Summer Games Challenge 2016

[noiseredux]

SONIC YOUTH!

[Ack]

I just don't much like my birthday.

You and me both.

I cant wait for the personal stories Ack shares next time he plays something like Puyo Puyo.

Reminds me of the night we hooked up a Saturn and all played Baku Baku in Scorpion's trailer. Lots of good times happened in that trailer, man.

[Exhuminator]

Dad served Mom the papers on my 12th birthday.

What the actual fuck.

Hey man, life happens. My grandfather died the day before my birthday, my parents divorced the day after my birthday. I just don't much like my birthday.

Random life stuff happens, sure. But your dad choosing THAT particular day to serve papers?

Great read so far though, even if it's been at the expense of your own childhood. Maybe someday I'll tell you guys some of the shit show that was mine.

[fastbilly1]

I just don't much like my birthday.

You and me both.

I cant wait for the personal stories Ack shares next time he plays something like Puyo Puyo.

Reminds me of the night we hooked up a Saturn and all played Baku Baku in Scorpion's trailer. Lots of good times happened in that trailer, man.

We only played Baku because you kicked everyones ass in Vampire Savior and I kept winning in VF2.

[Ack]

When I last left off, I had just finished the school. It was now daytime, and Harry had resolved to head to the church because he could hear distant bells ringing. I checked the teacher roster to find the address of K. Gordon and headed out the door. This section of Silent Hill was largely devoid of creatures during the day, so I took a little bit of time to explore, discovering a school bus with smashed windows. Beyond that, there was little in this area of interest, so I stepped into the same cul-de-sac I'd seen numerous times for the rowhouses and came to the home of K. Gordon, a rowhouse exactly like the others. Bullets still laying out. Still no food in the fridge. Bedroom door still locked. I figured it best to press on.

Once again I found myself in the streets of old Silent Hill. Since there were no new enemies here, just a sparse smattering of dogs and birds, I instead began paying more attention to the town itself. This brought several peculiarities to my attention, such as how wide the streets are in this town. Seriously, each road feels like its fifty yards across. Despite the ample spacing, No Parking signs dominate many of the sidewalks. Despite the signs, cars are still parked on the curb, sometimes almost directly in front of these signs. I guess the cult really likes to stick it to the man. Meanwhile the street signs are quite large and accurate. Nice job on that, Silent Hill City Council.

With an eye for odd detail, I started finding entertaining shops too. There's a chainsaw store near the church. Unfortunately you cannot take any chainsaws, as they are out of gas. The gas station down beyond the church does not let you get any gas, but the signs advertise it as Full Service. A Full Service gas station in 1999 America? Now I know I'm not in the real world. There's also a bar almost directly across the street from the church with a large but worn ad for Jim Beam plastered on the side of the building. It's intentionally marred so that only the "Beam" portion is legible, but it's obvious what it is. I'm guessing Konami didn't get the rights. Right next to the bar, in a delightful little horror joke about alcoholism, REDRUM is written in blood on a garage door. All work and no play must have made the citizens of this town into dull boys, so they turned to demon worship for a little excitement. At least that's my theory. It would certainly explain both the monotony of the place as well as the subtle signs of rebellion.

The church is a big building which dominates a street corner, but the only accessible room is the actual sanctuary. Inside Harry meets Dahlia Gillespie for the first time, who rambles on that gyromancy told her he was coming. I'm not sure what the construction of gnomish helicopters have to do with anything, but I'll take it. Dahlia gives a few cryptic clues and leaves, but first points out a key to the drawbridge to the east as well as the Flauros, which looks like a pyramid if Clive Barker designed it. Great, I can summon a Cenobite. Lovely. With that Dahlia leaves, locking the door behind her. I spent a few minutes checking the church for supplies, and Harry dutifully reported that the collections box was completely empty. Trying to swipe the church's money, eh? Harry, you're fucking classy.

