Silent Hill 3 Review

By Kristan Reed Published 22 May, 2003

Kristan is both scared and a woman. Again.

Version tested: PlayStation 2

If you thought it was grim up North, you should try paying Silent Hill a visit. Fog, mutant dogs, slime, axe-wielding nurses and deranged paedophiles are just a few of the delights that will greet the unsuspecting traveller. For some strange reason, every psycho loser seems to end up going there at some point or other, and Silent Hill 3's lead character Heather (who looks spookily like the sister of James Sutherland, Silent Hill 2's lead) is no exception.

Supposedly a happy, carefree 17 year-old, Heather is in fact blighted by her worst nightmares almost from the game's kick off. A merry stroll around her local shopping mall marks the start of a gruesome, terrifying and predictably confusing adventure that unravels her secret past. So secret that in fact even she had no idea why she keeps slipping in and out of some hideous parallel dimension, or why distorted hellspawn and mental patients are terrorising her at every turn.

Some parts of this game may be considered violent or cruel

'Silent Hill 3' Screenshot 1

What Silent Hill really needs is a bloody cleaning firm

This is no tedious B-movie sub-Resident Evil sludge, though. As fans of the series will heartily testify, the standard of the plot, the voice acting, and just about any other facet are superior to any other survival horror adventures you could care to mention.

Given that's it's the game's centrepiece, let's talk about the plot first. Avoiding any spoilers, it's fair to say that as far as gaming storylines go, Silent Hill's is more than a little distressed, if not at times distressing. Continuing the series' theme of searching for answers, you take Heather on a voyage of self-discovery to unravel a mystery that has been kept under wraps for almost a quarter of a century.

Kicking off in a shopping mall, the game twists and turns via a plethora of stunning locations including a train station, a train, a haunted house, an amusement park, a hospital (yep, again), sewer, office complex and of course the fog ridden Silent Hill town itself, making a subtle reprise. Each of the game's numerous locations are, of course, populated by the kind of rank evil that Konami seems to have honed to a fine art.

Twisted mutations lurk in every dark, festering corner, eager to slice you open at the first opportunity, and each possess a particularly chilling death call, lending the game an oppressive, stark and ominous atmosphere that veterans will be all too familiar with. We're not sure quite why or how this formerly sleepy town manages to mutate its former occupants in such bizarre ways, or what they're doing hanging around in darkened corners, but there they are, groaning away in the darkness again, scaring us half to death.

Nightmarish delusions come to life

'Silent Hill 3' Screenshot 2

Ooh! A scary picture! Run!

It's just as well, then, that your arsenal is up to the task of dispatching this screaming, writhing army of the undead. Predictably, you start off with nothing more threatening than a steel pipe, but quickly you build up an impressive armoury, including the requisite pistol, shotgun, sub machinegun, along with a stun gun, mace, and the unexpectedly useful Katana sword. As ever, health and ammo are at a premium, so picking your targets is the name of the game, as many can be nimbly avoided. Standing and fighting isn't always the way forward, unless you're happy to continually die repeated gruesome deaths at the hands and jaws of this frothing army. Apart from the odd new weapon here and there, you also get the chance to lay down bait for your foe, bizarrely, in the form of strips of beef jerky - although in our experience this rarely worked. Just run. Run for your lives!

Doubtlessly it's been said before, but one of the most pleasing aspects of playing Silent Hill games is the slick interface and generally helpful camera system that consistently aids the player. As with the game's predecessor, the camera does a fine job of dynamically swinging to the best point of view, while also being pretty adept at maintaining the suspenseful angles that survival horror games are renowned for.

The game scores even more brownie points for enabling the player to swing the camera behind, by tapping L2, with L1 allowing for a significantly superior combat experience than any of the Resident Evil games. Rarely do you not get to see what you're aiming at, although the auto-targeting system does a fine job even when you can't quite get the right camera angle. Also, during the more adventure heavy areas of the game, you're able to scan around your environment should you feel the need. In general, though, significant objects are always clearly placed, and this enables the player to just get on with the action without having to resort to the adventurer's bugbear; the 'click on everything' syndrome.

You will birth a God and live in eternal paradise

'Silent Hill 3' Screenshot 3

She's got speaker cable for hair! Run for your lives!

