Silent Hill 3 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The global corporation, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., specializes in the console video games market; they serve as a developer, publisher, and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties. In 1999, Konami released the game Silent Hill, its first entry into the survival horror genre. Rather than replicate the shock-based thrills popularized by Capcom's Resident Evil series, Konami set out in a darker, creepier direction. They raised the baleful bar in everything from the game's environments, monsters, and even to the story itself. The resulting game offered its’ own fair share of shocks, as well as some genuinely fearful, emotional, and disturbing moments. What began as a game with something of a cult following; it has ballooned into a strong franchise, giving the new Silent Hill 3 some big shoes to fill. The good news is that this latest installment lives up to the series' high standards and is especially well suited to those who've enjoyed the previous Silent Hill games.

    Like most horror games, Silent Hill 3 has a gameplay that is a combination of combat, exploration, and puzzle solving. The game’s main character is a young girl named Heather, who finds herself in an all-but-abandoned shopping mall after awaking from a frightening dream about Lakeside Amusement Park in the town of Silent Hill. Soon after waking she meets two of the more prominent characters, a detective named Douglas and a religious woman named Claudia. Both of whom suggest that there may be more to Heather's childhood than she has come to understand. The game has a slow buildup and a few downfalls; it takes off with considerably less momentum than the storylines in the previous games. As with both of its’ predecessors, the objective was to find a missing person (that the main character cared about), and would be somewhere in the town of Silent Hill. In Silent Hill 3, you don't even get into town until the second half of the game; and in the first half, you only get pieces of the story little by little.

    The structure of Silent Hill 3, nevertheless, has been left almost completely intact from the first and second games. You explore a closed environment for clues, keys, notes, or anything else that might help get to the next section. Along the way you'll encounter a multitude of monsters--some that creep slowly toward you and others that may fly or run quickly at you--and each is notably horrific in its own right. However, in Silent Hill 3 you may find yourself barely able to successfully get to the next segment; being left with a minimum amount of ammunition and health supplies to stay alive. So running instead of fighting will often be the preferred method of survival.

    Without a doubt, Silent Hill 3's strongest suit is its production values. With its grainy camera filter and outstanding lighting effects, Silent Hill 2 raised the bar for what could be expected of a PlayStation 2 game's graphics. If Konami had simply produced another game using the same 3D graphics engine, it would have stood up quite well. However, a new engine was created for Silent Hill 3, and it makes for some truly amazing visual effects. The characters all look outstanding and are rendered with exceptionally high resolution models and textures, especially in the in-engine cut scenes. The dynamic lighting allows environmental lights, as well as Heather's flashlight, to cast detailed shadows. In the "dark world" areas, some textures on the walls will pulsate and bleed, move in and out of focus, and otherwise trick your eyes; which gives you the sense that perhaps you shouldn't trust what you see. Each enemy is rendered with an equally high level of detail, and they are animated in an unworldly, unsettlingly horrific manner. The grainy filter is back in this game, though its presence has been toned down to the point that you may not even notice it—can be turn it off if preferred.

    All in all, Silent Hill 3 is an excellent addition to the series. Its’ plot is tied into the story of the first game and keeps a number of themes and locales from the second game well in focus. There's no remarkable new gameplay to speak of; so the game is clearly intended for fans of the series, who've been impressed over the years by Silent Hill's unusually dark and psychological technique. This new game will be familiar to them in many ways, and the story, characters, and visual effects add up to make Silent Hill 3 a worthy successor.

    This article provided courtesy of our sister site: Better Angels Now