Silent Hill 3 Review

I played Silent Hill 3 around 2015 and I remember it being the best of the Team Silent developed games and after playing SH1, 2 and this game weeks apart from each other, I still think SH3 is my favorite game in the series. It's got some issues with it but from a gameplay perspective, the older SH games pretty much peaked here. The story is on the mixed side but it's still far from something I consider bad and it does have some things going for it.

Before I start getting to the good, I'll start describing the parts I'm mixed on and that is the story like I said, it's by no means bad but there are some massive problems with it. The two issues being the first half of the game and Harry Mason. The big issue with the first half of the game from a story perspective is that everything from after the Shopping Mall all the way to getting to Heather's apartment can be cut out entirely and nothing would change. If you just had Heather get out of the Shopping Mall and cut to her getting to the Apartment, nothing of value would be lost since the plot barely even updates, there is not much in the way of new developments and Heather hardly even interacts with the rest of the cast with the exception of the interaction with Vincent in the Hilltop Center. Outside of that, not much happens and this is the first half of the game which from a narrative perspective can be problematic.

The second issue is Harry Mason and to say the game dropped the ball with his character here is an understatement. The big issue is that within the context of SH3, the player is given very little attachment towards him or given any reason to care about him or his relationship with Heather and any form of knowing about Harry is Heather telling the audience through dialogue and it's her going through the events of SH1. On top of that, how much you care about Harry depends on if you played SH1 and if you like the character like I did, the last thing I really wanted to learn that is that he dies alone, seemingly not even putting up a fight and getting killed by a mini boss where he defeated God in the first game. The worst part is everything hinges on how much you care about him since Heather's revenge is connected to this.

Outside of that, the characters are solid and unlike SH2, I can tell what their goals are. Heather Mason is weirdly enough what you get if a normal person were to act if they were involved in the strange and otherworldly antics of Silent Hill, she's has the most likeablilty and personality out of all the SH protagonists and she's much more expressive. Vincent is my favorite character of the bunch where he plays both sides and likes to mess with both Heather and Claudia. Douglas' voice actor can be better but I did like how he was interwoven with the Order and trying to help Heather and being conflicted on her. Claudia is a religious abused nutcase and doesn't even try to shy away from how much of that she is.

The gameplay is where SH3 truly shines, all the issues I had with SH1 and 2's normal modes pretty much got addressed here. You are no longer showered with healing items and ammo, now you only find them on occasion and the game gives you the sweet spot of giving just enough to get by. The puzzles and riddles are noticeably toned down too and now it's most inventory puzzles which is just the way I like it since if I want challenging puzzles, I go play a puzzle game.

On top of all this, combat is highly discouraged, where in SH1 you got enough ammo to mow down lots of enemies and SH2 you had monsters that died in 3 pistol bullets. SH3 is where monsters take a number of pistol bullets to kill and not only that, but Heather can staggered and knocked down pretty easily meaning running away and only killing enemies in your way is the way to handle things.

The only enemies that can be reliably taken down are the nurses but they take a lot of melee hits to go down and every monster including nurses take multiple stomps while down to kill as opposed to SH1 and 2 where one stomp is enough to kill every monster when they are down.

There is even a weird decision making process with the bullet proof vest. Do you want to move slower but take less damage or move faster and take more damage? It's a nice little additional decision you got to make.

The music is also as great as ever but it's no surprise there. The addition of lyrical songs is nice and I do like Mary Elizebeth's McGlynn's singing.

When it comes to compliants all I have is that the Silent Hill problem having many doors that can't be opened is still super annoying since they might as well be wall textures instead of doors you can interact with.

The Subway level is the worst since everything looks the same and it's hard to tell if you are on the beaten path due to the map being presented in a segmented way.

Overall, I was worried that SH3 might not have held up but I'd say SH3 from a gameplay standpoint hangs up there with the greats of the survival horror genre.