Initially moving away from the mist-shrouded streets of the first two games, Silent Hill 3 focuses on a new female character. Heather, a gentle teenager, is on a trip to her local shopping centre when her life is turned upside down. As she prepares to leave, the shops and brightly lit walkways are transformed into a dark, brooding place where eerie noises echo around the empty corridors and where misshapen creatures can be glimpsed fleetingly amidst the shadows.

Trapped in this inhospitable world, Heather is forced to fight for her life. Grotesque apparitions and lumpen shapes shadow her every move, while an army of grotesque creatures lurk in dark corners and rooms. Armed with whatever she can find - including pistols, a sub-machine gun and a piece of steel pipe - Heather must fend off their advances while solving the mysteries that will gradually piece together why she is trapped in this hellish, insane world.

Silent Hill 3 represents a huge advance for the groundbreaking horror series. Its incredible aesthetic detail brings the game's dark corridors and blood stained rooms to life. Likewise, the unusual camera angles, eerie sound effects and musical stings ensure the player is kept in a permanent state of trepidation. Its horrific cast of bipedal and mutated adversaries - the most ever in a Silent Hill title - also demand attention, with the brief glimpses seen as the game progresses compounded when they are seen in all their horrific, flesh-eating glory. Together, these elements create a truly engrossing and unsettling experience, with Silent Hill 3 marking a new benchmark in horror-themed adventures for PlayStation 2.

Silent Hill 3 will be released for PlayStation 2 on May 23rd; price TBC.