Silent Hill 3 released in 2003 for the playstation 2 is in my opinion the best game in the Silent Hill series, even better than the classic Silent Hill 2. In Silent Hill 3 you play as Heather, a spunky, witty and bitchy teenage girl. They heather's character rather interesting, deep and detailed. For instance throughout the course of the game when you look at a carton of cigarettes or interact with another object you'll learn more about the character. Heather will say something like I used to smoke and now I don't anymore. This is a little bit more detail that we had missing from the previous games.

Gameplay wise Silent Hill 3 sticks to the typicial formula that is that in order to progress you must locate specific items at key points in the game in order to progress. Sometimes these items will be keys, and other times it will require you to combine particular items in your inventory in order to solve a puzzle.

 

Silent Hill 3 gameplay screenshot

 

In Silent Hill 3 the monsters are much more difficult that thin the previous two games, in a lot of cases it's actually easier to avoid them altogether than to try and fight them. As with Silent Hill 1 and 2 the monsters in the game are deeply symbolic, some representing maternity and such as the insane cancer, and others representing something about the main characters past. The design of the monsters is just as detailed and well thought out as with the previous silent hill games.

What makes Silent Hill 3 stand out for me is the attention to details in the characters progression throughout the story. For instance Heather starts out as being somewhat defensive and spikey but after the death of her father becomes deeply vunerable and self destructive.

Overall while Silent Hill 3 is not as deep, or symbolic as it's predecessor it is far more engaging on a human level and in my opinion is the peak of the series.