Horror fans pay attention: This is all you ever wanted, the ultimate horror experience!
Honestly, this came will scare you even if your used to playing the previous games in the series. The environments, atmosphere, and sounds are the scariest ever. And the whole experience will make you terrified to the extent of even turning on your PS2 to continue playing it.
Silent Hill 3 is much connected to the first Silent Hill game on the PSone, both in story and atmosphere, but I won't mention any details for the sake of any of you out there who hadn't played it yet.
So you take on the role of a young teenage girl named Heather, who happened to be in a shopping mall that will soon change to a more "dark" place. She meets a detective who claims to want to ask her a few questions about her birth, but obviously she's not interested. She sneaks her way away from him and suddenly the whole place starts to "change" to that dark place where it is full of trashed corners, phones that don't work, and hospital beds with covered dead bodies on them! She then encounters this bizarre monster that looks like…well nothing so let's just call it the "Pendulum"(the closest thing that looks like it). It is from there on all sorts of weird things start to happen, strange and mysterious characters start to pop up, more sinister beasts keep appearing, and strange-and spooky sounds and voices infest the backgrounds. Which brings the issue of this games most brilliant aspect: Audio. Yep, this is the games highlight since it excels at bringing you the creepiest sounds ever in the most appropriate moments ever. You have roaring beasts, items falling, screams and other creepy sounds, all accompanying you through the whole game, they aren't always related to the story or make any sense, but they're there just to spook you out!
The graphics aren't a big advancement over Silent Hill 2, BUT the environments are the best ever seen in a silent hill game, which is another highlight for it, the dark shopping mall the hospital and the chapel at the end of the game all look amazingly frightening, and even more frightening than the prison-for example- or the hotel in SH2. But still, these graphics still rock for a Silent Hill game. And even the cut scenes and movies in this game are some of the most brilliantly made. Both from the looks and sounds point of view. And all of them are well voice acted.
The game has multiple endings but nothing really big about them. And there are a few nice extras to be unlocked but nothing REALLY big or highly impressive, although still a bit interesting to check out like extra costumes and weapons.
Well, every game has it's flaws and Silent Hill 3 is definitely not an exception. First of all as mentioned above…the graphics although amazing in looks, aren't a big advancement over Silent Hill 2. The story –although a good one- is not very well told, and isn't very connected, as a matter of fact sometimes it doesn't even make sense, well at least until the end at the chapel level where everything is revealed.
The gameplay unfortunately is this games weakest point. All the time you are exploring the place, looking for a key or item to open the next locked door or to solve a puzzle in order to advance in the game, even some of levels are taken directly from the last game, like the hospital and the fog filled streets of Silent Hill, all haven't changed a bit. Also the camera angles are not very good, the controls are still weak, and even the menus and how you use them is exactly the same as the way they were in Silent Hill 1 and Silent Hill 2.
Having said all that let's face it: scary games aren't about great gameplay or perfect controls or camera, it's about the atmosphere, and Silent Hill 3 has the best .with a lot of shocking moments eerie sounds and creepy environments, it's safe ( well nothing is safe in the world of Silent Hill, but heh…you know what I mean.) to say that Silent Hill 3 does some sacrifices in order to bring us the ultimate terror experience, and it works brilliantly, you'll find no other game that creates such a disturbing, unsettling, and terrifying atmosphere. Silent Hill 3 is the scariest and most frightening game ever made. Be afraid….be very afraid.