Another area that Silent Hill 3 excels in is the way it allows its audience to play the game the way they want to. With three levels of difficulty in both the action and puzzle areas, you're able to modify the challenge as you see fit. For the purpose of this review, however, we plumped for the default 'Normal' setting, and found it pretty satisfying, albeit somewhat linear and therefore obvious in terms of the puzzles. At times the areas are pretty confined, and it would be harder to not work out the solution, such is the narrow scope of what you're supposed to achieve. However, on one head-scratching occasion we were stuck for a completely arbitrary reason, and the chanced upon solution had us cursing the designers. Fortunately this was a one off, and for the vast majority you can actually just get on with the task at hand without ever feeling unnecessarily frustrated. Even the (by now familiar) save game mechanic beats the competition over the head with a big stick.

Hum. All of this gushing praise and we've barely touched on the audio visual experience! The graphical style is ostensibly a minor update of the already sublime Silent Hill 2, with a grainy overlay that makes it look a world away from the competition. It may not have the pre-rendered attention to detail of the recent Resident Evil Cube titles, but the detail is hardly compromised nevertheless, and the light and shadow effects are far better realised this time around. Heather occasionally plunges into a parallel 'worst nightmare' dimension, and the resulting blood-drenched, festering versions of familiar locations are often gut-wrenching. Combined with the squelchy audio, it's hard not to wince at some of the sights and sounds you're subjected to. It's not that they're gratuitous. Far from it - but be warned if you have an active imagination. You might not sleep too well after a few darkened nights in the company of the weirdo cast in Silent Hill 3.

Unnerving... compelling... classic

On reflection, apart from feeling slightly disturbed and mentally unbalanced after playing it, Silent Hill 3 pushes all the right buttons in the adventure genre. While it arguably does little in term of innovation, it has some classic puzzles, far more satisfying combat elements than ever before, some truly horrifying sections, fantastic visuals, gruesome audio and a quality storyline that kicks most of the embarrassing competition out of sight. It's hard to think of many titles as unnervingly compelling as Silent Hill 3, and as such already ranks as one of the games of the year. Classic stuff.

9 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (56) Latest comment 8 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • renzo #1 9 years ago

    DAmmit! Beaten to the 1st post again!

    Anyway, I will be getting this, I have NO idea why. Even though SH2 was brilliant, somehow it scared me past the point of being enjoyable. I think I see SH3 as a kind of challenge... to overcome my fear of survival-horror games. :)

  • lennon #2 9 years ago

    Fire up that PS2 my good man. Its gonna get a using!

  • UncleLou #3 9 years ago

    \o/ \o/ \o/

    I read the review with half-closed eyes, as I basically don't want to know anything before I play that tomorrow, but I bet it's a nice review. ;-)

  • Blerk #4 9 years ago

    the unexpectedly useful Katana sword

    Whoo! Look out, undead nurses - this time I've got a new toy to dismember you with! :-D

    I'm so pleased this is great. Silent Hill is one of my very favourite game series - all other survival horror titles pale in comparison. Damn... I want to go and get it right now! :-)

  • mOth #5 9 years ago

    SH2 was brilliant but a bit too short. Is SH3 longer?

  • krudster #6 9 years ago

    I've changed my mind, the game is probably about the same length as SH2. Which is not to say it's short, but it can be blitzed through on Normal over about 2-3 night's play.
    Edited by 1 at 23/05/03 @ 01:37

  • itamae #7 9 years ago

    One question: does Silent Hill 3 come in one of those funky cardboard boxes like Ico and -er- Silent Hill 2? And does it by any chance have a making-of dvd or other bonus stuff? (ok, make that two questions).
    I mean, I'm going to buy this game even if it comes wrapped in sausage skin - but I'm curious nonetheless.

    And while I'm editing: are there multiple endings? Come on, there have to be multiple endings...
    Edited by 2 at 22/05/03 @ 11:56

  • Nemesis #8 9 years ago

    Nice review Sir, I'm still not buying the game!

    Having not played the series, I wandered across the web and found SH2 : Directors cut is now on the Platinum series. So I no longer have an excuse I guess. I fancy something a little different after cutesie platformers.

    Cmon PS2, lets get that funky blue light lit up again!

  • Oceadge #9 9 years ago

    Is this still an exclusive to Europe at the moment?

  • krudster #10 9 years ago

    Yes. Europe is getting this first, fully four months ahead of the US!
    Not sure about funky limited edition box sets or whatever. I'm sure there are multiple endings, there usually are.

  • Machiavel #11 9 years ago

    So how long till the Xbox version ;)?

