"You're Not Here pt. 2" 2003-08-15 - 4:18 a.m.

older - previous - next - profile - host - my band - my lj

OK, this is the Big Silent Hill 3 Extravaganza

if anyone reading this has stumbled across this page by putting Silent Hill 3 and other such related things into your search enging: No, this isn't a Silent Hill 3 page; this is my online diary(although I'm sure that comes as a surprise to my readers). This isn't a strategy guide, this is just my review and opinions on the game and it contains spoilers

for my own convenience; I've divided it into sections; so that instead of just launching into a big story and bringing up stuff as I think about it; I can just keep things fairly orderly and easy to type

ready? Here we go:

THE FUNNY STORY ABOUT RENTING THE GAME:

as you guys may remember; this game was released Wednesday. And I spent the whole week waiting for it to come out so I could run right out to Blockbuster to rent it.

It wasn't there Wednesday. They said it would be there Thursday or Friday.

I got up early(at noon) both of those days and ran right out to Blockbuster.

it wasn't there Thursday.

Friday morning, I went to both Blockbusters; and it wasn't there.

I got so pissed off that I was about to lose it.

I got home and I felt like smashing everything I owned.

guitars, the computer, the tv;

everything

I was super-pissed

the only thing I could do was read a book

I was too pissed to do anything else.

Literally.

so later that day I was bored off my ass;

and just for something to do I decided to head back to Blockbuster just for the fuck of it,

I asked my sister to come along just so that if it wasn't there(and I wasn't expecting it to be at all); the trip wouldn't be a total waste

well, we got there,

and I kind've looked over to where it would be just in case

I thought I saw; so I rushed right over there, knocking down two kids who were in the aisle looking at other games

as soon as I realized that the game actually was there I grabbed it and hugged it to my chest like it was a lost child.

I was so happy to have it that while my sister tried to decide what to get I was just standing there dancing with my copy.

I'm sure it was just as pathetic to watch as it was to read about.

Moving On:

THE (very summarized)STORY TO SILENT HILL 1

Harry Mason and his wife like to visit the quiet resort town of Silent Hill. One time, they find a baby by the side of the road; Harry's wife is sick(ie-won't live long enough to make a baby of her own), so they take it in and raise it as their own. They name it Cheryl. Harry's wife eventually dies; but he and Cheryl still take vacations in Silent Hill. 7 years after they first find Cheryl; the two are on their way to vacation there again; and apparently just before they reach the exit; Alessa steps out in the middle of the road, and Harry swerves off the road trying to avoid her. He wakes up in the car alone, with the town in the foggy, monster-ridden state we(or I, at least) know and love. And he sets out to find Cheryl; and so the game proper begins.

Basically, Harry goes looking around the town, eventually meeting an old woman: Dahlia.

She tells him that a demon is taking over the town; and tells Harry how to fight it.

After many trials and tribulations; eventually Harry finds out that Dahlia has been playing him; and she's the one who's summoning the Demon.

Basically, it's eventually revealed that: Dahlia is the head of a cult who worships Samael, some kind of Demon God

[as a side note: Samael is one of the many names for the devil; but I don't think that's who it's supposed to be in this game]

she's trying to use her own daughter, Alessa, as the vessel for Samael. But 7 years ago(from the game); something happened(it's never quite revealed what), that leaves Alessa burned beyond what a normal human could survive; and causes her soul to split into two parts. One half is still in the burned body of Alessa, which is kept in a sub-basement of Alchemilla(remember that, it'll be important later) Hospital. Which is why you see hospital references like weelchairs and bloody gurneys everywhere. The other half is in the baby that Harry found by the side of the road; Cheryl.

At the end of the game you find Dahlia, Alessa(who's basically a blood-stained mummy in a weelchair) and Cheryl all together; there's a flash of light, and Alessa and Cheryl join back together into an unharmed version of Alessa. An unharmed, PREGNANT version of Alessa.

