Silent Hill 3 is hands down one of the best survival horror experiences to date.
Combat: 7/10
While the gameplay was pretty fluid and I was able to see that they spent alot of time on it, it still became a bit of a chore to duke it out with a monster using a steel pipe. Now I know that combat has never been a big factor in Silent Hill games, but I was told this one had the best combat of all and I was looking to be really impressed. However, being a die hard Resident Evil fan I was rather impressed with the control you have over the character during combat, even when using the traditional controls, I loved being able to strafe. Silent Hill 3 has a nice assortment of weapons to use, though I found myself mainly using the different melee weapons, as I quickly ran out of ammo going through normal difficulty.
Puzzle Solving: 5/10
Ah... the puzzle solving. What can I say? The easy puzzles are ridiculously easy, the normal puzzles are pretty challenging, and the hard mode puzzles are just downright insane. When playing through hard mode I came to the first puzzle and spent about an hour and a half trying to figure it out, then looked up a guide for it and just laughed at the logic used for this puzzle. I would have never figured it out and most other people playing this game wont either.
Sound: 10/10
I never thought I'd rate a game 10 out of 10 on the sound, but Silent Hill's sound effects are just plain amazing. Silent Hill relies much more on constant terror than Resident Evil, which is all about a shock here and there. I've never played a game where I was constantly freaked out, and scared to turn the corner and find out what's lurking there. There was one particular hallway where it was pretty quiet till you get about halfway down the hall, then you hear a really creepy sound, kind of like a girl crying. There was nothing else in the hallway but that sound effect, yet it scared me to death.
Music: 5/10
While I loved most of the songs in the game, almost all of them felt like they didn't quite fit the cutscene they were stuck to. Almost all the cutscenes had a kind of fast paced tune that really distracted me from what was going on, and one of the cutscenes even had singing...
Storyline: 8/10
The storyline seems at first like it is lacking, but after playing through the game twice I've kind of sorted the story out and it makes alot more sense now. If you've watched the movie then you can pretty much follow the story in Silent Hill 3, as the movie's storyline is almost identical. The only other thing I feel the need to mention is that the voice acting is pretty terrible for most of the game. It seems like each character pauses for about 5 seconds to decide what they want to say, then they deliver their line and wait for the other character to decide what they want to say.
Overall: 9/10
Silent Hill 3 is a must have for any survival horror fan. This game will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time you're playing it. In my opinion the sound effects are what make or break a survival horror game, and Silent Hill 3 has some of the creepiest atmospheric sound effects out there. On top of that, there are 4-5 rooms that you will encounter in this game that serve no purpose but to be really, really creepy. Don't rent it, buy it!