Is silent hill 3 the worst game in the series?

[Miette]

I strongly, fervently and rabidly disagree! It's quite an amazing game, I think. It could almost survive on its own.

[Aerith Gainsborough]

I strongly disagree, as well. Silent Hill 3 has to be my favorite game of the series, hands down! It was definitely the creepiest, and anything that centers around Alessa is just amazing to me.

[Tillerman]

I think it's one of the better games in the series. I do still like SH1 and 2 better, but not by a lot. SH3 has a lot of merits... for one thing, it has easily the best main character of the entire series. It's also a very nicely designed game.

[pinkandblack84]

in my opinion SH3 is not the worst game of the series it's probably one of the better ones. For me "The Room" still holds that title of being the worst game of the series at least for me anyways.

[stopped_clock]

SH3 usually languishes at the bottom of my list for several reasons (not right at the bottom mind, that's Homecoming).

I don't like Heather as a character at all really, whilst she is more fleshed out than most SH protagonists, she's also a lot more annoying and really is just a fairly generic spunky teen with an attitude, I would have preferred a more thoughtful and reflective character.

Whilst the game looks great I found a lot of the level design to be pretty dull, the re-use of Brookhaven also annoyed me (largely because I had played SH2 to death by this point and was looking forward to some new areas of SH to explore).

Speaking of exploration, SH3 was the first game in the series that was really lacking in that department, and because of this the game felt very linear to me, and also, after playing the previous games I was annoyed to find that SH3 only had two proper endings, and that the criteria for getting the bad ending was so cheap after the subtle and intelligent criteria for the SH2 endings and the far more interesting methods for getting the various SH1 endings.

I also think that the beginning of SH3 was very badly done, introducing you to a whole bunch of the games enemies in an instant as well as to the weapons that you'll be picking up along the way. This really kinda ruined a fair amount of the game for me, just think of how much scarier the first Closer encounter in the mall would have been if you hadn't already killed a bunch of them in your nightmare.

Finally, I think that it probably has the weakest story overall of any SH game and also I find most of the characters to be dull and quite pointless.

In answer to the title of the thread, I would say yes it was the worst game in the series, until Homecoming came out.

[Aerith Gainsborough]

Finally, I think that it probably has the weakest story overall of any SH game and also I find most of the characters to be dull and quite pointless.

I disagree a bit. I will admit, Heather is just a generic angsty teen, but I think that Claudia and Vincent were very strong characters. Even the concept of the characters amazes me. The story of Silent Hill 3 is kind of weak by itself, I'll admit, but I look at it as the ending of the stories that you see in Origins in Silent Hill 1. I may just be biased because I love Alessa and anything to do with her makes me grin.

[stopped_clock]

Vincent is an ok character, I like the whole priest who doesn't exactly practice what he preaches angle, but I found Claudia to be so cookie-cutter-crazy that I just didn't care about her at all as a character. At least Dahlia was somewhat ambiguous for a large portion of SH1.

In fairness, SH1's characters weren't that great either, but I tend to be more lenient with SH1 because it was a ps1 title and because I played it before SH2, which meant that I didn't have those fantastic multi-faceted characters to compare it with.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that I don't find SH3 to be particularly scary, which is quite a big part of why I don't think it's that great. SH1 and SHO don't have particularly great stories, but they're scary, so I tend to let them off quite a bit because they fulfil the primary function of a horror game.

On the flip side of this are SH2 and SHSM, neither of which are particularly scary but which both have great stories and strong characters. For me, SH3 fails to deliver either of these things, and as such fails as a Silent Hill title, in much the same ways that I feel Homecoming failed.

[Tillerman]

I think SH3 has some of the stronger characters in the series, but that's just me. Heather is definitely my favorite protagonist. I really like the way Claudia is written as well.