(sorry, I couldn't resist)

Something else happens(which in itself is simple; but the setup is more complicated than I'm willing to type), which causes Samael to rip himself out of Alessa's womb; and ices Dahlia(maybe "ices" wasn't the right expression, he actually lights her on fire) in a bit of dramatic irony that's way overused in video games today. Either way, he becomes the last boss.

I've got a theory that the whole reason Harry didn't just dissapear like the other residents of the town, and was able to go through all this and fight all the monsters is because half of Alessa's soul, in Cheryl, loved him. And I think that love is what gives him the power to fight Samael.

Anyway, Harry kills Samael; and Alessa reappears. This time with a baby in her arms. Alessa gives the baby to Harry, and makes a way out appear. Harry leaves; and the building collapses around Alessa.

SILENT HILL 3 SETUP:

you play Heather, a 17 year old girl who's just having one awesomely shitty day.

You start out in a shopping mall in some unidentified town; apparently after closing.

A detective approaches you and says: "it's about your birth"

Heather brushes him off and goes to the ladies' room; where she skips out the window.

When she returns to the mall, she finds the handgun and runs into her first monster; and thus the game proper begins.

CHARACTERS

Heather: Our Protagonist

Douglas: A private eye hired by Claudia to find Heather; who joins Heather after he realizes just what has happened as a result of his finding her.

Vincent: A priest in the cult; mostly out for himself, and enjoys messing with the heads of everyone he comes across. He's more on your side than Claudia's; but he's not really on your side either.

Claudia: not Dahlia's daughter; but a member of the cult who's been driven insane by all the ridicule she got as a child for being in the cult(not to mention abuse from her father); and is trying to use Alessa/Heather once again to summon Samael

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE GAME:

for practically the first half of the game; Silnet Hill 3 is a mean game.

what I mean by that is: it goes beyond just being challenging, and sometimes even fun; and is just mean to you

right off the bat they changed the controls; so amidst all your other problems you've gotta get used to new controls

you're not looking for anyone; and before you learn the story, it just seems kind've pointless

you don't have the driving force of "I have to find Cheryl" or "I have to find Mary"; you're just kinda wandering around trying desperately not to get eaten

but once things start to get going; they fucking rock

FIRST HALF OF THE GAME:

as I said; the first half is pretty mean to you.

You don't get any story revelations; and you don't know what the hell is going on.

You start in the mall; and have to try and make your way home.

You've gotta go through a subway station; the sewers; a building under construction; and an office building; not to mention the Otherworld versions of the mall and office building before you finally get close to home

along the way are some very troublesome spots,

as there were little(and sometimes not so little) things I had been missing that made the game a bitch to play

since I like to do things like I'm the character in the situation rather than a gamer playing as the character in the situation

with the motivation of: Trying to Get Home

instead of exploring the Subway station; I went right to the platform I needed to go to, and promptly spent far too much time wondering why nothing was happening

the train wouldn't come; unless you jumped down onto the tracks

even then, nothing would happen unless you went to the edge of the platform on the tracks

in which case the train would come and kill you without any chance to save yourself

that sucked

I spent forever getting squashed and wondering why the fuck that's the only time the train would come before I finally took myself out of the game and explored the subway station

something you wouldn't do if you knew exactly where you had to go

that pissed me off

but I did it, and finally progressed

then I reached home, and the turning point of the game

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME:

you get home, and find your dad; Harry, murdered in his recliner.

I'm not taking the time to make that dramatic because I talked about it in here before

Heather breaks down sobbing; kneeling down and putting her head on Harry's lap.

she sobs for a few minutes before the screen goes black; and after a few seconds it comes back when she's collected herself.

this was fine with me, because I was pretty broken up over Harry's murder myself.

I didn't cry.

but I came close.

anyway; two things worth mentioning:

the first: You never see Harry's face.

the camera keeps conspicuously away from his head when he's in the recliner; and later Heather and Douglas lay him in his bed and cover him with a sheet(because there's no one in town to contact about his murder; and that's the best burial they could give him)and you don't see it until he's completely covered.

the second: for the rest of the game; Heather has Harry's blood on the collar and chest of her vest from when she leaned onto his lap. I think that's a nice touch not only in realism, but also in kind of a Memorial to Harry; like there's part of Harry with you througout the whole game.

