A very creepy Silent Hill 3

Silent Hill 3 Review
Created by Konami
Reviewed by Greg Cutcher


Prepare to be chilled to the bone. Prepare for gruesome gore. Prepare for horror. Prepare for a linear game. All of this is true for Silent Hill 3, a 3rd person action/shooter, created by Namco. Step into the third installment of the 'Silent Hill' franchise where you play as Heather, a young teenager, caught between hell and a maddening world (Perhaps a horrifying analogy of puberty?). The game mechanics follow the previous two games, but there are enough quirks to make this game sparkle.

Heather, after waking up from a rather vicious dream, finds herself in a fast-food joint, bustling with people. Heather, wanting to just go home, makes a phone call before her departure, she is stopped by a detective named Douglas who is dressed as if he were from a 60's movie. Heather is creeped out and escapes into a girl's washroom, only to escape through a window leading to an alleyway, (i.e. The perfect place for shoplifters to make their escape). Upon finding that there is no way to escape except by going back into the mall, you reluctantly do such. Except, the mall's shops seem to be shut down and no one is inside anymore, except monsters and nastiness. She soon encounters Claudia who tells her that she must remember who she once was and stuff about Paradise. Follow Heather as she goes through the mall, the subway and a few other fun-filled places that makes open-heart surgery seem like a day at the circus as she works her way back home. Parts of the game that you go to are a Church, a Hospital and an Insane Asylum . . . Happy Times!

Before you start the game, you have to choose your setting of Game Difficulty (How hard are the monsters) and the Puzzle Difficulty (How hard are the puzzles). Both choices have the options of 'Easy', 'Normal' and 'Hard'. This nifty feature allows a player to have up to 9 different game possibilities. Back to the game-on hand.

Monsters, creepy and scary. You have the simple dog with the head that opens up fully to bite you, flying bug-like critters that sound like a cat in a blender, a giant puss-filled man with short-stubby legs, and so on. These monsters add quite the theme to the game, making noises and being of such gruesome design that their very sight gives one the heebie-jeebies.

What do you do with these monsters that you encounter? Well, I will say this: You do what most 3rd person action/shooters do, you take out weapons and smash your opponents down. First off, you have melee weapons, such as a pipe, a maul and a katana, to beat the living @#$* out of those things that come at you. These monsters learn after a bit however, attempting to dodge your close-range weapons, so what do you do then? Pull out your fine guns like your pistol, your shotgun or your machine gun that'll rock their world. Still, once again, this is nothing new. Even the limited supply of ammo for your guns that you can find isn't a new feature.

There are also puzzles in the game. However, depending on the difficulty you selected at the start, some of the puzzles are different or non-existent. This is another key-feature about Silent Hill. The Puzzles are there to make one think (or use some stupid walkthrough) to find out how to solve them. When one uses their head though, the puzzles can turn out to be quite fun and gives the player a break from all of the other nasties in the game.

The Atmosphere is strikingly scary. Each area you go into has its own quirkiness. Blood, run-down buildings, lovely texturing that makes ones eyes cry in agony and interest. There are two worlds, one where the area seems to be normal/run-down while the other is filled with blood, pulsating walls, grates, hung corpses, noises from afar that make you shiver. Even monsters create their own addition, moaning and making their own screwed up sounds a good distance away. Some areas will be pitch-black, so your flashlight will only give you a tiny area to see while your radio is the only thing that has static when a monster is nearby.

The music is awe-inspiring . . . when you hear it. Throughout many places in the game, you will have no music and no sound, save for your footsteps, the monsters and the weapons you use. However, when the music happens, it's meant to be there. Even the opening video with the song gives some good insight into the game.

A downfall in the game is that it is linear. Unlike the first two Silent Hill games, Silent Hill 3 will take you from one area to the next without allowing you to have much option to wander. The areas you will be in too have so many blocked off sections that you will be lead to your destinations without any or much feeling of wanderlust.

Still, all-in-all, Silent Hill 3 is worth the play, even if it comes across as a one-time play. I enjoyed it, it gave me a good scare here and there. I wish there was more to it, but hey, grabbing a katana and turning a monster into chop suey before spicing it up with bullets in a blood-soaked environment, makes my day!