Who here has read my Silent Hill 2 review?
Now, half of you with your hands up are either shaking your fists angrily or agreeing wholeheartedly.
I hated Silent Hill 2. I really hated it. I hated it with a passion, in fact. I hated it more than I've hated anything in a long time of hating. ... Read review
PlaySilent Hill 3and you'll never scoff at anyone that admits they got scared by a video ... more
game again: this isn't survival horror, it's full on survival terror. Away from the shlock B-movie stylings of theResident Evilseries, theSilent Hillgames have car...
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PlaySilent Hill 3and you'll never scoff at anyone that admits they got scared by a video ... more
game again: this isn't survival horror, it's full on survival terror. Away from the shlock B-movie stylings of theResident Evilseries, theSilent Hillgames have car...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Initially moving away from the mist-shrouded streets of the first two games, Silent Hill 3 ... more
PS2 focuses on a new female character. Heather, a gentle teenager, is on a trip to her local shopping centre when her life is turned upside down. As she prepares to leave, the shops and brightly lit walkways are transformed into a dark, brooding place where eerie noises echo around the empty corridors and where misshapen creatures can be glimpsed fleetingly amidst the shadows. Trapped in this inhospitable world, Heather is forced to fight for her life. Grotesque apparitions and lumpen shapes shadow her every move, while an army of grotesque creatures lurk in dark corners and rooms. Armed with whatever she can find - including pistols, a sub-machine gun and a piece of steel pipe - Heather must fend off their advances while solving the mysteries that will gradually piece together why she is trapped in this hellish, insane world. Silent Hill 3 PS2 represents a huge advance for the groundbreaking horror series. Its incredible aesthetic detail brings the game's dark corridors and blood stained rooms to life. Likewise, the unusual camera angles, eerie sound effects and musical stings ensure the player is kept in a permanent state of trepidation. Its horrific cast of bipedal and mutated adversaries - the most ever in a Silent Hill title - also demand attention, with the brief glimpses seen as the game progresses compounded when they are seen in all their horrific, flesh-eating glory. Together, these elements create a truly engrossing and unsettling experience, with Silent Hill 3 PS2 marking a new benchmark in horror-themed adventures for PlayStation 2.
Silent Hill: Homecoming is the latest entry into the Silent Hill franchise. The story ... more
follows Alex Shepherd, returning to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen to investigate the sudden disappearance of his brother. From Shepherd's Glen to the foggy streets of Silent Hill, Alex must face the darkest of horrors in order to find his brother. Struggling with his own grip on reality, Alex must unravel the mystery behind his nightmares, discover the truth behind his brother's and father's disappearances, and confront the evil that has taken hold of his own flesh and blood.Enter the next chapter of Silent Hill as you delve deeper in the tormented history of the town and learn of the evil that surrounds Toluca LakeSilent Hill: Homecoming is the 1st Silent Hill game on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360From the murky fog to the ominous shadows, all-new next-gen graphics bring Silent Hill to life like never beforeSurvive the denizens of Silent Hill with an all-new enhanced combat system that gives you a wide array of attacks and countersSolve the treacherous and deadly puzzles of Silent Hill to discover its darkest secretsSilent Hill: Homecoming will feature an all-new soundtrack by acclaimed series composer Akira Yamaoka
Silent Hill: Homecoming marks the debut of the renowned psychological horror series on ... more
next-generation consoles. Building upon the series' trademark foundations of atmosphere, adventure and storytelling, it introduces a frightening new and standalone gameplay experience destined to haunt the dreams of both first-time players and those with some experience wandering the famously fog-shrouded streets of the town of Silent Hill and its new sinister sister city Shepherd's Glen.The Story of a Grim HomecomingHomecoming's story follows the nightmare turned real life of Alex Shepherd, a war veteran returning to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen to investigate the sudden disappearance of his kid brother, Josh. From Shepherd's Glen to the foggy streets of dreaded Silent Hill, Alex must face the darkest of horrors in order to find his brother. Struggling with his own grip on reality, it's here that Alex must unravel the mystery behind his nightmares, discover the truth behind his brother's disappearance, and confront the evil that takes hold of his own flesh and blood in the process.Improved GameplayFirmly steeped in the Survival-Horror genre its series has been pivotal in establishing, action in Homecoming remains based on exploration of the terrors residing in the communities surrounding Toluca lake and puzzle-solving skill as a means of surviving them. But to its credit game developer Double Helix refuses to rest on past laurels, choosing instead to include new more accessible gameplay in the hopes of gaining a new audience for Homecoming. Examples of this gameplay include:Next-Gen Visual and Spatial Features - Every sequel seeks reinvent the namesake game in their series. Homecoming does this in three ways, by adding the ability to toggle between a traditional third-person view and an action-oriented first-person view; by adding fully 3-D physics to the game, creating
Postage & Packaging:free Super Saver Delivery Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Now, half of you with your hands up are either shaking your fists angrily or agreeing wholeheartedly.