Anyway, after that you head to the rooftop for the confrontation with Claudia and fight with the Hit Monster I described.

when you come back down Douglas is there, and after the little "burial" for Harry; Heather says her goodbyes, and Douglas drives her to Silent Hill

SILENT HILL/BROOKHAVEN:

once you're back in Silent Hill, it was like getting back on familiar territory for me; and I was ready for any mean shit the game could bring on

there's a lot of questions raised by this game about Silent Hill

Silent Hill 1 happened 17 years ago; and it makes me wonder: did the town stay like that? that's what Silent Hill 2 seems to support. Was the town just abandoned altogether for all these years? And if so, how could that have happened? Wouldn't the government have stepped in at some point? Or did things go back to normal; and now things have gone to shit again because of Claudia? Later it's revealed that the latter is true. People came in and repopulated the town; but now things have gone to shit again.

But that makes the situation of Silent Hill 2 confusing as hell. When did it happen? Was it after the 1st one or before? Was it after the 3rd one? Did it take place during one of the games? Did it even really happen? There's no mention of it in either #'s 1 or 3; and there's no mention of either of those games in #2

I'm hoping there'll be a Silent Hill 4 that can tie in #2 a little better(or, you know, AT ALL). I really liked the second one; and I'd hate to think it never happened.

[and since I'm asking all these questions; it's as good a time as any to throw in: which one takes place now? Is Silent Hill 1 the present and #3 is 17 years in the future? Or is Silent Hill 3 the present and #1 was 17 years in the past? Or are they both off? I suppose it really doesn't matter; but these things bother me.]

But back to the game at hand;

as I mentioned; apparently things went back to normal after the first one, and have only gone to shit again now; this is supported by Douglas and Heather checking in(or maybe breaking in, considering that things have gone to shit; regardless of wether or not they went back to normal or not) to a hotel when they arrive

now; this is where a confusing situation arrives

I have the feeling it was somewhat vague in the Japanese version; and during translation it got ripped out altogether

now, before you leave the town from the first half; apparently Vincent ran into Douglas and told him to "find Leonard" when they got to Silent Hill

when you get to Silent Hill; you arrive on the Southside of the lake

ie-the side you were at in Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill 1 took place completely on the north side of the lake

that's dumb

and once you arrive there; Douglas says he's going to go look for Leonard, while you go to "the hospital"

now, pretty much the entire 1st game centered around Alchemilla Hospital

it's only logical that when you return to Silent Hill; you'd want to check out Alchemilla

but instead, since you're on the wrong side of the lake; you go to Brookhaven Hospital

this pissed me off to no end

there's ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO GO TO BROOKHAVEN

Brookhaven was the mental hospital you went to in #2;

and the only reason you went in it in that one was because you were trying to find Laura, and she ran in there

and since the inside of the hospital(not the map, just the rooms) has been remodeled; and the Otherworld version of it has been completely and utterly redone

the creators obviously didn't do this out of laziness/an unwillingness to completely remake Alchemilla in the new graphics engine

and the reason I was eventually able to forgive the game is because Leonard is in Brookhaven Hospital

the reason I mentioned the translation above is because I think it was originally something like: Douglas:"I'll go check some other places for Leonard; you check the mental hospital"

something so minor that when they translated it to English and then reworded it so that it didn't sound awkward(ie-like the characters were originally speaking English instead of originally speaking Japanese that was translated into English); it got cut out so that there wasn't any real reason you were going there, you just were

but regardless

Brookhaven is pretty average at first

you run into two nurses as soon as you walk in the door;

and all the stuff in here is the reason I know the town went back to normal for a while

there's all new doctor's notes and patient listings from the second one;

and the place where James got knocked off the roof and through a lower roof has been completely repaired

along with the aforementioned remodeling

the Otherworld version of Brookhaven, however, is a different story

when you first get there, there's this...

"texture" to the walls

I can't describe it

it glows,

and moves

and seems to vibrate

and it's almost painful to look at

I think that if I believed in hell,

that's what the surfaces would look like

it's... beyond words

just thinking about it makes me uncomfortable

but luckily; that's just the patient wings

the rest of the Other-Brookhaven is the usual rusted, bloodstained metal that the Otherworld is usually made of

the Other-Brookhaven, however, is home to the creepiest moment in the game;

if not the creepiest moment I've ever seen

THE CREEPIEST MOMENT IN THE GAME:

you go into this room in Other-Brookhaven;

where there's a little not-quite-hallway from the door to the rest of the room;

just enough to change the camera angle so you can't see the rest of the room

the room itself is a perfect square, and is empty except for a bathtub(empty) in one corner

one wall(by the bathtub/that you face when you step into the room) is a giant mirror

at first nothing happens,

but when you go to the door, it won't open

so you go back to the room itself; and it starts

black stuff starts to come up from the drain of the bathtub

it's not a liquid, it's not anything

it's just Black Stuff

it spreads out from the drain with little tendrils that start to consume the room;

it looks kind've like in Mudvayne's video for Dig; where the black vein-looking things are painted on the lead singer's face in that weird not-quite-stop motion

anyway, they start to consume the room; but only the room you're in

in the mirror; nothing is happening

so you run to the door again, and it still won't open

so you run back,

and your reflection is different

the hair and eyes are black; the skin is red and covered in black vein-looking things, and the clothes are rust-brown and covered more heavily in the black designs

at first your reflection acts the same; even if it looks different

but then it stops

no matter how you move; it just stands there staring at you

the black stuff coming from the tub gets thicker and thicker

and you're stuck moving around praying your reflection will start moving with you again; while she just stares at you, until the black stuff completely covers your side of the room, and then the door works and you can leave again

this so terrified me when it happened that I couldn't even go up into that part of the hospital for the rest of the time I was there

LEONARD:

while you're there; it is eventually revealed that Leonard is Claudia's father

and he's even more bat-shit insane than she is

he's kept in some dark, watery cell so far removed that it's not even on the map in the Otherworld

and the years of being in the dark and water in this hellish version of reality have made his skin start to melt off

he's pretty horrifying to look at

when you get to him; he's a boss battle

but I was able to put him down with relative ease

after I killed him I said: "one eye is taken for an eye"

[that's because I had just learned Bad Moon Rising; and that's the last line of the song. Basically I meant: "an eye for an eye"; because Claudia killed Harry, "my" dad; and "I" had just killed Leonard, her dad.]

THE AMUSEMENT PARK:

after you kill Leonard, you wake up in a room in the regular Brookhaven Hospital

once you get back to the hotel, you find Vincent there instead, and he instructs you to head to the Amusement Park

so you do

now, there's two really cool things about the amusement park:

the first: there's a haunted house you have to go through. Similar to the haunted house at Disneyworld. It freaking rocks, it's not a puzzle, and there's no monsters. You just get to go through the Haunted House attraction. It's pretty sweet. There is this weird red light at the end that you have to run away from or it kills you; but other than that it was just a nice break from the real horror of the game.

Although the fake bodies in the attraction look oddly realistic...

MUWAHAHAHAHA

...sorry,

the second thing: The save points in the first game were these little note pads you'd find throughout the game[in #2 they were these weird red sheets; and in #3 they're symbols for reincarnation]; and the first time you see one Harry says: "maybe someday someone else will experience these events; perhaps they'll find my notes useful." or something to that effect.