  • renzo #12 9 years ago

    Yes. Europe is getting this first, fully four months ahead of the US!

    This is brilliant. We're getting this in South Africa in June, that means for the first time ever, we're getting a game before the US! YAAAAY!!!

  • Blerk #13 9 years ago

    Europe is getting this first, fully four months ahead of the US!

    Yaaaay!

    /waves European flag

  • Oceadge #14 9 years ago

    <em>Yes. Europe is getting this first, fully four months ahead of the US!</em>

    Cool, how often does that happen! That would encourage me to buy this game more - just to support Konami in their bold move of releasing a game in Europe first!

    [Edit] Quote not working
    Edited by 1 at 22/05/03 @ 12:35

  • UncleLou #15 9 years ago

    skal said it only took him 6 hours to play it throught the first time. Maybe he thought it was finished when he got to Silent Hill?
    Edited by 1 at 23/05/03 @ 01:38

  • renzo #16 9 years ago

    I reckon SH3 is a lot longer. Maybe 30-50 per cent longer. It takes an age just to even get to Silent Hill.

    skal said it only took him 6 hours to play it throught the first time. Maybe he thought it was finished when he got to Silent Hill?

    I doubt you can get through it that quickly without using some sort of walkthrough. I mean, you'd have to know exactly where you were going and solve the puzzles really quickly.

    Unless skal is that same guy that finished Metroid in 2hrs or whatever it was...

  • krudster #17 9 years ago

    6hrs? I find that kind of boast utter tripe. Maybe playing with a walkthrough and skipping every cut scene, never reading the letters and never fighting anything. It's more like 12-15 for mere mortals.

  • UncleLou #18 9 years ago

    Ah well, he said that in the SH3 thread in the forum, and he also said he didn't use a walkthrough. Maybe you're a lamer, krudster? ;-)

    /hides in grandfather clock

  • krudster #19 9 years ago

    I just find it odd when people make those kind of claims. I was stuck maybe twice in the whole game, but it still took a lot longer than 6 hours. Maybe I'm thorough?

  • Nemesis #20 9 years ago

    I never understand people that are happy with running through a good game in the minimum time necessary. Would you watch a film on fastforward?

  • Blerk #21 9 years ago

    From above:
    60Hz mode - no

    So... who's right? 60hz or not?

  • renzo #22 9 years ago

    I just find it odd when people make those kind of claims.

    Don't you know it's to show what super-l337, ubërgamers they are??

  • UncleLou #23 9 years ago

    To be fair, skal had to write a review, so maybe he had to rush through it.

    On a sidenote, guess who just bought SH3 in the lunch break. Yeah, right, me. Mwuahahahahah!

    /wets pants in fearful anticipation

    edit: Just a plain plastic DVD box this time btw, and no bonus disc. Ah well, I won't complain!
    Edited by 2 at 22/05/03 @ 14:15

  • krudster #24 9 years ago

    woops, 60Hz - yes it is in there. Sorry.

  • Blerk #25 9 years ago

    woops, 60Hz - yes it is in there. Sorry.

    Yay!

    /waves 60Hz flag

  • renzo #26 9 years ago

    On a sidenote, guess who just bought SH3 in the lunch break. Yeah, right, me. Mwuahahahahah!

    thats just not fair. why do i have to wait another month?? UncleLou, I despise you for this! ;)
    Well, only temporarily... till I get it of course... cos then I'll be too scared and disturbed to care about other people :)

  • Blerk #27 9 years ago

    can someone tells me what should I do for these long waiting days?!

    What about playing the hundreds of games that you get before we do? Or the hundreds of games that don't get released in Europe at all because the publishers hate us? :-)

  • LaundroMat #28 9 years ago

    /checks pockets.

    /waits till next month.

  • UncleLou #29 9 years ago

    /checks pockets

    /realises he should have waited till next month

    It's all a matter of priorities. Spend the cash, you know you want it! There's enough time to regret it later.



  • valli #30 9 years ago

    Whee, my local shop has it in stock. Iīm off then. Gonna stock up with food and beverages for the weekend and pull the curtains. And visit my local dealer for a few acid and 2CB doses.

    (that last part was a joke)

  • jaa #31 9 years ago

    It's all a matter of priorities. Spend the cash, you know you want it! There's enough time to regret it later.

    Funny it's you giving such an advice... :)

    Edit: and I must buy this. Even with wife begging me not to...