With no reason to stay, I stepped out and pressed on to the drawbridge. On the first floor of the bridge control tower I found a rock drill that needed gas to run. The lack of gasoline in this town is becoming a bizarre pattern. On the second floor I found the controls, engaged them, and pressed on into what appears to be Downtown Silent Hill...the shopping center. Great, I was in the real town, and now I'm in a tourist trap. There are necessary buildings such as a post office, police station, visitor center, and the hospital I must head towards. Then there's also shops like Just Cats. A town of only a couple of thousand residents, and they have an entire store dedicated to pet cats. It's like MrPopo designed this town. Just Cats sits across the street from the Konami Burger, which is right next to a Chinese arts and cultural center. I'm not kidding.

I first head to the police station, but I am greeted outside by a new monster type. Rompers are apelike, furry critters that hop around and jump on people to then maul them with their...mouths. I hope that's a mouth. Anyway, the romper is capable of leaping onto Harry and pinning him, though you can wrestle a bit to get away. Still, they hit hard, and they take a few bullets to kill. Melee is again not advised because these things are on the fast side. That's ok though, as I have plenty of bullets now. It turns out 200 is the max Harry can carry in raw ammo, along with 15 in the handgun's magazine, so 215 total. The shotgun, no idea on its max, though I've managed to store up around 50 shells for it. I manage to enter the police station but discover it only contains a few notes about drug deals and some bullets, so I leave and head towards the hospital.

Alchemilla Hospital is small. I've generally done my best to avoid these rural hospitals, because seriously, this place is freaking tiny. It's named for a genus of plant used in herbalism for easing menstruation; the name means Lady's Mantle. Once in through the yard, I pushed on and met a new NPC, Michael Kaufmann, a doctor. Kaufmann keeps a gun and a briefcase, and he sees the monsters too but is a little jumpy, so he very nearly shoots you as you enter. Unfortunately he doesn't provide much info, so I moved on through, grabbed a map of the place, and explored the first floor. A kitchen provided me with a bottle, which I then used to scoop up some red liquid on the floor of the director's office. Nice. After that I checked the basement and then tried the second and third floors. Upon returning to the elevator, a fourth floor button had appeared. Well shit, that's not a good sign.

The fourth floor leads to a series of hallways where the door locks behind you as you go. Eventually the lights shut off and...well, welcome back to Hell. Hell Hospital is full of roaming Puppet Nurse(of two types) and Puppet Doctor monsters. They slash with scalpels, they attack in teams by grabbing Harry so others can savage him, and their death animations take a while to play out. You can use hit and run tactics because their attacks have a wind up, but when you first get there you'll discover your weapons do not inflict any kind of stun animation on them. They're also bullet sponges and take a couple of shotgun shells to drop. The nurses come with either green or blue sweaters; blue means the nurse is weaker and has less health than the green ones. This is a good thing to know when you're dealing with a pair and need to take the heat off.

Exploring the hospital is relatively straightforward. There are a couple of puzzles, one of which involves a blood-drinking tentacle monster, one of which requires arranging colored blocks in a locked door based on a poem, and finally one in the basement which requires you burn some plants. None of these are as challenging as the piano one, and I breezed through most of it. I also discovered a new weapon in the basement, the hammer. All of my complaints about the nurse and doctor monsters vanished with the hammer, because while it planted me in one place to use, it immediately stuns those enemies and knocks them to the floor, where I can easily finish them off.

