I mean yea I can see that. But take away its awful fandom and it's still a good game
Yeah, when it comes to the original trilogy, SH3 is the only one that actually got under my skin a bit.
That said, the original trilogy is kinda weird in ways I never see people talk about.
SH1 isn't the best story (again, it all kinda becomes silly the minute you find out its just a bunch of goobers in robes wanting to summon a demon... who then gets punked by a writer with a shotgun. Great job, guys, I'm sure this creature was worth all that time and effort)... but I give it credit for being the only game that keeps you on point, always with a note giving you an indication where the next plot point is.
That's actually something SH2 is not good at. The first thing you're told after getting the plank is that you're trying to get to a certain park where James and Mary used to hang out, but then there's no obvious way there. You're
meant to stumble upon Eddie's van, which
then gives you the breadcrumbs to follow... but the van is like, in the complete opposite corner of the area from where you find the plank, so to find it you would have to be kinda just wandering aimlessly... or having a guide.
It does it again once Maria is in your party, where the cutscene tells you the other "special place" James remembers is the hotel, and you're expected to just try to
walk there.... with this sickly, coughing and clearly not-well woman following you the whole time. You'll eventually find notes that tell you to trek all the way back and go to the bowling alley, where Eddie is sitting there eating pizza... and again you just made this sick-fuck woman hike with you.
(I mean yes,
later on you learn Maria isn't even real, but a first-time player isn't gonna know that).
And I swear a lot of the locations feel a bit random. To be fair, something important happens in all of them, but take the apartments for example. It feels like you're just mindlessly going from floor to floor (and I actually got stuck on one playthru because a certain key event won't trigger--you hearing the sound on the stairwell--until you've done other things). I really feel like the narrative could have been tightened up in places. The hospital bothers me in the same way.
.... Like I said, SH3 is the only one to genuinely get under my skin a bit, just how hard it goes with some of the sound and images and how unrelenting it is.... but on my first playthru I actually found the first half of the game (before the big reveal of Heather's dad) wearying. Because it seemed like I was just being funneled into random spooky places one after another, playing as some girl I (obstensibly) knew nothing about.
I remember getting out of the sewers, going to ground level... and the game immediately was like "now explore this abandoned building that just happens to be in your path for no reason!" and I was like "COME THE FUCK ON!"
SH3 picks up in the second half, where there's actually a story now and with characters who I can get behind, but before that it feels like just a haunted house full of random spooky bits.
I never played SH4 and only know the later games from reviews and lets plays, but considering I had mixed feelings on the "good" games... yeah I kinda feel like people gloss over their flaws. SH1 is all around still the best one IMO, even if the later ones had some bits I appreciated.
