Alone in Silent Hill

First of all, I would say that if you haven’t previously played the first two games in the Silent Hill series, you will be a little confused with the story in this game. Nevertheless, you’ll have an awesome time playing Konami’s Silent Hill 3, which centres on a young girl named Heather. I would want to tell you more about her but it’s better that I don’t (for the sake of those who played the previous two) or I’ll spoil the key events of the game.

The game begins in an amusement park in a dark chilling atmosphere. Heather will explore the park for a while, which is filled with monsters. It was a nightmare, really. Next, she’ll find herself in a cafeteria. After she called her father, she met a detective named Douglas whom she tried to avoid. In trying to escape, she realises that she is in an abandoned shopping mall and that’s when the fun begins. Throughout the game, you’ll run into Douglas again and occasionally, you’ll also come across another two characters: Claudia, a super-religious woman and xxx.

Silent Hill story is one of the things that got me hooked to this game. While in the two previous game, your mission is to look for the missing person, whereas in Silent Hill 3, your character is trying to find her the missing pieces to her past and the missing link between her and the ‘god’. Again, I would like to tell you more but it’ll really spoil the fun. Also, you don’t actually get to the Silent Hill town in this game until the second half of the game. When you do, you’ll found yourself in familiar locations. You’ll even revisit the Brookhaven Hospital. The story builds up part by part, slow but fascinating.

I have to admit that Silent Hill series are one of the most frightening survival-horror games I’ve ever played. This one is no exception. From the starting of the game itself, I was much troubled by the feeling of creepiness with all the disturbing cutscenes. In the game, you’ll step into the ‘dark’ world from time to time, where everywhere seems blurry and bloody. When this happens, monsters and zombies will be crawling everywhere, so look out! You’ll know it when you started hearing the crackling static from the radio Heather has with her.

When it comes to gameplay, the mechanics and controls in survival-horror games are pretty much the same. The navigation, movement, and attacking are easy to operate. In Silent Hill 3, you can put the cool weapons to full use, which range from submachine gun to flamethrower. But beware, if you run out of ammo, you’ll find yourself doing more running than fighting. Similar to the previous Silent Hill series, you have to do a lot of puzzle solving; finding clues, keys, passwords, notes, etc. to help you advance to the next section. Along the way, have fun fighting the creepy monsters and walking zombies.

Silent Hill 3 has many interesting unlockables, hidden items, weapons and costumes. You may want to consider replay the game to see if you’ve missed out anything. Besides, the endings can differ depending on many different ways. It’s not so much on how you solve the puzzles; it’s more of the method you use to kill the monsters. At the end of the game, you’ll get the rating.

When it comes to graphics, Silent Hill 3 has truly awesome visual effects. The textures of the characters are well detailed with high resolution model especially in the cutscenes. When you are in the ‘dark’ world, the textures of the bloody wall will blurry and at the same time, it looks as if it has life on its own, thumping in and out like heartbeats. You’ll feel as if you’re in a dream world where your nightmare begins. The monsters and zombies are also designed with high level of details which is really important to make it look horrifying, blended well with the dark environment.

The sound in Silent Hill 3 is, no doubt, marvellous. The sound effects ranging from the crackling static of the radio to the monsters’ footsteps really creates that kind of chill to your spine. The voice-overs of the characters are done reasonably well, which seems unified with the facial expression of the characters. The soundtracks featured in this game are captivating, giving the game gloomy feelings.

To sum up, Silent Hill 3 is an amazing addition to the series. The sequence of the story is perfectly linked to the previous two, keeping its focus well intact. There’s nothing new to the gameplay. If you’ve played one survival-horror game, you’ll be familiar with the mechanism and it’s probably easier to keep it that way. The graphics and sound are impressive as well. Silent Hill 3 is definitely on top of my favourite list of games and perhaps, it will be in yours too.

P.S: This is my first game review, hope it helps. If it doesn't, please email me or leave comments on how I could improve. Thanks.