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Intro
Silent Hill, when will you ever be a pleasant place to visit? It isn't
that I don't enjoy your murderous nurses or the population of big red monster
things that try to kill me; it's just that I wouldn't mind going out for a walk
without an attempt on my life. I guess it just wouldn't be the same psychological
gore-fest that we've come to know and love, despite there being the same problems
typical of a genre that's had more than enough time to work through them.
Gameplay: 8/10
There's
something to be said about both kings of survival-horror, Silent Hill and
Resident Evil: while one provides plenty of action and a few scares wrapped
up in slick presentation; the other goes for a more melodramatic approach, complete
with heavy doses of shock value and a thoroughly enjoyable story. Both are enjoyable
in their own ways, but I would have to say the champ for scares and freakiness
would definitely have to go to Konami's entry.
To
be honest, it isn't that Silent Hill 3 is all that scary. The action and
puzzles - both of which have separate, adjustable difficulty scales - are typical
of the series, and even the genre itself. It isn't really the gore or the monsters
either, since in this third trip, all are so abundant that they really aren't
that effective at scaring the player anymore. Instead, it's the feeling of mystery
that is so strong that it keeps the player creeped out, it's this mystery that
Resident Evil has lost over the years and so many other entrants never
really have to begin with. I know the lighter melts the wax to release the stuck
key and I see the blood on the walls, but why do I need the key and what made
the blood appear? It's those kinds of questions that always reside in the back
of the player's mind as they make their way through the haunted amusement parks
and desolate city streets. And it's for precisely that reason that the game is
so interesting. The questions will be
answered, of course, but the game will answer it in its own way; and that typically
means with riddled answers that are given by people met within the town and by
small items left for the player to piece everything together. There is closure
though, as everything is explained in the end, and what a doozy it is, but there
is never any true ending to the game. What's so great about the series is that
it's non-linear in a very linear format. The game is basically A-to-B, but its
small choices that the player will make along the way that will affect the game's
ending, as well as possible extras. The differences aren't necessarily obvious
either; sure, the game might register a melee weapon used more than a long-range
one, but also how long a character spends doing certain things or looking at certain
items. Better yet, gamers who have a Silent Hill 2 save file will also
get little extras. I'm positive I've yet to fully uncover everything, and that's
what makes the game so exciting. For
those who enjoyed Silent Hill 2, be forewarned that it's less supernatural
and what-iffy, and more of a straightforward story like the original; in fact,
this third installment has quite a bit to do with the original. While that may
not bother some, I do wish the game was a bit farther out than it is. The story,
focusing on the cult of Silent Hill and their god, is interesting, but I liked
the more Twilight Zone aspect of the second. That isn't to say that 3
is bad, it's a solid game with some great, innovative parts, it's just a bit more
'normal' than I was expecting. That isn't
to say that the game is going to hold back any. There are just as many creepy
oddities and anomalies as before, if not more. Despite being on the edge of overkill,
the freaky nature and gore are still effective; levels will have eerie creatures
coming out of walls and turning handles, what appear to be the legs of young girls
handing from a dead body and randomly jitter, and flashes of things dragging their
torso around by their hands. While some of these beings can't be killed, many
can. Thankfully, there's a healthy arsenal to be found for those wishing to dispatch
some justice on the unworldly creatures. Gun folk will have a pistol, machine
gun, and a shotgun to choose from, while others will have a katana, mace, and
other handled blunt objects to choose from. There's also a guard feature that
will reduce damage taken depending on if a weapon is equipped or not - why hasn't
Konami, or Capcom themselves, implemented the evasion feature found in Resident
Evil 3? Despite having snags that need to be worked out, killing random demonic
beings is still good fun; and having them in blood-soaked mental hospitals never
hurts either.
Unfortunately, Konami still hasn't hammered out all the
kinks of the genre. The camera is still problematic; combat still feels off, and
many weapons give the enemy a free hit if they've been hit previously (a gun will
hit, but a katana will go through or miss on the second swing); puzzles, while
getting better, are still typical; and there's also some seriously irritating
sound bits that will drive the player insane. I'll also say that some might not
like the - very - dramatic characters and the more religiously-themed story, although
that was fine by me. I would've hoped that after so many years that there would
be one survival horror that managed to avoid all the pitfalls, but aside from
the consistently annoying camera, the rest is leaning towards improvement.
Graphics: 8.5/10
Konami utilized a weird filtering effect to give
the game a quality similar to that of a 70's horror movie, only it comes off as
a bit more artificial. I can understand how some people might not like this as
it does make some things difficult to see, but I found it to be pretty cool. The
environments were also fairly detailed and had some genuinely creepy bits, and
there was a haunted house sequence that was fantastic. I am tiring of the indistinguishable
goops of red skin that make up most of the monsters, and also of the constant
jittering of heads and arms - it was interesting for a while, but now it's just
old. For the innovation and imagination that goes into the game, I was really
expecting them to kick it up a notch, but aside from a few enemies, most seemed
pretty generic - in a deformed-monster-from-hell sort of way.
Sound:
7.5/10
From the get-go, let me just state that I loved the soundtrack. Every
song I heard was great and fit in extremely well with the game and in fact, I
would attribute a large portion of its unnerving tendencies on the soundtrack;
not only is it fantastic, but the game also comes with the soundtrack on a separate
CD, for those nights you want to feel completely alone and depressed in the wake
of seeing unimaginable horrors. The voice-overs, for the most part, are well done.
There was one character who just really felt out of place and there was a few
times when the main character could've come across more natural, but it was a
solid job overall. Why this is getting a 7.5 is because Silent Hill 3 contains
some of the most annoying sound ever heard in a game, and not only that, but there's
constant fluctuating of vocals, with the main character being extremely loud and
everyone else speaking much lower, so that a remote needs to be handy to turn
the volume down and back up.
The annoying sound I referred to was the
noise heard when fighting an enemy, it gets louder and the player gets closer,
but even far away it's extremely annoying; the best way I can explain it is how
I put it to Nick, which is that it's like someone put a television on an unreceptive
channel inside of an empty factory hallway and turned the volume up as loud as
they could so that the static had a piercing affect that would randomly sound
like an echo. There are volume options, but only for sound effects - which would
adjust the characters accordingly, so the noise would still be loud and the characters
would still be drowned out, and for the music. A good option would to be to pop
in the soundtrack and put the game on subtitles, but neither would be necessary
if it wasn't so loud and aggravating to begin with. Control:
6.5/10
Despite having both 3D (pressing back makes the character walk backwards)
and 2D (pressing back turns the character around) controls, the character never
really moves fast enough. Neither mode alleviates the camera problem, either.
The game always picks poor angles from which to show the game, and it either fails
to show an enemy or the direction the player is going. There is a button to center
the camera back behind the player, but it does this dramatic swivel that pans
a chunk of the room and that amount of time is valuable when a diseased dog is
ready to feast on some human flesh. Combat also needs to be a little fine-tuned
because it still isn't visceral enough and there are also some hit detection problems.
The controls aren't constantly bad, mind you, but they do make for numerous bouts
of frustration. Overall: 8/10
While those who are used to the genre will be used to the typical problems,
it's really getting old. Aside from camera and control problems, though, Silent
Hill 3 is a solid entry into the series and the genre. Fans of the original
will really enjoy it as it goes back to its roots, while those who preferred 2
(moi), will want a little more of the 'is this real?' feeling; however, that does
little to deter from the overall surreal experience. All told, there's no denying
that the story is solid, the music is great, and there are some parts that'll
offer up some genuine scares. I look forward to a future installment, and hopefully
I won't have to fight the camera during my next visit to Silent Hill. [
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