Silent Hill 2 was the birth of the actual game franchise. Konami (specifically, Team Silent) faced an uphill battle in topping the second title with a new sequel. Clearly they were gluttons for punishment as they hit the drawing board to do it all over again. Silent Hill 3 released but not to nearly the same level of fanfare as its predecessor. That’s not because it’s a bad game. It’s actually a very good one. Silent Hill 3 just didn’t re-define survival horror like its predecessor did. I played it years ago, but decided to give it a modern look. Let’s dive right in to Silent Hill 3.
This time the protagonist is a teenage girl named Heather Morris. She’s suffering a rash of bad dreams the likes of bloodthirsty monsters in haunted amusement parks. Yes, those kind. In the world of Silent Hill there are no coincidences, and she soon lives these nightmares. The plot begins with Heather awakening in a mall as she’s being tailed by a private detective claiming to have information about her birth. After evading him the environment twists and contorts into a nightmare version of this usually happy place. Heather does battle with monsters and hazards, but manages to return to the real world. It seems that she’s important to these grotesque creatures, and learns about an awakening of sorts in the process of beginning.
I usually don’t like to spoil major plot threads but it’s kind of necessary in this case. Heather is the daughter of the original protagonist Harry Mason. She’s the grown up version of the little girl he encounters at the end of the first story. It’s a little disappointing that they decided to return to the plot threads of Alessa and the awakening of god (plus, who even cares about Harry Mason?) It’s an odd thing to return to because no one really cared and there’s so much more to Silent Hill as we learned in the previous installment. With that out of the way Heather is by far the most likable protagonist, and her story is interesting enough to keep you following. I just feel like Silent Hill 3 doesn’t add enough new things to the mythos.
Silent Hill 3 is a third person survival horror game with completely 3D environments. Anyone who has played a prior installment knows the drill here. You guide Heather through a variety of different environments most of which are home to fleshy abominations and grotesque monsters. Most of the areas you’ll explore are indoors. Like in the past two games you’ll find that you spend a significant amount of time exploring hallways full of doors and opening them by trial and error. The maps really help out once more, and again Heather fills them in as you find open ways forward as well as roadblocks. You’ll often need items to move forward, but sometimes the explanations for this are a little vague. The same goes for the puzzles, but at least you can select different difficulties for them.
While it’s still pretty clunky the combat mechanics have been improved a fair deal here. Aiming seems to be easier with wider swings of melee attacks. You also get more of them here than in the last game, and tools such as the katana are significantly better than the pipe and two by four. Guns also return here, and with limited ammunition you’ll probably want to save your bullets for the encounters which prove to be a little more tricky. Most of the time it’ll make sense to keep them to use against boss characters, but some of the monsters here are on the ceiling or floor which makes melee attacks largely useless against them.
There are several areas in which Silent Hill 3 has been upgraded. For one thing there are more types of enemies with more distinct differences. Instead of abstract foes like mannequins (like in the last game) you’ll face off against undead dogs, carnivorous blobs, and other very inventive foes. The line-up of enemies here is significantly improved from the last outing, and they’re much more menacing here. You’ll find the foes have much better attack patterns and actually implement the barest of minimum of strategy. The boss encounters see some significant upgrades in this iteration. They’re now significantly bigger, more menacing, and also require more strategy. I think this is the biggest upgrade Team Silent brings to the table with this sequel.
It also seems that Team Silent listened to the market trends a bit more with this sequel. Silent Hill is usually about a sense of dread and slow building terror, but here they increased the jump scares exponentially. You’ll wander through environments and hear random noises which lead you to explore and find what has changed. One scene in particular, involving a decapitated mannequin, caused me to literally jump out of my chair and put down the controller for a few moments. The memos and notes left behind in this game engage the player far more than in the previous titles. In the latter half of the game Heather is basically being stalked by a psychotic character who leaves her gifts, and it’s downright chilling. You’ll even encounter foes you can’t engage with which basically serve as decoration which leave you uncomfortable.
Even with the enhancements to combat I find Silent Hill 3 to be more difficult than the previous installments. Personally I’m all for a challenge and this is one of the installments biggest advantages to its predecessors. In the previous games you could more easily avoid encounters with foes because they were slower moving and smaller generally. Here they can block entire hallways, and catch up with you should you dodge them. Furthermore there are things like the ball of light which chases you through the haunted house in the amusement park. It’s creepy as all heck. Furthermore because of the bigger presence of foes you’ll want to deal with more when you know you’ll need to backtrack. Silent Hill 3 feels more traditional in its survival horror elements than previous installments.
Silent Hill 3 was a huge technical achievement on the PlayStation 2. The character models alone are like something we wouldn’t see until the next generation. Heather and the NPCs with which you interact look absolutely astounding and at a glance like real life people. The enemies have also seen a significant upgrade. Many are abstract and you never get a clear view of them (at least not as much as the other character models) but they are surprisingly defined. The game also runs at a very steady framerate. The music isn’t as good as it was in the last game, nor is the use of ambient sound. Everything in this category however is still amazing and adds several layers to the atmosphere. The voice acting however has seen a significant upgrade from the previous installment and it really helps you connect with the story.
This is an amazing sequel. It doesn’t quite measure up to the heights of the second game (I’m just in love with that one’s storyline and scenario) but as far as gameplay goes it improves in all the right places. Silent Hill however is all about the scenario in my opinion. The only disappointing thing about Silent Hill 3 in this regard is that it ties itself too closely to the original. I cared more about James Sutherland in part two than I did Heather here. It’s a far cry from the emotional journey that the last game was. Despite this I wholeheartedly recommend Silent Hill 3. Especially just in time for the Halloween season.
