Silent Hill 3

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Released (UK): May '03
Released (US): Aug '03

May contain Spoilers. At the time this was considered the best game of the series - at least it was according to the reviews and forums. I was really looking forward to playing this one more than I was SH4 or SH2.

You play as Heather Mason, a 17 year old girl who has a bit of an attitude at first. You don't know much about her but that's what this game is about - self discovery. On your first attempt at this game you're thrown right in the deep end because you're playing from the beginning. The opening 'level' is set in an Amusement Park and only lasts a couple of minutes. At the end, you find it basically acts as a dream sequence because Heather wakes up in a restaurant, the noise of hustle and bustle going on in the background.

When she leaves the restaurant you find she's in a shopping mall. You start to find more about her here because of two things. First she calls her Dad and looks happy when she speaks to him and laughs at a joke he must have told. Then she gets interrupted by a dishevelled looking man who introduces himself as Douglas Cartland, a Detective sent to find her - "It's about your Birth" he says. Heathers not interested though (would you be?) and walks away, however, Douglas follows you. Heather, it seems, also has a bad temper because she blows when he doesn't leave her alone. She runs into the toilets and escapes through the window.

This is when the game begins and you're on your way back home to Daddy as promised. Sounds easy enough but when she returns to the Mall she find's it deserted, except for some very nasty looking monsters. Actually the Monsters in Silent Hill 3 are pretty basic, the first one you come across being the Closer, a tall monster with clubs for arms - large but they move slowly. You also have the dog-like Doubleheads, the screeching Pendulum which is safer to run away from, the Numb Body (pictured), Scraper, Slurper, Insane Cancer and the Nurses make their return.

The monsters are of the same style as Silent Hill 2 - fleshy and wooden looking, but they're better in terms of sound effects. The Numb Bodies in particular make a screaming noise while they walk and they echo from the walls which gives a good atmosphere. The Nurses have a nice scream when you attack them which also add a bit extra. Other than these two, the monsters aren't anything to scream about yourself.

One thing this game does have though is bloody good atmosphere. Each area you go you're guaranteed a scare of some kind. We've already mentioned the Shopping Centre and you get a good freak when you knock on a toilet cubicle to find the door opens to reveal a bloody toilet seat. You also have the Subway, Sewers, Construction Site, Hilltop Centre, Brookhaven Hospital and the Amusement Park with the unforgettable Borley Mansion.

The best Silent Hill 3 moment takes part in the Hilltop Centre when a Mannequin mysteriously loses it's head when you back is turned - makes you jump too because it screams. I always find it creepy when inanimate objects come to life in some way.
Heathers stalker at the Hospital also causes a shiver down your spine just because the feeling that someone else is there in a deserted hospital is a good way to creep anyone out. Silent Hill 3 makes much better use of the hospital than SH2 (it's the same design) by making it look more like a mental hospital. The stalker, the knocked over wheelchair in the basement and the phone call you receive from a maniac in the locker room.
In general Silent Hill 3 has the better 'levels' than the other Silent Hill games I have played so far.

Heather meets several people while she walks around to settle her fate. We've already met Douglas but things go really freaky after our meeting with Claudia Wolf, a cult member who is arranging for her god to be born to make way for a new paradise. Another cult member we meet is Vincent, a priest within the cult who wishes to stop Claudia's scheme. He helps Heather throughout the game though we don't know whether it's in her best interest or his own.
Supporting characters include: Leonard Wolf, Claudia's father who was committed to the Hospital for violence towards 'non-believers' of the cult in which he was a part and Harry Mason, Heathers father and the protagonist of the original Silent Hill game.
You don't feel much emotion for these characters unless you had previously played the first Silent Hill game - Harry is well known to people who have played the original and it's quite emotional to see him meet his untimely end. Claudia and Vincent don't have much personality and I doubt they'd ever be named as a favourite among the fans. Douglas you feel a little towards because he becomes a new father figure for Heather and even though it's not mentioned, the game leads you to believe they leave together when the game ends.
Then we have Heather - named by fans as the best Silent Hill character but it must be the testosterone speaking because I don't think she has much going for her. She's a strong character for sure but likeable? She's a little bratty at the beginning of the game and has a short fuse and a little stubborn. I wouldn't name her as my favourite character of the series let alone my favourite Protagonist.

