Silent Hill 3
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Silent Hill 3 is the third installment in the survival horror series. The game released in North America on August 6, 2003, Japan on July 3, 2003, and in Europe on May 23, 2003. It was released on the Sony PlayStation 2 and PC.
Synopsis
Seventeen years have passed since the events of Silent Hill. Heather is a normal teenage girl who loves to shop and has a sharp attitude about almost everything, until one day the past catches up with her.A detective approaches Heather at the mall. Heather ignores him and tells him to go away as he asks her strange questions concerning her past. She succeeds in avoiding him but, after escaping him she realizes that everyone in the mall has disappeared, leaving her by herself. As she wanders alone in the vacant mall, she finds herself trapped in a hellish nightmare where the walls are covered in rust, the floors are smeared with blood and strange creatures lurk in the darkness.
She escapes and heads back home as lost memories from her past begin to bother her. She begins to find out that she is deeply connected to what's going on and has no idea that what just happened in the mall was only the beginning of the nightmare to come.
The nightmare begins / Summary of Silent Hill 3
Years pass, and Heather is now a young girl of seventeen. One day, while running an errand for her father at the local mall, she falls asleep inside a burger joint known as Happy Burger, and dreams about Silent Hill. She finds herself wandering through the nightmare version of Lakeside Amusement Park, armed with only a handgun and a pocketknife. After fighting her way past several demonic-looking monsters, Heather makes her way up the stairs where the 'Monster Coaster' is located. She walks along the tracks, until she is mowed down by a roller coaster.
After the coaster incident in her dream, Heather wakes up from the nightmare. Shaking it off as a bad dream, she exits the burger joint and calls her father and lets him know that she is on her way home. She encounters a detective named Douglas Cartland, who was hired by the cult to find Heather. Heather thinks that he is a stalker and ducks into the ladies' restroom. She jumps out the window, but her way out is blocked on both ends, forcing her to find another way through the mall. Inside the employee's area there are strange monsters lurking around. Inside a clothing store, Heather finds a handgun to defend herself with.
As Heather wanders through the mall, she encounters a woman dressed in all black, with flowing white hair, and no shoes. This is the current leader of the cult, Claudia Wolf, who has been searching for Heather, or rather, Alessa, for a long time. Claudia tells Heather that her talents are required. When Heather doesn't know what the mystery woman means, Claudia tells her, "Remember me, and your true self as well," and that she will lead them to Paradise "with blood stained hands." Heather then comes down with a serious migraine, as if she was trying to remember something from long ago as Claudia departs. It is later told that Claudia is the daughter of Leonard Wolf, another leader of the Order. When Heather enters an elevator, its descent causes a radio to drop from the ceiling, which emits static whenever monsters are nearby. The elevator doors open up revealing a second, more sinister-looking elevator that indicates a crossover into another reality. After riding the second elevator down, Heather then finds herself inside a nightmare version of the mall. Even though she is completely frightened out of her mind, she manages to make it back to the real world after a battle with an enormous worm in the mall's depths.
Once everything is back to normal, Heather heads for the subway. However, Douglas stops her. Heather assumes that the private investigator is in cahoots with Claudia and leaves the bewildered man alone. As with the mall, the subway is deserted, with the exception of the odd monster. Heather even has a close call when she narrowly avoids being run over by a subway car. Heather takes the aforemtioned subway to the sewers and shoots her way through, until she reaches two buildings that are being renovated.
It is inside the second building that while inspecting a bathtub, Heather enters the nightmare world once again. She also runs into a man named Vincent, who is also a member of the same cult as Claudia, but have different views on where the cult should go. When Heather reaches the exit, she finds a monster blocking the exit. She also finds scattered pages of a fairy tale in which contains the words that makes the monster disappear. After getting rid of the monster, Heather is brought back to the normal world and escapes the construction site.
Upon arriving at her apartment, she discovers the body of her father, slumped in his chair, having been brutally murdered. Heather follows the blood trail to the apartment's rooftop. Claudia is there waiting for her. Her explanation for Harry's murder is that some 17 years ago, he thwarted the cult's evil plans, and that killing Harry would fill Heather's heart full of hatred. Claudia merely tells her that she wasn't the one that killed him, only that she gave the order to her companion, a monster known as the 'Missionary' (or Scraper). Claudia tells Heather that she will be waiting for her in Silent Hill.
Once the Missionary is taken care of, Heather finds Douglas inside the apartment. After chewing him out, since he is partially responsible for the events leading to Harry's death, Heather pays her final respects to her father. Douglas offers to drive her to Silent Hill, which she agrees to, since she and Claudia have unfinished business. Douglas also gives her a map of Silent Hill - a gift from Vincent - and tells her that Vincent says to look for a man named Leonard Wolf, Claudia's father.
