So after the Silent Hill 2 Remake media blow out that occurred recently during the Sony State of Play and Konami's Silent Hill Transmission, I got the undeniable urge to play a classic title from the franchise. I already did a replay of the first installment some years back, so it was still relatively fresh in my mind, and Silent Hill 2 is one of my all time favourite video games, so needless to say I'm very familiar with it. This left Silent Hill 3, and I realised it was long due a revisit as I hadn't played it since not long after its release in the UK.

While celebrated by the fanbase in its own way, Silent Hill 3 has long lived in the shadow of its predecessor and it's easy to see why. Whereas SH2 was its own standalone story and featured a new spin on what the titular town represented thematically, SH3 is a direct sequel to the first game. This means a return to the evil cult storyline that SH1 revolved around, which frankly is far less interesting than that of James Sunderland's descent into his own twisted purgatory. And SH3 is at its worst when it's zoned in on its story. Cutscenes are filled with irregular pacing, awkward pregnant pauses, hammy delivery, inexplicable character actions and unintentional comedy. It's a story so haphazardly put together that it's often difficult to figure out if it's the acting at fault, the writing, the direction, or all three at the same time. During one cinematic sequence before what should be a harrowing boss battle, Heather decides to get her smirk on and acts in a carefree manner towards the abnormal monstrosity she's about to go mano a mano with. It's... bizarre. Many fans will tell you that it works and it's all part of the plan of the infallible Team Silent, but this horror enthusiast is not convinced.

BUT, and this is a big but, when control is put back into the player's hands, SH3 is scary. Incredibly scary. I struggle to think of another game that has instilled in me such an immense feeling of sheer dread and unease. SH2, the masterpiece that it is, may have also excelled at creating a tangible feeling of dread and unease, but it's a fairly easy game at its core. SH3 is SH2 on steroids. It goes hard with its horror. Rooms and corridors often are often swarming with monsters, and Akira Yamaoka's terrifying industrial arrangements will accompany these encounters with a deafening clatter. Pitch blacks and pulsing bright reds will fill the screen. Abstract images will have you exclaiming "What the fuck am I looking at?" out loud.

Ramshackle storytelling aside, SH3 was a draining experience for me, in a way that horror ought to be. It is with a tinge of shame that I say I struggled to play it in long sessions, and often felt relieved when turning it off for the night. Halfway through my playthrough, I even started a playthrough of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy (review coming soon!) as a form of cope; a game that I could fall back on to help me unwind after a stressful hour or two in the hellish Otherworld. The fact that a game this frightening was made over twenty years ago with the limited technology of the PS2 is really quite remarkable. I played Alan Wake 2 earlier this year, a 'survival horror' game afforded a large budget and highest production values this current generation can muster, and the best that borefest could do was make me jolt a couple of times with its myriad of eye-rolling jump scares. Silent Hill 3 just goes to show that there's no instruction manual written or blueprint laid out that can guarantee a video game or film or whatever will be scary. It's an art in itself to a create a piece of media that gets under a person's skin and remains there for a long time after, and you either know how to do it intuitively or you don't. And those sickos at Team Silent really did know how to create something genuinely unholy.

Taiwanese developer Red Candle Games have already proven themselves as one of my favorite indie studios with Detention and Devotion (two horror games I hold in very high regard), and I was especially happy to see them still push forward with their next game despite the nonsense surrounding Devotion’s continued ban from storefronts. Branching out into making a Metroidvania with Sekiro inspired combat no less is quite a shift from their previous works though, and I was very curious to see how a team of their caliber would handle such a different project

Needless to say, very satisfied with it. Nine Sols is fantastic, certainly drawing from the likes of Sekiro’s brutally difficult “parry or die” gameplay but adopting it to a 2D style incredibly well. It stands out on its own by forgoing a direct posture system in favor of its talisman mechanic (where you instead quickly attach bombs earned with parries to enemies), which gets so fun once your skills open up and makes for some of the most entertaining combat I’ve played of these type of games. The bosses in particular are really cool to fight against, initially seeming like insurmountable walls that gradually get more and more manageable as you memorize their patterns, until you can somehow effortlessly flow against their relentless attacks without even thinking. The final boss for the true ending is especially awesome in this regard, honestly one of the most rewarding I’ve fought in recent memory

Beyond just the combat, it further impresses with its unique “Taopunk” world-building and heavier narrative focus that’s a cut above many others in the genre. There’s not many Metroidvanias where I was as invested in the dialogue and characters quite like this one, Yi in particular was endearing as the main protag, and the story surrounding his vengeful path against the “Nine Sols” he once worked with was really interesting to follow, getting surprisingly heartfelt even. The game’s hub, the Four Seasons Pavilion, is nice too in how it encourages you to keep up with the other characters and watch as it changes in appearance the more items you bring to Shuanshuan

The game’s music is great and the handdrawn 2D art/animations for characters and environments is lovely, mixing beautiful aesthetics with grungy underground sci-fi machinery, and using detailed manga style panels for story moments that further add to the excellent presentation

Map exploration was enjoyable too. It’s not really Hollow Knight level in that regard, but has solid variety and was fun to clear out areas looking for chests or optional bosses. Traversal is limited initially but also gets pretty good as you unlock stuff like air dash and double jump for platforming sections. The priority was definitely more towards its combat here, but still well done