My opinions on this game always change. At the time I remember not liking this game much when comparing it to Silent Hill 2 & 4 but now I think it was a better game than Silent Hill 2. It has a better atmosphere than SH2 and the characters weren't exactly great in either of them. Silent Hill 3 also had better environments but Silent Hill 2 had a better Protagonist, storyline and Pyramid Head....

9/10

The game is on par with Silent Hill 2 but this is my opinion only. The general opinion is that Silent Hill 2 had everything necessary for a horror game but Silent Hill 3 also had these things but improved on them and if Heather is the best character Team Silent have ever come up with - wouldn't that make SH3 the superior one?

Heather Mason...Is she really the best Protagonist?
Or are fans deciding with their eyes?

Silent Hill 2

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Released (UK): Nov '01
Released (US): Sept '01

May contain spoilers. After being told so many people that Silent Hill 4 was garbage I decided to see how the game compared to previous instalments. Many people said Silent Hill 3 was the best of the bunch so I set off to buy that but I couldn't find it anywhere. Amazon didn't have it, neither did Game or Gamestation. I tried HMV but they didn't have it either but they did have Silent Hill 2. I was going to try them all anyway so I bought it and took it home to play that night.

In this game you play as James Sunderland who you find staring at himself in mirror of a public restroom. He looks stressed and once you lead him out of there you find out why.

You hear a lady's voice narrate a letter whilst James looks out over a lake. The letter asks James to meet the letter writer at their 'Special Place' in a town called Silent Hill where she says they had visited before.

James admits that this letter was written by his wife, Mary but he also says that Mary died two years ago from a disease. Creepy, huh? James doesn't know which special place she means "This whole town was our special place". We have to actually make our way to Silent Hill first so let's get a map and hop to it.

This games major flaw is the amount of travelling you have to do and it isn't always obvious where you're supposed to go. At first you're just following a trail but once you reach the town you're entering a maze. Some roads are blocked and you'll start getting restless trying to find to an unblocked route. A blood trail and the steps of a shadowed figure lead you on for a bit longer but then you're on your own.

At this point you have a weapon (wooden plank) and a Radio that doesn't seem to work. Where do you go from her though? The idea is to go to Rosewater Park but when you follow the road there, it's blocked. I walked around for ages until I came across a Caravan with a message inside "I'll wait at Bar Neely’s" - a clue at last, 20-30 minutes in. Once at Bar Neely’s we find ourselves on a roll and eventually we're at Woodside Apartments.

The game finally gets going now and the spookiness creeps in. The music in the Apartments is the main addition to the atmosphere (Akira Yamaoka is a genius) but the lack of light is also a factor.

The Apartment building is one of many areas you come across. Once out of the building you reach the Park, Brookhaven Hospital, the Historical Society and Prison then finally the Lakeview Hotel.

All of them have their moments: The hospital has the gloomy atmosphere. The Prison has noises coming from empty prisons and the labyrinth. Your weapons are taken away from you for part of the Hotel level and then the Apartments have Pyramid Head (below).

Named by most Silent Hill fans, favourite Survival Horror baddy of all time, Pyramid Head is a monster created by the Town to taunt James throughout his mission to find his dead wife. The first time you see Pyramid Head, he's standing behind a fence in the corridor of the Apartment building. He's bright red and definitely unmissable - I remember feeling quite excited when I saw him. The game was finally beginning to get good.

Other monsters of the series have become pretty standard within the series. The Lying Figure (aka Patient Demon, Straightjacket) we see again in Origins and the movie. The Nurses are also a fan favourite and they've featured in every Silent Hill game (though they look rather different in Silent Hill 1). Other monsters include the Creeper, Abstract Daddy, and the Mannequin, who despite having very feminine features (long slender legs) have a masculine scream, they also look very good against the dark environment giving a more freaky appearance. There's also the Mandarin, a big thing that clings to the grate ceilings with their feet, but why they're here is beyond me. You only come across 'em once and they're of no danger to you.

Is James the only person in this town? No, he's not. He comes across several people in Silent Hill, all of which have their own reasons for being there.

Angela Orosco is the first you come across, in the cemetery during you trek towards the town. She says she's looking for her mother but as the game progresses you find out little more disturbing things about this woman (who looks older than her 19 years). Then you meet the bratty little Laura briefly after she steps on your hand. Eddie Dumbrowski is rather complicated because he doesn't tell you why he's there directly - you have to follow the various clues the developers scatter throughout the game (notably his conversation with Laura at the Bowling Alley. Then you have Maria. Ah! Maria - the guys all love her. James meets her in the park and confuses her with his wife and she does look a lot like her except for a couple of things. She's dressed more provocatively and is very flirtatious.

