11/17/2024 - Silent Hill 3 Review

Hello! I just finished konami's silent hill 3, usually I let a game or book stew for a bit before hopping on to write a review but this game is so epic I cant help but start writing it now. To be honest I have so much to say about the game that it's almost daunting to try to write this, but lets do it anyway.

Firstly I wanna say I played the PC port of silent hill 3, I know nothing about the silent hill franchise as of right now and I haven't looked up anything related to it's story, so everything I'll say here is purely my thoughts and interpretations while playing the game. I played the game on normal mode. the game took me 7 hours and 48 minutes.

Overall ranking: 3.5/5

General spoiler free thoughts up first:

In this game you follow heather, our protagonist, as she is thrust between our world and a mysterious other world, plagued by monsters, while trying to get home. Throughout the game you will solve the mystery of your past, fight monsters, and get immersed in an incredibly atmospheric adventure through our own psyche.

This game was really cool, the atmosphere, sound track, design, everything had me hooked from the second I started playing. (special mention to you're not here which is one of my new favorite songs). Though the gameplay is fine, the game is so atmospherically perfect its probably in my top 5 games. I love the otherworld's general vibe but most specifically, the game feels perpetually creepy, you are afraid, yes not petrified, which I feel mirrors heathers feelings The puzzles are kind of lame, they're fine, but they are mainly just there to cause you to explore the maps. I never really got any good at the combat, and so that generally was a low point for me (fuck you crawley guys) I never really understood when to hit enemies and when not too, I found myself always low on ammo, and would mostly run past all the enemies I saw. I'll talk a little more about that later. The walking was appropriately janky tank controls, and it made the game a lot more stressful. I think thats a good way to put it really, the game isn't very scary, its creepy and stressful (in a good way) it keeps you alert while not putting you off to the game, so I'd give it a try even if horror games aren't generally your thing. I swear this game has no jumpscares, so you dont have to worry about that (seriously, no joke, no jumpscares). The story is confusing, as I expected it to be, but you seemingly dont have to have played the 1st or 2nd game to understand it, though I'm sure it exemplifies the experience. I like the games themes of religious criticism (seems like a trend on this blog), and some other themes I'll talk about in the spoiler section.

Beware spoilers from this point out:

Atmosphere/design:

as previously mentioned the game has an insane atmosphere, the textures are so solid, the draw distance appropriately slim. The monsters are horrifying, the oppressive atmosphere of the rusted, bloodied, ruined otherworld mirror perfectly with the darkness of the real world, neither one was safe, you never felt "in the clear" completely. Speaking on in the clear, the Radio: what a small detail that made an insane difference to the game, you always know when a monster is nearby, you always know when you're in direct danger, and yet so often you cant even see the threat immediately, the camera angles forcing you to look around wildly to see the threat (again, no actual jumpscares, which I highly appreciated as I tend to be turned off from games with them). the flashlight is another piece of gear that really changes the game. While the light doesn't reveal a whole  or increase your view range, there are some particularly dark parts of the game where you should use it. other than that it does very little other than make you feel more confident. I think my favorite level for atmosphere was probably the Subway -> office building levels, Though the subway level wasn't particularly great gameplay wise, other than the train section. The chapel is of course, insane, the final bossfight in between that womb of spikes was one of the most unnerving sights in the game. The weakest section for looks is probably the amusement park, I didn't feel particularly attached to the location (except for the very beginning) and the weird hanging bodies in boxes as blockades weren't super interesting. Al this to say the game looks absolutely incredible. There are a few "oh come on" moments in the game, a great example being the tiny bunch of boxes and the van "blocking" your path out of the alley at the start of the game, or not calling the cops after the monster showed up. Though in this case, its not like escaping the mall early would have changed much about the game, as heather was being hunted. Anyway, that part is probably for the story section. The design of the monsters is so crazy, again, creepy, scary, not terrifying, they arent so grotesque that they set you off from the game, but they are appropriately scary. I noticed a trend of a lack of faces on the monsters. While I wasn't sure on the thematic value of this detail, maybe to strip them of their humanity? fallen from gods grace and thus erased? I dont know, but they are appropriately hellish. Claudias design was the lamest for me, I wish she had a cooler outfit, but thats a very minor nitpick. The soundtrack is incredible, and I liked it so much I burned it to a CD (I'll show that off tomorrow) and I've listened to the whole thing probably 3 times over already. I can of course point to you're not here being a highlight, but end of a small paradise was another notable mention. it also somewhat reminds me of old point and click horror games in a way, but I dont know how to elaborate any further than that.

Another edit, perhaps I did not stress this enough, the soundtrack for this game is absolutely incredible, and I have listened to it on its own several times.

Edit: I forgot to mention this initially, but going to the town of silent hill? very cool, I wish it wasn't JUST for the hospital, would have made for a good non-liniar section.

