Customer Reviews

Silent Hill 3

5 star:		(100)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I notice a lot of people have already reviewed & rated this game despite having not actually played it yet. I do own it (i live in the U.K. where it was released on May 23rd) & it's excellent. It's extremely similar to the 2nd game in terms of graphics & gameplay, which is a good thing as the 2nd game was extremely well done, & is one of the only truly scary videogames i've ever played. Part 3 lives up to this as well, offering a similar experience to the 2nd game, only with brand new characters, storyline & puzzles. A mention must go to the graphics. Like the previous game, they're excellent, with some brilliantly atmospheric lighting & shadow effects, which really help to suck you into the game. It contains some pretty gruesome images & the soundtack is designed to really amp up the tension. If you compare Resident Evil to a George Romero zombie flick then this can only be compared to something Clive Barker would have come up with. To sum it up, if you're a fan of the series, you'll love this, if you didn't like the first 2 games, then you won't like this one either. If you've never played a Silent Hill game, give this one a try, it's well worth it.

I've been playing the Japanese import for a couple of weeks:

First, the bad news.

- SH3 is short. Shorter than SH1 and SH2, at any rate. Both SH1 and 2 took me almost exactly 10 hours to complete my first time, according to the internal game clocks. SH3 took me 5 hours and 52 minutes. (Some have said that this is because SH3's internal game clock behaves differently, pausing at any time a cinema plays or the menu is opened. This is true of SH3. However, after personally testing the games myself, I have found that it's true of SH2 as well. SH3 is simply a shorter game.)

- SH3 is constrictive. You're never really set free to explore a huge deserted town as in the previous two games. For most of the game you go from one enclosed location to another. The mall leads to the subway, which leads to the sewers, which leads to an office building, etc. When you finally do get out in the open, if you try to wander away from your goal and explore the town, your character will automatically stop and turn around and say "I don't need to go this way." This is really lazy design. Having the freedom to explore the empty town until you hit a physical road block of some kind was a hallmark of the previous SH games. Not so in this installment. Disappointing. This is surely the primary reason behind SH3 having a shorter play time. I definitely spent a few hours in SH1 and 2 exploring all of the streets and back alleys, checking every dead end for ammo and health items.

Now, the good news.

+ SH3 is scary. REALLY scary. I thought SH2 was quite mellow compared to SH1, more of a slow burn with a growing sense of dread rather than the aggressively oppressive atmosphere of the first game that got right in your face from the very beginning. SH3 returns to the original's oppressive style and ups the ante a notch or two.

+ Fans of SH1 who were disappointed that SH2 had no direct connection to it will be pleased to know that SH1 and SH3 are very closely connected.

+ Bosses are back, after a hiatus of sorts in SH2.

+ (or - ?) SH3 is the most challenging SH yet. Monsters are aggressive and harder to kill. Ammo is very scarce. You'll want to rely on melee weapons usually and save ammo for bosses.

+ Lots of different monster types. Lots of weapons. Lots of unlockable bonuses. Lots of replay value.

If you can get past the short length and constrictive nature, it's a great and worthy addition to the Silent Hill series.

I had just beaten Silent Hill 2 when I found out they were going to release SH3. I was beyond excited. This game has got to be the strangest and most imaginative thing I've ever played. It's not as creepy as SH2, but what it lacks in creepiness it makes up for in weirdness.

I can't even begin to recall what was going on, there are so many instances where I was blown away by how eclectic the concepts were that I was proud of the creative team that put it together. The mirror room alone would be enough to make me buy this game. I mean really, what in the hell? I was just running along, minding my own business and I step into that! Many times during game play did I have to sit back a reflect on what had just happened. Quite impressive. I loved the random rooms that had nothing to do with anything except to just creep you out and leave you asking yourself "what the hell?" Like the room with the strange "sour" smell wafting around and the black curtain in the middle. Nothing ever happened there, they just wanted to let you know that something was expired I guess.

The whole game was just alive. It had a pulse for god's sake. The walls seemed to be breathing and looking at you as you wondered around looking for the room with the guy with his blood let so that you could fill up your plastic bag with his blood to make a sacrifice and move on. Simple as pie! Everything was just so ridiculously weird like that. Fer god's sake! And while your nearing the end everything just gets out of control and the trippy, symmetric wall shows begin. I mean really, could the atmosphere of this game get any more absolutely insane? There are so many worth while situations to mention: the carosal with all the bloody horses; the fairy tale monster; the countless bottomless pits everywhere; the haunted mansion; the friggin' wheel chair scene; the subway; the amusement park... it was all very interesting, believe me.