I hated Silent Hill 2. I really hated it. I hated it with a passion, in fact. I hated it more than I've hated anything in a long time of hating. I'll spit venom about that game until I die. I hated almost everything about it, praising nothing but the graphics and the sounds. ...I'm incredibly glad to say Silent Hill 3 changed my mind. Behold one of the most incredible and, importantly, terrifying games I've ever played.
Where to begin? I guess with the story.
So you play as generic-horror-teen-hero who's struggling to come to terms with her world slowly merging with the Silent Hill world. The game makes a bold start by not actually setting itself in Silent Hill for the first half of the game, ... more
Who here has read my Silent Hill 2 review?
Now, half of you with your hands up are either shaking your fists angrily or agreeing wholeheartedly.
I hated Silent Hill 2. I really hated it. I hated it with a passion, in fact. I hated it more than I've hated anything in a long time of hating. I'll spit venom about that game until I die. I hated almost everything about it, praising nothing but the graphics and the sounds.
Why, then, did I buy Silent Hill 3? Simple, really… I loved the movie, and figured the franchise deserved a second chance.
I'm incredibly glad to say Silent Hill 3 changed my mind. Behold one of the most incredible and, importantly, terrifying games I've ever played.
Where to begin? I guess with the story.
So you play as generic-horror-teen-hero who's struggling to come to terms with her world slowly merging with the Silent Hill world. The game makes a bold start by not actually setting itself in Silent Hill for the first half of the game, which despite making you wonder why it bears the badge of Silent Hill is still incredibly effective and makes for some very original dungeon sections. Embarking on a misadventure of sorts, you guide young Heather through terrifying double-worlds full of creepy monsters, creaky floorboards, buckets of blood and guts, and an assortment of zany and crazed characters.
I must again praise the graphics. They really do exceed expectations, and with some levels - the dark side of the hospital in particular - you'd be forgiven for thinking this game would be more at home on one of the next gen consoles. The environments genuinely feel alive and as the torch light causes shadows to flicker across the room you'll feel the atmosphere suck you in. It's very absorbing. There are all kinds of extra touches… for example, there's a section of the game that views Heather through a metal grating of sorts. Every now and then you'll see a dead, dismembered body impaled on the grating pass in front of the camera. It's incredible.
The sounds lose a few points this time and I can't quite place my finger on why. I think it might be the voice acting… it's just not up to the same level as the previous game which is a shame. That's not to say it's necessarily bad, just a step backwards. The music and sound effects are still very atmospheric and fitting.
The gameplay is considerably improved this time. There are so many extra touches to the game that just make it feel worth playing. The camera is still impossible and the combat is slow and sluggish, and there are some incredibly unforgiving parts of the game in terms of difficulty. The dungeons also suffer from a major case of "too much in one map" which would put off the more casual gamer. However, this can all be forgiven.
Let me put it this way. I will again reiterate that Silent Hill 2 was Not Scary. It was so Not Scary that Not Scary needs to be capitalised to elaborate how incredibly Not Scary it was. It had far too many build up moments, all of which ended with an anticlimax. The one exception to this was Pyramid Head smacking you off of the top of the hospital, but that had no build up. It was a cheap scare. An unforgivably cheap scare. In fact, the Resident Evil series suffers from this too. It's just not scary! The programmers seem to think that numerous slow moving enemies coupled with limited ammunition and weaponry makes a good gaming experience when it doesn't.