Like Pyramid Head she is also a creation of the town and is there to torment James as much as possible. However, James doesn't see this because he's attracted to her (she looks like his wife) and likes having her around.

There are several endings in the game and if you have the Directors Cut/Greatest Hits version, there's even more:

1. Leave
2. In Water
3. Maria
4. UFO
5. Re-birth
6. Dog

There are several things you have to do or avoid in order to get these individual endings such as listening to conversations in full, being nicer to Maria and collecting items. Leave is the generic ending however and if you just play the game oblivious to all of the extras, you will get this.

Due to all these endings there is a lot of replay value for this game. On top of this you have a seperate choice of difficulty setting for the puzzles as well as the gameplay which also changes your experience. The hard riddle settings will really get your brain working because they can become quite hard (especially the coin puzzle - watch out for it).

Overall the game is good, not brilliant but good. The game didn't have the same amount of tension that Silent Hill 4 had despite Pyramid Head's wandering around. The monsters didn't appeal to me as much, though the Mannequins were the highlight of the bunch - they weren't around for much of the game.

The storyline was compelling, a letter from a dead person is quite thrilling don't you think? I didn't like the supporting cast very much - Laura is everything I hate in a kid and Angela Orosco was the most boring person I had ever come across, ungrateful too.

Akira Yamaoka did a very good job with the music he's become very well known for and really created the tension the game probably wouldn't have had without it.

After playing the game I still wasn't inclined to believe that Silent Hill 4 was the poorest Silent Hill game but it was still an enjoyable experience.

8/10

However, during playing this game I managed to get my hands on Silent Hill 3 from a Marketplace seller on Amazon.co.uk.

Pyramid Head...Best character ever?
Do you think SH2 is the best in the series?

Silent Hill 4: The Room

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Released (UK): Sept '04
Released (US): Sept '04

May contain Spoilers. You're Henry Townsend, a regular Joe who lives by himself in an apartment located in a town called Ashfield. You moved there two years ago living in a carefree manner. Then the game starts by bringing you up to date - Five days ago Henry started having nightmares, which shows in the opening scene that was on the demo. At the same time Henry found himself locked in his apartment with no TV, Phone and no way out but hang on.... When Henry wakes up from his dream he receives a phone call, from a woman. "Help Me,” she asks but when the call cuts off, you find the cord has been cut - how did that happen? The door has been locked from the inside and some one named Walter has written a message "Don't go out".

The game really gets going when you hear a noise in the bathroom. A hole has been knocked right through the wall - who did that? You're the only one in the room, right? Within the first ten minutes of the game, you're already gripped, well I was, and I was spooked. How can you not be after seeing this video?

Curiosity gets the better of Henry and he forces the player to go check the hole out. On this occasion, the hole leads you to the start of the first part of the game - the Subway World. It's a little too quiet to be a subway station but you do see a woman up ahead. She introduces herself as Cynthia one of the eight other characters Henry will meet throughout the game in the various 'worlds'. You will meet a new character in every world you come across - Jasper Gein, Andrew De Salvo, Richard Braintree are among them.

These worlds all do their very best to add to the feel of terror throughout the game - some more so than others. I found both the Forest World and Water Tower World to be very intense because they make the best use of sound effects from wild animal calls to footsteps. Other environments include the Building World, Apartment World and Hospital World. The characters that you meet all have their part in the story but the character the game is based around is the life of the Antagonist of the game - Walter Sullivan (below).

At the time I didn't know it because this was the only game of the series I had played at that time but the name Walter Sullivan was mentioned in Silent Hill 2 several years earlier. Fans should have known what kind of guy he was as soon as his name came up but newbies like me were clueless. Either way, we were due to find out more about him.

What about the monsters? Games need bad guys right? The Doublehead was the only monster I had seen of this game before playing it but more were to come. The first monster you come across is the Sniffer Dog who in pairs wander around the Subway World among with the ghosts or Victims that haunt it. Other monsters include the ape like Gumhead, the quite tall and dangerous Patients, the utterly annoying Wall Men and the pointless Mothbats, Tremors and Mushrooms.

