25-Oct-2003 Dreary American shopping malls are ungodly hell-holes at the best of times. Coffee shops full of people acting like they're in Friends, faceless fast-food joints, the words 'have a nice day' ringing in your ears. So when Silent Hill 3 takes this frightening scenario and throws in hideous gibbering demons, wall-to-wall blood and grime, and a nightmarish caterwauling din piping through the Tannoy, you can imagine it's not pretty.
But such twisting of familiar situations into grotesque parodies of their earthly selves will be nothing new to fans of the Silent Hill series, quite probably the most gloriously deranged of all survival horror games. And this latest offering, migrating over from the PS2, will not disappoint in the 'that sure is some crazy shit' stakes. But, somewhat disappointingly, neither will it surprise with its near-identical gameplay and slightly uninspired approach to puzzle solving.
My Bony Heather This time out the lead character is Heather, an everyday skinny teenage girl in obligatory short skirt and high boots (this is a Japanese game, after all). After waking up from an horrendous nightmare, a man harasses her in the local mall. She takes refuge in the toilets, but when she emerges Heather finds the mall has turned into a trans-dimensional vision of hell, populated by a menagerie of bizarre mutants. Things happen that way in Silent Hill.
Gameplay remains unchanged. Much wandering and map reading typically leads to a puzzle or a locked door barring your way. Finding the items necessary is a matter of walking up to anything that looks unusual and hitting action to search it. Of course, all of this is done under the watchful glare of a host of creatures - both lesser minions and boss monsters - that have to be shot, stabbed and beaten into a bloody pulp if you are to survive.
Where The Hill? Helping Heather make sense of her new surroundings is best done with a GamePad, mimicking the original console game control method. A mouse and keyboard combo is clumsy, nigh-on ruining the gameplay. But even with a pad, the controls are hardly a joy as the 'rotate and move' system is about as innovative these days as Tupperware. This system is well in need of an overhaul and lends the game a slightly antiquated feel.
Despite such misgivings, you still soon find yourself drawn into SH3's particularly unnerving world, largely because of its uniquely disquieting atmosphere. From the freaky fairground of Heather's nightmare to the dilapidated tenement blocks of Silent Hill itself, the mood of impending doom seldom relents. The locations are uniformly grim. Heather's feeble pocket torch struggles to strip away the inky blackness, out of which a new, more hideous assailant might stumble at any minute. Creative use of camera angles, subtle perversions of everyday sights and a nerve-grinding score all contribute to the impression that what you're playing is the brain-child of David Lynch and George A. Romero.
Destroy All Monsters! A hallmark of the Silent Hill series are some of the most disgusting and bizarre aberrations of nature that ever wore the title of 'monsters'. And SH3 doesn't disappoint. Oh no. All kinds of fleshy appendages protrude from grossly misshapen hides. Slavering, jabbering, chattering fiend after fiend lumbers from the shadows, yet another incredible distortion of nature to test your credulity. And as you apply your boot to their brains and they lie twitching on the floor, you'll feel not a jot of remorse - these things don't deserve to live, dammit!
Combat in Silent Hill games has never been a matter of finesse. One button is used to mindlessly smash your enemy with whatever implement comes to Heather's hand, be it a steel pipe or the incongruous medieval spiked mace, as well as to fire the odd gun you get your hands on. This simplicity was never an issue in previous games where encounters were infrequent and their crude brutality suited the everyday feel of the characters. But here the designers have increased the incidence of the scraps, putting a strain on your patience with the repetitive dust-ups.
Saw Point All of which is exacerbated by the ill health in which we find the game's puzzles. Survival horror games traditionally thrive on fiendish problem solving, forcing the player to pierce through a fog of adrenaline and fear to defeat the conundrums that bar his path. But here the answers to your problems fall into place as easily as a jigsaw marked 'for ages three and up'. Typically, the object needed to complete any given brain-teaser will be handed to you on a plate a few rooms previous, and all you need do is shuffle up to the puzzle in question and click to make things happen.
So in one sense SH3 is another fine slice of demented survival horror. But in another it's an unambitious update that retains the core features of the franchise without stamping its own mark on the series. We loved Silent Hill 2, despite its obvious console roots and gameplay limitations. But what's really scary is that if the next installment doesn't show a lot more innovation, its review scores will likely be truly horrifying.
PC Zone Staff
// Overview
Verdict
Superb atmosphere can't mask a lack of inspiration
Uppers
Horrifying atmosphere with loads of gore Awesomely grotesque monsters Uncompromisingly grim
Downers
Too much brainless combat Straightforward puzzles Archaic control system
Silent Hill 3 is essentially the same as its console prototype. In fact there are only two real differences for this PC outing. One: the high-res graphics put anything the PS2 can produce to shame - provided you have a decent graphics card. Two: you can now save anywhere, rather than at specific save points. An improvement? Very much a moot point in our book, with trigger-happy quick-savers losing that sense of nerve-jangling tension console players get when health runs low. There's no multiplayer, there's little replay value - we'd like to see a little more in our console conversions. But that's just us.
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Horrifying atmosphere with loads of gore