Well you did go to the amusement park in the first game(it's on that side of the lake; Heather takes the long way around the lake in a mercifully omitted sequence[you get to a point in the road and it goes black and suddenly you're at the amusement park])

and in this game you find two of the notepads

each one containing some of Harry's notes

they're not vital to the plot, but it's just indescribably cool

the amusement park also contains a somewhat bizarre seen

Douglas catches up with Claudia

and after a brief argument, Douglas points his gun at her

she says something like: "do you really want to end it this way?" and he of course replies in the affirmative, and it goes black before anything happens

sometime later you find that spot as Heather; and Douglas is sitting there pretty badly beaten up with one of his legs broken

how unarmed Claudia managed to beat the shit out of Douglas without getting shot is beyond me; and they never elaborate on it either

[I know I didn't make it real clear there, but Douglas is alive and conscious, and survives the whole game(depending on your ending)]

you end up on the carousel

which in the first game is where Harry fought the possessed Cybil

(I know, I left that out of the story at the beginning, I'm sorry)

[and I did meand Cybil, not Cheryl; Cybil is a cop from the next town over who came to Silent Hill when they lost radio contact. She has a pretty important role in the game, but I didn't feel like describing it.]

well in this game your Reflection from the Creepiest Moment in the Game pops up

and you fight her as a boss battle on the moving carousel

she's not quite as creepy when she's moving

and she wasn't that tough either

after that you move onto the Church

THE END OF THE GAME:

there's not much in the Church

well, not many noteworthy things that center around the Church itself

the church itself is a little chapel;

but it has a massive underground section that exists in the Otherworld

you don't really flip between worlds in this part; they seem to exist at the same time, which is interesting enough

but this has a ton of stuff that explains the storyline

also, in the bottom of the Otherworld

there's some nifty throwback stuff;

like walking through a door and coming out in a classroom from the elementary school

or my personal favorite: Alessa's rooms in both the house, and the sub-basement of Alchemilla hospital

by this point in the game Heather has accepted the fact that she is Alessa(more on that later); and it's so super-cool to see all these things as Alessa

anyway; at the very bottom of the Otherworld catacombs;

things come to a head

Heather walks in on Vincent and Claudia argueing again; and the final scene takes place in that room

Vincent admits that while he's the biggest priest in the cult; actually summoning their God would be bad for him, because he's pretty corrupt and out for himself

Claudia stabs him to death

now, Heather is pregnant with Samael again, remember?(actually, they don't call him "Samael" in this game; just "The God")

well, her hatred for Claudia is what's causing him to grow

Claudia thinks that he'll bring a paradise

but the other characters in the game realize that a God nurtured on hatred won't be bringing about a paradise anytime soon

but Claudia reveals that that's her plan all along

a malevolent God would bring everyone together because then everyone would know what it was like to be hated and tortured; and then would understand eachother

now, just about every mistreated-outcast has thoughts like these from time to time

"if only they knew what it was like to be picked on, then they wouldn't tease me!"

hell, I've had them myself

but most of us, not being insane; let it go

but Claudia went insane

and now she's summoning a God to that end

now, after she kills Vincent; you get control of yourself for a moment

the first time I made the mistake of giving in to my vengeance and ventilating her with the shotgun

bad idea

that caused the God to grow and be born; Game Over

the second time, I, well; this'll take some explaining...

from the start of the game, you've got a Pendant in your inventory, shaped kind've like a jingle bell

it says your dad gave it to you; and if you examine it, it shows that inside it has a little red jewel, "like a tablet"

well the second time I played through that scene; I used the pendant

Heather swallowed the jewel, and aborted the God

now; how Harry got ahold of that jewel, much less knew what it was for is beyond me; but moving on...

Heather vomits the bloody, not-quite-developed fetus out onto the floor

but as she goes to stomp on it; Claudia stops her

and, in one of the sickest things I've ever seen;

Claudia eats the fetus!

eew!

anyway

she falls through the floor

you go through the hole and fight The God

which is kind've like a giant skeleton torso with a big black head that looks like Claudia

I guess killing it is the closest I'll get to revenge

anyway, afterwords Heather cries a little bit more for Harry; and then we see her look over her shoulder at the camera and it fades to black...

it fades in on Douglas on a bench in the amusement park; and Heather walks up

he says: "is it finished?"

and Heather says: "not yet, you're still alive"

she pulls out her knife and starts to advance towards him...