The sound was great, fantastic even. Definitely responsible for all the tension in the game. Graphics were great too, of course there was a lot going on with them. I've never seen so much detail put into a game. The only big downfall was the superbly crappy ending. Seriously disappointing. I think that they must have so much going on that they just don't know how to end these games. SH2 was in about the same boat. I haven't gone back yet to replay it for some different endings, but the one I got was pretty sad. But it was worth it, I look forward to playing it over again. They've started on SH4: The Room and it looks like it's going to be excellent. I haven't been let down yet.

First I played Silent Hill 2, and it was one of the best gaming experiences I'd ever had -- so I rushed out and bought Silent Hill 3. Now that I've finished it, my final verdict is: Very good, but somewhat lacking. The third installment in Konami's groundbreaking survival horror series has better graphics, more monsters, a more coherent storyline, a better combat system, and more interesting environments -- and yet, it doesn't quite live up to the overall experience.

The thing is, Silent Hill 2 took a break from the mythology-laced storyline of the first game and went off in a totally different, Freudian direction. I found this change to be bold and fascinating. Silent Hill 3 gets back on track; our protagonist is Heather, a cheerful girl with strangely haunted eyes. She's at the mall on an errand for her father and everything seems normal -- except for her nightmare about being killed by a speeding roller coaster in a dark, twisted amusement park. Heather's day goes downhill from there; a detective named Douglas starts following her, claiming to have important information about her birth. She gives him the slip....but suddenly, the lights dim and the bustling mall falls eerily quiet. Where did everyone go? And why is the mall now crawling with horrifying monsters?

Here we see one of the game's biggest problems: considering that it's a Silent Hill game, it takes a awfully long time to actually get to the town of Silent Hill. The first half of the game chronicles Heather's attempts to make it home and evade the creeping nightmare world that follows her everywhere she goes. In the process, she starts to come to grips with the truth about who she really is. The religious cult that inhabits Silent Hill wants Heather for reasons I will not reveal, and two cult members -- the zealous Claudia and the enterprising Vincent -- are both trying to manipulate her for their own ends. The game's "shocking twist" is one that anyone familiar with the Silent Hill mythos will see coming a mile away. Still, the storyline is one of the game's strongest features, fleshing out Silent Hill's history and creating a complex and likable heroine.

It's in the technical details that Silent Hill 3 doesn't fully succeed. First, the game is too short and too linear. I finished it in just over six hours, which was disappointing. In Silent Hill 2, I loved being able to explore the town. In this game, as previously noted, it's a long time before the action shifts to the town itself. When it did, I was briefly ecstatic (The fog! That creepy metallic throb on the soundtrack!), but my enthusiasm faded once I discovered that you can only explore a small corner of town; the rest is blocked off. The other environments (which include the familiar Brookhaven hospital) are similarly limited. When you finally visit the creepy amusement park from Heather's dream, the game designers waste the opportunity to give you a large, rich environment to explore -- you don't even get a map, that's how linear it is. Aren't these games supposed to have endless replay value? The only reason to replay Silent Hill 3 is for the usual unlockable items and secrets. (Which, I hear, include a "Sailor Moon" outfit for Heather....please, say it ain't so...)

Overall, I think this game tries too hard to be bigger and better. Yeah, the graphics look great -- the "dark" areas are a nightmare of bloodstained walls, rusted metal, and ghastly forms squirming behind oily steel grilles, and one room in Brookhaven hospital provides one of the freakiest moments in the entire series (it involves a large mirror and an oozing bathtub). However, I found that the slick graphics lessened the atmosphere of horror; the muted look of Silent Hill 2 was far more sinister. There's a whole rogue's gallery of monsters to fight, but the creature designs, while disturbing, aren't really scary. The infamous Nurses have been given a disappointing makeover; now they just look like ordinary women having a particularly bad day, and the fact that some of them wield pistols only makes them more annoying to fight. Speaking of fighting, the combat system has gotten a major upgrade; Heather can even wield a weapon in various ways. I don't buy it; Heather's mad butt-kicking skills and the unlikely selection of weapons she finds seems a little too Hollywood. (A submachine gun is one thing, but a katana?!) Both the action and the soundtrack are dialed up several notches, and that's bad. Once again, Heather gets a handy radio that crackles with static when monsters are near, but Silent hill 3's beasties make such a racket that the radio is almost redundant. The best analogy I can think of is that Silent Hill 2 feels like a quiet little indie film, while Silent Hill 3 is like an attempt to remake the indie film as a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster.

