Heather is a 17-year-old girl who’s having fun shopping at the local mall. There she meets a strange man named Douglas that seems to be following her. As she tries to get away from him she finds herself in a place that looks like the mall, but is different somehow. Every store is closed except one, where odd sounds can be heard inside. Heather gets inside to find a hideous monster eating a human being. She freaks out and runs, but the mall has changed even more and there is no way out. Heather finds a crazy woman named Claudia that seems to know her, and tells her the time of the rebirth of God is drawing near. As she ventures deeper into the mall she finds creepier, more dangerous creatures that seem to be hunting her. What the hell is going on?

The town of Silent Hill has never looked this good. I don’t think I’ve seen better graphics on any other PlayStation 2 game so far. Both characters and backgrounds are in 3D, giving the world of Silent Hill a very realistic feel. Character models look so real, it’s creepy. Skin textures, as well as clothing look extremely detailed. Facial expressions are used to great effect, which makes the game feel more like a movie. Every light casts a realistic shadow, making fighting enemies harder because you sometimes can’t see them very well.

You’ll want to play through the game with the volume on max, because both the music and sound effects play a very important role in this horror story. Akira Yamaoka composed the soundtrack once again, so if you’ve played SH1 or 2 you’ll know what to expect. There are many frightening instrumental music tracks, as well as haunting songs with lyrics. Voice acting is well done, and every creature has different moans and groans. Sound effects, such as gunfire, footsteps, steel pipes bashing monster brains sound crystal-clear.

The controls are a bitch to learn and get used to. You’ll get hit quite a bit before getting the hang out of running and fighting. Although this is normally considered a flaw in game design, Konami did this on purpose to make the game harder and more nerve-racking. But, it’s still a bitch. You move in 3D, unlike Resident Evil where the characters move like tanks. You can walk, run, strafe, block, turn 180 degrees, kick, climb, but you can’t control the camera! Again, this is supposed to make things more suspenseful and challenging. And it works. Not being able to see what’s eating my ass is reason enough to play this game while sitting on a toilet. You have your little flashlight mounted on your chest, like in past Silent Hills, but you can barely see things 3 feet in front of you.

Silent Hill 3 focuses less on puzzles and more on fighting, and the few puzzles that you have to deal with are on the simple side, unless you play on hard mode. The key to survival is finding area maps as soon as possible, so you’ll know which doors open and which don’t. When you find a place where you need a special item that you don’t have, the map will show a mark to remind you later on. Without this you’d be seriously lost and confused.

One of my favorite aspects of Silent Hill games are the unlockable goodies you get for beating the game on certain conditions. You can unlock a lightsaber, flamethrower, sub machine gun with unlimited ammo, and lots of new costumes for Heather. There’s a new costume for Douglas, but unless you crave to see middle-aged men in their underwear you might want to pass on it. And speaking of beating the game, there are multiple endings in Silent Hill 3. You get the “good” ending, which I call the “less depressing” ending, there’s the “bitter-sweet” ending, and the obligatory UFO ending that’s in every Silent Hill game. It’s tough to get, but worth it just for the funny song.

Konami once again gives us a good reason to buy new underwear. With its sophisticated storyline, fantastic visuals, horrible monsters, chilling sound effects, neat weapons, haunting soundtrack, and tough challenge, Silent Hill 3 is the scariest, and one of the best survival horror games out there. Play it alone, late at night, with headphones. I dare you.

© 1998-2004 RPGRealm. All Rights Reserved. RPGRealm is not affiliated with any company or product mentioned herein unless explicitly stated. The RPG Realm is owned by Greg Davis and Alex Wreschnig.