Topic: Tactics for Silent Hill 3

[Arma]

I just started playing that one and it's scarier than the other two SHs I played on my PS2, The Room and Shattered Memories.

I'm in the mall, near the subway exit but I left some rooms unexplored on the previous floors. Mostly because I had no choice but running away after I encountered a pack of monsters and was short on bullets.

My current equipment is the bulleproof vest, a gun with around 30 bullets, a shitty ass worthless knife, 4 beef jerkies and several healing items.
I want to go back and explore a bit more but I don't think this equipment is enough to go and just fight my way through, most of the doors will have the lock broken anyway but I may have missed something back there.

My biggest problem are those large creatures that impale you when you get near them, there are so many now



I probably should just keep going but I want to go back to make sure I didn't miss any really useful item, besides, even if I forget that and keep going I'll be encountering more of these so I could use a basic tactic to beat them without using too many bullets.

Any tips on how to beat these creatures fast?

[beingthehero]

Run from them. You're not really supposed to fight them.

[Arma]

I see, there's no other choice then. Thank you.

[Abnormal Freak]

Yeah, fighting those dudes is such an ammo waster. I find in SH3 more so than the other games that it's best just to run a lot of the time.

So are you playing the games in reverse order or something? Saving the best for last? ;) The first two are amazing, and the story in the second is legendary, as I'm sure you've heard. :o

[Arma]

yeah I started running after using a complete round on one those bastards and it didn't fall, what a pain dammit. At least these guys are slow so you can pass them but the dogs are faster, even if you run sometimes they catch you.

The first SH I played was the second one, I really like that game. I was a bit disappointed because Pyramid Head is not on the next game I played after that, back then I thought it was a more recurrent enemy.
I just play the games as I get them so I'm not following the right order:

Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Silent Hill: Origins
Silent Hill: The Room
Silent Hill 3

I should really play the first one but my brother's PS1 is broken so I have to configure the emulator first and I want to finish playing Soul Reaver for the 20th time before changing the configuration, after all it can take me hours to get it right since I don't know wtf I'm doing lol
ePSXe is not very intuitive, I just use the old trial and error method there

[PFG9000]

Pyramid Head just has a few cameos outside of Silent Hill 2.  He was never meant to be a recurring enemy, as he is tied to the storyline of SH2.  It really doesn't make sense for him to be in any other games, but one of the later SH studios wanted the fanservice so they threw him in there anyway.

But yes, Silent Hill 3 is awesome, and SH2 is even better.  SH2 truly is the greatest game story I've encountered, and the atmosphere is absolutely perfect throughout.  It's funny that you started with The Room and Shattered Memories.  They have some good things going for them, but they're among both the worst and the least-scary titles in the series.  So you've got nothing but improvements coming if you stick with the series.

Really though, if you haven't played the original Silent Hill, you should stop playing SH3 now and play SH1 first.  It's not too soon to avoid ruining the story tie-ins, and they'll be far more meaningful to you if you've played SH1 first.  I can't stress this enough.  You're not that far into the game anyway, and you can pick it right back up where you left off.

[beingthehero]

I always thought SH4 was underrated. ;_;

But then again, it was the first Silent Hill game I played and loved it, so I imagine I have a favorable bias towards it. While some parts weren't nearly as scary as the others, I thought it had incredible atmosphere, especially the abandoned orphanage in the woods.

I also played the series 'backwards'. The most interesting thing about SH1 is the fact that the 'atmosphere' of the game feels more like a Stephen King novel than the disturbing psychological thriller horror of SH2.

[Mooning Freddy]

SH3 was my favorite, Heather is such a great character and the atmosphere is both creepy and emotional.
Some parts of the game have no explanation whatsoever and are just made to freak you out, which is awesome.
As for the enemies, I prefer using melee weapons. Those guys are quite slow and the moment you find the lead pipe (and later katana) you shouldn't have too much trouble to kick their butt. Oh, but beware of the dogs! They just jump at you so you better be ready to hit them when you hear the growl!

[Arma]

Yes I just found the pipe and they ended up being quite easy with melee weapons if you run behind them and attack. I'm still gonna run most of the time but at least now I have something to get them out of the way when they get too annoying. I encountered a new type of enemies now, I didn't get the chance to see them well yet but they make disturbing metallic noises. I'm not going to try fighting those haha

The dogs are not very resistent but their attacks are very aggressive, they also come in packs so I think it's better just to run into a room or the next area as fast as possible.

I changed the controls to 2D type and started using the map a lot more. This game is more like SH2, The Room and Shattered Memories aren't very challenging so my skills to play these type of games are a bit rusted but I'm starting to remember how I used to play SH2 so I'm using a similar configuration.

[shelverton.]

The tactics of running away from your enemies is probably the biggest reason why I could never ever get into the survival horror genre. I always want to kill everything before I move on, or else I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Because of that I always run out of ammo in the these type of games cause I can't conserve bullets even if my life depended on it (which it kind of...does).
I need to give Silent Hill 3 another chance one day, cause even today it looks damn good. Better than some current generation games, to be honest.