If you played Silent Hill 2 on the PS2 a couple of years back, then you know what to expect from Silent Hill 3. Dark, gloomy areas, sometimes only visible by flashlight, fog-shrouded environs, and lots and lots of blood are what you'll find here. The characters are very well rendered and the enemies are as nasty and creepy as they ever were. This is one of those games that will have you screaming in your seat as things jump out at you. It's good stuff.

As for the sound quality, the enemies sound appropriately eerie, especially the split head dogs, with their shrill howl. Voice acting is pretty good and fairly believable. The radio is once again back to alert you to enemies (read: scare you shitless as it gets louder and louder as you approach your doom) and there's also a dark and dismal soundtrack to accompany you on your journey, along with a creepy ballad for the intro scene. Included along with the game is a separate CD with the soundtrack, in case you want to jog along a fog-covered lakeshore while zombies try to kill you, listening to the soundtrack of your favorite game. Its a nice little extra, at any rate.

So our story begins (well, eventually it does) with a teenage girl, by the name of Heather, doing what teenage girls do - shopping in the mall. She is approached by a road-worn looking detective by the name of Douglas, who starts asking her questions about her past and generally making her very nervous. To escape him, she ducks into the bathroom and sneaks out the window, only to re-enter the mall through a back entrance... and so the saga goes. As with previous iterations of Silent Hill, a seemingly innocent and clueless person is thrust into a twisted world of blood and gore. Well, as Heather progresses through the mall and beyond, she learns that her past isn't what it seems and that she is somehow deeply connected to the sleepy town of Silent Hill. Yeah, the game doesn't actually begin in Silent Hill. Anyway, I won't go into any more storyline, but suffice it to say that if you played the first one, get this one. It completes the story, although you'll still be as confused as you ever were.

There are a number of puzzles to be found as you progress through the game, along with a smattering of boss fights and numerous enemies. Heather has a knife, handgun, shotgun, steel pipe, maul, katana, stun gun and sub-machine gun, although you have to acquire most of these weapons along the way. There are also some unlockables as well. Once you acquire that steel pipe, it's all good. Until then, it might be a good idea to run away when you encounter enemies.

In Silent Hill 3 you can initially select either Easy, Normal or Hard for both the Puzzles and also Action. This way, if you are a stronger puzzle player, you can go for Normal or Hard and have the enemies go a little easy on you. My experiences were only with Normal for both, however.

Some of the enemies were a real pain. At one point, I found myself in a hallway being gang attacked by some crazed nurses and very little ammo and health. Not a good place to be. However, most enemies can be outrun, outmaneuvered or killed with practice and frugal use of your bullets. Some of the bosses are downright easy and this was a little weird, however there was a good blend of tough stuff and easy.

Ahh, the famous survival horror control method. Personally, I love survival horror and don't have one problem with it, although there are some that can't stand it. Silent Hill 3 follows the same scheme, meaning you push up on the D-pad or forward on the analog stick to move your character forward, no matter which direction they are facing. It's tried and true and it works well in this type game. Heather can run, attack her enemies, block attacks and side-step, however, some of the smaller enemies were tough to attack as they were low to the ground and Heather's hits didn't seem to always land in the right place.

The camera is also usually a big complaint in survival horror games, although I didn't find it to be problematic one bit. Yay Konami for making a camera system really work in a survival horror game, while not sacrificing any of the scariness.

Overall, Silent Hill 3 is hella scary and just as twisted as Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2, so if you enjoyed those then you definitely need to pick this one up. Plus, like I said, you get more storyline here to help you better understand the original Silent Hill and that's worth the price of admission alone.