Shepherd House

The Shepherd House is a location in Silent Hill: Homecoming. Built along Craven Avenue in Shepherd's Glen, it is the home of the Shepherd family. First explored shortly after Alex Shepherd returns to the town, it plays a rather important role in the story.

Just like every other structure in town, the Shepherds' house looks as though it's falling apart, seemingly abandoned and left to rot. Windows are boarded up, paint is flaking, and retaining walls have begun to fall apart. A garage sits attached to the house. Here, the player finds an empty gas can, a steel pipe, and if the game has been cleared at least once and saved, a circular saw.

Alex's mother still inhabits the home, sitting in the living room, staring blankly at nothing and lamenting the absence of Alex's younger brother and her husband.

Design


It's a two-story building, excluding the attic or basement. A foyer, the family room, a kitchen, dining room, a locked room, and a door leading downstairs can be found on the first floor, while the second floor holds Alex and Joshua's room and a puzzle therein, Adam and Lillian's room, and a sitting room with a doorway leading into the attic.



The basement of the home is initially flooded and serves as an introduction to the Lurker. After the water has been drained, a door can be unlocked that leads to the backyard, allowing eventual access into both the kitchen and Rose Heights Cemetery. The basement also holds Adam's hunting room, a place forbidden to Alex in his youth, and is where the player can later acquire the BlueSteel shotgun. The ceremonial dagger is required to enter Adam's room.

The attic, locked until the player obtains the key in Adam's hunting room, appears devoid of purpose at first glance. However, hidden behind a bookcase is a secret room. Within the room a Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty can be found, in addition to a sliding puzzle embedded into the top of an old desk. After solving the puzzle, the player receives a letter from Adam and a map of Silent Hill.

Hell House
"To escape to the future you must know the past. We are bound to our pain, remember, and set us free." Shortly after Adam's letter has been acquired, Order Soldiers force their way into the home and kidnap Alex's mother. During this event, a shift to the Otherworld is triggered and Alex is unable to pursue the soldiers. In order to escape the house, Alex must complete four puzzles, each of which symbolize a member of the Shepherd family and their troubled psyches.

The layout of the house remains unchanged. Content, however, has altered drastically. Many of the rooms are now bare, save for the typical industrial elements associated with the Otherworld. They also contain the elements required to complete the various puzzles found throughout the home. Most areas of the home can only be accessed one at a time. Which section Alex has access to can be changed by pulling a lever located near the stairwell in what had been the foyer. Across from this switch a message is scrawled on the wall declaring that "to escape to the Future, one must know the Past", a clue to the nature of the puzzles found here. Schisms and Swarms are encountered on the first floor.

Blocking the exit is a large bulkhead-type door, surrounded by four unlit runes or insignias and will only be unlocked once all puzzles are completed. On this floor, the player must complete the mask puzzle, the puzzle representing Lillian Shepherd.



Much like the first floor, the second floor has an identical floor plan to its Fog World counterpart. However, the master bedroom is missing most of its floor, having been replaced with a single catwalk leading to the bathroom, and the furniture layout is upside down, effectively mounted to the ceiling. Part of the catwalk is damaged and must be jumped over, the location of which coincides with the location of the bed. This is reminiscent of Alex's punishment - perpetuated in Hell House - for jumping on "mom and dad's bed," while Joshua was "totally let off the hook".

A clock puzzle, representative of Joshua's torment, can be found in what used to be Alex and Joshua's room and must be completed in order to leave the house.

The basement has been replaced with a more labyrinthine layout; however, the hunting room has been left somewhat intact. In this room, the Knife Puzzle, representing Adam Shepherd, must be completed to ignite a rune surrounding the main exit.

The attic houses three Schisms, one of which will attack as Alex approaches, while Alex will have a chance to strike first against the other two. Pipes and fans crowd the attic, making it impossible to traverse without ducking under, squeezing through, or hopping over different configurations of piping. The Medal Puzzle, a puzzle representing Alex's past, must be solved on this floor in order to finally unlock the main exit. Once all four puzzles are completed, the bulkhead-door disappears and the house reverts back to, more or less, normal.

Trivia



 * When the player first enters the basement, a plastic sheet can be seen blocking a door. Until it is cut, a silhouette appears against the sheet, appearing to be Adam Shepherd. Once cut, however, it is revealed to be a mannequin.
 * If the player examines the bathtub, Alex will reminisce the fact that he hated taking baths as a kid, and it was always a hard time getting him in the tub. This may be Alex subconsciously avoiding his sacrifice. This can also foreshadow the "Drowning" ending, in which he's killed in the same tub.
 * Unused text in the game reveals some of the books on a bookshelf: The Man In The Iron Mask, Beyond Good And Evil, Frankenstein, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, The Odyssey, Hamlet, and Metamorphosis.
 * Some of the books seem to have odd titles, although they are extremely blurry and difficult to read. They appear to include A Book Title, An Interesting Book Title, The Collective, Harry Got His Gun (a reference to Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, which is also about a soldier), Life is a Bore, Rocket Science for Dummies, and Anal Sex for Dummies.
 * There are few, if any, photos of Alex Shepherd to be found in the Shepherd house, excluding one in which his figure is completely shadowed, unlike the two others featured in the photograph.
 * The reflection of a room while looking through a mirror will be completely devoid of furniture.
 * If the player has obtained the UFO Ending, a laser pistol can be found in Alex's room during a second play through.
 * The Schisms encountered in the Otherworld attic are thought to be symbolic of the Shepherd family. The Schism in the corner seems to be crying or hiding and represents Joshua. The Schism lying down represents Lillian, as it is already close to defeat. The Schism that attacks Alex once he retrieves the "Vile Acts" medal is reminiscent of Adam being aggressive towards Alex.
 * When examining a vacant spot where a photo used to be on the wall going up the stairs, Alex will state, "There was a picture here, but it's gone now." This is a reference to "There was a HOLE here, it's gone now", a message seen in Neely's Bar in Silent Hill 2.
 * In the Hell House version of the attic, upon entering the side room containing the jacket, there are four mannequin bodies on the left. The mannequins may represent each Shepherd family member, and they are in the same order as the lights downstairs that provide access to the puzzles. The first two mannequins on their sides could represent Lillian and Joshua, Lillian being near to death and Joshua being deceased. The third mannequin could represent Alex due to the coat and it being the only mannequin standing straight, and the fourth mannequin could represent Adam, who is still alive, but weakened, as the mannequin is leaning on the pillar.
 * A picture of the Shepherd House can be seen in Centennial Building in Silent Hill: Downpour.