[Doo-glas]

the continued the existence of this thread has always bothered me because there is no way that Silent Hill 3 is the worst of the series

out of the original 4 done by Team Silent, 4 is by far the worst and out of the Silent Hill series overall Homecoming is the worst

3 in my opinion rivals 2 for best in the series (I would say 2 is the best, but just barely)

[Tillerman]

1 is my personal favorite, but I would certainly put 3 at a strong 3rd best. And I would agree with most people that 4 is the weakest of the Team Silent games, although I even think 4 is underrated. And I wouldn't worry about the continued existence of this thread... it seems that threads like these get a lot of posts just so that people can disagree with the OP. I know I've seen a few people in here say that 3 was their favorite, and although it's not my personal favorite I can totally see why. It's such a well designed game.

[VIVIsect]

the continued the existence of this thread has always bothered me because there is no way that Silent Hill 3 is the worst of the series

out of the original 4 done by Team Silent, 4 is by far the worst and out of the Silent Hill series overall Homecoming is the worst

3 in my opinion rivals 2 for best in the series (I would say 2 is the best, but just barely)

Amen, brother.

Every time I see this thread, my head almost explodes.

[alone in the town]

Mine too, but mostly because there is a spelling error in the thread title and nobody's fixed it.

[Fevered Dream]

I also think that the beginning of SH3 was very badly done, introducing you to a whole bunch of the games enemies in an instant as well as to the weapons that you'll be picking up along the way. This really kinda ruined a fair amount of the game for me, just think of how much scarier the first Closer encounter in the mall would have been if you hadn't already killed a bunch of them in your nightmare.

Though I don't agree with your other points in your post, I do strongly and adamently agree with this. The beginning was far too "in your face" and pretty much killed a lot of the suspense for a while afterwards. Sure SH1 did a similar thing with the whole dream sequence at the beginning, but it was far better executed than: "ooh creepy amusement park, ooh creepy monsters, ooh rollerco....squash!"

[Doctor Eggnog]

^ Made me laugh, but too lazy to Quotable Notable.

SH3 is a game I find hard to love. It is an amazing game in some ways, but it has some glaring flaws that stood out after the incredible first two games and made it itially hard to appreciate. For me it's kinda the "middle game" in the series, not as good as the first two but better than the rest. And it's weird, because it somehow manages to have as many pros as the first two games and as many cons as the rest. If you ONLY look at the cons, which were all I could look at at first, then it certainly seems like the worst game in the series.

But it's not. And it seems almost everyone agrees.

Hey, I can change that spelling error in my post!!!

[Hoady]

Silent Hill 3 is my second favourite.I have 1 gripe with it and that is not once did i find it scary(lights off and big headphones in)but i still find it extremely enjoyable.The other games i find much creepier, the 3rd one just doesn't have that feeling of isolation.

[Brian J Flesh]

I think silent hill 3 is the weakest title. I mean, I dont like Silent Hill 5 either but out of the two of them 3 sucks more. So its the weakest. The only good point to number 3 is the gore! Its the goriest one out of all of them. I do remember that. I only beat the game once. The other games I play over and over and over.....

SH3 usually languishes at the bottom of my list for several reasons (not right at the bottom mind, that's Homecoming).

I don't like Heather as a character at all really, whilst she is more fleshed out than most SH protagonists, she's also a lot more annoying and really is just a fairly generic spunky teen with an attitude, I would have preferred a more thoughtful and reflective character.

Whilst the game looks great I found a lot of the level design to be pretty dull, the re-use of Brookhaven also annoyed me (largely because I had played SH2 to death by this point and was looking forward to some new areas of SH to explore).

Speaking of exploration, SH3 was the first game in the series that was really lacking in that department, and because of this the game felt very linear to me, and also, after playing the previous games I was annoyed to find that SH3 only had two proper endings, and that the criteria for getting the bad ending was so cheap after the subtle and intelligent criteria for the SH2 endings and the far more interesting methods for getting the various SH1 endings.

