Silent Hill 3 is not without problems, but its certainly a fantastic addition to the series.
The story isn't really present at first, you just jump into the nightmare and its only about half way through the game that the finally have some idea about whats going on, besides Heather dosn't really act like someone whos just been thrown into a nightmare world at all, the teenage girl of course already knowing how to use different types of guns and control fear, but thats the beauty of video games. The story is somewhat similar to the Silent Hill movie, it does make sence at the end even areas you wouldn't think for a Silent Hill game.
The games look and graphics are fantastic and there seems to be no problems for backwards playing on Ps3 either. The sheer amount of detail added to the game is nothing short of what Konami have been doing in these Silent Hill games. The only dissappointing thing about it, is that you won't really be exploring Silent Hill like you could on Silent Hill 2. You do get the chance to move into the streets but other than that its a set path game, you just move along it.
The things that lets the game down in some areas are the bad controls and camera. The controls feel heavy and chunky and are sometimes hard to respond with, more so when you want Heather to move fast. Fighting is the same Silent Hill style which really needs updating, its hard to hit enemies and can be frustrating. Then theres the bad camera which granted, part of the trill is not seeing whats coming, the game sometimes dosn't want you to see anything. After a while of playing this can be forgiven. The only other thing that lets the game down really is its short playing time, I completed it on a first playthrough in just under 4 hours. Having said that tho there is a tun of unlockables which can make some good replay value.
In all Silent Hill 3 is far from a bad game but its far from perfect, but not one to forget. Check it out if you can.