namaskāraṁ ToriJ
vīḍiyēā geyiṁ viśakalanaṅṅaḷ svāgataṁ. We've come to
the end of Women's Month and there's only one more place left to
visit before we move on to April, Silent Hill! This time a teenaged
girl named Heather traverse the strange town as she finds herself in
the middle of a cult's plot to bring back Paradise. This also marks
the first game in the franchise where you play as a female
protagonist. Funny how they keep waiting until 3 to do that. Now, I
must admit I actually played the HD version on Xbox but since I'm
only reviewing one of the games it didn't feel right to use the HD
cover. Let's dive right in!
The service
here is so terrible I actually fell asleep waiting for the food.
The game
starts off in similar fashion to the first game with splices of
footage mixed in with our main character riding in a car. After that
Heather arrives at an amusement park wondering just where the hell
she is and how to get out. If you're the player at this point you're
probably wondering the same thing. Hi, Bunny!
Right off
the bat and already the camera angles are nauseating. You have your
fixed camera angles that were the norm for survival horror at the
time, but it jumps around while you're moving. Not in the same style
as Resident Evil, it will start doing it when you're in one part of
the room. There's a button to move the camera behind you but that
just makes it worse. Is one of Silent Hill powers to make you
seasick?
Just like
the first game there's a scene where you think you're dead, but you
just wake up at a cafe safe and sound. Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me. I have to say the voice acting has
significantly improved since the first game. It still has that
undertone of amateurish style to it, but it isn't so distracting
this time around. Heather sounds genuine, the detective is passable,
and the crazy cult lady sounds like a crazy cult lady.
Not like any
sermon I've ever heard before.
Heather is
likeable from the start and comes across as a regular teenager being
pulled into crazy situations by the nature of Silent Hill. I
especially enjoy her inner monologs when you're looking through
items in the game. That's another thing I like about Silent Hill,
instead of just giving you a description of objects like in Resident
Evil or Devil May Cry, you get a lot more personality since it's the
character commenting on them.
Unlike SH2
which has no connection to the first game whatsoever, SH3 continues
the cult plot established in the first game and our protagonist is
revealed to be the adoptive daughter of Harry from the first game,
and the reincarnation of Alessa Gillespie. “Just when I
finally get out, they PULL me back in!”
The girl is quick to
anger when she's frustrated (who isn't at that age?) and can be
pretty sarcastic, which comes in handy surprisingly well when
dealing with the monsters of Silent Hill. Her personality takes a
notable shift with the loss of her father and she fills that void
with Douglas. The detective that was hired by Claudia to find her,
but upon finding out she sent all those monsters after her decides
he wants nothing to do with her and takes Heather to Silent Hill
supporting her throughout the rest of the game.
Claudia's character is
actually pretty tragic. Almost as much as Alessa. Raised up in a
crazy cult, beaten by her own father, and her closest friend was
hospitalized after a house fire. Claudia views the world as corrupt
and needing to be cleansed in order to bring about Paradise where
all can be forgiven. Hence her plan to revive God through Heather. If
you thought Heather had a temper, this woman will fucking cut you if
you get on her bad side. While she serves as the game's antagonist,
you can understand her motivations. Claudia, like Alessa, knows pain
better than anyone, and believes that a god born from that same pain
is more likely to create a better Paradise than one who isn't. Her
mindset is one that believes it's better to destroy and start over
from scratch than try to repair the corruption that's already
present.
You're one
ugly mother fucker!
Monsters
will sneak up on you in a heartbeat. The worse thing is you can be
running from them trying to find another room only for EVERY SINGLE
DOOR to have a broken lock. How many locks are broken in this mall?
Do they not have a guy to fix them? On the plus side there's a block
button. Yeah, I know, the game actually has a block button. I'm
shocked, too.
The
gameplay hasn't changed all that much from the first two games. You
can choose difficulty for the combat and puzzles separately before
starting your game. The puzzles get pretty creative on the hardest
difficulties and requires actual knowledge to solve. Save areas this
time around are symbols you can find throughout the areas you
explore that Heather recognizes from her past life, instead of the
notes in the first game. I like how even the save areas are changed
to reflect the character.
Unlike the
last two games you don't start out in Silent Hill. You actually start
in a mall outside of the town building up to the entrance into the
city. It's actually kind of creepy that the monsters from Silent
Hill can appear in a different town. Before you just thought they
were limited to the city. I know, it's because the cult leader is
after her, but still. That's pretty freaking terrifying! You know
what that reminds me of? That lady from the Grudge who follows you
after you enter her house. That's just creepy.
Like looking
into a mirror. A really bloody mirror.
I feel like
I'm stating the obvious here, but this game is scary as hell. SH3
builds the suspense up so great that the slightest thing can make
you jump if you're not expecting it. The horror is subtle as I feel
good horror should be. You enter a room, and turn the camera around
just in time to see a monster slowly approaching and your only
option is to run. Ammunition is sacred so you'd want to save them as
much as possible. Unfortunately for me when I get scared I shoot
things. I should probably work on that.
While the
town in Silent Hill 1 was shaped around the nightmare of Alessa,
Silent Hill 2 changed it to where the town shaped around the
psychology of the player character which changed the course of the
series forever. Here the central themes are maternity and
femininity since the cult leader wants to impregnates Heather to
birth their god. As such we have monsters who may represent the fear
women have about their bodies when they get pregnant, repressed
memories of being abused, and even problematic pregnancies. Wow... I
picked a good game to review for Women's Month, huh?
Even some of the
monsters appearances, like the Closer I showed two pictures up, and the sounds they make can
be linked to the female body. It's crazy thinking about just how
much imagination and thought went into the symbolism in these games.
Like any good symbolism they're open to interpretation which can
lead to a lot of interesting discussion. A game that gives you
something to think about afterwords? Didn't know those existed.
Hey, my
mirror joke just came around full circle. GET ME OUT OF HERE!
What more
can I say about Silent Hill 3? The game is a worthy sequel to SH1 and
I won't be forgetting it any time soon. If you haven't picked it up
then I'd highly recommend doing so now.
And that's
the end of Women's Month. I hoped you enjoy this month as much as I
have and I'll see you next week as we jump on the road to
WrestleMania, and I have just the game in honor of the occasion.
Catch you soon.
Get
it
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