I'll keep my review short because someone else already wrote one that I completely agree with.

Silent Hill 3 is good game. The best part of the game was definitely the amusement park. I liked seeing the relationship of Heather and Douglas grow. These are 2 of the best characters in the series btw.

Although the death of Harry Mason is undoubtedly sad, I really appreciate the writers for adding necessary 'deaths' in the Silent Hill series. Can you imagine if none of the main characters died in this series? It would be so dull. The writing is really good in this aspect as it's not just adding deaths for the sake of it, but they way they are timed and the manner of how they die. In silent hill 1 Lisa Garland's demise was an excellent way of making me as a player feel real sorrow. In this game, it was the death of Harry Mason - not to the same extent but still smartly written.

The things that really let the game down though, were its monsters and locations. The monsters in this game compared to the last were awful. Way to frustrating to beat so most of the time I just ran past them and hoped I wouldn't revisit the spot again. In terms of locations, I only really liked the amusement park and being on the train. The others were kind of lacking. For example, both the mall and the subway had potential and were ok but had potential to be great locations but just didn't achieve it. I just found myself bored by the halfway point of trying to leave each location. Revisiting the Brookhaven hospital in the town of silent hill (from silent hill 2) was a little bit of an odd decision to make. I can see why it was placed into the game, maybe to be reminiscent of the second game but it just felt like a bit of a drag to have to go through that entire hospital again.

On a side note, the soundtrack was good. But not anywhere near the levels of silent hill 2.

The puzzles were way too hard. By far the hardest out of the first 3 games. If you are smart enough to figure out the hardest puzzles from this game then I commend you because I had to use silent hill wiki for most. Without walkthroughs and this website, I might not have completed the game. I understand that people's intelligence can vary but some of the puzzles just seem like only the developers can understand them. Especially on hard mode (which I didn't play).

Overall, its a good game but I just prefer Silent Hill 2. This comes down to the monsters and locations but another factor in this, which I haven't mentioned yet, is the plot. I understand the cult like religious aspect of the plot. It isn't bad at all and carrying on from silent hill 1 is a smart move. I just prefer James' story in the previous game. But this is subjective and if you prefer the silent hill 1 story, you are likely to love this game.

Conclusion: Silent Hill 2 is better, but this remains creditable.


Nevermind about keeping it shorter lol.

Great game. It's an improvement on the first silent hill game. The PS2 graphics are just more favourable to me than the old PS1 graphics on the first game. Both are good, but I think the technology in PS2 games is the perfect medium between old and new and this game could not visually look much better.

In ways, I thought the plot was slightly better than the first game; the locations were less dragged out and I found myself being stuck and having no idea what to do less. I was more engaged with the story and the objective of the game because of this factor. I do think that this is silent hill's (as a series) weakest point is confusing the player beyond justification. Some navigation and puzzles (even with the improvement from the last game) still remain insanely difficult and harder than any other game to figure out. This made me detach from the story at points. The voice acting is still pretty terrible, but again, not sure if I care about that point all that much.

Whilst this game is so aesthetically pleasing, it didn't really scare me: it moved me. This comes down to the excellent atmosphere and mood which is so heavily complimented by the soundtrack. I mean wow, this is probably the best video game soundtrack I've heard. The forest trail music is something else.. So good.

A part of the game I have mixed feelings about was the ending. I get the sentiment about the letter and all but it just didn't give me the satisfaction I was looking for. It was kind of predictable between the middle and end of the game that James had something to do with the death of his wife. I felt an inkling to this as soon as it was hinted that she was ill. Also, the fight between Eddie and James demonstrated that James was also a guilty man. He remindes James that they are both in Silent Hill for a reason. Even further, there was a distinctive line, where Angela accuses him of killing Mary: "you probably found someone else". His response is half hearted and has no defence so at that point I knew he had something to do with her death. I do feel though, that the leave ending (my one) was the best due to it seeming to fit well with the rest of the story. The characters all seem like their purpose is to teach James a lesson (other than maybe Eddie and Angela). I understood that the last boss fight against the pyramid heads was part of James's understanding and acceptance that what he did was wrong. So I was mildly happy that James got to go on and live his life but the format in which it ended was dry and could have been better than sitting through 5 minutes of reading what felt like credits on a screen.

Overall, it's a great game and all survival horror fans should play this. Will definitely be buying SH2 remastered.

i can see the influence it had on survival horror. the atmosphere is by far the best aspect of the game. the game showed its age, which is what makes it so good. the low res graphics and renders of cutscenes and just overall (pre) 2000's feel makes the game slightly un-nerving. unfortunately this didnt really make the game all that scary but im sure it would have banged when it was released. i didnt rate some parts of the game which felt a little boring although i understand pacing of modern games is the reason i feel this way. puzzles are very unique and interesting although some are widely considered wayyyy too hard to complete and i had to use a walkthrough for some (especially the piano one). i didn't like the ending - not because i got the bad one but i just thought that it was slightly underwhelming after all the effort made through the game. it came off as naff and it was also made so predictable just through the introduction of Dahlia Gillespie. she was obviously a cult leader and gave away the plot. this was probably not intended but maybe i'm wrong. also the voice acting is awful but is to be expected from a 1999 game.