but at the last second she yells: "BOO!"

and has a good laugh at Douglas' expense

he says: "Heather, you have horrible taste!"

or something like that, and Heather tells him not to call her Heather anymore; she's going to go back to using her real name

"Cheryl" the name her Dad gave her

[as I mentioned, I like "Alessa" better]

and the credits roll over a picture of Cheryl kneeling by Harry's grave

ENDING STUFF:

after that you unlock the alternate outfit stuff I was talking about the other day

and the game hasn't been out long enough for me to find the other endings on the internet

all I know is that there's a "bad ending" where she actually does stab Douglas; and a "revenge ending" that I don't have any details for, but I wish I'd gotten

ALESSA/CHERYL/HEATHER:

this is a really neat aspect of the game

at first Claudia keeps mentioning Heather's "true self" without actually coming out and saying that she's Alessa

as the game progresses she does say she's Alessa; but Heather denies it

as the game progresses, whenever you find Alessa-related things, or have memories of your time as Alessa

at first Heather talks about it like Alessa is a seperate person

then she starts to say like: "that was when I... I mean, Alessa did this"

as the game progresses she starts to say things like: "when I was Alessa"

and around the end when you finally start to find Alessa's rooms and other such Alessa-related stuff; she just says: "I"

accepting that she's Alessa

as I mentioned before; it's very nice to know that Alessa was never evil

it's just super cool

especially in conjunction with the first game

OTHER STUFF:

the programmers built in some special features if you save your game on a memory card that has a completed save file from Silent Hill 2 on it

mine did

they put in little in-jokes throughout the game that I find cool in my un-bridled-nerdiness

the foremost I remember is:

in the second one when you're at Brookhaven;

you go on the roof, and the door locks behind you

so you check out some of the fencing around the roof

[it's a mental hospital, remember? they don't want jumpers]

and some if it says something like: "it's all rusted, it feels like if I pushed it with my hands it would give way"

when you turn around Pyramid Head shows up and knocks you through that fence and off the roof, and through the ceiling of another part of the building

well, when you check that same fence in #3; it says something like: "it's a fence, it seems to be in good shape, like it's not about to collapse"

which is worthy of my Hillbilly Laugh

that's cool

also, Heather is quite the little delinquent

from the first scene where she jumps out the bathroom window to avoid a detective,

to her constant references to pain being: "like a hangover"

and there's these items called 'Ampoules', which are basically invincibility things. Well, in the first two games they had a pretty clinical description of the effects; but in this one Heather says: "yeah, this is the stuff" and then the explenation.

and plus there's this one part where you find a matchbook(an item you need) next to a lit cigarette in an ashtray. When you check the cigarette, she says: "no more cigarettes for me, I quite for good."

and she's only 17!

it's kind've a funny little touch.

OVERALL RATING:

I'm sure this thing has kinda petered out around the end; since I'm getting more and more tired as I type, and I'm sure I'm forgetting things

basically; this game is pretty slow around the beginning, and pretty mean at that

but once you get going and into the storyline, it becomes so fucking awesome

it's definitely one of my favorite games in general

but I'm going to wait for the afterglow to wear off a little more before I say something like: "it's the best in the series", because the first two Silent Hill games are so good that they're not to be taken lightly

I definitely can't wait to buy this one

the only thing that would've made this game better is if I'd gotten to go to work on Claudia with a blowtorch and a pair of pliers

[I wish I could say: "if they hadn't murdered Harry", but it's pretty integral to the storyline. It sucks, but it would've done more harm than good if he had been in the game and survived.]

but that could've been possible if I'd gotten the "revenge" ending

once I figure out the requirements for that one; I'm going to try for it in my second game with her in the God of Thunder outfit

THE SOUNDTRACK:

this game was released in America with the Soundtrack as part of the package.

I didn't really expect the rental to come with it; but it did.

hence the "You're Not Here" titles of the entries concerning Silent Hill 3.

THAT'S IT:

Sweet Dreams

�

