Silent Hill Map-based Walkthrough

September 23, 2009 in Strategy Guides Comments off

Plot Synopsis

Prior to the game, Dahlia and Kaufmann were part of a cult (called “The Order” in later Silent Hill games) that has operated in Silent Hill since before the founding of the town centuries ago. The cult believes that Armageddon would be heralded by the coming of a “Mother” who would give birth to “God.” They believe this God would destroy the world (or reality) so that all the disciples could find salvation in “Paradise.” However, their beliefs appear to lean toward the Satanic.

Dahlia tricked several prominent citizens outside the cult into helping her conceive the “Mother” by making them believe they would achieve everlasting power. Kaufmann, the Director of Alchemilla Hospital, was one of these citizens. To “seal off” Silent Hill from the outside world and prying eyes, Kaufmann and Dahlia conspired to murder the staff of a development company attempting to turn the town into a sightseeing area. The developers died mysterious deaths one by one.

Six years later Dahlia conceived Alessa, the “Mother,” through ritual. Born with special powers, Alessa was tormented in school by other children. Through this and other factors she became resistant to the desires of Dahlia and the cult, refusing to share her power. Through her diary pages (revealed in Silent Hill 3) it is shown that Alessa secretly wanted to die.

When Alessa was seven years old, Dahlia realized that she could force Alessa to give birth to the “God” ahead of time by performing a ritual. During the ceremony Alessa became impregnated with the “God,” but a fire started which burned down Dahlia’s house with Alessa inside. A trucker named Travis Grady was driving by at the time. Alessa used her powers to reach out to Travis and lead him to her house. Travis rescued Alessa from the fire, but not before her burns had rendered her comatose. By incantation the cult forced Travis to wander the town facing his repressed memories. But through her newfound powers Alessa influenced Travis and led him to the secret church where the cult was preparing to complete their ritual. Through the Flauros, Travis was able to enter Alessa’s mind and defeat the demon festering there. Freed from the demon’s influence, Alessa was able to divide her soul in half, sealing half herself in a newborn baby. Alessa transported the baby outside town. Harry Mason and his wife, presumably leaving Silent Hill after a vacation, found the baby by the side of the road. They named her Cheryl and took her home to raise her as their own. (These events are depicted in Silent Hill: Origins and in the opening FMV of Silent Hill.)

Dahlia and her pawns determined that Alessa’s comatose body contained only half her soul. They initiated an incantation that would call the other half of the soul back to Silent Hill. However, the incantation would take seven years to effect. Meanwhile, Kaufmann kept Alessa’s body in a secret room in the Alchemilla Hospital basement. Kaufmann was having an affair with a nurse-in-training named Lisa Garland. Kaufmann forced his mistress to care for Alessa. But when Lisa noticed the supernatural nature of Alessa she created the videotape wherein she reveals her findings and pleads for something in return (most likely drugs, as it was later revealed in Silent Hill: Origins that Lisa was a drug user). Dahlia may have responded to the blackmail by killing Lisa or banishing her to the “Otherworld,” but it’s unclear.

Dahlia and Kaufmann continued to dissuade tourism and financed the cult by distributing a drug called “PTV” made from White Claudia flowers growing in the region. A police detective and the mayor who tried to stop drug circulation both met with mysterious ends. (However, the police detective and mayor may also be the other two individuals involved in the conspiracy as seen in the flashback in Alessa’s hospital room in Nowhere.)

At the conclusion of seven years Alessa’s other half, Cheryl, is drawn back to Silent Hill so that Dahlia’s ritual can be completed. With Harry’s wife succumbing to illness a few years ago he’s decided to take Cheryl back to their favorite vacation spot, Silent Hill. Both he and Cheryl are unwittingly influenced to come back by the cult’s incantation. Upon Cheryl’s return to the town, Alessa appears in the road. Harry swerves to avoid Alessa and crashes. While Harry is knocked out, Cheryl starts to remember who she really is and runs off. Harry regains consciousness and chases Cheryl through Silent Hill as the town becomes enshrouded in a weird, snowy fog. As the pursuit continues, the town grows dark as Cheryl presumably regains her memories of being “impregnated” with a demon god. This demonic influence manifests as small monsters that surround and attack Harry. At the last moment, Cheryl presumably realizes that she’s walked into a trap set by the cult and rescues Harry from this fate. She moves him back to his car, where he’s rescued by Officer Cybil Bennett and taken to the Café on Bachman Rd.

The game then proceeds as you experience, with Cheryl leaving clues for Harry that will eventually lead him to the “Other Church” where Dahlia intends to reunite Cheryl and Alessa and force the birth of “God.” Cheryl manipulates Harry into following this route so that he can intervene in the ritual.

However, Dahlia figures out Cheryl/Alessa’s plan and summons Harry to the Balkan Church by ringing the bells. Because Cheryl/Alessa’s reunited power is now so great, Dahlia is unable to pursue Cheryl herself and gives Harry the Flauros. By making Harry “mule” the Flauros to Cheryl’s location, Dahlia may then step in and take over, using the Flauros to control Cheryl.

Meanwhile Kaufmann is still alive. With Alessa’s reunion and the town plunging into darkness, he realizes that the demon “God” is out of Dahlia’s control. But having always feared this would happen, Kaufmann had prepared vials of a mysterious substance Dahlia calls “Aglaophotis” and stashed them all over town. He returns to his office at the hospital to grab a vial, only to find it smashed on the floor. He realizes Dahlia is behind this treachery and sets off to find another stash. This is why Kaufmann always has something to do or someplace to go and can’t stand around flapping his gums.

