Let's Play: Silent Hill

Speaking of save points, what are they in 1? I love how in 2 they are these red solids that didn't seem to part of the rest of the world. Very meta.

I agree. The hunting down of the three keys, their placement, and the house you use them in (and what happens after) is one of my favorite segments of any of the games.

There's a great payoff for that in SH3 where you find one of his notepads, too.

I'm getting a Wizard of Oz vibe from those keys.

Well, of course. Harry is on his way down the rabbit hole!

Wait.

I suppose that would make Dahlia the Wicked Witch, but who's the Wizard? Kaufmann, maybe, the guy pulling all the strings. And Harry is Dorothy. Hmm.

That's not nearly as fun. At least Harry doesn't have to hunt down ink cartridges.

Good Knightmare reference there, Pheeel.

Man I feel old.

Sorry about the horrendously slow updates for this. I've got nothing to blame but my own laziness, really. That and the fact that I've spent most of my time on Silent Hill 4, which makes coming back to the beginning seem very odd.



Anyway, we're back at the alley where we last saw Cheryl, now patrolled by these skinless dogs(the presence of which is indicated on the radio by a distinct crackling noise). Like most nasties in Silent Hill they can be avoided with care, but I generally prefer to take them out, as on this difficulty they can do serious damage to your health. As demonstrated by this grab of an earlier game which ended rather prematurely.



Sometimes an extra one appears behind the "Beware Of Dog" gate just to fuck with you, but it doesn't happen every time. So I'm usually a bit edgy at this point.





The passage is now mysteriously blocked to your progress, but it's here we find a clue from Cheryl, some much-needed ammo and my favourite melee weapon, the Steel Pipe.



The clue suggests we resume our search for Cheryl at the Midwich Elementary School, but all access to Midwich Street is cut off by yet more gaping chasms. But hang on, what are all these bloodied sheets of notepaper doing here?



"DOG HOUSE - LEVIN STREET". Can this be another clue? What can it mean? Only one way to find out...



More dogs are skulking about in Levin Street, and they seem to be concerned with one house in particular. Let's take a closer look.



Score! Incidentally, you can't pick up this key until you've read the note telling you where it is. Silent Hill's linearity can sometimes be frustrating in this respect. Now, unlock the front door and get inside quickly before you get turned into a giant chew toy.



This house is guaranteed monster-free, so we can take a breather for a moment. Phew.

Clearly, that dog is just outside of his field of vision.

For no logical reason, this locked room contains The Katana(tm), but this only becomes available after you replay the game following a Good+ ending. Bah. The Katana(tm) is overrated, anyway. Real men only use The Pipe(R) to administer violent retribution to hapless hellspawn. That is, when they aren't running for their girly lives.



Remember those three "Wizard Of Oz" themed novelty keys we went to the trouble of collecting right at the start of the game? Well it turns out they just happen to unlock this particular door, which means we've save a hell of a lot of time and effort which would've been spent running all the way back to the other side of town to pick them up. *smug smiley face*



And at this point things to start get really fucked up. I admit that use of this term is slightly redundant in Silent Hill where things being fucked up is more or less the status quo, but I still felt it required an animated gif to indicate just how serious the state of fuckedupedness is.



Ignore the scary music, let's take a moment to enjoy this pretty lighting effect. Mmmmm. But please don't draw attention to the fact that Harry doesn't actually have a shadow, it'll only make him feel insecure.



The following sequence involves lots and lots of running, as we try to make it all the way to the school without Harry getting his face ripped off.



Running...



Running...



Running again...



More running here...



Oh, thank god for that. Unfortunately this sense of relief is only temporary, as pretty soon Harry is going to wish he was back outside with the friendly face-chewing doggies.

Next: Out of the frying pan, into the SCHOOL!

Sounds like Harry's about to get school'd.

Indeed, I'm sure whatever's in there will be teaching him a listen he'll not forget.

I think it's about time I revived this. I've left poor Harry been stranded in the entrance of the school since May, and I can't stand the guilt any longer.

He's been there all summer vacation. You monster.

RISE FROM YOUR GWAVE!

We're back, and not before time! Our last update of some six months ago saw Harry Mason entering the Midwich Elementary School following a vague series of clues as to the location of his missing daughter Cheryl.



