Konami
Silent Hill 3

Heather Mason is returning home to her father. She has strange dreams, such as a gloomy amusement park she had seen somewhere before...

She holds a necklace with a red ball inside, not knowing what it is or where it comes from. But now it's time for the truth, to discover what lies behind Heather's childhood, her father's past, and that mysterious town, Silent Hill...

Second-to-last chapter created by Team Silent (the fourth was supposed to be a spin-off), Silent Hill 3 suffers from multiple flaws, which place it below the first 2 historical chapters of the saga. It could be the story, which is a sequel to the first chapter, or that there are only 2 meager endings plus the usual alien extra, maybe because the mythical Pyramid Head, now the symbol of the saga, is missing...

Or maybe because The city doesn't exist?

Let me explain better: the game is essentially divided into 2 parts, Heather's return home through subways and old buildings and the arrival in Silent Hill after an event that deeply marks the protagonist, but I won't mention it to avoid spoilers.

The city is thus missing for a good portion of the game and is practically unexplorable, which greatly reduces the longevity of the title compared to the first 2 chapters.

The most important thing for a Silent Hill, however, remains the fear, and there's plenty of it here, especially on a visual and auditory level. The beautiful soundtrack and wonderful design are perfect for creating the right tension that keeps us glued for the entire duration of the game, a fundamental element that is perfectly achieved.

This time we have underdeveloped secondary characters, among all the antagonist who resembles many religious fanatic mother clichés like Carrie and too closely resembles the character of Dahlia from the first chapter, or Douglas, who could have been more developed. Characters like Vincent, on the other hand, are well achieved but still inferior compared to those we've seen in past chapters.

The controls are also problematic, only slightly improved from the second chapter and still too clunky.

Ultimately, the third chapter is neither crap nor a masterpiece, but somewhere in between. A perfect, distressing, and claustrophobic atmosphere along with Akira Yamaoka's soundtrack make the game one of the scariest in the horror genre, but it does not present significant novelties and is reduced to a too simple and linear plot with some oversights. A great chapter to conclude the trilogy on PS2 (excluding the fourth which if it wasn't called Silent Hill wouldn't have been noticed by anyone) that should definitely be revisited with the first chapter to be fully understood (perhaps with the HD collection) but don't expect much if you've experienced the first 2 historic games. Or you could try Project Zero.