Silent Hill 3 throws all of these rules out the window from the very start. You know the second you step on the roller coaster track in the opening sequence of the game what's going to happen. You just know it. And you hesitantly push the analogue stick forward, anxiously waiting for the inevitable. You know it's coming. And do you know what? It does. She get's smacked by a roller coaster. And it's bloody beautiful.
To pick out other parts of the game that deserve a mention, I'll say look out for an incredible walk from one end of a subway train to the other… increasing garbage and graffiti represents the transition from the real world to the otherworld. Also look out for the hospital, a part of the game that I actually had to walk away from in fear. When it turns dark things get incredibly trippy and you'll love it. There's also an assortment of secrets such as the famed Mirror Room. The crowning moment for me is a Haunted House section, but I'd rather not describe it in any more detail for fear of spoiling it.
If you want a fun but short thrill then Silent Hill 3 is perfect. Even though many of the bad marks from the last game (clunky controls, awful camera, and uninspired weaponry) remain, they really make up for it by being a fright fest like no other.
Advantages: Playable and gripping, looks an absolute peach, decent loading times, good settings, solid replay value Disadvantages: 'The door is shut tight and cannot be opened', hideously linear, too short, naff voice-acting, not as good as either predecessor
...must say I've loved the Silent Hill series ever since the PSOne original burst onto the scene in 1999 and successfully scared the hell out of me. The developers at Konami may have 'borrowed' rather a lot of their ideas from fellow survival-horror top-dog Resident Evil, but would make good use of them, scaring on a whole new level with the depiction of freakish monsters, terrifically atmospheric use of darkness and a frequently-disturbing narrative.
... ...detective-cum-stalker Douglas, as well as Silent Hill's token righteous nut-case Claudia. Heather is in a mall when she has a hellish nightmare, though in a fashion typical of the great series, things get a lot worse before she can make them any better. The setup of the game remains almost completely unchanged from the previous outings - it's a third-person survival-horror game with the emphasis on conserving ammo, solving puzzles and generally finding ...
tom1clare 13.05.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
Advantages: Fun game, nice plot Disadvantages: game play length
...of my absolute favourite games, Silent Hill 3. The third instalment of the series is maybe not as good as the first but it is certainly a contender and a game which had me unsociable for quite a while. Anyway I better get on to what the game is actually about. Silent Hill 3 is set around 16 years after the first game. It follows Heather, a normal teenage girl who is shopping at her local Mall when a strange man, claiming to be a detective says she ... ...scary these games can get. Silent Hill has one of the best atmospheres I have ever experienced within a game. The noises and landscapes make you feel as if you are really there, experiencing these monsters with Heather. Quite a few times I have jumped while playing this game. How they have blended the music in this game is absolute brilliance. Just as you are leading up to a room, the music starts to get louder and the noises seem to pound harder ...
mamba17 07.02.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
Advantages: Once Again The Best Game Of This Type Disadvantages: None
...and completed both the previous Silent hill games I was a bit wary of forking out my hard earned £38.99 on what might be a cheap remake of the original Game. But I couldn't have been more wrong. Silent Hill 3 is the best of the 3.
For those out there who have not played or heard of Silent Hill, here is a quick run down.
Silent hill is your typical american town boasting a school ,hospital , museum shopping centre, and a lake, oh did I forget to ... ...of the actual game.
Silent Hill 3 is based this time around a heroin called Heather she is your typical teenager.
The game starts with Heather finding her self in a very creepy amusement park.
Suddenly she wakes up to find she is actually in the shopping mall where she fell asleep,The question is was it a dream or was it real., Now this is where Silent hill differs from other survival/horror games, it doesn't rely on blood and gore it messes with ...
NIGSY 01.06.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
Advantages: One of the best survival horrors to date! Disadvantages: Plenty, if you have a weak heart.