    Edited by 1 at 22/05/03 @ 17:51

  • Machiavel #32 9 years ago

    I feel so impatient ,can someone tells me what should I do for these long waiting days?!

    Buy a PAL console and import! Seriously, this is a oh-so-rare taster for you of the frustration we European gamers go through with practically every major game release. And you only have to wait a little over a month - lucky, lucky you.

    /Sigh

  • krudster #33 9 years ago

    The graphics are uniformly great, but hardly a huge advance on the last one. I think it uses a slightly modified engine. Only the lighting is significantly improved.

  • UncleLou #34 9 years ago

    Funny it's you giving such an advice... :)

    lol jaa, long time no see! So you're implying I was a bit hesitant sometimes to spend money? No idea what you're talking about, really.

    Seriously, you got a wrong impression. I am such a money burning machine, it's not even funny. :-(
    Edited by 1 at 22/05/03 @ 19:18

  • Blerk #35 9 years ago

    Why does everyone have this mad idea that this game was going to ship with a soundtrack CD? I've not even seen it mentioned before now. Those 'bonus CD' things are a waste of time anyway - I watched about five minutes of the one that came with Silent Hill 2 and the developers scared me more than the game itself!

  • UncleLou #36 9 years ago

    You're right, I ususally don't give a shit about bonus discs too, though I thought the "making of" video on the SH2 disc was quite interesting actually. Astonished me how they could develop such a sinister game in such a businesslike office. I would have liked to see it come in a cardboard slipcase again, though.
    Edited by 1 at 23/05/03 @ 09:38

  • Blerk #37 9 years ago

    Those cardboard DVD boxes don't fit in my rack properly. I'm glad it's in a normal plastic one. :-)

  • #38 9 years ago

    What did you expect? Them working on it in the sewers?

  • UncleLou #39 9 years ago

    lol, no, but when you see videos of US developers, it usually looks a little chaotic at least, with lots of useless stuff lying and standing around, crammed desks, etc., but in the case of the Sh2 developers it looked like an insurance company's open-plan office.

  • #40 9 years ago

    oh.. I see. I'm pretty sure it's like that in all japanese dev-environments. At least the ones I've seen.

  • #41 9 years ago

    those japanese mean business, you know. could explain all the shitty games coming out of us of aaaa. you get easily distracted with all those action-figures and whatnot around the office.

    project leader: hey, what the fuck are you doing?! we got a deadline, you know!!
    dev-guy: but but.. skeletor is about to lay all of eternia under a dangerous spell!! cringer have to rescue he-man from the trap!
    project leader: not so fast cringer! evil-lyn will take care of you! *pow pow*
    dev-guy2: not if teela got a say in that! catfight!!

  • Blerk #42 9 years ago

    Have you seen the Japanese guys on the SH2 video, though? They might have a 'business-like' office, but they wear leopard-skin trousers FFS! :-O

  • renzo #43 9 years ago

    I don't care much for bonus-discs. The one that came with Final Fantasy X was total shit. They had interviews with the developers and artists, but no subtitles, and they're speaking Japanese! And this for a PAL release. How many people in Europe speak Japanese? *put your hand down!* And for the interviews with the English-speaking voice actors, they had subtitles.. WTF?!? Add to that seeing who did the voice for Tidus spoilt things a bit for me, cos every time I heard Tidus speak in the game, I thought of that over-excited American prat that did the voice-over.. dammit!!

    The SH2 bonus-disc sounds alot more interesting though... I mean, with leopard-skin trousers, how can it not be interesting??
    Edited by 1 at 23/05/03 @ 10:27

  • Blerk #44 9 years ago

    They had interviews with the developers and artists, but no subtitles, and they're speaking Japanese!

    Uh... my version had subtitles. Or was it dubbed? I can't remember, but I remember turning the interviews off because the dev team were so dull! :-)

  • UncleLou #45 9 years ago

    but they wear leopard-skin trousers FFS! :-O

    Ah, now *that's* unusual. Er yes, very strange, what were they thinking? *cough*

    /hides legs under desk

  • jaa #46 9 years ago

    UncleLou: No idea what you're talking about, really.

    Two words: X box.

    About not posting frequently these days: tough months - busy at work (I'll try not to make it a habit), often outdoors (this part is not bad), preparing a paper for a post-grad thing, powerpointing two training sessions I'll be giving,... Hell, I'm still near the beginning of Zelda! (But couldn't resist buying Kung Fu Chaos anyway - great fun!)

