Usually, Silent Hill eases you into the Otherworld, but this time, it’s full force as you start with a ton of gear. This time you play as Heather, an angsty teenage girl with a ton of personality, who gets thrust into the Otherworld as soon as you start playing.
If only every title in the Silent Hill series got progressively better and better… But we all know what happens there.Īt any rate, Silent Hill 3 is the first direct sequel in the series, though 17 years have passed since the game it follows, the original Silent Hill.
Plus, there's more unlockables, weapons, and costumes hidden here than ever before.After the amazing piece of work that is Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3 has some big shoes to fill. Replay value might appear to be slim on the surface, but trust me you'll want to go back and do things better many more times before the DVD ends up gathering dust on your shelf. By all means, the game can be easily beaten in a handful of hours, but there are many different ways to influence the multiple endings and ratings that you can achieve. Which ever tact you take, Silent Hill 3 grabs you by the throat and begins to squeeze a little harder each time you progress. I prefer to play the game as a kind of time-challenge affair, where others might like to kill every single creature that gets in their way. But what use are weapons in a game where most of the time a stealthy evade technique is preferable to wasting valuable ammo? It's all down to personal preference I guess. New to Silent Hill 3 are a number of cool weapons, including a shiny new katana and a submachine gun - both of which really kick ass. Movement, fighting and navigation are all easier to utilize. Silent Hill 3 does play and control in a superior fashion to Capcom's Resident Evil series. This isn't such a bad thing though, although as I mentioned before, gamers seem to either love or hate the mechanics in this genre. Featuring character models that are borderline real - resplendent with full facial animations, lip-synching, and expressions - and superb acoustic music and sound effects, the game is up there along the likes of Metal Gear Solid 2 in terms of production values.īut what of gameplay? Well, if you've played one survival-horror game on the PlayStation 2, you've pretty much played them all. This is mainly due to the excellent visuals and soundtrack featured in Silent Hill 3. From the very beginning of the game to the very end, the feeling of eeriness and doom is almost overwhelming. For our heroine, demons, devils, and blood-soaked alternate realities seem to be the popular choice. There's an evil presence lurking beneath the surface which seems to manifest itself in many different ways dependant on every individuals psyche.
You're in charge of guiding her to her inevitable destiny one way or another.Īs you may or may not know, the town of Silent Hill is a pretty messed up place. It's up to the player to uncover Heather's dark past by embarking on a demon-filled journey twisted out of shape between two dimensions. She meets with a slew of strange, almost-surreal people that seem to know a lot more about her than she does herself. When an incident in the local mall turns into something of a living, breathing nightmare, Heather is sure that she is losing her mind. Heather and her father live in the sleepy town of Silent Hill, and up until her seventeenth birthday, things seem pretty normal for her. The game stars a young girl by the name of Heather who is troubled by strange hallucinatory dreams and flashbacks. It's one of the best-looking games to date on the PlayStation 2 - but more on that later. The dev team responsible for Silent Hill 3 have completely outdone themselves this time around. Those coming at Silent Hill 3 without having played the other games might walk away a little bemused, but I guarantee that everyone will have a thrilling time either way. Suffice to say that gamers who have previously played and enjoyed the first two games in the series will really get a kick out of the interwoven character-driven lifelines. It's important for me not to reveal too much about the storyline of Silent Hill 3 so as not to ruin key moments and events. The latest addition in the series comes in the form of Silent Hill 3, and while the game does little to radically change the successful formula, it once again succeeds in crafting a sinister but cruelly gorgeous video-game experience.
For my money, Konami's excellent Silent Hill series epitomizes the very best in shock value, terror, and those creeping feelings of dread that we all sometimes crave. Starting as far back as Infogrames' Alone in the Dark series on the PC, the genre allows a large portion of like-minded gamers to scare themselves half to death. Whether you love it or hate it, the quirky genre known as "survival-horror" is here to stay.