Rewatched some scenes from the game and I think I’d be good to expound on some of my previous thoughts:

I was thinking about how there was a dissonance between SH3’s direct narrative with an extremely aggressive and blunt metaphor and the (overlooked) richness of the text and how the key is within the design and approach to Silent Hill as an entity.

I think what is vital and why it’s so important it comes after Silent Hill 2 is that it is a direct inversion of what Silent Hill means in its predecessor. In SH2, SH is more of a pure psychological liminal space that operates more on a Freudian dream symbolism/logic and is more concerned on the extent of the realness (and thus instability) of Jame’s environments. Silent Hill 3’s SH still operates as psychological liminal space but makes itself aware as pure malevolent entity that seeks to both give concrete form to fear and trauma and how it is something that is perpetuated through the shortcomings/evils of its inhabitants.

Thus what Heather sees is NOT her guilt and shame manifested but instead her own fears and reckonings with the transition to adulthood. The insane cancer for instance takes form as a greasy, deformed naked man that seems to be a play more on creeps than just some background monster. The level design is inherently labyrinth, filled with winding hallways with far too many locked doors, due to how it functions as a way to communicate Heather’s own in-world disorientation at being thrust into Silent Hill but also a psychological construct of her own confusion surrounding the changes of her body and pure loss of her own autonomy.

It is especially kind of surprising especially to see people comment that Harry’s death was mishandled if the abruptness and sudden nature of his death is the primary point of it. Silent Hill in this game is vindictive towards any innocent (and women as etc nurses in particular seem to be a particular subject of torture by Valtiel) and is pure oppression, what could be more cruel than killing Heather’s father before she has the chance to tell him how happy it made her feel?

But that’s the power of SH3, I think it’s through the pure assertiveness of its theme and its hybrid fusion of SH1 and the psychological horror of SH2 while finding completely separate ground!

For personal reference more than anything else.

Second time playing through this after the first time four years ago. Played on Xbox One using the HD Collection version. Played on Easy Action difficulty, Normal Riddle difficulty and got the Normal ending.

There was a short while when I was playing this that I just wasn't feeling it, any issues I had, had boiled over and I just felt bored. But then I got to about the last hour and the game managed to pull me back and I was probably the most into it than I had been throughout the rest of the game.

The story here I was initially worried about as just coming off of the original where I wasn't a fan of the plot and this game being a direct sequel to it, I figured I wouldn't be able to get into it and for a while this was kind of true. The story is told quite sparsely in the first half like in the first game but once it hits the second half not only does the story come out more but it also gets quite interesting. I'm sort of interested in media surrounding cults but when the religious aspect takes over quite a lot it starts to lose me and this game is very heavy on the religious aspect, but there was something about it that just worked and I was enjoying listening to the dialogue or reading the memos in the game.

The characters also worked in a similar way, although straight from the start I found myself liking Heather as a character and she only got better as the game went on with her being one of my favourite characters of the series so far and perhaps one of my favourite protagonists in a video game. Her story is interesting and I found myself caring about her a fair bit. But the main thing for me is that I love that the game remembered at the end of the day that no matter what happens, she is still a teenage girl and she acts like one. She's a bit bratty and not afraid to say what's on her mind as she does not take shit from anyone and it made her all the more interesting. Various quotes she had or some of her thoughts when interacting with an item were either quite funny or enjoyable to read as it felt like they really put her personality in the writing which was great.

The other characters mostly needed time for me to warm up to them, Douglas was ok and he basically stayed that way the whole time though. Claudia just felt like Dahlia again for a while but once the game got to the church I found her a lot more compelling as the game was sort of going into why she was the way she was and her becoming more of a complex character who I was beginning to feel kind of bad for despite what she was doing. Vincent started off just being annoying but he also got better as well around the same time as Claudia when he had more interesting dialogue and also was being revealed to be more and more of a prick which was more engaging to see compared to how he started.

Gameplay was really not great here I think, its better than the first game as I didn't have to use tank controls but it felt kind of worse than the second because while neither game had great combat, the melee weapons at least felt somewhat good to use in the second game. The melee weapons are generally what I prefer to use in these games and none of the weapons felt like they were actually hitting anything half of the time, I thought that maybe I just needed to wait for a bit to come across something like the hammer in the first game but nothing like that ever came. I also didn't really like the enemies much in this game either, some had interesting designs but that was about it.

The areas in the game were kind of weird to me because in all honesty considering what locations were actually in the game this should probably be my favourite collection in the series so far but it just wasn't. Going to the hospital again was fine as I think they actually managed to make it feel quite different from the last two games but what is basically the same location three games in a row is a bit much I think. The final area was nothing special and I think the game had played the 'Otherworld' aesthetic a bit too much by this point. But the rest of the areas were pretty good, I liked how they reused areas or ideas in the first game that I felt didn't get used enough like the shopping centre and the amusement park (the haunted mansion was probably my favourite area in the game even if I wish it was a bit longer). I also quite liked the subway and the building with all of the different businesses as they were fun to explore and were not really places I see used in many horror games.

Just like with 2 I'd like to acknowledge how playing the game actually went with using this version. I was quite worried going in as when I last played it, it crashed on me three times (twice in the subway and once in the building with the businesses), but thankfully that didn't happen this time. Outside of what I think were two minor but noticeable visual glitches I don't think I had any problems with the game. I will say that there was a few times where the only audio coming from the game was Heather's footsteps and I didn't know if this was supposed to be like this or not as it was usually in quiet areas with no enemies around. But I actually kind of liked it and it made me feel a lot more alone which I think worked in the game's favour, so whether or not it was a glitch or not I don't really mind. One more thing concerning this version was that I had to play with the new voice acting and I quite liked it, I've not really heard the original voices all that much outside of a couple of YouTube videos and I think it helped me be able to enjoy these new voices even if they don't really fit the Silent Hill tone or whatever.

Some scattered thoughts:

• I think the game was quite creepy at times and even scary at points but for the most part I didn't really feel anything for a lot of the game. I think the game tries a bit too hard to be scary and ends up overusing some things or going a touch too out there with some things (to better explain, they looked kind of cool and interesting but far too weird and over the top to be genuinely scary).

• The puzzles weren't half bad in this game and I actually felt like I could do them without looking them up but what I ended up struggling with was some of the combine the items things as the things necessary were not things I was thinking of and another issue I had was seeing items that I needed (the chain that is the same colour as the bench its on in the dark as shit amusement park).

• While I'm more interested in the whole cult plotline than I was before, I would be perfectly ok if it wasn't the subject of another game as I already kind of felt like this was sort of unnecessary. From what I've seen though I don't think I have anything to worry about thankfully.

Overall I really liked this game, I think even when I was kind of bored during the middle I was still thinking that it was a good game and the fact that it picked up so much towards the end really helped it (that and the game being short as well). I'm happy that I still quite like this game.