Silent Hill 3
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| Silent Hill 3 | |
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 North American box art, with protagonist Heather |
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| Developer(s) | Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET) Team Silent |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Series | Silent Hill |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 PC |
| Release date | PlayStation 2: PAL May 23, 2003 JPN July 3, 2003 NA August 6, 2003 Microsoft Windows: PAL October 31, 2003 NA December 2, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Survival horror Psychological horror Third Person Shooter Action Supernatural |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M), BBFC: 15, PEGI : 18+, CERO : 15/C |
| Media | DVD-ROM 5 CD-ROM |
| System requirements | Pentium III 1 GHz Processor, 256 MB RAM, DirectX 8.1b, GeForce 3Ti/Radeon 8500 32 MB video card, DirectX/Soundblaster-compatible sound card, 4.7 GB HDD space[1] |
| Input methods | PlayStation 2 controller, keyboard |
Silent Hill 3 is the third installment in the Silent Hill survival horror series. The game was released in mid 2003 for the Sony PlayStation 2 and was ported to the PC later that year.
The game is a direct sequel to the first Silent Hill game, staged seventeen years after the game's events.[2] This entry is centered on a teenage girl named Heather who is drawn into Silent Hill's bizarre reality after a terrifying experience one afternoon at a shopping mall. She ultimately discovers she is a part of the plans of the town's cult and becomes caught in a conflict within the cult itself.
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[edit] Plot
After playing through a brief dream sequence at a Silent Hill amusement park, the player is introduced to the game's protagonist, Heather, at a "Happy Burger" restaurant in a shopping mall. Before she can leave she is confronted by a private investigator named Douglas Cartland who tells her he has information about her past. Heather evades him, escaping through a window in a ladies' restroom, but upon reentering the mall she discovers it mostly abandoned except for bizarre monsters. During this a priestess of Silent Hill's resident cult who identifies herself as Claudia, tells Heather to "Remember me, and your true self as well," and that she will lead "them" to Paradise "with blood stained hands." Heather, suddenly in severe pain, collapses and promptly enters the "Otherworld" version of the mall. She returns to the "normal" world after a boss fight with the "split worm" creature, finding Douglas again and extracting from him a confession that he had been hired by Claudia to find her.
Heather leaves to take the subway home, finding more monsters and another "Otherworld" world on her walk back. She also encounters a man named Vincent, apparently with some affiliation with Claudia (despite his dismissals of her), and leaves him after getting no answers on what is happening. After finally arriving home Heather discovers her father has been killed by a monster under Claudia's orders, her motives being "Revenge for 17 years ago" and to "fill [Heather's] heart with hatred." Claudia also tells Heather that she "will birth a god and build an eternal Paradise." The priestess leaves Heather to fight the monster as a boss, telling her that she will be waiting for her in Silent Hill. Heather subsequently resolves to go to Silent Hill, intent on killing Claudia, and accepts Douglas's offer to drive her there.
Before the two arrive, Vincent leaves Douglas a message telling them to look for a man named Leonard Wolf and Heather reads a memo left by her father before his death. The memo briefly recounts the events of Silent Hill and reveals that she is the matured second Cheryl Mason. Harry, her father, is left in the game's "Good" endings, thus explaining why Claudia is seeking Heather to birth the cult's god (Heather being the reincarnation of Silent Hill 's Alessa Gillespie).
Upon arriving in Silent Hill, which is once more abandoned and shrouded in fog, Heather checks Brookhaven Hospital for Leonard Wolf. She contacts him via telephone, where he reveals he is Claudia's father. He disapproves of Claudia's actions to rebirth god, like Heather, and initially agrees to help her, offering the use of an artifact later identified as the "Seal of Metatron." When the two meet, however, Leonard, who takes the form of a monster, tries to kill Heather after discovering she is not a cult member. Following his defeat Heather acquires his seal and leaves to meet Douglas again. Instead she meets Vincent, who a mostly unconnected cutscene has revealed is a rival of Claudia within the cult's leadership, and receives instructions allegedly from Douglas to head to "The Church" via the Lakeside Amusement Park to find Claudia.
Upon Heather's arrival the amusement park regresses to a nightmare world in much the same form as her dream at the beginning of the game. After escaping from a deadly rollercoaster and a literally haunted mansion ride, she finds Douglas, wounded after an encounter with Claudia but still alive. She finally reaches the Church, Heather attempts to talk Claudia out of her plans, pretending to be completely under the influence of Alessa's personality and memories, to no avail and collapses in pain under the pressure of holding the god in her. Vincent, who has also made it to the church, attempts to reassure Heather that the Seal of Metatron will prevent the god's birth, but at the three character's final confrontation Claudia dismisses the seal as useless and stabs Vincent, apparently fatally.
In order to progress beyond this point, the player must use the pendant item Harry left Heather, which contains a sample of aglaophotis, the chemical synthesized by Michael Kaufman in the first Silent Hill for the purpose of killing the god. Heather swallows the sample and proceeds to vomit out the god. Horrified, Claudia swallows the god's fetus and dies in the process of birthing it herself, leading to the final boss fight between it and Heather.
[edit] Endings
- "Normal" - The default ending for Silent Hill 3, and the only ending available on the first playthrough of the game. Heather revisits Douglas at the amusement park, and after playing a brief practical joke on him by pretending to be possessed, she insists the detective call her by her birth name of Cheryl. He asks if she will undie her blond hair, but she insists on keeping it, claiming that blonds "have more fun".