A few years ago I visited a hospital that reminds me of this one. Grady is known for being the place you go when you get shot or stabbed. I don't recommend spending the night there if possible. I hit up the emergency room late one night because I was having an emergency(I think I was passing a kidney stone) and urinated large amounts of blood. I practically crawled to my neighbor to ask him for help. "Take me to Grady," I said. "Are you sure you want to go to Grady?" "I might be dying." "Still...are you sure?" I didn't know what he meant until I got there. There were over 50 people in a room meant to sit 20. The air conditioning didn't work, and the amount of bodies brought the temperature up to somewhere in the mid-80s. There was one doctor on call and three orderlies the size of Olympic shotputters. The bathroom required a key, and when I used it, I discovered blood streaks on the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, as well as dark stains where someone had obviously had an accident. I watched a man have a seizure in the middle of the floor while a woman hit on me and told me about her third abortion and that time she got gonorrhea. At one point I was questioned about my condition in a small group while an obvious addict in the room screamed for meds and then wandered the halls like a drooling zombie. I even got attacked by a homeless guy having some kind of episode, and when I defended myself, reality set back into his face and he backed off. He smiled at me any time he saw me from that point on like we both shared some kind of special secret. I passed the stone in the urinal and left at 3am. The next morning I hit up a clinic to ensure I was ok(after a battery of tests I was told I was "perfectly healthy" with no traces of blood). At the end the clinic doctor told me, "One last thing, don't ever go to Grady." I don't ever plan to again.

The final section of the hospital brings you into a hidden basement where you find Alessa's room as well as a key. This unlocks a door on the first floor where you meet the nurse Lisa Garland. Despite trying to be helpful, Harry has some kind of break and passes out, waking to find Dahlia in the room with him, back in the daytime Silent Hill. Once again Dahlia offers up only cryptic clues about demonic symbols and a key, telling you to find the "other church" in Silent Hill. With that she left, and I saved my game for the night.

Up next, I seek out the "other church."

[Ack]

Double post time. Hey, I waited a few days.

Previously on Ack Plays Silent Hill, I had just cleared the Hell hospital level...or so I thought. It turns out you're nowhere near done with it after that first run through, but I'll get to that in a bit. I had been directed to get to an antique store to find the "other church" in Silent Hill, so that was where I headed. It was daytime again, with mostly clear streets free of monsters. I was surprised at how easy the walk was, but I'd already put in some time clearing folks out, so I figure that was why. When I did finally make it to the store, I found a secret passage and was surprised to see Cybil, the cop from the start of the game. She revealed that all roads were blocked and no vehicles ran, like they were all out of gas. I knew it, Silent Hill is in the midst of a terrible gas crisis. I then pushed into the secret passage and found both a ceremonial axe and a secret shrine to...something. The shrine caught on fire when I tried to leave the room, and I ended up briefly back in the Hell hospital for a round of exposition before coming to in the Hell version of the antique store. I decided to go back to the hospital yet again.

Earlier I had wondered what the Hell version of the streets would be like. Well, they're made of chain links apparently, covered in monsters, and very, very dark. The monsters you encounter are upgrades of the dogs and birds with more health, the snow has turned to rain, and you can barely see five feet in front of your face. I pushed through and was driven into the Silent Hill Town Center, aka the mall. Televisions lit up with demonic symbols and an image of Cheryl, I looted a jewelry store, and then I fell from a ledge and found both a hunting rifle and the next boss, a big larvae-looking thingy that burrows in sand. I chose the shotgun for this fight, and though I got hit a few times, the thing eventually fled the scene. I followed it back onto the streets and discovered massive pieces of machinery like infernal windmills powering the place. Who knew Hell was so environmentally friendly?

On my way to the hospital, I spent about half of the trek in the dark, but missing sections of flooring required I turn on the flashlight to figure out how to proceed occasionally. I stopped off at the police station for more ammunition on the way and then pushed on the final walk. I'm pleased to report both Just Cats and Konami Burger were still present in Hell. The hospital was just a stone's throw away, so I trudged on and returned to the little room with Lisa, who offered a few encouraging words of plot direction before pushing me outward and onward towards a sewer system.

Leaving the hospital this time I discovered the configuration of Hell had changed again, railroading me onto a rooftop where I encountered the next boss...or perhaps it's part 2 of the previous boss battle, because now I had to face an absolutely enormous moth. I took the hunting rifle to its face, and it went down swiftly enough. I stood on the roof as the rain turned back to snow and Hell faded away back to the daytime reality of Silent Hill. I hit up the police station a third time as a precaution and snagged more handgun bullets, then hit the drawbridge and discovered myself teleported all the way to my goal, a locked sewer entrance. A couple of whacks with the hammer, and I was in.