    BUT... I'm not leaving! And I come here often. Just don't post as much as I used to - don't want to start things I can't follow up.

  • jaa #47 9 years ago

    hides legs under desk

    Didn't know Boss made leopard-skin trousers... Must be a Germany-only model.

    Bought SH3 at lunchtime. Can't wait to go home, show it to wife and get scared...
    Edited by 1 at 23/05/03 @ 15:18

  • Blerk #48 9 years ago

    Can't wait to go home, show it to wife and get scared...

    Uh.... you are still talking about the game, aren't you? ;-)

  • UncleLou #49 9 years ago

    Thief! Where's my post? I did that joke! My exact words were "Your wife the scary type then?"

    ??!!??

    /is confused

    edit: Oi, I think I remember now...I wanted to explain that I am not wearing a suit everyday, and then the telephone rang, and I forgot to submit it and clicked it away instead

    *sob*
    Edited by 1 at 23/05/03 @ 15:58

  • UncleLou #50 9 years ago

    two words and one number to you my friend - Grand Turismo 4

    It's Gran Turismo, my friend, Gran Turismo 4.

  • jaa #51 9 years ago

    Uh.... you are still talking about the game, aren't you? ;-)

    huh... no, not really. She had asked me not to buy it. It's a bit strange: she kind of hates Silent Hill games but wants to be with me when I play them. Guess she feels she's protecting me... :)

    Anyway, she took it quite well but I almost couldn't play the damn game this weekend. It seems I'm not allowed to play at night...

    I suspect that, for me, this is going to be a very long game...

    /sighs

  • UncleLou #52 9 years ago

    Same here, jaa, especially as I only play the game when it's dark outside and I am alone. I am still at the first location. At the moment, I'd say I almost like it more than Sh2 - though basically quite similar, it feels a bit more focused so far, and while it's not scarier per se, the more "real" setting (as opposed to SH2, where you are in a "cursed" town from the beginning) makes it even more worrying in an "it could happen to you" manner. :-)

  • bungalooBunny #53 9 years ago

    I got this game and am still playing it and love it but I can't fail to notice how similar to SH2 it 'feels'. The camera, graphics, eveything.

    Is it just me or Konami seem to be reusing they're engines to make big quick bucks? Just look at ZOE2 that uses MGS2 engine, and Snake Eater that looks like MGS2 (but in the jungle). Now SH3 and SH4 to follow soon with SH2 engine..

    It's like they feel they reached the PS2 tech limits and now the more money the merrier.. Easy money?

  • Blerk #54 9 years ago

    It seems I'm not allowed to play at night...

    Now that's a shame. The only way to play Silent Hill is at night. Alone. With the light off. Whooooooooooooooo! :-)

  • renzo #55 9 years ago

    Now that's a shame. The only way to play Silent Hill is at night. Alone. With the light off. Whooooooooooooooo! :-)

    *quietly and involuntarily shits himself*

  • valli #56 9 years ago

    Completed the game today and itīs excellent! My only complaint is the length though: itīs a short game (arenīt they all?) so I recommend not rushing through it and never hold down the square button (RUN) unless you really have to.

    Skal is right about the 6 hours thing, my game clock timed something like 4h50m, but with all the replays/deaths/exploring I suppose it kept me busy for something like 10-12 hours.

    Started on a new game right away, as it has cool extra features and good replay value. No spoilers!

  • Blerk #57 9 years ago

    Started on a new game right away, as it has cool extra features and good replay value.

    Yay! That's good to hear. I played SH2 through twice because of the extra stuff the second time around.

  • krudster #58 9 years ago

    4hrs 50? Ninjaaaaaa! I was 6hrs 27 I think, but a lot of that might have been me leaving the controller to answer the phone, etc.

  • UncleLou #59 9 years ago

    I've played a third maybe and the clock is already at about 4 hours - I just keep the game running when I do something else for a while. Like check gamefaqs, for example. *cough* Was kind of stuck for a while yesterday. It wasn't even a puzzle, though. :-)

  • #60 8 years ago

    a brilliant game!! I actualy "fell in love" with Heather!!. Not since Lara Croft, have I felt so protective!!!. The big let down on this game, is the lack of moves Heather can do. If she could have jumped, climbed, swam, and had a better selection of weapons, then the game would be so much the better. Graphics wise, I thought the game was faultless, but that's me!!!, easy to please!!.