Whilst most gamers and critics would no doubt chose the 2nd game as the best in the series i am in the minority that in fact prefers Silent Hill 3 instead (albeit by a very small margin).
This is for numerous reasons, none of which are the obvious one that you will be thinking of (the increased emphasis on combat) as in this respect i prefer the attitude of the second game.
In fact my main reasons behind my love for this game all revolve around the way the story ties into the first Silent Hill game and the fantastically melancholy way that this is handled.
My favourite aspect of this series has always been the melancholy moments which are present amongst the Jacobs Ladder-esque otherworldly horror which otherwise populates the games, Silent Hill 3 just manages to outperform Silent Hill 2 in this aspect (in my opinion) which leads me on to the other reason why i love it so much........the music
The soundtrack for this game is just utterly fantastic and completely reinforces the melancholy aspect i mentioned earlier. Much of this is due to the increased introduction of female vocals on many of Akira Yamaoka's masterfully created tracks. Pieces such as "Please Love Me....Once More" and "I Want Love" are to me the pinnacle of anything he's ever done and only serve to increase the effect of some of the already fantastic cutscenes found within the game.
Silent Hill 3 was unfairly given quite average scores by the specialist press over here on release, mainly for the increase in action and the (supposedly) stifled play mechanics. If only they had known the direction the series was going to go in in this generation then maybe they wouldn't have been so harsh.
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