The sewer system is thankfully short but features a new enemy type, the Hanged Scratcher. These lizard critters are pretty easy to handle on the ground since they go down with a whack or two of the hammer. In packs, it's not so easy since they can grab you to let others come in for hits. But their greatest strength is their ability to hang down from the ceiling to attack Harry, meaning you have to keep on the move in any large tunnels. Retreat into low cover, and they'll drop down so they can pursue, which usually makes them easy pickings. The giant roaches I saw previously in the school also return in groups, though the hammer one shots them. I rushed through the sewer as quickly as I could to reach the southern portion of Silent Hill.

The final portion of the town that you visit is permanently set in night. I'm sure there will be no more transitions to day now. There are several areas to visit: Annie's Bar, Indian Runner, and a Motel. These areas offer a little more plot explanation surrounding the ongoing drug trade of Silent Hill, which Dr. Kaufmann may be a part of. You'll also see advertisements for the Funk Tour and BuzzFizz beer. Nothing screams party like BuzzFizz, eh? In Annie's Bar, you get the combination code for Indian Runner and the motel room 3 key. In Indian Runner, you find drugs and get the door code to the motel's back door. In the motel, you'll find another bottle of that red liquid I found in the hospital hidden away inside a motorcycle gas tank, because there is no gas in Silent Hill! Unfortunately you don't get to keep it as Dr. Kaufmann takes it from you.

None of the stuff about the drug trade in Silent Hill seems particularly relevant unfortunately. I'm really not sure how it ties in to the cult and all that, it's just seems like a side plot you find hinted at over and over again. Yes, some of the notes in the police station correspond to it, and you'll find bits and pieces of info at the hospital, but does it really matter? I don't know. After leaving Huntsville and heading to Auburn, I remember the effects of the drug trade there though, so...yeah, I can see it screwing things up in this town. One of the local business leaders even got imprisoned for transporting gallons of meth across state lines. But Auburn didn't have a cult backing it...unless you count football fandom as a cult, which...yeah, ok, I see it now. Roll Tide. I pressed on to the big Silent Hill pier and discovered the world was now permanently turning into Hell mode as whatever demonic darkness crept over the earth. In a houseboat I met Cybil and Dahlia again. Dahlia told me to check the lighthouse first, so I did. Unfortunately I was too late, as the lighthouse was now a big symbol for demons. I did see Alessa, but she vanished without a word. I then left the lighthouse and teleported back to the boathouse, only to decide to head to the amusement park where Cybil had gone to.

This means more romps in the dark and more hot sewer action. While the streets are pretty much the Hell I've grown accustomed to, the sewers came with a new enemy, the Mumbler. This is my first time seeing the Mumbler in the NTSC-U version of the game, but it wouldn't be if I had played a different region's release since the clawed Mumbler is the Grey Child's replacement. They have about as much health, do about as much damage, and work in pretty much the exact same way, so taking them out was easy enough. Beyond that, the sewer was pretty straightforward, so I pushed through to the amusement park with ease.

Now the amusement park...well, I'm happy to say it still runs in Hell. I wouldn't want to ride it, as everything is dilapidated and so rusty that looking at it would be enough to give you tetanus, plus Grey Children seem to be the ones operating the machines, but...well, it runs at least. I guess even demons need recreational activities. It's also a mostly straightforward area, so I pushed through thinking I would take on the boss, and BOOM! BOSS MODE CYBIL! This is perhaps the most pivotal boss fight in the game, as how you win it indicates which ending you'll get, particularly whether its one of the good or bad endings. There are four basic endings to Silent Hill based on how you handle Cybil and whether you do the weird drug trade side stuff I mentioned previously. If you get the best ending, you'll also unlock the ability to go for the fifth, special ending, in which aliens did it. Seriously. As I'm going for the best ending, I ran up and splashed that bottle of red liquid all over Cybil. You are winner, Ack.