Return to Silent Hill
Heather and Douglas arrive in Silent Hill the following day. The town itself still is deserted and covered by the ever-present fog. They set up shop in Jack's Inn and split up. Heather heads for Brookhaven Mental Hospital, while Douglas goes over to search the former cult leader's home.
Heather searches the hospital for clues to Claudia's whereabouts. Instead, among other things, Heather finds the demonic nurses, some of which are armed with revolvers. She also finds out that one of the hospital's patients, Stanley Coleman has an unhealthy obsession with her, and that Leonard is imprisoned within the hospital. She also comes across a startling discovery about herself long forgotten. Heather is, in fact, the reincarnated Alessa Gilespie, seeing as how she has memories of Alessa before the fire.
As with the mall and construction site, Heather enters the nightmare realm once again. It is here that she encounters Leonard. Unfortunately, Leonard has degenerated into a monster and attacks Heather, who defeats him with little difficulty. Heather accquires the Seal of Metatron, a relic which Leonard recently possessed and returns to the inn and the hospital becomes normal again upon Leonard's demise.
Vincent is waiting for her when she returns to Jack's Inn. He tells her about a church in which the cult worshipped St. Alessa, the Holy Mother of God. In order to get there, Vincent says, then Heather must go through Lakeside Amusement Park. Heather follows Vincent's advice, only to find that when she arrives at the park, she enters the nightmare world once again. As in her dream, Heather follows the path to the roller coaster, only this time around, she manages to jump off the tracks before the cars could run her over.
Following several close calls inside a haunted house, and running into Douglas once again, Heather finds herself in the same area of the amusement park Harry was some seventeen years earlier. On the carousel, Heather encounters "herself", otherwise named the Memory of Alessa. The other Heather is either bloodied or severely burned. Once Heather gets her dark half out of the way, she reaches the entrance of the church. She encounters Claudia inside the chapel and lies to her that she is, in fact, Alessa and that she likes the world just the way it is as a way of manipulating Claudia. Claudia has a strong will, however, and this does not change her convictions. Heather feels a severe stomach pain coming on, just as Claudia leaves.
While fighting her way through the corridors of the church, she encounters Vincent inside the library. He asks her about the Seal of Metatron, which Heather has in her possession, and Vincent is relieved, since it can be used as a weapon to defeat Claudia, whom Heather finally catches up to inside the cult's inner sanctum. Claudia wounds Vincent with a knife and reveals that the Seal of Metatron is nothing but a useless trinket before finishing off Vincent. Heather nearly succumbs to her rage, but finally gets herself under control.
However, Heather has a trump card. The pendant she wears around her neck was a gift from Harry years ago. Inside, it contained a small capsule of Aglaophotis, the red liquid that was found when Harry made his way through Silent Hill years earlier. Heather swallows it and she becomes violently ill, vomiting the bloody fetus of the god onto the floor. After taunting Claudia that "God didn't make it," Heather is about to squash it under her heel when Claudia shoves her to the side and picks up the disgusting figure.
After ingesting the foul thing herself, Claudia falls through a hole, and Heather follows her. Inside the hidden chamber, Claudia is nowhere to be seen. Heather then discovers the monstronsity that is in the room with her; a repulsive skelatal body, a reptilian female face and some sort of metal helmet provided by Valtiel. Due to Claudia, God has been reborn. Furious, tired and angry, Heather kills the abomination, thus finally avenging for her father.
Influences and trivia
- A puzzle in the game, in the crematorium of the "Nightmare" Brookhaven Hospital, in the hard difficulty setting, refers to "Who Killed Cock Robin," a nursery rhyme.
- The Borley Haunted Mansion in the Lakeside Amusement Park is quite possibly reference to Borley Rectory, at one time "the most haunted house in England" until its destruction by fire in 1939.
- At the construction site, there is a wall that can be knocked through. Behind the wall there is a corpse, a nod to the short story "The Black Cat" or possibly "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe, and a gun silencer, paying homage to a scene from Metal Gear Solid, another Konami game.
- Wheelchairs are recurring features in the series. At one point in Silent Hill 3, Heather passes a glass wall. On the other side is an empty wheelchair outside of a room in what appears to be a mental institute. This strongly resembles a prominent image in the movie Session 9. Another wheelchair can be found lying on the floor, its wheel still spinning, resembling a shot in Jacob's Ladder.
- The pendant around Heather's neck is quite similar to one found in the film Rosemary's Baby.
- The name Bergen Street for the subway platform Heather encounters in Silent Hill 3 is reference to Bergen Street station, a real subway location in Brooklyn NYC, which played a significant part in the film Jacob's Ladder. Its use could also be a reference to the film Flatliners.
