Silent Hill 3

Warning: may contain disturbing images. people with weak heart and other disabilities look at them at your own risk.



Yes, you read it right, its silent hill 3. Why the middle of the 5 game series you ask? well explanation is rather simple. I have played first 2 games and have better ways to spend my time than replaying them just for review. and i have played silent hill 3 recently, whne in future i wish to play the remaining 2 parts. So we start in the middle, and then, possibly, go up to 4 and 5. but all in its time.

Silent Hill 3 is satisfying and frightening horror game. The graphics are good for its time, the gameplay traditional, the puzzles challenging, and the sound is just great. That having been said, it is not quite the perfect Silent Hill experience. One thing you have to have in mind is that this is not resident evil, where you go and shoot everyone. This here is more of a mystery adventure puzzle game than a shootout, and so was the first two. Yes there are mosnters to shoot, hack and cut but it is not the main event most of the time.

First, let's look at what the game does right, which is just about everything. For starters, Silent Hill 3 is one of the best looking games for its time. The hoops that the designers have made the graphics engine jump through are simply great. From the lighting and water effects, the in game character models, the monsters, the cutscenes, and most importantly, the environment. The character models were astounding in their level of details, from the near translucency of Claudia's skin to the blemishes on Vincent's chin. You could even see the characters' pores for God's sake! Character movement was believable and varied; each character even walked in a distinct way that was unique to them, from Heather's no-nonsense stride to Vincent's arrogant swagger. The monsters, even the lame ones, were equally well done, with unique looks and impressive presence. Even the Numb Bodies looked good, with their veined purple hides giving the impression of something infected that has been under water for a month. Effects on the later creatures, such as the special Closers in the Church at the end of the game, were truly disturbing and unique. The environments were varied and well rendered, from the derelict office building to the cold stone of the underground tunnels. When Heather walked down an abandoned street, surrounded by fog with the early morning sun suffusing the scene, you were there with her and couldn't help being surprised by the touch of beauty in that horrible place. Or rather lack of it. The fig scenes usually as graphic as a guy driving blind. you got map to tell you where to go and you listen to the suruondings to orientate. cant see a damn thing though that fog. As usual, the mist and darkness effects were almost a character in the game, and lent even the outdoor environments a claustrophobic and suffocating air. Though 2003s graphics were not as advanced as to produce a sense of realism in those, thus often ending up having a lot of red pixels moving around that is supposed to be blood, whereas blood in other senes are very well made.

Sound was also just about perfect. Heather's boots made realistic noises no matter what kind of surface she was running on, from stone and wood to grass and water. Ambient background noises were varied and omni-present, from the dripping of water in the sewers to the creaking of metal in the dilapidated amusement park. These elements are often overlooked, but when they are done well, as they were in this game, it is a big step towards total immersion. The monsters were, as always, unbelievable, but in a good way. From the pathetic mewling of the Numb Bodies to the screeching of the Pendulums, each monster had its own distinctly disturbing sound. It would have been nice if the background noises and the monsters stopped when you paused, because it is hard to pay attention to something else while there is the sound of a room full of Pendulums grating through the surround sound headphones. The voice acting was spot on, professional, and most importantly, believable. Most of the time anyway. Games made in 2009 or 2010 still has a lot to learn in the osund departament from this game.

Gameplay was the one element where you didn't see many improvements over earlier games in the series, but that is hardly surprising. Silent Hill 3 still controls in much the way the original Silent Hill did, and doesn't deviate far from the standard set by Resident Evil way back in 1996. Which is pretty sad because altrough once you get it its easy to control, but the camerals and controls, aiming of weapons and inventory digging is often drustrating, time consuming or at least annoying. I for the heck of me couldnt made a meele weapon work agaist the dogs even though they are supposed to be one of the weakest enemies because the aim and movement while aimed is very frustrating. It is also very hard to fight multiple enemies as you concentrate on one and the your character totally ignores other ones.
Other new features, such as the Beef Jerky and the Sub-Machinegun, might as well not have been there. The Beef Jerky was rarely useful except in instances where you absolutely did not want to fight and needed to slip through a narrow corridor past an enemy. Since I just love beating enemies' heads in with Steel Pipes and Katanas, the only time I ever used it was to try it out, then I promptly forgot about it. People made a big deal about the inclusion of the SMG in Silent Hill, and how it was going to change the whole dynamic of the game. In practice, ammo for the weapon was so scarce that the SMG could only be used for brief instances, which were usually boss battles. Personally, i have never used it other than to try it out. The clip of 32 emptied incredibly quickly and there were only a handful in the game, so the vaunted SMG boiled down to a couple of brief blasts of fully automatic gunfire before you switched back to the reliable old Pistol.
The puzzles were one aspect of the game that blew me away. When they said hard, they meant it, and it really made me feel like I worked for it when I finally worked them through. They also seemed to make more logical sense than in the last game.

