices throughout the game).

As with the previous games in the series, 'Silent Hill: Homecoming' is pretty disturbing, with graphic violence and demonic imagery. Definitely not everybody's cup of gaming tea.

'Silent Hill: Homecoming' might not be a bad place to start if you're new to the franchise, but to everybody else it will be a by-the-numbers affair, disappointingly scare-free and should definitely leave all your nerve endings intact.

The game that had you playing with the lights on has just turned scary for all the wrong reasons. Fans may be sated, but everyone else will be much better off playing infinitely better offerings out there like 'Dead Space', or the recently released 'Resident Evil 5'.

6.4/10

Buy this game: PS3 | Xbox 360 | PC