- "Possessed" - After the game is finished once, a "point" system is enabled, in which the player collects "points" by killing creatures, taking damage, and forgiving the "confessor" in the church. After 4,000 points have been achieved, the "Possessed" ending follows, in which it is revealed that the wounded Douglas has been murdered, apparently by Heather, now under the influence of the still-living god.[3][4]
- "Revenge" - After acquiring the unlockable "Heather Beam" weapon and killing at least 30 creatures with it, the "Revenge" ending is enabled.[3][4] This ending is a continuation of the "UFO" endings of the previous games and it has Heather arrive at her apartment to find Harry Mason alive and drinking tea with the aliens while Silent Hill 2 's James Sunderland hides behind a curtain. Heather tells Harry of what has happened, and the enraged protagonist of the first game says he's going to "bust some heads" and then takes a fleet of UFO's to Silent Hill and blows up the town.
[edit] Influences and design
[edit] Character design
Much like the previous installments, Silent Hill 3 also incorporates references drawn from real life actors and actresses. The creators originally named Heather "Helen", but it was dubbed too old-fashioned and was changed.[5] It was later decided that the character would be named after voice actress Heather Morris who lent her talents to the video game's protagonist.[5] Heather was modeled after French actresses/singers Charlotte Gainsbourg and Vanessa Paradis in several rough sketches.[5]
Douglas Cartland's name came from American actor Douglas Fairbanks.[5] The developers stated that his name "just seemed to suit him" and that there wasn't any true connection to his namesake. During the sketching process, his character was modeled after actors Giancarlo Giannini and Ian Holm.[5] It was noted that even during the concept designs that Cartland was designed as a middle-aged detective.
Claudia Wolf's character was considered the most difficult to design.[5] Early sketches revealed that the creators wanted to dress her like a holy woman in various robes, and at one point she had a shaved head covered entirely with tattoos.[5] Eventually, the creators decided to make her appear like an average woman, modelling her on Julianne Moore, and then removing her eyebrows, so that the "normal" appearance was slightly skiewed.[5] She was first named "Christie", but it was deemed too "cute" and the character was eventually named after actress Claudia Cardinale.[5]
Vincent's name originated from actor Vincent Gallo in connection with his unshaven look.[5] Early designs were based on actor Ethan Hawke and focused on capturing a look of "derangement and moodiness."[5]
Heather is the only protagonist in the Silent Hill series that is female.
[edit] Other Influences
- Like all Silent Hill games, Silent Hill 3 makes reference to Jacob's Ladder in terms of physical and psychological horror effects (head shaking, red light, etc.), even going as far as naming one of the Subway platforms Bergen Street Station (the station Jacob was inquiring about at the beginning of the Film)
- In one part of the game, Heather travels down a hallway and finds a lone wheelchair at the end. This is a nod to the horror film Session 9, of which the creators of the game were fans.
- At the area where the escalator leads to the 3rd floor, there is a TV that is blurring. If you watch it, a girl shows up twice, breifly, pleading for her "Daddy." Without doubt, this is a direct reference to the same plea made by Cheryl to Harry Mason in Silent Hill on the TV's when he is running through the mall. Of course, adding to the effect, it is now Heather listening, in essence, to herself as a young child.
[edit] Difficulty Levels
One can set the difficulty of both the combat and puzzle elements of the difficulty separately, with easy, medium and hard being offered in both cases. In the case of the puzzle difficulties there is a large difference between medium and hard. As an example, one of the early puzzles on medium requires only simple pattern recognition whilst the hard version of the same puzzle requires considerable knowledge of five Shakespeare plays to complete.
[edit] Reception
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
Silent Hill 3 has received positive reviews since its inception, garnering an 84% at Game Rankings for the PS2 version[6] and a 70% for the PC version[7]
Overall, PlayStation Magazine gave Silent Hill 3 a 7 for "good". Their article in September 2003's issue praised the game for staying true to the series and found only a few compromising points, such as the "inopportune" camera angles that occurred at "inopportune" times. Their first playthrough took only four hours which they found disappointing, saying that it left the storyline feeling rushed. They hailed the game as being the most lush and refined of the series on PlayStation for the time though, and said that it was "...worth the trip for fans of the series and the genre."
[edit] Music
The original soundtrack for Silent Hill 3, composed by Akira Yamaoka, was released in Japan on July 16, 2003 and its cataloged number is KOLA-038.
The song "You're Not Here", the song used in the game's introduction sequence, was included in the PS2 port of Dance Dance Revolution Extreme.[1] It is also included in the Silent Hill Experience UMD media pack[2] and is featured in the closing credits of the Silent Hill movie released in 2006.
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
[edit] References
- ^ Silent Hill 3. Konami-Europe.
- ^ http://www.translatedmemories.com/bookpgs/Pg08-09AlessasHistory.jpg
- ^ a b Endings. Silent Hill 3 guide. IGN. Retrieved on 2007-11-18.
- ^ a b Silent Hill 3. Gamewinners.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-18.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Book of Lost Memories (per Translated Memories translation). Konami, 2003. Pg 66-67, "Silent Hill 3 Character Commentary".
- ^ Silent Hill 3 Reviews
- ^ Silent Hill 3 Reviews
[edit] External links
- Official Silent Hill 3 site (Konami Europe)
- Silent Hill series (Konami Japan)
- Official Silent Hill USA Forum
- Gamespot
- Silent Hill 3 at MusicBrainz
- Silent Hill 3 at MusicBrainz
- Silent Hill 3 at MobyGames
- Translated Memories
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