Hey look, plot exposition: Cybil had a parasite making her EVIL. Alessa's power is stopped by the cenobyte pyramid. Alessa is Dahlia's daughter. Dahlia's the real bad guy. I got suckered by the cult. Nurse Lisa thinks she's been to those rooms in the hospital basement. I'm back in Hell Hospital...or so I thought. I'm actually now in NOWHERE, which I'm guessing is the final region of the game considering the cryptic title and major plot reveals. A demon is about to show up, I've got to navigate Hell rooms of random junk strewn together like a twisted Rubik's Cube, and I've got all the big guns ready to go and a ton of healing supplies.

Time to go see if I can murder Satan.

[wclem]

Hands down, best review ever in this site. Thoroughly enjoyed reading these!

[Ack]

Thanks, wclem, I appreciate it.

So, where was I? Ah yes, in the middle of NOWHERE. NOWHERE is basically the Hell Hospital turned on its head. The arrangement is completely different, rooms that could not connect in any way in the real world connect, concepts of time and space don't really make much sense. Most of it is still Hell Hospital though, so if you remember its layout, you'll have a rudimentary idea of how to operate. The nice thing is that there were several objects back in the original Hell Hospital that you could interact with but were not used; these items are now needed for the NOWHERE puzzles. I found this to be a delightful treat.

Exploring NOWHERE also reveals an upgraded enemy, the ghost version of the Grey Child. It's a Grey Child, but it's translucent, making it much harder to see until it's just about in range to attack you. Thankfully it does about the same amount of damage and has the same amount of health, so dropping it with the hammer is quite quick. The halls are also filled with puppet nurses, and they often spawn new ones after grabbing new items, so stay on your toes, folks. You'll also encounter what is effectively the ghost of Cheryl a couple of times, but it does little more than pass through you and vanish. Also interesting enough, at least one readable note that was in the PAL and NTSC-J release was removed from the NTSC-U release. It's an article about the fire that burned Alessa.

When you arrive in NOWHERE, you are forced to find keys to named doors. Doing that requires a fair bit of running back and forth along with solving a couple of puzzles. The first such puzzle I encountered was a locked door with an alphabetical keypad and a listing of names with ages on the Grim Reaper's list. Another plaque tells you to put the names in order of age. Doing so, you then must use the first letter of the five names to spell the word necessary to use the door. The word is "ALERT." The second puzzle features astrological-related images with numbers assigned to them. Based on four that you are given, you have to guess the correct number for three others. Unfortunately the numbers that are attached seemed in no way related to astrological order. I tried alphabetical order but again no dice. I then started checking to see if the numbers could perhaps be represented by the positioning of the images(say, two fish swimming in a circle make a kind of 0 for instance), but no. I stared at the crab representing Cancer for a moment, and then the answer hit me: the numbers were based on the total number of limbs in each image.

That seemed like a strange way to handle that puzzle. Then I thought back on all of the previous puzzles and realized that the astrological symbols were just another example of the game design using something a child might have encountered to throw off the player. The first puzzle requires three keys named for Wizard of Oz characters, yet the Oz connection has nothing to do with it. The piano puzzle is about understanding the order of a series; the actual piano portion really isn't related, it's just a vehicle. The colored blocks from the Hell Hospital had used an Alice in Wonderland motif, yet the real puzzle was about colors based on a poem. Finally this had nothing to do with astrology whatsoever, it was a counting exercise. All of these things were things a child might have encountered(The Wizard of Oz, piano lessons, Alice in Wonderland, Astrology[Hey, it's a Japanese game]), but despite the motif, none of these puzzles bore more than a rudimentary resemblance of that particular thing.

Unfortunately realizing this didn't help me much, as the last "puzzle" of the game merely required I acquire five objects to open a door. A couple of those had mini puzzles of their own, but they primarily consisted of using the right object at the right time. Since you're given all of the objects necessary, figuring out what to use at what time actually wasn't that hard, despite the generally cryptic clues. For instance an alter with paintings light and darkness required using a camera flash to reveal symbols for opening locked doors. In another room, a ring was needed to seal a chained refrigerator so I could take a necessary item without releasing the monster within.