Plot/Thematic/characters:

The story of this game is convoluted, there are some points that are easy to grasp, but theres a lot under the hood that I'm sure I missed. Though I dont think I missed any story elements, I explored every room, connecting the dots can be tough. Here I will put a summary of the story as I understand it, so as I give my opinions you'll understand where I'm coming from:

In the beginning there was a women who was cursed to birth to the girl who would birth god, she gave birth to a girl, and this becomes the child of Heathers dad, alissia, then that child dies in flames (presumably to prevent god from being born) but hands Heather to her dad, The dad raises heather, loves her, but is always resentful of them somewhat that she was partially responsible for alissia's death. the witch / friend sister of alissia goes hunting for Heather, and her and her dad flee away from silent hill. Heather, who is actually the reincarnation of alissia, is now the one who must birth god. Claudia knows this and wants to find heather to bring her back into the cult of the sun so that she will birth god prematurely as she thinks this will bring about judgement day and eternal paradise. She hires Detective Douglas to track heather down. As we traverse through the game, we learn that it is unlikely God that is forming the otherworld, but actually some sort of twisted, hateful god, and that the otherworld is actually a conjuration of Claudia's internal nightmare realm. We meet Victor, who primarily acts as brother to Claudia and is subtilty helping you throughout the game so that you can end the nightmare before God is born and prevent all of humanity from being wiped out and the nightmare realm from taking over the globe. Finally after killing god, Heather spares Douglas or kills him (this is the one part I looked up, the other ending of the game), indicating that heather has either ended the curse and removed the hatred from her heart, or succumbed to it and been possessed by god. It is unclear how much of the game occurs in heathers mind, versus reality (how could there be a building under the sewer under the.. complex thing? that then on its bottom floor leads to the street).

The story is told more like a play, the dialogue/ characters don't act very realistically, and instead move to push the story along (no time for cowering when we have a story to tell). to the point where I wish the characters did act a little more realistically. but yeah, the dialogue reads as if you were seeing a play, somewhat stilted dialogue, etc. Victor is written especially fancily. Other stuff, like monsters not being able to follow you between rooms is also indicative of this  "play" style story telling, each room is a new set. it works, for sure, and its cohesive, even if its not my exact cup of tea when it comes to games.

I think the happpy birthday stuff has to do with the fact that its allisa's 31'st birthday, while its heathers whatever birthday, just a subnote.

Now that you know the story as I understand it, lets talk about themes. There are a few notable ones I want to talk about: themes of rape/ sexual assault. theme of criticizing religion/ themes of hubris and hatred

Themes of Hubris/ Hatred:

This one is probably the most surface level, the blood on heathers vest tells us when hatred has taken over her heart (over the death of her dad), it also marks the point of no return, now that god was being incubated in hatred, she would be born. Whereas before this, she may have never incubated at all. The hubris of Claudia to try to summon god despite constantly talking about her subservience to god is a great example, she cant even understand how contractive she's being, and victor tells her as much at the end of the game. Hatred vs hubris I guess. I like the self fulfilling prophecy these flaws introduce. 

Rape/ sexual assault:

I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think the game is a big allegory for these topics, obviously sort of talking about the virgin mary with heather here. But yeah, the horrors of sexual assault may indicate the rejection of pregnancy, the biological horrors, impact of family, etc. I think this is the darkest part of this game, and also contributes to the "all in the head" stuff. but yeah, I dont have a huge amount more to say about this. a forced pregnancy and forced to give birth into a nightmare you dont want, seeing the baby as demonic, I hope that's making sense. Coming out the other end, maybe of an abortion? and then returning to your original name feels symbolic here too. A very serious theme, that I think is done really well, if I'm interpreting it right.

Themes of religious criticism:

this game is rife with religious criticism, as it talks about the hubris of man to think they know the word of god. it talks about how fanaticism is dangerous and leads to delusional people, it talks about how evangelicals, by wishing for the doomsday to come to bring them to heaven, are also asking all others to be cast to hell (hatred) and I'm sure plenty of other things. Basically I think its saying that paradise cannot be risen out of hatred, and that hatred also takes the form of not wishing to condemn anyone. I really like this read, I've talked about my own general distaste for organized religion and I stick to that belief that organized religion is harmful. though this game really only speaks of fanatism as being harmful. (binding of issac reference).

Characters:

Our characters were interesting for sure, heather changes a lot over the story, and while I have gripes about the dialogue, she does grow and change, and certainly she acts scared at first, then later not. I got attached to her! Douglas is a weird space where he doesnt play directly into the story really, he just acts to push the story along for Heather, getting her to silent hill, finding heather for Claudia, etc. Claudia has the most interesting motives I think. Victor is neat cause he is a diest, idk. again, they all act like play characters, they aren't really distinguishable from the plot, they dont exist outside of the story. 

Gameplay:

The actual gameplay of the game is its weakest part, combat I remain to say feels awkward/ unfun to engage in, which would be fine if it was always a last resort, but instead it often was required to get through rooms. Movement (fuck that room with the red light) is fine I guess, again, its clunky, but also makes things more unnerving, if it was like.. half life controls I'm sure I'd have problems with it too. it felt intentional at the very least. Monster placement was all over the place, and I didn't really understand it most of the time, there were some rooms/ levels that were pretty easy to run right through, and then there would be a level where it has chill and spams you with tanky crawling enemies that cram 3 into a small hallway. the hospital level was especially guilty of this. Because of the clunky controls, the boss battles had to be pretty bare bones, but fuck the missionary boss, that guy was a pain to fight, overall they were sort of mid. I did have to use a walkthrough in a couple of areas, as the game is wayy harder without maps, and sometimes I would miss where the map was. But I tried to keep walkthroughs to a minimum, only when I was lost/didnt have ANY ideas what to do next, and these walkthroughs were purely gameplay, no spoilers on story. the puzzles are super weak, mostly just obstacles to get you to explore rooms, which is fine. I would almost call this game a super spicy walking simulator with combat themes. overall though, I liked it, where it felt intentional, it felt good.  

Final thoughts:

this is a game held up by its story and atmosphere, but that story and atmosphere are so fucking good that it hardly needs anything else that it can make the somewhat lackluster enemy placement and combat bearable. very cool, may even play the other silent hill games.. maybe...

Next up is.. factorio... oh how I can't wait...