I also think that the beginning of SH3 was very badly done, introducing you to a whole bunch of the games enemies in an instant as well as to the weapons that you'll be picking up along the way. This really kinda ruined a fair amount of the game for me, just think of how much scarier the first Closer encounter in the mall would have been if you hadn't already killed a bunch of them in your nightmare.

Finally, I think that it probably has the weakest story overall of any SH game and also I find most of the characters to be dull and quite pointless.

In answer to the title of the thread, I would say yes it was the worst game in the series, until Homecoming came out.

Good Points, I agree. Only thing I disagree with is Vincent. I do like him. Very creepy. "Its a little far...but its closer than heaven"-Vincent.

And Im not sure what peoples problem is with silent hill 4 but its one of the best. My order of games go as (FROM BEST TO SUCK)-

Silent Hill 1
Silent Hill 2 Restless Dreams
Silent Hill 4 The Room
Silent Hill Origins
Silent Hill 5 Homecoming
Silent Hill Shattered Memories
Silent Hill 3

Do not double post, use the edit button. -Amy

[Kenji]

I wonder...

Would it be fair to say that those who like SH3 tend to like Heather, and those who dislike SH3 tend to dislike Heather?

[Rayder]

First off, my comparisons are only based ON SH 1-4. I haven't seen or played any of the other SH games. I don't own any consoles (SH1 is emulated on my PC since my PS1 died years ago) and my PC isn't powerful enough for Homecoming. But from everything I've been reading, anything after SH4 shouldn't even be considered in any ratings of SH games since they stray too far from the main Silent Hill storyline.

I'm gonna have to disagree with SH3 being the worst also. Personally, I feel SH3 is second best after SH2. The graphics in SH3 are just so magnificent compared to any of the other SH's that I can't help but like it despite the weaker story. 2 only beats it because 2 was the most memorable experience of all the SH games I've played for me, but 3 definitely had the best graphics, and that rates pretty high in my book. Especially since 3 does still retain the general Silent Hill atmosphere and is more of a direct sequel to SH1.

I consider SH1 and 4 to be in a different classification and really can't be rated among SH2 and 3 in my mind. SH1 graphics are horrible (relatively speaking). Though it does have the original started-it-all story, the jittery, texture-warping PS1 graphics ruin the experience for me and constantly remind me that I'm just playing a game. Don't get me wrong, SH1 is a great game, but the pitiful graphics...UGH...I have a hard time tolerating with them. If they would have just made a PC version......

SH4 just isn't very good, in my opinion. I consider 4 easily the worst in the series that I've played, even though I'd still class it as a viable Silent Hill experience, it is too much of a departure from the first 3, and all that backtracking through the same environments hurt it badly for me.

[JuriDawn]

Mine too, but mostly because there is a spelling error in the thread title and nobody's fixed it.

You're welcome.

On topic, I think Homecoming takes the award for Most Awfullest SH Game. When more time is spent groaning at cliches/rolling your eyes at the totally unnecessary lovey scenes than is spent being scared, the game has failed. Hard. It also doesn't help that Homecoming tries to have a big twist ending that was already used by the second game in the series.

Now, there were some good scary moments in Homecoming. There were also some great boss monster designs and an interesting back story, but the bad outweighs the good too heavily for me to like that game. SH3 is infinitely less obnoxious, even when Heather is wearing the Princess Heart costume and Douglas is in his underwear.

[amphreded]

SH3 is definitely best looking, even comparing to newer titles. The design of certain areas are so visceral that I had to put my controllers down due to the induced nausea, especially the alternate hospital. The amusement park is also my personal favorite place. I thought the dream sequence in the beginning set off the tone of the game nicely.
I do think that comparing to 1 and 2, SH3 cannot compare in term of ominousness and storyline, respectively. I prefer Heather less that Harry and James, and while I like Douglas, the secondary roaster of SH1 and SH2 overall have more depth to them.
SH4 is rather unique for me. I like the concept of 4 the most and the storyline is also a big plus; however, its cumbersomeness killed the fun.