Posted by Jurassosaurus [63.191.8.92 - sdn-ap-014caburbP0092.dialsprint.net] on 15 January 2004 at 00.08.21 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: Re: What next.... posted by Hunter on 14 January 2004 at 07.15.44 ZuluTime:

Sorry, hitting the sequels pretty hard lately and beginning to wonder why some sequels are ever made.

I haven't actually seen the third Silent Hill played yet, but I wasn't really impressed by the second one. I'm not sure any of it will ever top the first one.

I just feel like maybe they shouldn't push the premise a little too far. The underdeveloped 'what the fuck just happened' factor of the first game is what made it work....

Yeah, the second one resulted in some mixed feelings. It was a standalone outing (i.e. no real connections to the first) and by that merit, it was pretty good (especially if one is willing to delve into the whole psychology of the story). It definitely had some uniquely creepy factors to it (e.g. the raping of Legs by Pyramidhead in the apts, or that one point in the apts where you see Pyramidhead just staring at you from down the hall), but the overall scariness of the game wasn't really present. There was a disappointing paucity of enemy variety, and it bugged me that I was able to see clearly around the town at night with the flashlight off. That last part might just be a TV issue.

The third installment is much scarier than the second. There are far more enemies around, the environments are much creepier, and the sound almost never stops grinding at you.

Here's an example of what I mean:
     

There's was a point in the game where I had to do some serious backtracking to pick up an item I had missed the first time through (classic bane of survival horror). So I'm fairly armed and confident as I head back. It wasn't a big deal since I already had killed everything through the first time.

Anyway, I reach this one hall where I need to enter through a room I had been in before, to reach the other side. The second I entered the room, I was greeted by 3 large hell hounds (with split heads), and two butchers. All the while the sounds is just screaming out of the speakers and the walls themselves are breathing, which gave everthing a blurry living quality. It was incredibly disorienting and genuinely scary. It also left me with one hell of a head rush when it was all done. After I escaped from that room, I was back in an empty hall that just started bleeding from random places.
     

The enemies in this installment aren't as laid back as the previous two. In the original, one could walk all around town without getting attacked, as long as the light was off. In the third one (due to an integral part of the plot) every enemy wants you dead, and they don't care if the light is on, or off.

The third one connects up directly with the first storywise. This is a slight downer as they wind up explaining some of the mechanics of Silent Hill's otherworld. Overall, though, it's a worthy entry, and one of the scariest pieces of entertainment out there.

The graphics in the game are jaw droppingly amazing as well. I don't usually like to go around touting the eye candy, but if Gremlin thought the character models of the RE-Remake, RE0 and RE: Gun Survivor were great, then he should definitely check out the ones in SH3. Besides having completely 3D modeled clothing, the characters also feature a wide array of facial muscles (which realistically show up when talking) and radiosity lighting in the eyes. The latter results in the first CG characters I've ever seen (barring the possible exception of FF: The Spirits Within), that don't look like they have toy eyeballs. They genuinely look real.

Er..anyway to make a long post short: It's a good game.
     

Which, for some reason, reminds me that I haven't actually seen Fatal Frame played yet. I'll have to bug Gremlin about that. And about the Silent Hills again. I'm sure we've got time....

Continuing the theme of the post, that game has a sequel out now too.

Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly. I haven't played this one yet, but I've heard that it is suppose to be genuinely terrifying (of course I also heard the same thing about the Resident Evil remake, so we'll see).

I suppose as long as the companies are willing to continually improve on the previous incarnations, the constant barrage of sequels won't be too bad (i.e. no Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness).

I'll leave this post with the one original survival horror title that is slated to come out this year: