Silent Hill 3

Hey all. So after the SNAFU (Situation Normal All Fouled Up) of the poll, I would like to apologize. While I simply forgot to check with the blog that I did Silent Hill 2, I feel I should make up for the goof. So we will look at another Survival Horror game and hopefully give you my best take on the source material. As this has been a long lasting franchise going back to Playstation 1 and we fans all have the love for it. This is Silent Hill 3.

My puffy jacket aids me.

Brought to us by Konami via Playstation 2 and developed by Team Silent, our game is a direct sequel to the first game as we follow the adventures or madness down the rabbit hole with Harry Mason's now teenage daughter Heather (formally Alessa and later reincarnated Cheryl). Yes made from a 10 year old girl and manifested back to an infant... I need to create context, right? Okay spoilers for the first game.

With the Cult headed by Dahlia Gillespie, her daughter Alessa was intended to be the vessel to said living god that manifested as an incubus and there was a need to have Aglaophotis (an concoction that dispels demons) and the Seals of Metatron to raise said beast, Harry Mason's daughter Cheryl was adopted by he and his wife Jodie. Harry makes his way through the dimensional shifted Silent Hill and faces mortal danger to save Cheryl.

17 years later, Cheryl, now known as Heather is running errands for her dad at the shopping center, she falls asleep at the fast food place having nightmares of Silent Hill, running through the amusement park and fending off monsters. She wakes and calls her dad to let him know she is on her way home with she runs into a P.I. Cartland. Hired by the Order to find her. He's all mysterious about her history of her birth and what she means to the Order. She makes her way home armed with a pistol to defend herself only to encounter a blond woman all in black calling herself Claudia Wolf. She tells Heather "Remember me, and your true self as well and that she will lead them to Paradise with bloodstained hands." Yeah normally a girl has to worry about potential pedophiles not prophecies.

I sense impending doom today.

Levels like the subway and Otherworld portals leaves Cartland actually is as baffled as Heather pointing out he was only supposed to find her but feels like this job is so much more than it was explained to him by Claudia.

Booking back home she finds Harry brutally murdered and slumped in his chair. Heather vows revenge and realizes it all goes back to Silent Hill. Cartland drives Heather to Silent Hill for her to find out more of her past, why her dad was gacked and in general is looking to mess some folk up.

Back with melee and firearms attacks, exploration and more puzzles, we have a standard third person view. We are also back with the pocket radio that blurts loud static when monsters are near. So we are treated to the map screen of streets of Silent Hill 1 and she makes her way to Vincent a priest of the Order and chief antiquarian (librarian) and he gives her vague passages, quotes, the creeper eye and just happens to have her late father's notebook and detailed accounts of 17 years prior. HUH??!!!

between that ulterior motives of Claudia, Vincent and other members of the Order, finding out which path for Heather is hit or miss. Like the first two games, your actions and words will dictate your outcome again. So yes the hospital is still creepy and faceless nurses are roaming about as Elessa was constantly hospitalized. That will happen when your soulless mother is siphoning the actual life force out of you. Hey readers? Your mom do that? No? Then go hug her and tell her what a good mom she is.  Can't be easily to walk around anywhere with three sets of memories rolling around your coconut like some psychotic game of Bingo.

Like the first game with have Lewis Carrol references, H.P. Lovecraft, Shakespeare quotes on the harder levels and a bizarre fairy tale spread on pages throughout the town and its many levels. The amusement park is so well done as the psychokinesis of Alessa is still haunting it almost with her memories tainting the whole area.

Now in my head, Harry actually preparing Heather for this would have meant a completely different story line. I grant you can't pop into causal conversation, "Sweetie, a dark prophecy, plus a previous incarnation of yourself doomed an entire town, warped the fabric of reality and did almost bring about Armageddon. Pass the salt, please." Yeah that would sound like Harry was mad as a box of cats. The phrase Tu Fui, Ego Eris (As you are, I was; as I am, so you shall also be) is found throughout Hilltop Center making one of the creatures only known as the Glutton monster to disappear. If this phrase has not been uttered by Heather, she cannot get pass the creature or even harm it.

Stevie Nicks??

So following loss, exploration, a past she was never made aware of; this would be conflicting for anyone but lumping this all at the feet of a teenage girl seems inherently cruel. This kid is in the midst of figuring out her identity, who she is as a person, only to find out that was she knew to be concrete and true is all sand and lies. Did her dad ever truly love her or was he attempting to keep the world safe from utter darkness? Is the Order right for her destiny?

Unlike the films, the story is pretty clear and unfolds in the usual odd fashion that Silent Hill fans have come to expect these games. With still the tank controls or D-pad, the map screen for your health and weapons. While we get some very strange exposition, the gamers know a fraction of what's going on but are still pleasantly surprised by all that is happening. It is a journey of discovery with all the trimmings of actions equal consequences. With a morbid past, a present of utter madness it makes you wonder Heather's future.

Don't worry Silent Hill movie viewers, no appearances of Pyramid Head (as that was only a direct link to James Sutherland of Silent Hill 2), no goofy witch burnings because of unwed mothers, pop tart jump scares and absolutely no unnecessary Sean Bean padding like the first film. Still could have made him Harry Mason, have him scour Silent Hill for his daughter and defeat the followers of the living god via Dahlia Gillespie but hey, the hell do I know? Just a critic...and a fan of these games and one who appreciate proper handing of source material.

Outfitted with as always, a right angle flashlight, a pocket AM/FM red radio from the 50s and 60s, maybe a knife and pistol, the devilish shenanigans are well on their way. Naturally melee weapons and firearms are strewn about the town. Still feel the lead pipe and the shotgun are the best weapons.

This continuation was eerie, clever and had its moments of breaking the fourth wall that really gave this dark content a lighter motif. I highly recommend this for fans of the first two games. 

Hmm disturbing corridor of flesh or a book? what to look at first.