058: Heather Visits Her Hometown, or Silent Hill Time Again!

It’s time once again for the SoraRabbit Hole’s annual vacation to Silent Hill, the peaceful little resort town where nothing bad ever happens! If you want to check out our previous vacations, they’re listed below:

This year, as I mentioned last time, I’ll be discussing Silent Hill 3, the direct sequel to Part 1. To those unversed, Silent Hill is a long-running horror franchise and its following has been steadily growing over the years. This has been aided in part by two movies, various comic books, and the notorious trailer titled P.T. for the scrapped game Silent Hills. Although it’s been ten years since the last installments in the video game franchise, it is a very good time to be a Silent Hill fan, as we recently got some very good news about the future of the series. (More on that later.)

This year I really wanted to do a whole month’s worth of Halloween-themed posts, but for those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter, I had a little setback. I recently had sinus surgery and it knocked me out of commission for the end of September and the better part of October. I finally managed to drag myself off my recovery couch and get back to work on content, the most vital item on my To-Do list being this year’s Silent Hill post. So, hopefully, with more planning and organization I can finally do my Halloween marathon next year. We’ll see. I got to this game way later than I’d hoped to, and many times it seemed I wouldn’t meet my deadline, but I managed it.

So with all that out of the way, let’s get to the topic at hand!

Hooray! (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Silent Hill 3 was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 by Team Silent and Konami. For this play-through I played the Silent Hill HD Collection version on PlayStation 3. Also note that I played the Extra New Game, which is a mode you unlock after playing through the game once. I did play the HD version years ago when I first got it, but it had been so long I’d forgotten much of it.

I played this game for the first time shortly after it came out, having become a big fan of the first two games in the months leading up to the release. I had already played through the first two games multiple times and had been following every scrap of news I could find for SH3 online and in video game magazines. (Remember those?) When it did come out, I didn’t have the money for it, but I was able to rent it. (And played it through twice before I had to return it.)

Copyright neutral weaponry! (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

The game mechanics in Silent Hill 3 are much the same as the previous games with a few notable exceptions. The inventory screen is divided between key items, weapons, and supplies. (The latter of which is where the ammo and the traditional health drinks and first aid kits are stored.) The gameplay is much more focused on combat this time around, with a wider variety of weaponry being available. You have your usual melee weapons— the knife, steel pipe, katana— but you also have a huge-ass mace and a stun gun, and on later playthroughs, the beam saber. Ranged weapons are in greater number with the traditional handgun and shotgun being in attendance. This time they’re joined by a submachine gun, and in the Extra New Game, the unlimited submachine gun, the flamethrower, and the unlockable Heather Beam/Sexy Beam. (I’ll explain those later, don’t worry.) There doesn’t appear to be a quick turn option like there was in Silent Hill 2, and that was greatly missed. The default controls, as with the previous two games are tank controls (press left to go right, right to go left, up to go forward and down to go backwards) but this can be changed to 2D controls in the options menu. (I did this immediately. I’m awful with tank controls.)

There are a couple of interesting additions to the usual items: the silencer, which can be equipped to the handgun or submachine gun, and the beef jerky, which you can throw on the ground to distract some monsters. There are also slabs of meat placed in some areas that act as a sort of permanent beef jerky. As long as you walk slowly by, the monsters generally won’t notice while they’re eating. I haven’t used any of the beef jerky, since my play style is typically to run around fighting things.

I still love the map mechanic. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

The classic mechanics and elements are all here— the map that gets edited as you explore, locked or jammed doors, mysterious barriers preventing access to unimportant areas, stomping on enemies to finish them off, and the multiple endings (although there are fewer this time around— again, more on that later.) The ending you get is dependent on actions you take during the game. Heather turns her head to look at items as you pass, which really helps. She gets winded after running or fighting, but does seem to have more stamina than the previous protagonists, likely due to her youth.

The game also continues the franchise’s tradition of amazing music with two tracks that I love. The ending credits are a version of the first game’s theme song (with lyrics!) entitled Hometown. And the opening credit song “You’re Not Here” (which I have been known to listen to on repeat) is especially good. Look them both up, they’re great.

Content-wise, some of the areas in Silent Hill 2 are present here, and the plot revolves around the cult established in the first game. Interestingly enough, the game doesn’t start in Silent Hill, but rather its horrors have infected Heather’s unnamed town. (Although the prologue is a nightmare that takes place in Lakeside Amusement Park, which was featured in the first game and in Shattered Memories.) Where she lives is not stated in the game, but it’s within driving distance of Silent Hill.

Silent Hill 3 ties directly into the events of the first game with few ties to the second installment. It was also the basis for the loose adaptation movie Silent Hill: Revelations 3-D. (A film which, I’ll admit, was not as good as the first one, but I feel it got more hate than it deserved. I enjoyed it.) As a brief refresher, in the first game Harry Mason took his adoptive daughter Cheryl to Silent Hill and promptly lost her. He encountered a few normal people but mostly monsters and a crazy woman named Dahlia who worshiped in the town’s weird cult. Their goal was to have her daughter Alessa, who was burned in a fire, give birth to their cult’s God. Harry prevented this and put Alessa to rest. Alessa handed him a baby and he fled the town.

Nahhhh. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

As always, full spoilers follow. This is not a full walkthrough, just a plot summary and commentary on the game mechanics. There are parts I gloss over for time and to make the post flow better. I will be comparing and contrasting with the other Silent Hill games and talking about my impressions of the game and analysis of the plot. Also this serves as a content warning. As with all my Silent Hill posts, this one will discuss potentially gruesome and disturbing subject matter. Also I feel I must include trigger warnings for violence against and oppression of women, suicide, and abortion. Please use care when proceeding… I don’t get into detail in these subjects but they are touched on.

Hero pose! (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

The game starts in a spooky amusement park. 17 year old Heather is wandering around and before long demonic dogs attack. Ultimately Heather wanders onto the track of a roller coaster and is run over. (I, however, didn’t make it that far. I fell in a pit.) (Also note that this prologue doesn’t occur in the Extra New Game. I temporarily started a normal game to refresh my memory on this part.)

This is quickly revealed to be a nightmare as Heather awakens in a Happy Burger in the mall. She calls her dad, letting him know she’s on her way home.

Heather needs an adult! (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Heather is then accosted by a creepy older guy named Douglas Cartland. He says he wants to talk with her and that it’s “about your birth”. Heather shrugs him off and ducks into the bathroom where she crawls out a window into the alley to get away from him.

Heather explores the mall trying to get to the subway (which is under the mall for some reason?) and encounters twisted monsters. These include split-head dogs (which appear to be wearing mummy bandages), huge lumbering beasts, and smaller featureless creatures. In the course of exploration she finds a handgun and solves a couple of easy puzzles involving baking tongs and Shakespeare books.

Such charming friends Heather is making today. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

After this Heather is confronted by a strange woman named Claudia Wolf who talks about how Heather must regain her true self and lead them all to Paradise. Heather, of course, thinks this woman is coo-coo bananas and is behind the appearance of the monsters, and Claudia wanders off.