Harry's footsteps echo hollowly on the wooden floors as he catches his breath in the sudden eerie stillness of the deserted building. The school is built around a large open courtyard, surrounded by four outer corridors with rooms leading off on all sides, as this map I stole from google reveals:



At the moment the doors to the east and west corridors are both locked, so the only way onward is to cross the courtyard. But let's check out the other two rooms first, starting with the infirmary.



The infirmary is a "safe" room where we can use a diary and pick up a few supplies. Nothing else to do here except soak in the atmosphere and gird our loins for the horrors that inevitably await.



On the other side of the entrance is a reception area and teacher's lounge. A whole bunch of cryptic clues are scattered around here, each written in blood. Either someone has a macabre sense of humour, or perhaps they were just really short of pens that day.



Examining the teachers list reveals Midwich Elementary has three members of Sonic Youth on the staff. This most random of pop culture references will have some relevance later on, though. Let's see what else we can find.

...Hang on, "limited to five images?" What the hell? I guess I must've missed that meeting.

Obviously it's difficult to glean much from these yet, so all we can do is move on and hope it'll all make sense later(it will, mostly).



The teacher's lounge. There's not a hell of a lot here either, except for some ammo and this rather peculiar wall hanging, with it's lovely "suspended corpse" motif.

Okay, we've put it off long enough. Time to venture out into the courtyard and see what's waiting for us on the other side...

The suspense!

I'm glad to see that the corpse of this LP has been reanimated. An unfinished Let's Play is a sad creature.

I have no idea how I missed this when I played the game like a zillion years ago. I need to bust out my copy again!

I'm glad to see this beast rise from the grave!

Although I already went and played through the game for the first time last month. Oh well, you might go for the story bits I skipped over without realizing it. Next playthrough I'm using a FAQ.

And what's this? A sealed door with two circular identations on either side. What is this, Resident Evil? Okay, I guess not, but if I have to push any statues I'm going home right now.



And look! A clock with it's hand frozen at 10. Why, I'll wager this relates to the mysterious clues we saw not five minutes ago. Let's see...10 O'Clock - Alchemy Lab...Call me crazy, but I have a hunch we should be looking for a laboratory of some kind.

But now Harry must ready himself for action as the radio is ringing up a storm, indicating the presence of something short, sharp and bloodthirsty.



As we've mentioned before, the "teddy bear" enemies are a substitute in the European version of the game for the Grey Children, which are completely absent here. These fellas are fairly easy to deal with as long as you don't let them get too close, although they can give you some serious trouble if they attack in groups of three or more, as we will see later.



This one shouldn't give us any bother at all. Also, it seems I was wrong about ammo being scarce, as I've managed to acquire absolutely loads of it.

How fortuitous! I didn't see this when it started. And look, you guys are nearly to the point were I stopped playing because I lost the disk. Still keeping an eye out for a replacement copy though.

I sense the impending entrance of one of the elements that most unnerved me with this game: the siren.

You convinced me to restart playing this. I think I gave up during the hospital last time because that was place was hella creepy. Creepier than the school, I thought.

Yeah, the creepiness factor is never really matched in another Silent Hill. But they do really build and perfect the atmosphere with future games, so it's sort of an equal trade.

The two instances of sewer-travel in Silent Hill are my personal creepiest areas.

While all of Silent Hill scares the hell out of me, it's always been the school that does it the most. Especially the last part of the area. That's how you do psychological horror, video games!

Oh...



...bother.

The second you enter the rear corridor, two creatures(I believe "mumblers" are the official name) attempt to trap you by approaching from either side. The best thing to do is try and run round and position yourself so your back's against the wall and they're both in front of you.

With both pointy-fingered foes dealt with, it's time to check out the other rooms on this side("Storage" and "Hall", and what looks like a rear lobby according to the map).

"Storage" is permanently locked, so that's a dead loss. Let's try door number two:



The radio comes on at this point, immediately getting our guard up, but don't worry. It's just one of these little baby ghosts. They can't actually hurt you and just stumble around squeaking. I always think they're quite sweet, myself. There's nothing to do here except pick up some ammo and move on.

Both the Hall and East Corridors are barred to our progress, so it's time to head west.



This corridor has precisely bugger all of interest. You can't get into the two teacher's rooms, and in fact the only thing you can do here is unlock the south corridor leading back to the infirmary. The Men's Room has a Mumbler in it, but there's nothing else to find and you might as well save your bullets.

So instead, let's take the stairs.

Those little baby ghosts are the biggest reason I couldn't play Silent Hill. They just scared the shit out of me, and I think they still would if I tried to play the game again.