I'm not saying that Silent Hill 3 is bad -- far from it. The graphics are very impressive and vivid. The plot is nicely structured and will satisfy anyone who enjoyed the first game. The voice acting is better too, although it's anyone's guess why a native of Silent Hill would speak with a British accent. The puzzles are fun as ever. A happy(ish) ending is easy to achieve, and easter egg hounds will be pleased to know that this game, like the first two, has a UFO ending. Yes, Silent Hill 3 is a worthy entry into a standout series and many people will consider it the best of the lot. I just think that it tries too hard to be scary, when the previous games proved that less is more. Silent Hill 2 was a bold and visceral tale of terror, but with this follow-up, it seems like the creators have lost touch with their nightmares.

This game intrigued me because of its name. I had played the sequal first because I heard that if you play the first one it will ruin the second. The second game was by far the best. The story took this series into a phsycological aspect rarely done in video games. Of course, playing this one before the first, I may be a little bias. Then I played the first one and thought it was a great beginning to the series. Then I played the third installment.

I had heard the game was only six hours long, but what I didn't hear was that the game doesn't really start until about two and a half hours into it. The first half of the game was mainly hack and slash with no true story to follow. Then when you finally get to Silent Hill (that's right, you don't see the town till your about half way through the game) the story is tossed out in pieces. There was no true mystery to the game anymore, which is something I enjoyed from the first two. I ended up finishing the game in five hours and was rewarded with a lame ending. I did not even bother with the other two endings because they're even worst then the normal ending.

I was glad I only rented this game and did not buy it. Don't get me wrong, the graphics alone in this game were great. Heather's voice acting was excellently done (nevermind that she looks strikingly similar to one of the Olsen twins). The other voice actors could have had a bit more feeling, with the exception of Claudia. Also, Heather was a weak protagonist. She reacted nonchalantly in situations where a normal 17 year old girl would have died of fright. Also, she wasn't the brightest crayon in the box.

I am aware that they are in the works for the Silent Hill movie. I hope they decide to give the story some more depth then the third game. My advice, rent the game and see if you like it.

Silent Hill 3 manages to be brilliant, horrifying, and somewhat of a let-down all at the same time. This is kind of hard to put into words... I have been hooked on and in love with Silent Hill since the instant I layed my eyes on the first game's preview as it played on a TV in Gamer's Paradise so many years ago. The overwhelming nostalgia and sense of eerie contentment that I experience while playing these games are beautiful and unequaled in their glory. Silent Hill 3 - even with breath-taking graphics and brooding dread extremely prevalent - left me wishing it turned out better. This game is basically a graphical redux of SH2 with a storyline that progresses where the original SH left off. The gameplay is also a bit more linear than SH 1 and 2. Not as much exploring to be done. Which is a damn shame, really. Just more monster killing and puzzle solving. - Don't get me wrong, it's a great game... it just doesn't really add any major boons or benchmarks to the series' overall marvel. - Not really breaking any barriers, so to speak. Che Disgrazia! ** It is a game worth buying, though. It IS Silent Hill and it is well worth the replay time. Loose strings from the first game are finally tied off, and we get to see our dear Silent Hill play host to a whole new batch of wicked abominations. Disturbing imagery is not in scarce supply, and the enhanced, built-in surround sound toys with your mind and raises those little hairs on your neck. Once again this is a game that has to be played in the dark with the TV volume cranked. It's the only way to enjoy the full sense of terror and chaos that the game is trying to provoke. That being said, I must attempt to close. - Silent Hill 3 is worth the cash. If you're a newcomer to the series this game will blow you away, because, after all, it's creepy as hell. But if you've played through the first two releases and are hoping for a major leap, prepare to be a little dissapointed. Scared... but a little dissapointed.

First of all Silent Hill 3 boasts probably the best SOUND and GRAPHICS for any PS2 game. Those of you that have surround sound will be shaken to the core of your soul in this survival horror amusement. The cut scenes are hyper-realistic and the Silent Hill 3 maps and worlds are well above standard for a game of its type.

I am now on my third round playing this game and so I have enough experience with it to be able to conduct a realistic review. The first thing you should know is that you do not have to play part 1 or 2 in order to enjoy this sequel but it would help if you did. Fans of this series will note that the game is largely a follow up to the 1st game, revisiting many of the places that where in the original.