Shortly after this strange meeting Heather has her first visit to Otherworld (the darker and twisted reality within Silent Hill). In an elevator she finds a radio that blares static whenever monsters are near (“Huh, radio. What’s going on with that radio?”), and soon after a handy clip-on flashlight to illuminate the constant darkness. (We’re checking all the boxes on our Silent Hill bingo card!)

An amusing moment occurs in the men’s room where if you follow the prompt to reach into the toilet Heather recoils and refuses, asking who would ever do something so disgusting. If you recall, an important puzzle in Silent Hill 2 involves fishing a wallet out of a clogged toilet. (This scene only happens, by the way, if you have a Silent Hill 2 save file on your memory card or device.)

Yeah, nothing to see here. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Also in the exploration you can find a bullet-proof vest, which I don’t recall finding in my other two playthroughs, but I may have. It reduces damage from monsters, but the tradeoff is painfully reducing Heather’s speed. I took it off almost immediately because of this, only equipping it for boss fights.

After a lot more exploration and puzzles— including fetching a key from a barbequed dog and getting a gemstone out of a walnut— Heather wanders into a boss battle.

Hello there wormy. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

The first boss battle of the game is with a huge monster called the Split Worm. He tunnels around and has to be shot when he opens his mouth. (Much like the lizard thing in Part 1.) The arena you’re in is weirdly reminiscent of the area where Harry fights a caterpillar-thing under a different shopping center.

After the boss battle Heather has another run-in with creepy Douglas. He doesn’t know what’s going on and seems rattled by the appearance of monsters in the shopping mall. In this exchange he does admit that it was that weirdo Claudia who hired him to find her. Heather says there’s a lot about her past that she doesn’t remember, but she needs to get home so isn’t going to worry about it right now. She ditches the confused Douglas and continues on her adventure.

Oh, more friends! (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

The next section is a lengthy crawl through the subway system and a sewer. There is a little subplot where someone apparently died recently by falling onto the tracks and Heather locates a newspaper article about the supposed suicide. Also there is a text book talking about ghosts being chained to the areas where they died. (This is foreshadowing, but it also may be a bit of a nod to the Born From a Wish sub-scenario in Silent Hill 2, where one of the characters is speculated to be a ghost.) In one area of the subway you can get pushed by the ghost of the victim onto the tracks. I didn’t get back on the platform soon enough, got hit by the train and had to replay a long segment of the subway. Ugh. Also of interest is that when I did replay, I ignored the newspaper and the text book and the ghost left me alone. I’m pretty sure reading those items are the trigger for that event.

Eventually Heather works her way onto the subway heading for her apartment. She also finds another Silent Hill staple, the handy-dandy shotgun.

Just a normal subway car. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Quick side note here, Silent Hill has always been creative with their save spots. For Harry they were notepads where he wrote down his adventures. For James they were glowing red squares that made his head hurt to look at them. And here they’re a glowing red occult symbol that Heather often comments on. The first one you encounter in the game is drawn on the bathroom mirror at the mall. Throughout the game they appear in interesting places— on an oil drum, a stain on a bedsheet, graffiti or blood, an image on a staticky TV, a carving in a church. When observing them, Heather often comments about her missing memories and ponders why the symbol looks so familiar and why it makes her head hurt. I just think it’s creative to take a necessary game mechanic and elevate it to a new level, even bringing it into the plot.

From here it’s another Silent Hill tradition— a long jaunt in the sewers! As she travels to the sewers there is a really cool effect where the walls and the stairs gradually become red and corroded. In the sewer are a few more puzzles and more monsters to fight or dodge. You also have to drop a hair drier into the water to get by an unseen crocodile monster that’s been eating sewer workers..

Yeah… that just happened. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

There is a truly bizarre optional moment if you check the water before dropping in the hair drier. The game prompts you to drop in your steel pipe and then a fairy appears, asking if you dropped in the gold pipe or the silver pipe she’s holding. If you’re honest, she gives you your old steel pipe back along with the two precious ones, saying that she’s happy she met a truly honest person. (Although the subtitles say “man” which is weird.) Anyway, my understanding is this is a reference to an old Japanese folk tale, but it struck me as really weird in the context of a Silent Hill game. (The whole thing was awesome and disorienting.) The special pipes don’t really do anything and aren’t any stronger or weaker than the normal pipe, but I’m assuming they count towards your item pickup score at the end of the game.

Heather appreciates some fine art. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Leaving the sewer, Heather finds herself in a construction site and then a building that really should be condemned. She jumps down a hole onto a mattress, climbs out a window and crosses a scaffolding to a monster-filled office building. I’m assuming this isn’t her usual route home. This place is filled with monsters called Slurpers, which are the most annoying monsters in the game. They crawl along the floor, making them hard to hit with melee weapons and the semiautomatic. They also take a lot of hits to take down, even with the shotgun. I almost died to them several times, especially when multiple of them swarmed me.

The office building also has a lots of dismembered mannequins, which is par for the course in a Silent Hill game. Also of no surprise is the moment you hear a scream and turn around to find that the only mannequin with a head has been decapitated and blood is coming from the wound. Classic.

In the course of exploring the office buildings, Heather finds one of the best weapons in the game— the katana! It’s fast, it’s deadly, it’s cool-looking. Of course this game doesn’t favor melee, so sadly I didn’t use it as much as I wanted to. It helped me out of a few scrapes when I was able to hit three monsters at the same time with its long reach.

As you explore, there’s a blank painting with a caption “Flame purifies all” and Heather comments that she’s afraid of fire. File that info away for later.

I instantly dislike this douchebag. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

As Heather continues to explore the building and solve puzzles, it shifts to the Otherworld. We hear a familiar male voice talking about how the Otherworld is someone’s delusions brought to life, tainting our world. (Harry said this in the first game.) In the dark and twisted version of the building she finds a photo of herself with the words “Find the holy one. Kill her.” Soon after she meets a creepy dude named Vincent who promptly begins to mansplain the events of the game to her. He claims to be on Heather’s side and not working with Claudia. He also is shocked that Heather knows nothing about her past and we get the first of the big plot reveals. The thing Vincent is most shocked about is that Harry didn’t tell his daughter anything.

Yes, Heather’s full name is Heather Mason, and the father she’s been spending the game trying to get back to is Harry, the hero from the first game. (You may have already been fully aware of this, but I kept it hidden until now because this is the moment the game reveals it.) Vincent refuses to tell her the truth and makes some off-hand references to her mother. He also mentions that Otherworld fascinates him, which is a red flag if I’ve ever heard one.

Heather continues to explore the darker version of the building, running from monsters, burning a painting, reading a fairy tale, and solving more puzzles. One of the puzzles involves picking up a silver coin and using it on a vending machine to buy a soda in the same room. Inside the soda is a key to an earlier room. I used up most of my shotgun shells in this area. It was the easiest way to get rid of those damned Slurpers. An enormous unfightable monster blocks the exit to the building and that’s taken care of by reciting a magical spell written in the final page of the fairy tale. Finally Heather is able to leave the building and Otherworld. (For now.) From there it’s a straight shot as most of the city is blocked off by police tape and the usual mysterious tarp walls. Either Heather lives in a really run-down neighborhood or it’s more of Silent Hill’s influence.