As Harry travels Silent Hill, the world is sometimes taken over by the “Otherworld,” a nightmarish version of Silent Hill that is dark and decaying. This indicates that the demon “God” within Alessa is growing and gaining power. In the Otherworld version of Alchemilla Hospital Harry meets Lisa Garland, who it seems is trapped in Otherworld with no memories of how she got there. She does remember some history of the town and some access routes that allow Harry to move forward. Thus, it is likely that Alessa/Cheryl provides Lisa these memories so that she may help Harry reach the Other Church in time to stop the ritual.

Harry catches up to Kaufmann at Annie’s Bar and saves his life from a monster attack. When Harry questions Kauffman about Alessa he denies knowledge and leaves immediately. Harry then finds a key Kaufmann dropped, which leads him to the Haerby Inn. Through a series of clues and keys Harry finds the motorcycle in the garage, with a red vial stashed in the gas tank. Kaufmann enters and becomes upset, yanking the red vial away from Harry and chastises him, even threatening his life unless he minds his own business.

Harry encounters Cybil at the Amusement Park, where she’s come under some kind of demonic influence. She has a parasite on her back that appears to be controlling her, just like the staff at the hospital. If the player scooped up the spilled red liquid at the hospital and uses it on Cybil, the parasite on her back separates immediately and she regains control of herself. Thus, the Agalophotis would appear to be a substance that can separate demonic parasites from their human hosts.

Harry finally catches up to Cheryl at the Amusement Park, where she has nowhere left to run. But not realizing that she is Cheryl, he produces the Flauros and subdues her. Dahlia then steps in and takes control, transporting herself and Cheryl to Nowhere. Harry and Kaufmann are obviously transported there as well, perhaps by Alessa’s power at the last minute.

In Nowhere, Harry encounters Lisa again. Lisa has explored the secret rooms in the hospital basement and now has a feeling that she’d been there before and that something happened there. Becoming frantic, she flees.

Harry later catches up to Lisa in a storage room. Lisa makes vague references of understanding who she is:

“I get it now… Why I’m still alive even though everyone else is dead. I’m not the only one who’s still walking around. I’m the same as them. I just hadn’t noticed it before.”

This bad bit of dialog is open to any number of interpretations and hasn’t really been clarified by the developers. It may be that Lisa believes she is like one of the parasitized nurses or doctors roaming the hospital. But this doesn’t quite fit since those beings aren’t exactly “dead,” just under control of parasites. She may also be referring to her role in the conspiracy with Kaufmann and Dahlia, and that they are the ones who are “still alive” when the other conspirators are dead. Like Kaufmann and Dahlia she is “still walking around” and “the same as them.”

Whatever the interpretation, Lisa begins bleeding from her head as if wounded there. Soon she is entirely covered in her own blood, as must have been the case when Dahlia and Kaufmann dealt with her treachery some time ago. She’s been kept alive in the Otherworld only as part of Alessa’s memories in order to provide help to Harry in interfering with the cult’s ritual.

After witnessing a few ghostly flashbacks in Nowhere that show Dahlia realizing she can make Alessa give birth to the God through ritual and the conspirators discussing how to recall the second half of Alessa’s soul, Harry proceeds to a large ritual chamber. There, he meets Dahlia along with the girl he’s been following and a bandage-bound figure in a wheelchair. Dahlia explains that Cheryl is the girl on the floor restored to her former self. She also explains that the wheelchair bound figure is Alessa, trapped in an endless nightmare that has nurtured the God within her, waiting to be born. Cheryl and Alessa recombine into the “Incubator,” the “Mother” who will birth “God.”

If the player helped Kaufmann find his Aglaophotis, then the doctor enters and shoots Dahlia. Angry and betrayed, he demands that the Incubator “quit screwing around” and “return things to how they were.” When Dahlia mocks Kaufmann, he pulls out the Aglaophotis and throws it at the Incubator. But Kaufmann does not expect the resulting effect. As with Cybil before, the Aglaophotis separates the Incubus from the Incubator. The Incubus kills Dahlia and attacks. Harry shoots it dead.

Still bloody, Lisa rises from a grate in the floor and seizes Kaufmann. Making weird noises, she drags him beneath the floor. This would seem to be her revenge for what Kaufmann did to her.

The Incubator or “Mother” creates a baby and gives it to Harry. The room begins to collapse, but the Mother freezes time so that Harry and Cybil can escape by running toward a light. The “Mother” remains in the Otherworld. Soon she emits a powerful burst of light and vanishes.
Harry and Cybil run along the streets of Silent Hill and exit town. They are next scene standing by the side of the road, as Harry and his wife did seven years ago, looking at the baby.

There are three variations of this ending depending whether the player helped Kaufmann and saved Cybil or not. If Cybil is not present then the player doesn’t get to hear an extra bit of dialog that it was Alessa using the seal of Metatron to protect herself, and that it almost worked except for Harry’s unwitting interference. If the player does not help Kaufmann find the Aglaophotis at the Inn, then he does not appear at the ending and the “God” is never separated from the “Mother.” Therefore, Harry must fight the Incubator, never understands what happened, and does not receive a newborn baby to raise in place of his missing daughter.

Despite the word count here, this summary is only the bare bones required to understand the story. A more “in-depth” version of this summary can be read here, in my plot analysis for the game.

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Silent Hill, strategy guide