Game of the Week [08/08/03]:Silent Hill 3

Why a little town filled with fog stands out in the crowd, whether you like it or not.

The characters in Silent Hill series have always been impossibly self-assured in the face of immense horror. They open doors to Hell by way of Cthulu?s gaping maw and say, ?Darn it, this way seems impassible. I?ll have to find another way around. Oh, look, a health drink!? But logic is overrated?who out there can really say their lives have played out in a logical fashion? And character motivation? Impossible to know?despite the fact that we?re human on the outside, if you've ever tried to climb inside someone else's head you'd realize we?re all aliens from completely different worlds. Thank you, Silent Hill 3, for reminding us of these facts one more time.

Lest we forget, art and video games are fundamentally, irreversibly intertwined. Whenever people talk video game art, it?s usually on a more technical front?that this game uses this other game?s graphics engine, that these textures are bump mapped, or that the lighting in this area really, really deserves special attention. But the nature of 3D worlds (they?re huuuuuge) and 3D technology (it?s really, really, really hard to make a brand new 3D graphics engine?no, really) means that, by sheer daunt of design, lots of games look pretty much the same when you get right down to it?jumbles of different artistic visions assembled (and inevitably diluted) by an art director doing the best that he or she can to keep things coherent. Gone are the days of the PC graphic adventure, when a single artist could spend weeks on a single background render. No longer can a 2D-backdrop suffice for a Castlevania game?a single room now requires a hundred surfaces be drawn, where one used to suffice. Say what you will about Myst or Riven?they may not have been much more than slide shows, but damn them jungles and surreal fortresses sure had personality.


Trapped in a Tool video without a care in the world.
Three cheers to Silent Hill 3, then, a game that looks like the work of a single mind in an era where video games are concocted by hives. It?s one of those few game series that manages to forge a real singular identity, a feat accomplished by only a select few Capcom games and Final Fantasy titles. Its enemies are distinctive (lumpy, rust-brown, tumor-ridden, with orifices in improper locations), its shadows are legendary, and it dares to use a filter to deliberately fuzz out awesome textures in the name of making things dirtier. It even manages to find new things to do with the PS2 hardware?the later ?intestine wall? levels are almost visually incomprehensible, yet somehow still playable.

More games need to be like Silent Hill 3. It?s an independent film in the blockbuster season, a 28 Days Later in a Bad Boys II summer. It?s not afraid to be exactly what it wants to be?and it?s a better creature for it.

Take me to the Silent Hill 3 review

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