EmP's Silent Hill 3 review

Nice review, Gary. Seems we were pretty much exactly in sync with how we felt about this one. The second sentence threw me a bit though: "stagnate plateauing"...

I edited that sentence down a little. I'll probably chop a few more down before I'm content with this review. I think I ramble at points, as I tend to do.

Thanks though, Marc. I remember initially enjoying the game more than you did, but I really struggled with my recent replay. Large chunks of the game felt like a chore, and Heather's only real reason for carrying on was revenge. SH1&2 were almost sadistic Noire games where there was a mystery to be solved. Heather, right at the base of things, just wanted to crack skulls.

Just *shudder* Downpour to go, I guess.

Yes, you did! You called me a fool for my view. Now you share it! Muahaha. Yup, it's not great.

Downpour is weak sauce. I'm surprised you're still playing it.

Funny thing is that I find myself agreeing with this review a lot. But from the other stance, where I didn't like it as much the first time around and am liking it more now. I think the big thing for me is that I liked the ambience of the town that you got to see in 1 and 2 and felt the game was weakened by essentially being just one dungeon after another. But now...I'm thinking the town sections take away from challenge because you can easily run around enemies and pick up tons of health/ammo goodies and so not having them isn't really a weakness. Like, in playing 2 again, I was nearly out of everything by the time I was done with the hospital. By the time I got to Toluca Prison after town-running, I had a healthy amount of both pistol and shotgun ammo, as well as enough health to overcome all sorts of blunders.

I mean, the formula still was getting kind of stale and, as you said, Heather is far more pointless a character (at least until you reach the apartments and she gets a reason to want to crack skulls) than either Harry or James.

Marc: I doubt very much I would resort to name calling!

I honestly dread playing Downpour. It’s just so incomplete and awful. Most entries post SH3 can be labelled bad Silent Hill games. Downpour is just, point blank, a bad game. But I need to get it done, now. I’ve entered into a personal contract, and I need to fill out that SH timeline thingy under the review. Still, the thought of it even now makes me want to do all the dullest chores I’ve been putting off for months instead.

Rob: Speaking of the hospital, one thing I’m kicking myself for not mentioning is how you come across the zombie nurses again, and they’ve become a little bit old hat. You start indifferently mowing them down, because Heather has access to a bloody katana and, out of nowhere, one of them pulls a sodding pistol on you and starts popping caps sidewise gangsta style.

I think the overworld works a lot better in the first two games. Harry’s frantically searching, and the paths to each location aren’t initially obvious, so battling your way to a crevice in the road felt like a real blow to the gut. James had been to Silent Hill before, so just strolling around the town and hearing his thoughts on how things are nothing like he remembers felt like a unique insight. People, literally, just say to Heather “Go to the hospital” and she says “Yeah, okay!”

You should think about a SH3 rewrite, OD, and be the other side to Marc & I’s coin. Let me know if you plan to, though, and I’ll back your old one up to a b-side account, or some such.

I like the link-y thing you did at the bottom of the review.

In that case, you should check out your Thunder Force reviews some time.

Gary, I am thinking about that. But with a twist! The game I'm doing for your contest is the Silent Hill HD Collection, where I'm re-playing 2 and 3 to determine how my feelings have changed. Since, other than that, what would be the point of reviewing it. Haven't found any of the glitches I read about and, so, other than voice acting changes and the inclusion of "Born From a Wish" for 2, there's nothing I haven't seen before.

I mean, I'm sure I could re-do my 3 review if for no other reason than how it's kind of long and clunky, but if I can say what I need to say in this review, there might be no need for that. Depends on how things go.

The ‘Born for a Wish’ thing was pretty interesting. It was a nice bonus on the HD disk for the vast majority of people who played the pretty inferior PS2 version of SH2. Suckers.

If you’re playing the 360 version of the HD collection, you’ll find very few of the faults – they exist almost exclusively on the PS3 version, and I’d expect most of them to have been patched out by now. The only issue I ever found was that gameplay will often hang as you unlock achievements (I found in SH2 much more than SH3).

Great review! Silent Hill is a franchise I never got into yet, but I doubtlessly will one day. The type of horror there seems entirely different than the type Resident Evil throws at its audience, and for this reason might even be more effective. If I have the courage to try it one day, then I will.

It's a shame that the first two titles are really the best ones, though. Sounds like Silent Hill took a quicker nosedive than the other series its often compared to.

How you’re able to keep playing the old and now awful Res games, yet still refuse to play Silent Hill – on PSN for a couple of your worthless American dollars, I might add – boggles me. I am boggled.

I’m hard on SH3, but it deserves it. It should and could have been better, but it’s only outshone by SH1, 2 and perhaps Origins. Maybe that’s more of a commentary and just how shit the series eventually becomes, but I’ve beaten SH3 twice. Origins aside (which is surprisingly great stuff) nothing else is worth a first glance, let alone a second.

Thanks, all, for reading and sharing your thoughts.

I agree with EmP on that. The first few SH titles, IMO, exceed the first few RE in quality. But I've had that argument with my best friend, who's a diehard RE2 advocate. I like it and all, but would put it behind both the first two SH games. A lot is what you look for in horror. He likes an uplifting, happy ending -- I have no issues with ending a game with your hero committing suicide or irreversibly traumatized from all that's transpired.

Just, to me, SH tends to have so many neat subtle nuances that just create an atmosphere that's both bizarre and creepy. Heather being "stalked" by the ghost of an inmate in a hospital. James jumping down one deep pit after another going from the historical society to a prison to a labyrinth and then winding up at ground level despite all that. Harry introducing us all to the world of Silent Hill by immediately getting dispatched by a horde of undead knife-wielding children, only to wake up in a diner like nothing had happened. It's like playing through a nightmare where, on one hand you want to wake up, but on the other, this morbid sense of curiosity keeps you asleep because you want to find out what's around the next corner.

Haha. You said you liked Res 2! :P Anyway, Silent Hill's on the list, promise! =D

I did say that -- and I do like Res 2. Not sure I would replay it after how awful I found Res 1 last year (and Res 3 was always kind of rubbish), but it's a game I recall very fondly indeed.

SH/SH2 exist on a completely different and much higher level. They blow it out of the water.

Out of curiosity, EmP, are you planning to review Silent Hill Origins?

I've no immediate plans. I'd have to replay the game first and I'm enjoying my time delving back into old PC adventure games for now.

How did you do that thing at the bottom, EMP? I should set that up for my Mega Man reviews.

It's basic HTMLing. I'm wrecked at the moment, but when I get a chance over the weekend, I'll see if I can make you one and HGMail it over.