- Another reference to Jacob's Ladder can be found within the Subway Station by reading a newspaper about a man's death upon the subway tracks that occured at "Platform Four" and an occult magazine about ghost activity. Once all two events have occured, wandering around "Platform Four" triggers a cutscene where Heather is pushed onto the tracks by the a ghost and the player must exit the tracks before a subway train kills Heather.
- A song in Silent Hill 3 is titled "Sickness Unto Foolish Death." This might be a reference to the existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard's theory on despair, which he detailed in his The Sickness Unto Death, an existential concept to describe the state human beings find themselves in when they have to make choices in a world of uncertainty. This state is the described as a "loss of self." Looking at the third installment of the series with this theme in context, it could be seen as Heather's difficult choice of vengeance vs. submission to the Otherworld of Silent Hill, and how she loses her self-awareness in the pursuit of vengeance. [link]
- Both the PS2 and PC version of Silent Hill 3 contain four joke references to Silent Hill 2, the main one being a funny cutscene where Heather gets grossed out and refuses to get something out of a clogged toilet like the one James "experienced" in Silent Hill 2. These scenes are unlockable to those that have a Silent Hill 2 savegame present on their PS2 memory card or in their Savedata folder for the PC version. With the PS2 version one only need have a Silent Hill 2 savegame on their memory card, however, the PC version requires some tinkering with the registry.
- On the way to Silent Hill, Douglas mentions he had been there once before on a missing persons case, but he "never did find the guy." It is possible he is refferring to James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2.
Endings
- Normal ("Good"): In this ending Heather returns to the amusement park after beating the game. While there she acts very strangely as she approaches Douglas. She wields a knife and seems unresponsive. She acts as if she is about to kill Douglas but then suddenly stops and tells him she is just kidding and playing a joke. Douglas makes a comment on how she has a twisted sense of humour. She then insists that Douglas call her Cheryl, which is the name her father originally gave her. Douglas then asks if she is also considering going back to her original brunette hair color and she makes a comment about blondes having more fun. The game closes with the credits rolling over a picture of Heather visiting Harry's tombstone. Quite possibly the 'true' ending, although this is speculation.
- Possessed ("Bad"): Heather seems to come out of a daze. She sees Douglas lying before her, stabbed to death. She realizes that she is holding her knife in her hand, and that it is soaked with blood. Some feel this is the 'leading believers to paradise with blood stained hands' part of the prophecy made about Heather. To get the "Possessed" ending, you must have already beaten the game once and Heather must accumulate a number of "points" throughout the game. Points are accumulated through killing creatures (10 points each), taking damage (1 point each), or forgiving the confessor (1,000 points). You need to accumulate 4,000 points to get this ending.
- Revenge: Just like in Silent Hill 1 and 2, Silent Hill 3 has a goofy UFO ending. After doing what is necessary to attain this ending, Heather returns home to find that her father and protagonist of the first game, Harry Mason, is not dead, and is in fact sitting in a chair, talking to an alien. James Sunderland, the protagonist from Silent Hill 2, can be seen in the background, hiding behind a curtain. Heather tells Harry what has been going on and all the bad things that have happened to her and Harry, clearly upset, vows revenge on the town of Silent Hill. The next scene portrays the town being obliterated in a UFO attack ala 1950s Sci-fi films. This ending is seen as being a complete fabrication due to the timeline of the game. If one gets the UFO ending in the first Silent Hill game, Harry never receives the baby that becomes Heather. Because Heather arrives to find that Harry has a sort of friendship with the aliens, it assumes that the first game's UFO ending actually happened and therefore, Heather should not be there. This cannot be acquired on the first playthrough and is only possible if the player has previously completed the game and has met the requirements to obtain the unlockable Heather Beam or Sexy Beam. You must kill at least 30 enemies with the Heather/Sexy Beam to get this ending.
Sequels
As of 2006 one sequel title exists. Another is planned for the next generation Playstation 3 console.
- (2004)
- Silent Hill 5 (TBA)
- '' (2006)
External links
- [Official Silent Hill 3 site] (Konami Europe)
- [Silent Hill series] (Konami Japan)
- [Gamespot]
- [Silent Hill 3] at MusicBrainz
- [Silent Hill 3] at MusicBrainz
- [Silent Hill 3 at MobyGames]
- [Translated Memories]
| Silent Hill by Konami |
|---|
| Game Development: Team Silent > Climax Studios |
| Games: | 1 | 2 | 3 | | 5 (working title) | Experience'' |
| Film: Silent Hill (film)>Silent Hill | Soundtrack |
| List of Silent Hill characters>Characters: Alessa | Cybil | Harry | Heather | Eileen | Henry | James | Walter | Maria | Douglas | Lisa |
| List of Silent Hill monsters>Creatures: Pyramid Head | Valtiel |
| Organizations/Groups: Order (Silent Hill)>The Order |
| List of Silent Hill locations>Locations: Midwich Elementary School |
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