And then, as Heather finally enters her apartment and announces to her dad that she’s home, we get what I feel is the biggest shock of the game.

Yes, that’s Harry Mason sitting there dead. This came as a huge shock to me the first time I played, and is still jarring, seeing it again all these years later.

Heather is understandably upset by this and after a moment of mourning, she follows the trail of blood out to the roof.

This is seriously the clearest picture I could get of the sword-guy. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

On the roof is Claudia, who readily admits she had Harry killed as revenge for what he did 17 years ago, in the first game. Also she wanted to fill Heather’s heart with hate and reiterates that Heather needs to remember her true self. She will go on to birth a god and create Paradise. She reveals the monster who killed Harry on her order and it’s boss fight time!

This dude is fast and has long swords on his arms. He can use the swords to block shotgun blasts! I had to keep dodging his swings, shooting him when he was unaware, and then doing most of the damage when he was on the ground. I nearly died here (probably would have if not for the monster-proof vest) and used up the rest of my shotgun shells. (Usually I’m a supply hoarder in survival games but I really had trouble conserving resources in this playthrough.) I did get stuck here for a bit— even after the monster was dead I couldn’t go anywhere. Turned out I had to stomp on his head to trigger the cutscene where I left the roof. (Haha, weird.)

Poor Harry. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Back in the apartment, Heather finds a shocked Douglas. Heather confronts him, blaming him for her father’s death since he’s the one who found her for Claudia. Douglas feels guilty for his part in all this and starts to show his less-creepy and more helpful side. They lie Harry down on his bed covered with a sheet and flowers. Heather, although distraught, knows she has to go to Silent Hill. She’s resolved to find and kill Claudia. Douglas, as a way of making things up to her, convinces her to let him drive her there. He knows it’ll be dangerous, but he says if he dies, no one will cry for him.

Outside the apartment, while waiting for Heather to rejoin him, Douglas says he met someone named Vincent who said to look for a guy named Leonard once they get to Silent Hill. He also gave him a handy map of the town. Although Heather doesn’t trust Vincent, she feels they have no choice. Douglas also gives Heather a blood-soaked notebook Harry was holding when he died.

Is this a save notebook? (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

As Douglas drives Heather to Silent Hill we get a lot of exposition. The game doesn’t make it clear, but I think this is all stuff Heather read out of Harry’s notebook during the long drive. The notebook appears to be a chronicle of what Harry went through 17 years before on his first trip to Silent Hill. Douglas says that he once visited Silent Hill on a missing person’s case. He said he got bad vibes from the place. Heather says she was born and raised there, but doesn’t remember her childhood. (Weird, if she was a baby when Harry found her and took her out of Silent Hill… more info to file away.) She summarizes the plot of the first game, about Dahlia trying to summon an ancient god and using her daughter to birth it. The god was killed by Harry. Heather was the baby that Alessa handed to Harry. He raised the baby as his own daughter giving her a happy life hidden away from the insanity she was apparently intended for in Silent Hill.

Ahh, the memories. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

When they get to their destination and check in to Jack’s Inn, Douglas says he’s going to meet with Leonard He suggests Heather should check out the hospital. And if you’ve ever experienced a Silent Hill game before, you know only happy, cheerful things happen in the hospital!

And now finally, a couple of hours into the game, we’re in Silent Hill, specifically the western portion James visited during the events of Part 2. Ah, Silent Hill, wandering the ghostly quiet and foggy streets, evading monsters and filling in the map. So many memories. Incidentally, Jack’s Inn was a location James visited in Part 2, at the edge of Toluca Lake and right across the street from Rosewater Park, where he encountered Maria for the first time. In this game you can’t visit Pete’s Bowl-O-Rama, Blue Creek Apartment, or the Silent Hill Historical Society, but still, good continuity keeping the same layout. (You don’t go near this area in Part 1.) Although much of the town was barred from me, I still took a stroll for old time’s sake, killing bad doggies and seeing the sights. They didn’t give me items for the trouble, which was lame. The only other location I was able to enter was the bar Heaven’s Night and I could be wrong about this, but I think it’s only accessible with a save file from Part 2, just like the toilet gag. The bar didn’t have much except for some much-needed shotgun shells and a flier showing a black haired woman. The flier declared the “Return of Lady Maria!” which indicates that Maria must still be around in some form after Part 2. (And she’s a stripper now?) Could be a coincidence, but it’s a interesting tidbit.

Helloooo nurse. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

The moment I got to the hospital I ran afoul of some demonic nurses… as absolutely no one could have anticipated! These nurses are faster and more aggressive than those in the previous games, and I got a huge shock when one of them pulled out a handgun and shot me. (Usually they use scalpels and such.) Thankfully the katana got some use in these halls.

Yeah, that’s not creepy at all. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

In the hospital (where they apparently leave sensitive medical information on the break room table) we learn that our new friend Leonard suffers from hallucinations, emotional instability, obsessive ideas, and possible schizophrenia. (Sweet, hope Douglas is okay visiting him!) There’s also a report on a Stanley Coleman, who is cowardly and egotistical, but has an obsessive attachment to a particular woman and has become violent due to this. We soon find out that the woman Stanley is obsessed with is Heather, and he leaves harshly-worded love notes and handmade dolls all around the hospital for her. Heather, of course, refuses to touch any of the dolls and Stanley gets increasingly upset with her for this, until the last doll is shown torn apart. In one room Stanley glued a key to the wall and of course there’s a puzzle to acquire nail polish remover and fetch the key. Stanley also gives clues to number pad door locks. The hospital is full of puzzles, nurses, and creepy moments. Also you can find the submachine gun that uses ammo.

Runrunrun. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

In the hospital there’s more reading material. Heather comes across a magazine with an article about Hope House, an orphanage secretly run by “the Order”, the religious cult behind the events of this game and Part 1. The article, incidentally, was written by Joseph Schreiber, a man who will go on to play an important role in the plot of Part 4.

Heather eventually comes across Stanley’s last love letter and the torn-apart doll. The letter says that Leonard opposes their love and warns that he’s no ordinary man. In one room the phone rings and it’s Leonard Wolf, who reveals he’s Claudia’s father. He berates Claudia for her foolish plans before Heather finally gets through to him that she’s not Claudia. He knows Heather’s plan to kill his daughter, but knows it’s too late for Claudia to have forgiveness. He asks for Heather’s help, saying he’s locked up in the institution and can’t get out.

Unloading on the mummy doggos. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Showing the solid judgement Silent Hill protagonists are known for, Heather heads to the second floor to let him out and finds a door that wasn’t there before and doesn’t show on the map. This leads to a long hallway with a series of doors closing and opening, leading Heather to where she needs to go. After a bit of this, she’s trapped in one section of the hall with a save spot symbol. This one doesn’t make her head hurt and when she touches it, we’re shown Lisa’s video from Silent Hill 1 where she talks about Alessa. After it plays, the path is open and Heather seems to remember Lisa for some reason, saying that she was kind, but got weird. After a long ladder surrounded by twisted, shaking monsters, Heather is in a red, blurry hallway that matches the layout of the hospital hallway. She’s back in Otherworld.

