Silent Hill 3 (2003) Review

Lucas Versantvoort / December 16, 2014

After Silent Hill 2 blew everyone’s minds—including mine—Team Silent quickly started working on Silent Hill 3. The end result isn’t as good as its predecessor, but is still a very intense experience.

            You control Heather, a teenage girl. After having a nightmare, she wakes up in a restaurant in a mall and tries to leave and head home, when a detective adamantly follows her, claiming to have information about her birth. She avoids him, but soon stumbles upon another strange person, Claudia, the priestess of a cult situated in Silent Hill. She claims to know Heather’s fate. Soon after meeting Claudia, the mall goes into full Silent Hill ‘Overworld’ mode: monsters are stalking the now decaying corridors. As Heather struggles to escape the horrors around her, she becomes increasingly aware of the strange cult stalking her for some reason.

            I’ll come right out and say that Silent Hill 3’s story doesn’t intrigue me as much as its more psychologically inclined predecessor. This game is basically a sequel to the first game and is therefore more centered on the town of Silent Hill itself and the cult that operates there. While it makes for an effectively horrifying story (not a lot of things are creepier than secret cults), it’s not as engaging as Silent Hill 2’s focus on psychology.

Heather is a great protagonist though. The past years, there’ve been more complaints than ever about good female representations in video games (or lack thereof), but I think Heather is one of the better ones. The key I think is that the game makes no fuss over the fact Heather is a girl. The game designers crafted her simply as a character who has to survive all the horrors thrown at her. Of course, story-wise it’s important to the cult that Heather’s a she—birthing gods isn’t exactly fit for men after all—but overall, it’s a nonissue. The game doesn’t define Heather by her gender, but by her actions. She’s also great in that the story’s much easier to handle, because you experience the story together with her. You share her horror when first confronted by a monster. You share her fear when she’s forced to use a gun to defend herself. You share her confusion when confronted with the cult’s members. Her voice actress is great too.

It’s obvious why Team Silent treated their protagonists’ relationships with the gamers so differently. While James from Silent Hill 2 was in denial and hiding a dark secret, Heather’s just a regular gal thrust into proceedings beyond her comprehension. So, while there was an intentional emotional distance between James and the gamer, Heather’s a much more likable and emotionally accessible character. She’s also the reason the story doesn’t become obsessed with the inner workings of the cult. Because the story’s told through her eyes, it becomes more an emotional tale of her dealing with all that’s happening to her and around her rather than a boring story solely about the cult itself. So, while Silent Hill 2’s story is definitely more interesting from an analytical perspective, Silent Hill 3’s story is way more deftly handled emotionally speaking.

            The things I find lacking story-wise are more than made up for by the incredible atmosphere. If you thought Silent Hill 2 was atmospheric, wait until you’re greeted by the opening shot (after the nightmare sequence). The reddish hue shining into the empty restaurant where Heather wakes up already prepares you for what’s to come. Or wait until you enter one of the mall’s many corridors and are greeted by a terrifying noise uttered by a monster lurking just beyond the camera’s edge; or when you walk down a long hallway and you could swear you heard a growl coming from…somewhere; or the bloody merry-go-round scene; or the infamous mirror room; the list goes on. I’ll tell you right now that this game was a real chore for me to get through, because of its unrelenting creepiness. I remember every time I booted up my PS2 and arrived at the main menu, I would just breathe a sigh of defeat: ‘oh shit, here we go again.’

            Akira Yamaoka was again responsible for not just the score but also the sound design and he just went crazy…in a good way. In terms of score, this was the first game where he collaborated with vocalist Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. This would usually result in songs that were either kickass (You’re Not Here) or melancholy in a trip hoppy way (Letter – from the Lost Days). In terms of sound design, Yamaoka upped the creepiness factor tenfold. The monster noises are chilling, there are little sound effects scattered all across the game when nothing’s happening. How terrifyingly awesome—and awesomely terrifying—is it that this game will have you standing still in an empty corridor, simply because you could swear you heard something? Another nice touch is the bathroom stall early in the game. One of the stalls is locked and when you select it, Heather knocks on the door and somebody knocks back. Later, that same door opens and all you’ll find is a bloody mess. While Yamaoka’s score for Silent Hill 2 is a classic, I think his score for this game is more effective overall. At the very least, it’s more varied and scary.

            I’m also pleased to say the graphics hold up quite nicely. This is definitely one of those games that’s still very much pleasing to the eye. Sure, things are quite rough around the edges (literally), but there are games from the same period that look way worse seen through modern eyes. I also like how the game designers tried to make the faces as realistic as possible. Heather is definitely well animated. Just look at the early scene when she’s talking with her dad on the phone. When she smiles, what do you see? Something you almost never see in games: smile lines. Usually, game characters have that smooth photo-shopped look, but here the designers spared no expense in making Heather as human as possible. It’s things like this that not only enhance the atmosphere, but also separate this game from the pack.

            All in all, I would sum up my feelings toward Silent Hill 3 as follows: the story, though effectively told, isn’t as interesting to me as Silent Hill 2’s due to the heavy focus on the cult, but Heather and the atmosphere more than make up for it.