Unfortunately I have to report on what fate befell the nurse Lisa Garland. It turns out she was Alessa's caretaker in the hospital basement. Constantly changing the Alessa's unhealing burn wounds took a psychological toll on the woman, who had accepted the job due to her crippling drug addiction via the ongoing Silent Hill drug trade. Lisa slowly comes to realize this...and then realizes that she is ultimately no different from the puppet nurses stalking the halls of Hell Hospital. It turns out her ignorance was all that was keeping her going, and you are treated to a lovely scene as she begins to bleed from every orifice and tries to embrace Harry for comfort in her supposed final moments. Harry instead runs and bars the door despite being able to hear her fearful cries and sobs on the other side. Harry, you're a dick.

Anyway, all puzzles solved, all objects acquired, you eventually end up back in the basement and discover the ghosts of the cultists in Alessa's room talking about how her soul has split in two: the forever injured Alessa and the reborn Cheryl. The cultists decide to play the long game and fuse the soul back together to birth their god; otherwise he won't be powerful enough and therefore won't give them much power. Finally you open the final door and discover a scene of Dahlia abusing the child Alessa. Down the final flight of stairs I went, into the darkness below.

What follows next changes based on whether you saved or killed Cybil and checked into the drug trade connection. Save Cybil, and she's there for the final encounter though not much help. Do the drug thing, and Dr. Kaufmann kinda-sorta helps you out. I'll get into that in a second. The important thing is that Dahlia is there along with burned Alessa and Cheryl now returned to her proper age and no longer the child Harry knew her as. Dahlia taunts Harry, Alessa and Cheryl fuse to form proper Alessa, and you're in for a boss fight. Depending on Kaufmann's presence, the fight changes however; don't explore the drug angle, and you fight Alessa for your final boss. Do it, and Kaufmann hurls a vial of that red stuff on her, releasing the demon Incubus. This will cause Dahlia to freak out, and Incubus totally kills her for it by blasting her with lightning until she cooks to death and dies in the way her injured daughter never could. If it's Alessa...well, she will also fry Dahlia with lightning. Either way, Dahlia gets fragged.

Incubus/Alessa are actually pretty similar in how they operate: they sit there and hit hard with magic lightning. Like really hard. Like REALLY hard. I never did quite get the hang of dodging during this boss fight, but thankfully I had enough healing items to take the hit, heal, and unload into the boss with the hunting rifle. Despite having the same tactics, Alessa is actually technically easier because she has less total health than the Incubus. Either way, it bleeds so you can kill it. I pumped enough lead into Incubus to use him as a pencil, and he reverted to Alessa.

Boom, Good+ ending unlocked. Alessa gives Harry a new baby(who becomes Heather, the protagonist of Silent Hill 3). Harry and Cybil run like hell for the escape portal while Alessa uses the last of her power to stop time and let them escape. Dr. Kaufmann also tries to run for it, but outta nowhere undead nurse Lisa Garland climbs out of the floor and drags him backwards into Hell. That's right, kids, Winners Don't Use Drugs. Harry and Cybil manage to escape with the baby just as Alessa dies. This is followed by joking FMVs in which the characters all get introduced and laugh at the camera(burned Alessa gives a thumbs up and Dahlia tries to kiss it). Also the intro cinematic of the game has changed so now its Harry and Cybil with baby Heather as opposed to Harry and his wife finding Cheryl.

I shouldn't need to remind you that when you beat the game, SIT THROUGH THE ENTIRE CREDITS. YOU WILL SEE YOUR ENDING CINEMATIC, YOUR SCORE, YOUR UNLOCKED ITEMS, AND BE ABLE TO SAVE YOUR GAME.
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POSTGAME SILENT HILL

In this section, I'm going to talk a little bit about endings and unlockables.