Um, wrong number? (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Heather answers a ringing payphone in a bloody locker and a deranged voice sings Happy Birthday to her. The voice says it’s her 31st birthday, although Heather disputes this. She asks if he’s Leonard but the voice says no, that’s the murderer’s name. He’s not Stanley either, he’s underground now and his number is 7. The stranger says he has a present for her 24th birthday and asks if she prefers to give pain or receive it. She can have the one she hates the most.

One of the freakiest parts of the series. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

In one very creepy room, the door locks behind Heather and she’s stuck in a room with a wall-length mirror. Blood starts soaking Heather’s reflection and then creeps around the world outside the mirror. It turns darker and a steadily accelerating heartbeat plays on the controller’s vibration. The first time I watched this sequence for too long and Heather died, but you’re supposed to turn and leave because after a little when the door unlocks. When you do, the reflection stays put. Luckily the continue option put me back in the maze, so I didn’t lose much progress.

Is she carrying that in her pocket? (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Down in Basement 3 is a puzzle in a crematorium that earns Heather a Cremated Key. It’s one of those annoying puzzles that changes each time you play— Silent Hill has a few of these. (Note that one of the bodies to be cremated is marked with a number 7. Which according to the guy who called on the payphone is likely our pal Stanley, killed by Leonard.) Using some blood you get from a bucket on an altar, a hole opens up and in the hole is a boss battle starts with Leonard Wolf.

Oh hi there Leonard. Didn’t expect you to be so… gross and monstery. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Leonard is a twisted monster of course. It turns out he doesn’t want to kill Claudia because he doesn’t believe— it’s because he doesn’t want salvation for all, just for those that believe in their God. Heather says he can believe what he wants and that she wants no part in it. He gets pissed and attacks. He dives under water a lot, surfacing to attack. It’s not too tough a battle, but involves a lot of running around. After he’s down, Heather gets the seal he was guarding, a small talisman that looks like a pentagram.

Ugh, this guy again. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

After this we get to hear an argument between Vincent and Claudia. She’s angry that he sent Heather to her father and we learn that he was abusive towards Claudia. The two of them are actually in the Order, but look at things differently. Vincent wants his pleasures while he’s alive, but Claudia is determined that humanity needs to be saved her way.

When Heather gets back to the motel room, Claudia is gone but Vincent is waiting for her. (They were talking in her room.) He says Douglas went out but he left a message… the church is on the other side of the lake. He gets annoyed when Heather doesn’t follow his meaning and with a sigh gives her detailed directions to the Amusement Park. Heather doesn’t believe that Douglas actually said that, but goes anyway.

Ahh, the long trek down Nathan Avenue, just like in SH2. Thankfully this walk cuts off halfway there and just warps you to the gate of the Amusement Park.

Time to ride some rides! (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Once Heather enters the park, she doubles over in pain from her stomach. We can also see some blood staining her previously white vest. She seems to recognize the place from her nightmare at the start of the game. I love this area— it’s creepy and ghostly. The bloody Robbie the Rabbit mascot costumes are the perfect touch. When I think of Silent Hill 3, I think of the Amusement Park.

Unfortunately this area was a little glitchy for me in the HD version, making it difficult to make contact with the monsters with my katana at times. I hate using first aid kits outside of boss battles. There were a lot of monsters in the park, so I ran away a lot. At one point I ran onto the roller coaster track to get away from them. You know, like a rational person. You may be shocked to learn that the coaster came along and it was game over. This happens in the nightmare at the start but I fell into a hole right away if you recall. Exploring the park more I was able to find the key to turn off the coaster so I could safely wander the tracks. (Again, like a rational person.) The train comes anyway but Heather jumps off in time, landing on a ticket booth.

While she’s temporarily knocked out, a cut scene plays of Douglas confronting Claudia. She’d told him Heather was kidnapped, which is why he took the case in the first place. From Claudia’s point of view, Harry did kidnap her, from the cult. She has God inside her and Alessa the mother will awaken to bring about Paradise. Douglas says Paradise sounds pretty boring and points his gun at her.

Fair point, Heather. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

We rejoin Heather climbing down from the ticket booth. Next Heather has to escape a haunted house and solve a puzzle to get to Douglas. He’s wounded and his right leg is broken. Heather wants to call an ambulance, but Douglas doubts anyone would come. Heather is concerned, and has clearly grown fond of the old grumpy teddy bear. Douglas says that the important thing is to stop God from being born. Heather doubts the town’s God would be any problem and wonders if maybe they’d be better off anyway with God’s judgement. They have a little moment where Heather says she no longer blames him for her father’s death and he says she reminds him of his son. His son hated him and turned to crime, ending up shot dead robbing a bank. Douglas blames himself for it, saying he was a worthless father.

They have an odd acquaintanceship. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Heather goes off to finish things, and as she walks away, Douglas raises his gun, thinking that killing her would be the only way to end things. She agrees that could be but he doesn’t shoot and she walks away.

If you go back to talk with him again there’s another scene showing her concern over him. (So I guess no hard feelings over pondering her murder just moments before?) Checking on him a second time is one of the many factors that effects the ending.

Disney after dark. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

In a fortune teller hut we find Douglas’s notebook that reveals they lived in Portland for a time until Harry shot and killed someone from Silent Hill that has tracked them down.

After this is an easy fairy tale themed puzzle. I know I’ve been breezing through the puzzles in this plot summary, so I’ll give you this one as an example. There’s statues of Snow White and Cinderella and photos showing their silhouettes. The photos make Heather realize the statues are missing items. You set a red shoe at Cinderella’s feet and an apple-shaped doll’s head in Snow White’s outstretched hand— both items you get elsewhere in the Amusement Park. This opens the way forward. See, easy. All it takes is a basic knowledge of the stories.

Hmm, maybe… (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Anyway, Heather continues wandering the park and finds a carousel that would look familiar to fans of Part 1. (It’s where Harry has to kill or save a possessed Cybil.) The horses breathe poison gas and seems to be alive, all except for one that was stabbed in the head. It took me a bit to figure this part out and I got my only lock up here. (Which I guess the HD Collection is notorious for.) You have to shoot all the horses so they stop moving before the carousel rotates too many times. (On my second time through after the lock up I did see that if you read the note on the horse, it straight up tells you the answer. Every time I checked it before it just commented that it was dead. Haha, Silent Hill is also known for having to check the precise location for things. If you’re just slightly off when you hit the examine button, you can miss things.)

HEATHER FIGHT! (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Killing the horses sets off a really cool boss battle against a monster called Alessa’s Memory. “Alessa” is a blood-soaked, dark-haired version of Heather and even uses her weapons against you. After taking enough damage she falls and evaporates into red mist, respawning elsewhere with a new weapon. She rushes first with a knife, then a handgun, the steel pipe, and then the submachine gun. That one kinda worried me but I made the fight quick and cheap with my own unlimited submachine gun. I can recall having to fight her multiple times in the past, using the horses as shields and dying a lot.