Game play starts off in quite a tedious way. I got stuck almost immediately. You lose Cynthia and meet a dead end when you find two closed off stairways and a locked subway entrance. It took me ages to realise that there was a hole in a restroom wall that I had to go through. I thought it was my own foolishness but a friend of mine got stuck in the same place also. This hole leads you back to your apartment and it's also the moment when you realise that these holes are the gateway to the 'real' world from the 'nightmare' world and vice versa. You have to keep checking back at you apartment for any new information or clues. This is also the only place you can save your progress. Henry travels light through out the game and can only hold ten items at a time. Any reject items that you don't need can be stored in a chest back in your apartment so check what you need before leaving home - this adds to the little bit of tediousness that you get at the beginning of the game. It's all quite easy until you get to the second half of the game where the dark part of the storyline really kicks off. The second half of the game sees Henry with a companion, Eileen Galvin - his next-door neighbour.

Around this time Henry sees his apartment is no longer the safe haven it was previously (before Eileen, just being in your apartment added health to your health gage) as it's now starting to become possessed by evil spirits. Silent Hill 4 as four endings which are determined by two things: 1) Eileen’s Survival. 2) % Of spirits exorcised. Eileen will become possessed herself if Henry allows her to get hurt too badly so if you want a good ending - don't let it happen. Spirits in your apartment can be easily exorcised with the use of the Holy Candle, many of which can be found throughout the nightmare worlds. The more you exorcise, the more chance of a better ending.

Then we get to the boss fight - Walter Sullivan is our target and we have to end him within a time frame, which is dependent on how well you've played. Eileen becomes possessed at this point but how badly possessed she is highly depends on if she was badly hurt. Walter has to be killed before Eileen walks into the machine Walter had invented - if she's badly possessed she walks faster so you have less time to kill Walter in but if you want the bad ending then don't worry about it. Overall the fight is quite hard - you need to make sure you bring enough health items with you and that you're equipped with a pistol, some bullets and a melee weapon in case your bullets run out. The fight should take around 10 minutes to complete it but it is very likely you will be on your 5th attempt when you do.

I loved this game. I thought it was atmospheric, intriguing and disturbing all at the same time. The hauntings in the apartment always had me scared to see what new spirit had occurred and the Doublehead didn't disappoint me - there's a point in the game where you see six of them waiting for you at the end of a large corridor, blocking the exit out of there. I was hesitant to move any closer.

I've since heard a lot of complaints about the game and Silent Hill fans have said that they hated it and I couldn't see why they should say that. I've since played the other games and even though I can see what they mean - It wasn't set in Silent Hill at all, there was no flashlight or radio, Henry could only carry ten items and no more - but you can't criticise the game too much. The Room originally wasn't going to be a Silent Hill game at all and you can tell but it wasn't a crap game. Would fans have been as critical if the game wasn't part of the franchise? I doubt it.

The game's good points were plentiful: Better graphics, good-looking monsters, excellent plot and the best thing? Walter Sullivan still is the best horror antagonist of all time (in my eyes anyway).

10/10

I wanted to find out for myself how these games could possibly be better than this one. So I did....

Did you like Walter Sullivan?
Was Silent Hill's greatest Monster in SH4?
How was Henry as a Protagonist?

My First Survival Horror Experience

I'm a late bloomer in almost everything I do and gaming is one of 'em. It was 2004 when I bought my Playstation 2 and the last time I played a game was in 1991 when I got a Sega Megadrive for Christmas.
I tried all sorts of flops when I bought it - Sonic Heroes, Smackdown: Here comes the pain and Need For Speed. I started to buy the Official Magazine to find out what games were actually worth the £40 I was paying for them. One thing managed to catch my eye however and I pursued to read it.
It was a preview of the fourth game in a successful series called Silent Hill. It was only half a page but it was a picture that was brought to my attention, the Doublehead (pictured)- A monster that was due to be in the game.
The games I last played as a kid were Sonic the Hedgehog, Alex Kidd and Ecco the Dolphin and this was nothing like the characters in these games.
Anyway - It got me interested and I read it and I thought the games sound really good. After that I would always read on if Silent Hill 4: The Room was mentioned.
Eventually, a demo was given out with the magazine and I finally managed to get hands on with this game. The demo was really interesting and gripped me immediately - The man coming out of the wall in your apartment in which you are currently trapped.
It was hard however and I found that I got nowhere quite quickly. When the game was finally released I found myself doubting whether I should actually buy it. I thought it would be too hard (I was known for giving up quite easily) and therefore a waste of money. A couple of days later, I bit the bullet and went to the shop to get it.
These are my thoughts on the game.....

What was your first Survival Horror game?
Did you like it?