First, I mentioned in a previous post that the conditions for which ending you get are based on saving Cybil and exploring the drug trade stuff. I was right on this, though I got which affected which part a bit off. Exploring the drug trade decides which boss you fight, so that's the difference between the Good and Bad ending. Saving Cybil denotes whether you get the + or - ending, so you can get Good+, Good-, Bad+, or Bad-. The Good+ gives you access to the UFO ending. These endings offer a variety of outcomes ranging from Harry and Cybil making it out with Heather to Harry dying in the initial car accident that started this whole misadventure. Unlockables are mainly tied to the Good+ and Bad+ endings, though you will also receive an ending score of up to 10 stars depending on your performance. I ended up with a score of 5.4 or so...which admittedly isn't too bad for a first time run.

You know all those references to the gas crisis in Silent Hill I made? Turns out that is actually a real thing; a gas can is one of the unlockables, which will then let Harry access the chainsaw and rockdrill weapons. For getting the Good+ ending I also unlocked the Channeling Stone that can call in aliens for the UFO ending if used in certain places. Getting the UFO ending(or possibly starting the game while having a Konami Justifier plugged into the PS1) will unlock the Hyperblaster weapon. The Hyperblaster becomes more powerful if you obtain certain levels of score, so getting an 8.0 or higher powers it up while getting a perfect 10 makes it the most powerful weapon in the game. There is also an unlockable katana, though the requirements aren't fully understood; I've read both that it just requires the Bad+ ending with a specific score and that it requires the Good+ ending and then the Bad+ ending.

Beating the game also unlocks the special Bullet Adjust option. Bullet Adjust is actually a multiplier; the higher you set it, the more bullets you'll get from any individual box. Every time you beat Silent Hill, the bullet adjust multiplier maximum increases by 1, so if you beat the game four times, you can set Bullet Adjust to x4. Instead of receiving 15 rounds form a normal pistol box, you'll receive 60. As for the maximum, it appears it may change depending on the region. I've read that PAL can get up to x6, while NTSC-U can get up to x9, though I cannot confirm. While this feature is included in later Silent Hill games, I don't remember it ever going over x5. Since Harry can only hold a maximum of 200 rounds of any ammo type...yeah, expect to fill up quick once you're up there.

As for getting a perfect score, well, good luck. You have to kill 75 enemies by melee and 75 more by shooting with near perfect accuracy(which must be broken down in an arrangement of specific distances, be it what the game considers close range, medium, or far), collect 150 items, use no more than 1 continue, save no more than 2 times, get the Good+ ending, and beat the game on Hard in under 1 hour 30 minutes to receive a perfect score. Using any special weapons will also drop your score substantially even if you succeed at all parameters, though using the bullet adjust does not.
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Well folks, so ends my playthrough of Silent Hill, my personal gaming white whale. It only took me nearly 20 years to do it. I'm both happy to have beaten it and saddened to see it go. Parting is always bittersweet.

I will write up my thoughts on the game in the Games Beaten thread at some point in the near future, and I will also soon pick out my next Summer Challenge game, as I still have 4 to go. I suppose this is what I get for mostly picking longer games, though at this point I'm pretty sure I know what the final four will be.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed reading through my little romp in Silent Hill as much as I enjoyed writing it. It's been fun.

Oh, and that's Silent Hill 0-5 done. I'll get around to Shattered Memories and Downpour someday I'm sure.

[Xeogred]

Amazing. I'll have to read this sometime soon. Hopefully you have a more technical breakdown of the game and experience as that is what I was hoping for.
(as someone who played it new in 2014, it was such an impressive experience)

I find both the battles with Cybil and Eddie to be some of the most disturbing fights in all of gaming. Which is probably exactly what they were going for. There is no guilt in bashing away at indescribable monstrosities, but suddenly when you're pitted against another human being, another one of the very rare other humans in the claustrophobic nightmarish town... words can't describe the strong sense of dread here.

[Exhuminator]

Pretty sure Ack single-handedly saved this year's SGC thread.