After Alessa’s Memory finally dies, red writing on the ground talks about how Alessa can’t bear to think of the demon being born and wanted to bestow a more peaceful death on “herself”. (Obviously referring to Heather. See where this is going yet?) By this point Heather appears to have memories of Alessa’s time in the hospital after being burned in the fire.

Have you noticed Claudia doesn’t have eyebrows? It’s unsettling. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

There’s a long corridor leading to the final area, the church. Prayers to Alessa are written in blood on the stone walls of the corridor. Standing at the altar of the church is our old friend Claudia. Heather confronts her as Claudia goes on and on again about Paradise and judgement. Heather says she no longer wants this and we get confirmation in our suspicions that Heather is the reincarnation of Alessa. But, even being able to access these old memories, she’s still herself and still refers to Harry as her father. Before she can shoot Claudia the pain in her abdomen becomes too great and she’s brought to her knees. Claudia confirms another suspicion by saying that God is growing inside her so it’s pretty obvious where this is going. Claudia scampers off and Heather is free to explore the church. (Do villains scamper? I’m going to say yes. Yes they do.)

Choices, choices. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

There’s a bit of lore to be found looking at the paintings. The Order seemed to have taken biblical imagery and symbolism and twisted it to fit their concept of a feminine God and a multitude of lesser gods and angels serving Her. Their lore also factors in the death and rebirth of God.

In the church confessional you can hear an agonized woman’s plea to see her child after death and to be sent to purgatory, not hell. She asks for forgiveness for the sin of revenge for her poor, murdered daughter. You can choose to forgive her or say nothing, and this also impacts the ending quite a bit. (Forgiving the woman adds 1000 points to the needed 4000 for one of the secret endings, so this is no small matter.) This is an interesting part because there is really no good answer, even factoring in the morality of murder and revenge. Essentially, by forgiving the woman, Heather is taking on the role of God and passing judgement that she’s not fit to give. Alternatively, by saying nothing she is refusing to offer solace to a tortured soul. Tough choice.

Note that no one is really sure who this woman is, and even if she’s a character we’ve seen reference to elsewhere in the series. Some suspect that the woman is Dahlia Gillespie (with a different voice actor) and she is asking for forgiveness for killing Cheryl Mason. This theory seems pretty sound to me, and it provides interesting insight into the series. If true, it shows that after 17 years of thinking it over, Dahlia has seen the error of her ways and just wants to see Alessa again despite using her for her own nefarious plans. It shows a more human side to the villain, showing remorse over the killing of an innocent child and the torture of her own daughter.

I’m the map! (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Heather continues exploring the church. I love that the map of this area is a child’s drawing, complete with crayon drawings. Only the beginning part (with the thicker lines) is filled in at the start. Heather fills in the rest as you explore. There’s a lot of sturdy monsters here and some of them respawn randomly. The area has things you would expect to see in a church but also wheelchairs and stretchers, morphing it into a weird amalgam of hospital and church— great symbolism for Alessa’s two prisons.

In the belfry there is a very disorienting painting of Alessa holding Heather as a baby. (Holding herself?) There is also the largest save spot yet carved into the floor. In one of the rooms— which looks like a sparse bedroom— we find a notebook that explains the save spot symbol. It represents the deity known as “The Halo of the Sun” and is the herald of the Order. The two outer circles represent charity and resurrection, the three inner circles are for the present, past, and future. Usually drawn in red, sometimes black. However blue is a reversal of the meaning and a curse against God.

I got stuck on this part for a bit, finding no way to proceed. The trick was in a hallway where you can hear the crying of a little girl. Bloody footprints slowly make their way across the floor, ending at a fallen painting. Then you can move the painting aside to reveal a hidden door.

Oh. Oh my. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

As Heather hangs out in the library, Vincent shows up again. He says he thinks that the reincarnation of God would be inconvenient and unpredictable. He wants it stopped but doesn’t want to get his hands dirty, so he wants Heather to do all the work. His rage bubbles just below the surface, showing through in his tone of voice and choice of words. He especially doesn’t like being compared to Claudia. He gaslights Heather about the monsters, implying she’s been killing innocent people this whole time.

Haha... Dick. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

He quickly backtracks, claiming it was a joke. Ass. He reveals the Talisman from Leonard was the Seal of Metatron and that it’s very important and gives her a book called Otherworld Laws. (Note that the seal was also shown in the first game, but it was called the Mark of Samael there.) The book doesn’t really do anything, and when you examine it, it just talks about how the Seal of Metatron channels the power of God to defeat evil, taking a toll on its user. Nothing here really applies as the story unfolds, so it’s odd.

As Heather continues in the church, she collects Tarot cards for another puzzle and visits various rooms. One is a copy of Harry’s room, complete with his bookshelf and a diary. The writings we’ve seen of Harry in the Amusement Park and the church paint the picture of a troubled man and the love he had for his adopted daughter despite her problematic origins.

The bloody footprints come back to lead to a copy of Alessa’s room in the hospital basement. (We visited it in Part 1.) In this room is a book about Aglaophotis. This was the red liquid in Part 1 that was instrumental in acquiring the “Good+” ending. It’s described as a sort of “demon repellant”, which explains why Dahlia was so intent of getting rid of it all and reacted with shock at the sight of it.

Next is a room that looks just like Alessa’s childhood room. There is a memo in here apparently written by Harry just before the final boss battle. Looking around at the drawings gives Heather memories of growing up with Claudia and how much fun they had playing together. (It appears that Dahlia either adopted Claudia or took care of her.) This is where Heather finally finds the key to a room early on in the church.

Yes, the doodad, the kajigger. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Behind that locked door is Alessa’s classroom at Midwich Elementary. In here you can listen to a cassette tape that was picked up much earlier. This has a conversation between Vincent and an unnamed woman about what happened 17 years earlier. She refers to it as unbelievers preventing God from being born properly. God is now slumbering in the holy mother. We also learn that Vincent is one of the leaders of the Order and runs the church. There is also a notebook containing the thoughts of the teacher, K. Gordon. We visited this teacher’s house in SH1. She talks about how concerned she is about Alessa and worries her mother is abusing her. (Weird, I always assumed K. Gordon was a guy for some reason but the wikis all says the character is female.)

The final room belongs to Claudia. In her diary she talks about her need to make the world a better place and her worry that the means to birthing God may be too cruel. Also there is a 6th birthday card from Alessa to Claudia that says she feels Claudia is her true sister. This indicates that Claudia kept it all these years, clinging onto her happy memories of childhood with Alessa. Also in this room is the final Tarot card, so it’s back to Alessa’s room to solve one last puzzle to unlock the door to the final boss battle.

I’d forgotten about this thing by this point in the game. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

In this room Vincent is arguing with Claudia again about their differing faith in their God. We also learn that Vincent is apparently wealthy and funded the church. Heather arrives and Vincent orders her to kill Claudia. Claudia stabs him in the back, literally. Claudia has another villain monologue explaining that Heather had to learn to hate through her experiences. God was nurtured by Heather/Alessa’s hatred. Sympathy is born out of pain and suffering. Claudia goes on to say that she’s sinned in rushing God’s birth and has caused a lot of pain in the process. She doesn’t believe she’s worthy of forgiveness but it’s all worth it for Paradise.

Heather whips out the Seal of Metatron and Claudia dismisses it as junk, stating that it can’t kill God. She stabs Vincent again— who continued talking even after being stabbed— finishing him off. Heather doubles over in pain again and blood streaks her skin. Claudia gushes about how happy she is to witness Judgement Day and the birth of God. But Heather manages to stand up and tells her to shut up. She pulls out the pendant that’s been in her inventory the entire game. Whenever examined it’s stated that Harry gave it to her on her birthday and called it a lucky charm, telling her to never take it off. Inside is a small red jewel that turns out to be Aglaophotis. Heather swallows the red tablet to abort the demon/God.

Heather pukes up the twisted fetus and Claudia is horrified. Heather goes to stomp on it but Claudia stops her. Then the crazy zealot picks up the squirming fetus and fucking eats it. She decides to birth the God properly since Alessa is stubbornly refusing to do so. Claudia groans in pain (something you ate?) and staggers to the hole in the floor on the altar. She is pulled in by something we can’t fully see. Heather jumps down and is faced by a monstrous creature that is a merging of Alessa and the dark God.

She’s beautiful. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

This boss battle is the most difficult one of the game. God can swing out with her arms and has a ridiculous reach. She also spits fire around the arena that curves to chase you. I made sure to equip the monster-proof vest and dodge as much as possible, but I still took a lot of damage.

Keep shooting Heather! I was just kidding about it being beautiful. Kill it with fire! (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

I remember having a lot of trouble with this boss the second time I played, but I must have somehow defeated her with a melee weapon, because that’s how you unlock the unlimited submachine gun. (The last hit has to be with a melee weapon.) I recall it being really late at night and I was nearly dead and out of healing items and ammo when I managed to beat her. This time around was much easier because I used the submachine gun, but I still did use a lot of first aid kits and ampoules. Cheap, I know, but I was on a deadline!

Having successfully killed God, Heather walks off but doesn’t get far. She’s brought to the floor in the grief over her father that she’s finally allowing herself to feel. After this is the ending that I received, which is the most common ending of the game.

A happy ending. But Harry’s still dead. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Back in the Amusement Park Heather finds Douglas on a bench. He asks if it’s over and she says “Not quite… you’re still alive.” and then pulls out her knife. She then laughs and says she kidding. She tells him not to call her Heather anymore. Her name is Cheryl, since that’s the name her father gave to her. Douglas asks if she’s going to keep dying her hair or let it turn back to the natural black. She laughs that she’s not sure since blondes have more fun and the ending credits roll.

Well clearly. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

In comparison to the second game, which had six endings, this game only has three endings. Normal, Possessed, and UFO. The latter two are more difficult to get and it’s only possible to get the Normal ending on the first playthrough. In the Possessed ending Heather succumbs to darkness and kills Douglas. In the UFO, well, alien-related things happen. To get that one you have to kill at least 30 enemies with the Heather Beam or Sexy Beam before you reach the apartment. Yeah, there I go mentioning the beams again. I should explain. You unlock the Heather Beam by killing a whopping 333 monsters in total throughout all your playthroughs. (Which is far more than are present in the entire game, so it takes several run throughs.) Then you have it at the start of your next playthrough. You unequip your weapon and Heather can fire a beam through her eyes. Wearing the Transform costume changes this to the Sexy Beam. I haven’t met the requirements yet, but if I do I will make sure to put a screenshot on my Year-End Video Game post.

The fact that there are only three endings was a little disappointing, especially after the wealth of endings in Part 2. Even Part 1 had four endings, although they were all slight variations of the same ending. But I can’t really count the lack of endings as a negative… Heather’s story couldn’t really end too many different ways. The limited number of endings keeps the story more focused, making it clear what the real outcome was while still giving you something to shoot for in unlocking the other two.

I am currently replaying the game killing every monster I find in an attempt to get the Possessed ending. That one is achieved by killing a certain number of monsters, taking a huge amount of damage without dying, not checking on Douglas, and forgiving the woman in the confessional. So far I’m well on course to attain it. Hopefully I will, and then I will try for the UFO ending. Since the game is so short, it’s not really much of a drag on my time to try it. (Plus I know if I don’t do it now, I won’t get around to it.)

The scoring system in this game is a little confusing compared to the previous games since different categories seem to have different scores. (Or maybe each one is showing the points it adds to the score? I’m not completely sure.) Overall I believe my score was 6 big stars and 3 little stars out of a possible total of 10 big stars. So a 6.3? Not bad, all things considered. I’m sure my biggest knocks were on number of saves and clear time (I often left it paused to take notes for this post as well as screenshots and I’m sure I got distracted many times with it paused.) You also get knocked for using the unlockable weapons, and I did whip out that unlimited submachine gun several times.

Use the Force Heather. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

As mentioned there are unlockable items, as with all Silent Hill games. The unlimited submachine gun is obtained by beating the final boss and delivering the final blow with a melee weapon. There is a beam saber (which very much looks like a lightsaber) that is received for defeating most of the enemies with melee attacks. (Note that stomping an enemy while it’s down always counts as a melee kill.) It wasn’t very strong, so I didn’t use it much. There is also a flamethrower which is unlocked by defeating more enemies with firearms. (Or after beating the game after already having earned the beam saber, which is how I got it.)

This game includes a code system for unlockables. In my playthrough I received two codes for different costumes that Heather could wear. Some codes are located in the game or given on completion, and others were given out in magazines and online. There is even a code that puts Douglas in his underwear for the entire game. I don’t have that code, but I have seen screenshots. It’s pretty funny to see the gruff old guy with an open coat and boxers. Although it would put an extra creepy slant to his scenes with Heather. (That scene where he’s got a gun pulled on Claudia, though, that would be hilarious.)

Speaking of costumes…

Yassss. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Yup. That’s Heather wearing Magical Girl cosplay. This is the Transform costume. After winning the Extra Game you get the code PrincessHeart. After entering that code in the main menu, Heather has a wand in her inventory. When you equip it, a Sailor Moon-esque transformation sequence plays and you’re left wearing a silly and colorful costume that is completely and irreconcilably at odds with the dark and gritty visuals of a Silent Hill game.

Yup. They went there. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Needless to say I absolutely adore this costume and plan to wear it on every subsequent playthrough. This is Heather now. When I think of Heather, she will be wearing the Princess Heart costume.

Glowing fog and some sort of knife-armed bug thing. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

A few side notes in this section before I continue to my review and concluding notes. I chose to play this game using my copy of the PS3 HD Collection, just as I did with Part 2. Although I have a copy of Silent Hill 3 on PS2 and that was the original format I played in, I mainly played this version for ease of completing it in time. I cannot hook my PS2 up to my television upstairs and I haven’t taken the time to learn how to attach my capture device to the PS2.

The reason I bring this up is because I’ve become increasingly aware that the HD Collection has developed a very bad reputation over the years. I honestly didn’t see much wrong with the port of SH2, but then I wasn’t looking at it critically. The new voice acting really jarred me and I did start over to turn on the original voices when I heard someone else’s voice coming out of James, but that was about it. (Maybe it crashed once or twice? I can’t recall.) Anyway, I haven’t played Silent Hill 3 as often as the previous two titles, and it’s been so long ago that I really don’t remember the PS2 version clearly. But I did see a lot of issues with this version.

See, the company tasked with developing the HD Collection were not given much support by Konami and had to work with incomplete source code which had a lot of issues that had already been corrected in the development of the original games. They had trouble with some of the game controls and visuals— most notably the fog effects used in both games. (See above for eerily glowing fog. Man was that distracting.) The games also had problems with crashing. (I only experienced that once in this playthrough of SH3.) I didn’t know any of this when I did my post for SH2, which is why I’m including it here.

Personally, I like the updated graphics (except the fog) and only had some minor annoyance problems with this version of SH3. I don’t recall the original voice acting, but I do like the voices they chose for this and the delivery of the lines. (Oh, by the way the guy who voices Vincent in this version also portrayed Peter Parker on the modern Spider-Man games.) My biggest issues with this version is that sometimes Heather’s walk cycle gets glitchy, causing her legs to stutter and not move smoothly. At times she appeared to glide along the floor. (Cocoashade saw one of these glitches and likened it to how the South Park characters move.) The most annoying problem is that often the X button would double-click, making me miss dialogue and have to backspace when entering the costume codes. However I’m unsure if this is a glitch inherent in the HD Collection or a problem with my recently-purchased third-party controller. (I didn’t have time to hook up my original controller and test things.)

That’s common around here Heather. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Also in this section I’ll talk about the driving force behind me getting off my butt and getting this post done in time. I can’t give all the credit to that nagging voice in the back of my mind that won’t let me rest until I get my posts done and the looming deadline of October 31st that stresses me out. No, a lot of it was the Silent Hill Transmission. This was a livestream that launched on Konami’s YouTube channel on October 19th, 2022. I was still off work at the time recovering, and so I had the opportunity to tune in for it live. Almost 83,000 people watched it live, and that’s pretty impressive to me. As I mentioned earlier, it’s been ten years since the last two games released and it was clear from the viewership and the social commentary after the livestream that I’m far from the only one who has been waiting impatiently for a continuation of the series.

Although the broadcast included merchandise reveals and the announcement of a third movie (based on Silent Hill 2), for me, the highlights of the livestream were the announcements and trailers for some new games. (All of which I’m excited to see released.) The first one was the Silent Hill 2 Remake for PS5. This game will keep the story and spirit of the original SH2 release but update it for modern players. (And add a few more endings, I hope?) If this game is good, it may be time for me to finally earn all the endings! (Hopefully if this remake does well we will also get remakes for Parts 1 and 3. Maybe? Please?)

A big section of the broadcast was taken up by discussion of a project called Silent Hill: Ascension. This was not labeled as a game so much as a “media experience”. I’m still a little unclear on what that means, but from the details given I am speculating that it’s actually a livestream/social event in the spirit of Twitch Plays Pokémon but where the viewers vote on the actions to be taken in the game rather than directly play. (Of course, I could be wrong. Time will tell.) One of the games mentioned is called Silent Hill: Townfall, and seems to be in the more traditional vein of the series. The trailer gave me undeniable P.T. vibes. Judging by the sparse trailer it’s probably very early in development. The game I’m most excited for (tied with the SH2 remake) is Silent Hill f, which had a visually stunning trailer depicting Silent Hill in a more Japanese style. Like the earlier games, it will be written and designed by Japanese creators, and reportedly takes place not in the American Silent Hill, but in rural Japan in the 1960s. The trailer caught my attention and the possibilities for this game are intriguing. It seems to be very psychological and there was recurring imagery of flowers shown. It looks stunning and creepy.

So, yes, I am hyped through the roof about the future of Silent Hill and following news and updates much like I did almost 20 years ago leading up to the release of Silent Hill 3. This series has touched a lot of people and brought us hours of entertainment and chills, and much like one of the twisted lumbering monstrosities lurching along the streets of the titular town, the Silent Hill franchise has risen from its assumed death to stalk us once again. And I am here for it.

It’s okay honey, he’s just sleeping. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

But past and future games aside, what did I think of Silent Hill 3? Well, clearly I loved it. Silent Hill 2 has long been my favorite entry in the series, although I have enjoyed each one so far. Prior to my playthrough of Shattered Memories, I would have counted Silent Hill 3 as a close second, mostly due to the visuals, themes, and the female protagonist. Still, SH3 hasn’t been fully dethroned. This game does have a certain charm to it, and I’ll always have fond memories of it being the first Silent Hill installment that I actively waited for as a newly-minted fan.

This can be considered the end of the original story of Silent Hill, although later games do fill in more backstory and explore the town and its lore further. When compared to the psychological horror of Part 2, this one takes a more direct approach, facing much of the grotesque head on. There’s a heightened level of gore and violence. The wounded monsters screech and writhe in pain until you finish them off. Heather is a strong lead, thrust as all of the heroes are, into impossible and terrifying situations, but not shrinking from them or shutting down. She gets stronger and more determined as the game goes on, but never loses her cynical, wry attitude.

We learn more about Harry through his daughter’s eyes, which was very welcome. Harry has long been considered to be a bit of a non-character due to his lack of characterization and emotion in Part 1. But here we are able to see him as a more fully fleshed out character. (Even though he only appears as a corpse. What, too soon?) According to Heather, Harry loved detective novels and he often wrote, becoming very wordy in his letters. He was conflicted, concerned about Heather’s origins and the potential she could have due to where she came from, but ultimately he was able to push that aside and love her unconditionally, raising a happy and strong young woman. Harry certainly needed some depth, and Heather gave that to him.

Bread? Bread. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Upsides: Silent Hill 3 took the usual dark and corrupted aesthetic of Silent Hill and cranked it up. The ambient noises, the monster and character design, the music… all top notch. As always they use their ambiance and lighting to great effect in building tension. I appreciate that it took a different approach from Part 2 while adding Easter Eggs referencing it. Although the game takes on some very heavy themes and is steeped in dark imagery, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are tongue-in-cheek references to the previous games, Heather is somewhat snarky when examining items, and some of the costumes and the UFO ending are very silly. This quirkiness and some of the visuals (like Robbie the Rabbit obviously) serve as a counterpoint to the darkness, not taking away from it but shining a light on it and making the dark parts stand out that much more.

Downsides: The play mechanics that I mentioned did get in the way a bit. (Especially when trying to zoom in on the map and solve the book puzzle.) The game was much shorter than the previous entries, making the extended subway and sewer sections feel less like natural parts of the game and more like padding. The controls were wonky like with the other games, but once I switched to 2-D mode I did find the controls much smoother and more responsive than what was found in Parts 1 and 2. The town was disappointingly empty, but there were still plenty of locations to explore.