The premise in this game is that you play a teenager, Heather, who must discover her past in order to reveal her true identity and save the world from an apocalypse. Sadly this is one of reasons why the game looses a star. It will not please fans of the series to discover that the plot is vastly different from the other two as it is no longer psychologically creepy and instead aims for more scares and blood and guts as Heather tries to prevent the day of reckoning. Although the game gets top marks for the horror and scares it is certainly devoid of the psychological impact that the other two games in the series had. The plot is also marred by an incoherent storyline that really does not make you care that much for the main character or the pending doom that the game is laying down. There are other reasons why this great game looses a star. There are not enough variations in the monsters which can be broken down into two-header zombie dogs, giant walking pillow cases, fat blobs, hammer head type creatures of large and small sizes, three types of stabbing insects, deranged nurses and floor crawlers that look like crocodiles. There needs to be more deviation in the monsters! Many of them are just repeated in size, however their locations are perfectly timed in the game. The other downside is that the game is vastly shorter than Silent Hill 2, being only on one DVD and can be completed in less than 6 hours on the first try (however you will spend a few days at it.) On my second attempt I complete the game in 2 hours. I believe the game can be completed in about 1 hour if you drive at it. The other downside is that the game takes places in two different locations (1) A shopping mall (2) Silent Hill. There was certainly hardly any Silent Hill and only two place to visit in that area! - The Hospital and the Amusement park. The final location takes place in an old church. It is also too linear - the game really only has one direction that is controlled by locked doors and items that you must gather in order to proceed to the next level. Overall the game does not feel like part of the Silent Hill series. I hope that the premise for the next one is located only in Silent Hill with more areas to visit, more monsters to kill and a similar psychological premise like the 2nd one in the series. There also needs to be more outdoor daytime scenes like Silent Hill 2. Too much of this game is fogged or takes place in the dark. The weapons and puzzles in this game are adequate although many of the cooler ones must be unlocked after you play the game at least once.

The upside is that the game, as a stand alone survival horror, delivers in aces. There is lots of action, blood and scares. The locations are unbelievable and the game IS frightening. Some of the rooms will have your jaw dropping to the ground and your eyes popping out of your head. The sound effects are soooo creepy and the shocks do come thick and fast. It is certainly one the best games you can own for the PS2 and is streaks and bounds ahead of most other survival horror games.

Overall it is an excellent game that should have been produced under a different title without the Silent Hill locations. I feel that the second game is still the definitive of the three although the graphics and the sound are not nearly as good. A thumb up for Silent Hill 3 though but both thumbs up for Silent Hill 2.

Silent Hill 3 was the game that go me addicted. I loved this game so much i went out and bought a PS2 of my own! ( i was playing a friends at the time) I may not have played SH 1 and 2 however i believe i know something thats good when i see it.
Graphics: AWSOME! The monsters were scary and unique, i loved that fat man and the dogs! Each monster has its own personality.I dont know how anyone could say that the graphics were lacking in this game. it may have been repetitive that the walls were covered in blood and bugs but it was NEVER boring! Every time i turned the corner there was a new image or scene that creeped me out! look for the wheel chair and cute pink bunnies! Very creative and kept me at the edge of my seat throughout the whole game! The only thing that was alittle dishearting was the camera, it does get alittle frustrating to not see where your going at some times but i felt that after playing the game alittle i was able to pretty much master the tehcnique. I believe that the camera adds to the suspense when walking into a room...may have been done on purpose.

Sound: It made me pee alittle! it was scary! Beware when you hear heavy breathing in the subway! The howling dogs and monsters lurking around the corners was enofe to send your mind into a panic! I loved the Music and am going to get the CD for the sounds track. Look for it here on amamzon.

Story line: Im still confused. I got the gist if the story line but i felt that the complexity took away from enjoying the game.

Overall: i would give it 5 stars but the story line dropped it to 4

Best Part : Haunted house in carnival

Let's be honest. Resident Evil is not the least bit scary, just fun. Hmmm, I want to get a scary game. The reviews on the internet point all fingers to the Silent Hill series. I guess I'll find a copy of #1. Ok, that was the scariest game I've ever played, even with bad graphics. I'll pick up a copy of #2!
Not as scary, but an unbelievably awesome storyline with an ending that was so emotional, I almost cried. heh heh. Now SIlent Hill 3.....

Silent Hill 3 blends together what made the first and the 2nd games great. It uses the buildup of fear and horrible creatures like in SIlent Hill 1, which #2 lacked. And it uses an awesome story line from #2 but definitely not as epic as SH2.

