I have always had a problem with the Silent Hill video games. To wit: they freak me out.

The thick fog prevents me from seeing very far, and hideous creatures are always jumping out from the shadows. The Silent Hill games are almost too scary to play.

Homecoming, the latest game in the franchise from Konami and available for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, is the freakiest Silent Hill yet. It all starts with you, Alex Shepherd, strapped to a gurney and being wheeled down the hallway of an institution.

Along the way, you see terrible things being done to other patients. After being left bound in an operating room, a nightmarish creature murders the nurse who had been transporting you. After breaking free, the only thing to do is to try and find a way out.

The typical Silent Hill themes – retribution, revenge, and redemption – are again at play, as Alex stumbles across his younger brother, Joshua, in the institution, and then has to find a way to rescue him from the town’s horrors.

The game play here is much the same as with previous Silent Hill titles, but combat is simpler because the character of Alex is a soldier, so he is better able to dispatch the terrors that torment. But the stronger character comes with a cost, because the game’s developers throw more attackers at you, so be prepared for some zombie killing action.

I played Silent Hill: Homecoming, but I almost wish I hadn’t. I’m going to have nightmares for weeks.

Rated mature.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight.