3.5/5 ★ – Cewens's review of Silent Hill 3.

Considering the rating it has, I am overall a little disappointed with my time with this game. Don't get me wrong, I still think this is a very very good game. It looks incredible graphically and the gameplay is still super fun. I would argue this game does a better job with horror than the previous entries, relying on gore and an intense musical score to strike panic into my weak heart. They introduce some new items and weapons. Some great and useful like the katana and beef jerky, some I barely used like the stun gun and the bulletproof vest. There are some gameplay complaints. The camera is still very annoying and I hate how redundant items remain in your inventory. However, for the most part the game is still a lot of fun to play. I very much enjoy the SH2 references. The standard enemy designs are awesome, but the bosses I thought were weak overall too. The puzzles are incredibly weak. There is an incredibly easy book puzzle in the first area of the game, then we don't see another puzzle until near the end of the game. There are 3 in the hospital and none of them are particularly interesting. The Tarot Card puzzle is great, but that is the last thing you do before the final boss. However, the weakest part of this game is the narrative. It follows Heather, later revealed to be the daughter of Henry Mason, meaning she is formerly Alessa/Cheryl. They tease a few things, but they do not build anything for the first 2/3s of this movie. Then after the events of Heather's apartment, she travels to Silent Hill in a car where we get a 5 minute long scene with a lore dump recapping the first Silent Hill game. I hated that. The majority of this game just follows Heather going home essentially, not really advancing the plot until we finally reach Silent Hill. The game thrives in the last couple of areas, especially in the church when we learn a lot more about Claudia, Vincent and their culty religion. But overall the plot was lacking, I didn't find any of the NPCs very interesting. Still a game worth playing and the new game plus stuff is incredibly fun.