The things that happen in this game are extremely, and thoroughly disturbing!!! ( some spoilers) Like in the alternate hospital, that was the first time in a silent hill game where an alternate place actually seems like a real nightmare. The blurry, blood-red squirming walls, which seemed to made out of bloody maggots. That sent shivers down my spine. Then when you walk into that room with the mirror, that made me have a heart attack!(You know what I'm talking about) THen that haunted house, was pretty gruesome but freaky. (What was that red light anyway?) I like how the first level is a foreshadowing of events to come like in SH.

Fantastic game. I honestly belive it's the best of the 3.

Here's an excerpt from my full review of the game:

"(STORY)The events of this game take place seventeen years after Silent Hill. You are Heather Mason, and you wake up in a shopping mall diner only to be accosted by a detective named Douglas Cartland. He is supposed to bring you to meet someone, but your spunky character doesn't trust him and runs off to a bathroom. From there, you escape him and enter an empty mall. Of course the game would be too easy if that was the end of it. You start to encounter strange monsters before meeting Claudia Wolf, a strange woman who claims that Heather "will lead us to Paradise with blood stained hands."

Similar to previous installments, this game focuses on a few important characters, but I won't go into many details so as not to spoil anything. I think the characters present themselves rather well, and the development is interesting. The interactions are really solid and clearly present to you what their inner workings are really like. Unfortunately, I think the game takes a little too long to really get you into the story. Once you find yourself, as the commercials have hinted at, it gets increasingly scary. From there, the storyline pulls you in deeper and deeper. And even though more is made clear in this game than the previous games bothered with, the plot leaves much to question. I like that about the game and that there's no true answer to it all. Essentially, the story itself is a puzzle. When you read notes, you're able to infer much about the characters and the storyline. In the end, it was all very enjoyable and handled very well. The buildup was nice and they really delivered on giving you something freaky.

(GAMEPLAY)A combination of the eye candy and the sheer fear of it kept me interested in it. This is NOT an action game. You're not meant to go in with guns blazing. Even more so than Silent Hill 2, Konami has emphasized the survival aspect of this game. There are certain monsters you'll have to kill in addition to the bosses, but there are others that you can just let alone. The key to the game is conserving ammo and health supplies. This means you'll use your melee weapons quite a bit and try to run a lot also. I really thought that this was all fun though. It required some actual strategy to get past certain monsters and surviving was really a challenge. This was meant to be an adventure game, and it really did accomplish this.

There are plenty of puzzles to boot. And almost all of these puzzles make total sense. It really isn't hard in most places to put two and two together and figure out a solution. In other parts you'll have to take clues into consideration when trying to figure out something, and they may not always be crystal clear. You should be able to beat the whole game without having to refer to a strategy guide though, unless you're playing on the hard riddle level.

I do have one gripe about gameplay though, and that would be the camera. There were a few parts where a monster hit me merely because it was hard for me to maneuver with the angle the camera was in. You can use L2 to control the camera view, but you don't always have time for this. The problem wasn't very extensive though, and was mainly a problem in the hospital. The controls were good for the most part, but the main character was purposefully rather clunky. You're not controlling a spry action hero, you're controlling a confused teenage girl. She can only move so fast, and the game really strives for this kind of realism.

The arsenal you have at your disposal includes a knife, a steel pipe, a maul, a kitana (very very cool), a stun gun, a shotgun, a handgun, and a submachine gun. So while action isn't really emphasized, you have some great ways to get the job done. Don't fret though, when you unlock some of the secret weapons by beating the game, you will have much fun taking revenge on these monsters. I, for one, have begun replaying the game for the sheer joy of slaughtering these monsters who I had to previously run away from. The hidden weapons are very cool and worthwhile.

(SOUND)There's not a whole lot to say about sound except that I loved it. The soundtrack was very interesting and some of the rock ballads really fit. Of course most of the game is filled with strange sounds, from a screaming woman to a moaning nurse. You'll think you heard something you really didn't hear, or you may not trust your ears like me at some points and get mauled by a twisted creature. If the environments don't keep you on your feet, the sounds definitely will. It's hard to describe how crazy the sounds are, but they really do start to get to you after a while. The only real gripe I have when it comes to the audio is that at a few parts the quality of the voices in the dialogue is diminished. The voice acting overall though has taken a pretty big leap since Silent Hill 2, especially the main character. You really believe their emotions, and I think that's important to truly understand the main points of this game."

Additionally, the monster and character design and detail is indescribable. A must buy for prior fans, and warrants a hard look from newcomers to the series. Its style of psychological horror will keep you on the edge until you finally beat it. There are 3 endings in all to the game. You can see my full review at gamefaqs.com.