The storyline was one of the game's strongest aspects. The franchise has gotten to the point where the story is going to tie back into previous games, which is off-putting to those new to the series, but a welcome blessing to those of us who have been with the series since Harry Mason's day. Honestly, if you are starting a series with number three, you shouldn't be expecting to jump in with both feet and immediately not feel like an outsider. Silent Hill 3 actually does a pretty good job at being accessible to newbies, as you can enjoy most of the game without having played the others. However, there WILL be a point at which you will feel a little left out of the loop, and frankly, you should. The story does a wonderful job of explaining things gradually while still moving us along at a brisk pace. It tied seamlessly in with the storylines of both Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2, although I am getting a little confused as to when this game takes place; did Silent Hill take place almost 20 years ago, in the 1980s, or did it take place in 1996, and Silent Hill 3 takes place in 2013? Or did it take place somewhere in the middle, with Silent Hill in 1991 and Silent Hill 3 in 2008, or what? Regardless, the twists and turns of Silent Hill 3's story left me begging for more.

Which is one of the few things I have to complain about. The game wasn't really short for a survival horror game, and it did feature a number of new and classic environments. Unfortunately, I was hoping to see more of Silent Hill itself, as the town has become sort of a character in and of itself throughout the last two games. Infact, majority of the game happens out of Silent Hill. Between the first two games we were able to explore dozens of square miles of Silent Hill and the interiors of over a dozen building and environments. While in Silent Hill 3 we do visit West South Vale again, and go into Brookhaven Hospital and Lakeside Amusement Park again, as well as visit the Church (which may or may not be the same building where Harry met Dahlia in the original Silent Hill) and briefly stop by the Heaven's Night club, that is it for the town itself. Not only that, but there is not a single item to be picked up while exploring the exterior of the town. While I understand that the town itself was not the focus of this game, I still think the game could have been much longer, and would have liked to see more of the town. Actually, what I really would have liked to see is the entire town as explored in both of the previous games opened up for your exploration, from Old Silent Hill and Central Silent Hill to Lakeview Hotel and Toluca Prison. Since it is entirely possible to beat the game in under three hours (according to the beat game in 3 hours achievement, personally i took 12 hours), I would have really liked to see them go all out and open the entire town up to us for the third game in the series.

Another element that I was not quite as pleased with was some of the monster design. The Numb Bodies were just plain lame, and though the Double Heads looked neat, they were otherwise indistinguishable from the zombie dogs of the Resident Evil series, from their movement, to their leaping attacks and their AI. Another aspect that bothered me a little was Heather's character design. Besides her wardrobe being a touch white trash, Heather looked like she was strung out, with pale, waxy looking skin and obvious bags under her eyes. I know that they wanted to portray her as a bit of a bad girl, but I don't see her father raising her as a junky. Also, while the protagonists of the first two games in the series genuinely seemed overwhelmed of and terrified by their situation, Heather acclimated to it a little too readily, which reduced some of your connection to her. I do understand her circumstances, but with Silent Hill's mood, the main character should not be cracking jokes about the monsters or making awry comments about the mind-bending horrors. She seemed just a little too hip and ironic for the game. I liked her overall, but she left the game feeling a little unbalanced in terms of mood. A perfect example of this is the game's "Normal" Ending. Traditionally, the endings of Silent Hill games have messed with your perceptions of reality, left you questioning the nature of life and love, or at their worst, left you with a feeling of bleak despair. In this game we get "Don't blondes have more fun?" While on the subject of endings, there are only two real endings and a joke ending to the game, while the original Silent Hill had six, as did Silent Hill 2.

Regardless, I still think that this is a fine horror game. It has taken the franchise to new heights in terms of storyline, sound, immersion, and sheer terror. Silent Hill 3 is a Classic.

And now to my rating:
Presentation: 10. And let me quote IGN on this one: "If only the average horror-movie tried half this hard---excellent cinematics, music and mood, and some bad scares, both short and long-term."
Graphics: 8. Altrough i understand that for 2003 it was revolutionary, but F.E.A.R. did the same thing, and stillmanadged to keep quality thoughout the whole game and not only "the important parts". I understand that it is very hard to make belieable scary models with such limitations they had back in those days, so thats acceptable.
Sound: 9. There were situations where you want mosnters to just shut the hell up but the sound departament tried very hard in making it look as authentic as they could. And they suceeded.
Gameplay: 6. Though this is Biased, because i like more first person view action than strange angle cameras and bad controls.
Lasting Appeal: 9,5. With the amount of unlockable objects, replaying modes and different clothes to unlock this one can be played for hundreds of hours and still be intresting. The only downside is the lack of Endings.

Final Score: 8,5 from me. This is a good game.