Taking a trip to Silent Hill requires careful planning. You should always know what you're up against, and this guide will show you where to get weapons, health kits, and other neccessary items needed for your journey.
The Silent Hill Homecoming strategy guide by Brady Games is an excellent companion to the game. Whether you're looking to collect the book because of the name it bears, looking for every hidden item in the game, or need help finding a location or defeating an enemy, this strategy guide gives you a detailed description of everything in the world of Silent Hill.
The beginning of the book is awesome because it gives you a history of Silent Hill, beginning with Silent Hill Origins and ending with Silent Hill 4. It offers a descriptive plot to each game along with the stories of the main characters. It does include spoilers, so read that section at your own risk. If you're a fan of the series, you will greatly appreciate the way the stores tie together through the different entries in the series. Or if you're new to the games and don't have the option of playing the older games, this will give you a very good history lesson about what you've missed.
In Silent Hill Homecoming you will meet about 10 people, all of whom have a different story to tell of their experience in Silent Hill and Shephard's Glen. The next chapter in the guide gives you the story of who these characters are and their position in the city. It then gives you a description of every weapon and item that can be found in the game. Whether it is a secret weapon that can be found on a future playthrough, items needed for the game, or health drinks, this guide will show you what every item looks like and what it does. It is definitely worth it to take a look at these before you play so you'll know what to look for once you start the game.
The next 130 pages of the guide will give you a detailed walkthrough of the game. It will offer you clear pictures of your places of interest and things to look out for and also includes maps detailing where to go and where to find items that you'll want to pick up before you leave an area. Each area of the game offers a different experience and the guide makes everything easy to understand and easy to navigate. If you follow the guide carefully you'll pick up every weapon, health pack and game item to the very end. There's really no way to get lost or confused with this guide since it does such a wonderful job with it's writing and pictures. The guide also includes the areas where you will encounter enemies and will also give you a detailed description on how to defeat them. This comes in very handy with the boss battles at the end of each location since many boss battles are more confusing than fun to fight.
At the bottom of the page there may be a photograph or drawing left behind by Josh, collecting these won't give you any special perks other than an extra achievement but the guide offers the exact locations for almost all of them.
That leads to one of the few mistakes this strategy guide makes. All the drawings and serum locations are pretty accurate in the guide, however, there is one photo of Curtis that can be found behind the missing person's bulletin wall on your return to Shephard's Glen, this photo is missing from the guide. It can be frustrating if you're trying to get the achievement for collecting all the photos so I don't know how Brady Games managed to forget about the photo. One other mistake the guide makes has to do with the Achievements and PS3 Entitlements (although a patch was never released for trophies for this game). The Saved Wheeler and Found All Drawings achievements are missing from the guide and it also says if you beat the game on Hard difficulty you receive 150 gamer points but in the actual game you only receive 100 points. Other than that, those were the only mistakes that the guide has.
At the end of the walkthrough the guide features a picture and description of every enemy in the game, including bosses, and tells you how to defeat them. Then it goes into detail on how to reach each ending in the game and where and how to locate the two rare weapons and the unlockable outfits on future playthroughs. Each weapon and outfit requires you to reach a certain requirement in each playthrough in order to unlock the feature and the guide tells you exactly what to do. It then moves on to the list of achievements and ends with the art gallery. The art gallery has some pretty amazing pictures so it's definitely worth looking at if you're a fan of the series. The guide also includes a double sided poster in the back.
Overall, this is a well written and well photographed strategy guide, definitely one of the best I've seen to date. It is a must have book for any collector or for anyone who needs a special tip in reaching a location or needs help finding an item. I would highly recommend this book to compliment the game.
