SILENT HILL 3 (PC)
The Silent Hill games are all excellent - at least the first three or four, I'm not sure about the rest. But I'd definitely recommend the first three, and in particular part 3, which continues the story from the original game. This is a horror game about a very strange town called Silent Hill, where extremely disturbing things are happening.
The game begins with a bizarre nightmare at a very creepy amusement park - which later turns out to be a premonition, and we are introduced to our main character we play as, Heather, a teenage girl. This is the most interesting character within any of the games, and she often has amusing things to say about what is going on. While shopping at her local mall she encounters a dodgy private detective, who wants to talk to her and won't leave her alone, and chases her into the women's toilet. Soon after this, the world begins to change into something darker, and horrible monsters have started appearing (or perhaps some people and animals are turning into them), and they are all hungry for meat! Fortunately Heather always carries around a knife with her for protection, and also finds a discarded gun to fight off any attackers. Or if they are on the floor she can kick and stomp them to death with her boots. Among the things Heather finds is beef jerky, and this can be useful to throw to some of the smaller monsters, to try and distract them for a little while.
There are other weapons to be found throughout the game, as well as health healing supplies and discarded ammunition, presumably from the first people who tried to fight off the monsters. But generally there is not enough ammunition or health supplies to deal with all of the extremely dangerous monsters Heather encounters, so often the best strategy is not to attempt to fight, but instead run in terror from the monsters - which is the way it should be! Fortunately they cannot open doors, so escape is usually not too difficult - so long as the doors aren't too far away or hard to find. However, Heather will sometimes encounter powerful creatures in her way that she has no choice but to fight, and saving her gun ammunition for these times is recommended, because you really wouldn't want to get close to them!
Heather is just trying to get home, but this evil force keeps following her and changing the environment, and it keeps getting worse. While what is going on is gradually revealed, Heather is now drawn to the town of Silent Hill, which is shrouded in thick fog, and has even more horrors waiting. If you have seen the film 'The Mist', wandering around Silent Hill in this game is pretty much the same. There are things in the mist, waiting to get you - things you can hear but not yet see. My only complaint with this game is how little of Silent Hill there is to explore, however this is actually an improvement, as the other games involved too much tedious running around town repeatedly.
The visuals in this game are very good, and can be disturbing, and can also get quite crazy, causing disorientation and panic. But like with other good games, it is the soundtrack which really makes it effective, and gives it the atmosphere that puts you in the game and gives you an emotional response. All the way through the game there is the hint of menace in the background. The soundtrack continually puts you at unease (which is even better with headphones), with creepy music and sounds, or even silence making you paranoid about what is around the next corner. There are some shocking moments that will make you jump, but more than this, the things you can hear just generally creep you out: Horrible zombie dogs howling, something moving nearby, something snarling, banging on a door, ready to break through, something nasty breathing, something so strange you can't describe it, etc.
Here is one of the songs from the soundtrack that really defines it well. This is the kind of feeling you get from playing the game. The piece doesn't begin properly until one minute into it, then it gets really desolate. Imagine the location this piece of music evokes, and that is where Heather is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK9Xqfnwu6s
Overall this game is an excellent horror game with a very disturbing atmosphere, a good story with hidden meanings, a great soundtrack and music, interesting characters and a very playable game. It has some nice variety and interesting things, like the creepy and deadly tour of the Borley Haunted Mansion at the amusement park, or fighting against a dark version of yourself in an epic battle while spinning into oblivion on a merry-go-round. There are difficulty settings, both for the action and the riddles, and the hard riddle setting produces some very challenging puzzles. After the game has been completed, it was all a nightmare, like the first one Heather woke up from, and it can continue, getting harder and harder each time. As a reward there may be extra things available, such as alternate outfits for Heather to wear, including a special super-sexy one, special extra weapons, including a very cool light sabre, and Heather's "god power" becoming manifested. There are also save points throughout the game, where a mysterious character continually following Heather will drag her dead body and resurrect it if she dies. If he has a long way to drag her he will get very angry.
Like with the other games there are alternate endings, including the "UFO ending", and also a Silent Hill comedy song. In addition there are extra scenes if you play the Playstation 2 version, and have save files from 'Silent Hill 2' on the memory card. It will make a couple of references to the previous game, for example when you request Heather to stick her hand in a filthy toilet, as happened with James in the previous game, she will certainly have something to say about that!
Another game I'd recommend that is somewhat similar is 'Doom 3'. This has a creepy beginning and many scares, but it gets very predictable, and becomes annoying rather than scary, when around virtually EVERY corner a monster suddenly appears behind you, and especially on the harder levels it can become a tedious game where you continually repeat the same thing over and over again until you get it perfectly right. However the 'Hell' section of the game is very good, has a good atmosphere and a freaky ending.
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