Silent Hill's 3rd installment is another hack at the throat of Capcom in the battle for survival horror king.
You play as a 17 year old girl named Heather. She's a bleak young woman with a bit of an attitude and you don't quite connect with her as easily as you would with James from SH2 but what can you do?
In her visit to the mall, Heather's world takes a turn for the worse......she gets a headache, an annoying private investigator starts pestering ... ...everyone else, so that's ok. Silent Hill, as far as I can tell, is more of a psychological place embedded in the mind of the main character than a physical place. Although (and I'd put money on this) I could be completely wrong.
One aspect that seems to be unique to the SH series is the ability to fight with weapons such as knives, pipes, a katana, and of course, the mace (which is very powerful but slower than Christmas). Plus, after completion ...
Raguel 18.09.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
Advantages: Konami's masterpiece cranks through the gears, cuts the brakes and crashes your emotions at breakneck pace. Disadvantages: you've still got to go through the rigmarole of checking every door.
...Playing alone, in total darkness, Silent Hill 3 isn't just tense, but drip-tap, nails-down-a-blackboard shattering. The game accelerates almost imperceptibly, until your emotions are wrestled like a fragile rag doll, thrilled, powerless but aching to escape. Survival horror fans know exactly what to expect with this - archaic movement, obtuse logic puzzles and grizzly boss battles with a spinal chord of terse narrative. Heather stills spins annoyingly ... ...movement - but in a nod to the late '90s, can strafe using L1 and R1, and perform a quick 180 degree turn by holding the buttons in tandem. There's some aggressive new weapons, including a funky sub-machine gun, an invaluable Katana and a, frankly, bleedin' useless mace, but combat is essentially as ponderous - and ammo-conservingly tense - as ever. Frustratingly, you've still got to go through the rigmarole of checking every door, flitting incessantly ...
Ant2k02 28.06.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
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Advantages: Gripping story | Interesting to play through Disadvantages: Average graphics | Basic combat
(something they do seem to have bolted down with SilentHill3) because even on the PS2 I doubt it would have really pushed the machine. The game is either bathed in fog or in darkness and always has a slight ?grainy? texture to it, I don?t know how best to describe it, but the picture is never perfectly clear but this could just be another gimmick relating to James? state of mind. This does help the horror atmosphere, obviously. The game locations are suitably detailed, if rather grey, but its what is inside some of these locations that really lend SilentHill its trademark twisted visuals. Blood is often smeared on the walls, strange images are scattered across the town and some pictures that hang on the walls aren?t ones you?d normally find adorning home walls. Coupled to the fact that you are wandering round a deserted town saved ...
Advantages: A great challenge Disadvantages: Either too easy or too hard in places
Forget the resident evil series. Silenthill series is so much better why? because the horror is done better the puzzles are better the action is better.
Graphics - Ok it still has fogging like the first game but this was put in on purpose in this game what would a silenthill game be without the monsters hiding in the fog. Some good graphics in the cutscenes aswell
Sound - Can be a bit cheesy in place but on the whole very eery and atmospheric.
Gameplay - There are so many different things to do all puzzles are different and some require great thought.
Lifespan - This game should make you want to play it until the end. Some parts you can be stuck on for ages others you just sail through.
Overall - A must own game on your playstation 2 along with the 1st one on the playstation. Ill keep you informed about silenthill3 im ...
Advantages: Looks quite nice, five large scenarios, eight characters, massive selection of extras Disadvantages: Poor controls, naff dialogue, erratic puzzles, lacklustre storyline, not as enjoyable as previous titles
that the teamwork/cooperation ideas hamper the flow of the gameplay, you are still left with a fairly average action game, which is actually far less playable than its older PSOne-based siblings. Gameplay feels more tiring than exciting and there are hints that the series has begun to stagnate, with some rather ominous signs of complacency on Capcom's part. Buy the original trilogy - they'll collectively cost around the same and make for a far more convincing lesson in survival-horror gaming, even after all this time. The wealth of extras will make it worth while for die-hard fans, though for everyone else, SilentHill2 and 3 make a far better fist of the survival-horror art on the PS2. ...