I love the visuals in this game. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

The downsides aside, I very much enjoyed the experience of the game and what it added to the lore of Silent Hill. The nods to previous games were very well-handled… especially the jarring revelation that Heather was the baby from the end of the first game and her murdered father was the guy you spent the whole game playing as. The nods to Silent Hill 2 were well-done and appreciated, and exploring the same areas as someone new was great. (The clearest callback is in the UFO ending, but I won’t spoil that for you.) There was even foreshadowing to the 4th game in the article by Joseph Schreiber and references to the orphanage. My favorite element of connective tissue are the notebooks that Heather encounters in the Amusement Park that appear to have been written by her father 17 years prior. Although the game doesn’t come right out and say it, to me these are the notepads that Harry saved his game on. At the first of these, he mentions writing down his experiences in case they’re of help to someone in the future. This is a subtle but expertly executed callback to one of the first moments of the first game. Someone finally read his notes, and it turned out to be his daughter.

Heather is an interesting character to me. There is an intriguing duality to her. She shows a morbid curiosity at times like when she notices a human-shaped form under a sheet or a trail of blood leading to a bullet-ridden elevator door or a horrible smell coming from a locker. But she always decides against feeding that curiosity. Is it the normal human slant towards the macabre, or her dark Alessa side? As with many video game heroes, her thoughts were mostly kept to herself, only revealed through her interactions with the other characters and the objects she examines. She went through the game showing a clear detachment and disinterest in a lot of the exploration, being very dismissive towards much of what the player has her look at, but she still pushed on, first to get home, then to get to Silent Hill and enact her revenge. A revenge she ultimately chose not to take, instead focusing on preventing the demon from despoiling the world. Heather seemed much lighter after her final confrontation with God. She was smiling, joking, acting like a normal teenager. She knew who she was now, and more importantly, who she wanted to be. She threw off the weight of her past and was left with just her present and what she chooses to make of it.

Yeah. I think so, yes. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

While many of the characters Harry and James met in their games were women (with one exception each) all the characters aside from Claudia that Heather interacts with are male. And they all seem to serve as typical male archetypes that women deal with in their day-to-day lives. Vincent is arrogant and belittling, insisting on holding his intelligence over Heather’s head, mansplaining whenever he finds something she doesn’t know. (He also gaslights her about the monsters being real people.) The obsessive, self-entitled, and dangerous Stanley who trickles threats when his affections are not returned. And the manipulative, self-absorbed user in the character of Leonard.

Note that an exception to this is the character of Douglas, whose initial impressions are reversed as the game goes on. In his first few appearances Douglas gives off total creepy older dude vibes, walking up to a teenager in the mall and demanding her attention. He just oozes creepiness in the beginning and it’s used to great effect. He turns out to be an okay guy later on, but still, I wouldn’t let any daughter of mine take a road trip across state lines and hang out in a motel with him. Just sayin’.

This looks like a painting. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

This game made clear statements on women’s right to choose and oppression against women. The whole game is about Heather’s identity— who she is, who she used to be (her reputation?), who everyone else wants her to be. The father who kept the truth from her as a way of protecting her, but then left that truth in writing so she could have access to it when she needed it. The echoes of her past that pursued her to her peaceful new life. Throughout the game are instances of the other characters ignoring Heather’s words and disregarding what she wants in favor of their own goals and wants. They take her choice away in demanding that she be the mother of their God, or telling her what to do, where to go, who to kill, how to think and act.

They even take her body from her and she ultimately takes her agency back in swallowing the red pill and aborting God. This effectively circumvents her dictated destiny and gives her back her power and her choice. At the end (at least the normal and likely canon ending) she even chooses to discard both her chosen name of Heather and her birth name of Alessa in favor of the name her father gave her—Cheryl. And her next choice— keep dying her hair blonde or go back to her natural black. It may seem simple and possibly the game’s way of lightening the tension, but hair color is yet another way a woman takes control of her life and how she’s viewed. Even the costume system—which at first glance may seem sexist (the male characters wore what they wanted but we get to play dress-up with the girl character?) is another reflection of the theme of choice— a person’s choice of clothing reflects not only who they are, but who they want to be. Clothing can be self-expression or rebellion, depending on how you use it. (Which is why I choose to go through my future adventures cosplaying as Princess Heart.)

My favorite thing about this game is that in Heather we have a strong female character who is not depicted as a damsel in distress or as an infallible super-woman, but as a regular human with fears and shortcomings and self-doubt. She’s not a perfect killing machine. She’s not saddled with Daddy issues. She’s not weepy and crippled by emotion, but is allowed to cry and have emotions without those qualities being her entire character. She’s realistic and that makes her a better character than she otherwise would have been. Heather is a well-rounded and nuanced character and I give kudos to Team Silent for crafting her.

Confrontation in the dark church. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

Silent Hill 3 effectively concluded the story begun in Part 1, expanding on the lore of the town and its cult and gods. It ran in the spirit of both the games that preceded it, but forged its own path, choosing to focus more on action and taking a crack at social commentary in depicting darkly familiar experiences women and the young experience in a male-driven society that disregards their thoughts, feelings, and desires. Through Heather we’re put in the place of someone who just wants to live their life without having their future dictated by the uncaring adults in charge who refuse to listen to their input and fresh ideas. The act of aborting God was Heather’s ultimate act of rebellion and courage and it was this act that let her take agency back in her own life. Although she was set along a specific path by her previous self (ie parents and family, her past choices, society’s dictates) the sad truth is that she never asked for that path. And even when regaining her previous memories as Alessa, she still no longer wanted what she used to want. We all have the option to change and grow. Using her own strength that she developed in her experiences as Heather and the values and courage instilled in her by her father, she was able to ultimately make a reasoned choice regardless of what those controlling and manipulating her wanted. Heather chose to forge her own path, and take back her true name and identity.

It’s heavy subject matter and it’s up to you all to decide if it was executed properly, but it made an impact on me… especially replaying it now as an adult with a lot more life experience and the gift of many different viewpoints and experiences I’ve been granted by others. When I first played this game I saw it at the surface level and didn’t really dig deeper to the themes and symbolism of the game’s story. This time I was able to do that and I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to see the other layers this game has to offer.

Although the version I played had its faults, this was quite an enjoyable time. I got to revisit a game I hadn’t played in years, analyze it much further than I was capable of in my youth, and experience more of the dark and quirky spirit of a solid installment of a fantastic series. I enjoyed Heather’s journey to Alessa and finally to Cheryl and I hope you all did as well.

The end. (Credit: Team Silent and Konami)

And so that’s my take on Silent Hill 3. So far I’ve played six of the Silent Hill games, have seen both of the movies, and have read I think three of the IDW comic series. I have loved each installment of the franchise for different reasons. Silent Hill continually draws me in and intrigues me, stimulating the part of me that has an undying love for and fascination with horror and everything dark. Sharing these games and experiences and memories with you all has been a lot of fun and it’s nice to have this tradition to come back to every year. I still have two more games to replay for this blog and three to play for the first time. And that’s not counting all the upcoming games. It looks like this annual tradition will be continuing for years to come!

Thank you all for joining me in my latest jaunt to our favorite town. It’s been rough getting back into my routines after my surgery, but finishing this post (and in time for my self-imposed deadline) was a satisfying accomplishment for me. I’ll be back soon with more content and I hope you all join me this time next year for our next visit to Silent Hill!