There are games named after their heroes; others named after their villains. There are a few – well, perhaps only one – named after their love interest. But Silent Hill is named, unusually, after its setting, and rightly so. However involving the stories, and however sympathetic the characters, it's the town that dominates – brooding, unsettling, unnerving. Which is why the idea that Silent Hill would make only a cameo appearance in one of its own games seemed at the time a concept as bizarre as a Resident Evil without zombies.
But after two increasingly extensive street-by-street recreations – made uniquely bizarre by the Japanese interpretation of small-town Americana as much as by its twisted history – the developers were adamant that a geographic shift as well as a thematic one was necessary for reinvention. Player response to Silent Hill 2's lengthy stretches (and lengthy nerve-stretchers) where nothing happened had also been duly noted, and it was decided that Silent Hill 3 would address this with a new, more aggressive fear.
