Part 1: Scenario One: Ben Part 1

Silent Hill: Mobile



Scenario 1: Ben Part One

We open on a white screen:






And so we begin our adventures in Silent Hill. For now we have the right shoulder button able to pause the game and bring up things like saving and sound options (I'd play the music for you, but we get three notes and then silence for every time we enter a new room. That's the entirety of the score to the game.) We have our cursor, controlled by the arrows or 2-4-6-8. We can move the cursor all around the screen, as well as moving the "camera" approximately 10 degrees to the right or left by continuing that direction. If we "mouse over" an item of interest, the cursor changes into a pointing gesture when placed over something of interest. when we then hit the OK or 5 button, the following interface pops up:



These four options are, clockwise from the top, LOOK, USE, SPEAK, and ITEMS. Unfortunately, we have no way of accessing these options, and more importantly our inventory, unless we mouse over an item of interest. This oversight would be corrected in the next game. Presently in our inventory is a blank notepad, and a fully loaded pistol, containing 10 bullets. We can hold a total of 13 bullets altogether, including what is in the gun at any given time. When our inventory is open, what looks like a red signal strength meter appears at the top of the screen. This is actually our health bar. It also shows up during combat sequences, which I'll explain when we get to them.


If we wait a moment, this then happens:





There's no way that could possibly be important in this game, but nonetheless, let's LOOK at the spot on the wall.

It looks like a map to the orphanage.

We all know how important that is in a Silent Hill game, so we USE the map to pick it up. Now like magic, the left softkey will bring up the map, after asking which of the three floors we want to view. For now, let's take a quick look at the floor we're on:



As you can see, someone already helpfully crossed off the rooms we'll never have access to. Hooray! Also, our placement on the map is designated by the red "^" symbol pointing the direction we're facing at any given time. Also, it doesn't take a genius to interpret the room images: Lobby, Office, Dining Room, and Kitchen. Before we move on, there's one more thing I want to look at. Just off camera to the left is a plaque above the bench on the wall.

The sign reads "The Sheppard's Orphanage - Where we care for everyone's future."

Now we know where we are. With that out of the way, let's go into that office directly ahead of us.



Surprisingly, Ben has very little to say in here. I expected some sort of information about the desk owner or something. That painting has caught my eye however...

It's a painting of a boy and his toboggan on a snowy hill. For some reason it makes me uneasy.

And if we look at it a second time...

Paint is falling apart but I can't see the wall behind the painting.

Hmm, that's suspicious that the wall isn't visible through the cracks in the painting. Let's USE our investigative skills a little further here.



Aha, there's a safe under there!

Hmm, it's a safe, but I don't have the combination for it right now.

Drat, I guess we'll just have to come back later. Maybe we can snoop and find something useful in the filing cabinet down there on the floor? Let's LOOK inside, shall we?

It's empty. I guess someone took care of all our files when they left the place.

Well you didn't even open the thing, of course you won't find anything that way. If you USE the cabinet, you get a Compass, which strictly serves to show you what direction you're facing when in the hallways, in case noone ever taught you how to read a map. Anyways, we're done in here for now. Backing out to the lobby, we then go to the right out into the Hallways



This is pretty much the gist of what they look like. They'll change shape in accordance to the map, as to where turns are and where doors are, but they otherwise look the same. I won't bore you by showing you each and every square of the halls. Anyways, lets get moving and-

You left it in the bottom drawer. Don't you remember, Ben?

What? Is someone there?

Well that was weird. Let's go take a look at the next nearest room, the Dining Hall.



Once again, there's not very much going on in our sepia-toned empty orphanage.

Two of the nurses ate with us. We were a total of 12 kids and were divided into two different groups when it came to dinner since we all couldn't fit around the table.

LOOK at those paintings

I recognize one face. She was the head nurse or whatever.

Well, other than that, only one thing really seems conspicuous in here, and Ben agrees.

Hmm... This candle looks a bit weird. It doesn't really seem to fit the candle holder.

In that case, let's do something about it, and take it!

Weird shape this candle has... There seems to be something stuck inside...

Hmm, maybe soon we can find a way to get that out of there? Oh well, onward deeper into the Orphange we go. Looks like it's nothing but a round about shot to the next room and



Huh. That's not on the map at all. It shows the hallway continuing. We better investigate this clock.



And welcome to the first puzzle of the game! This is a terrible puzzle at this point, and like so many things in this series, only makes marginal sense later. See how the few numbers on the clock stick out? They're buttons. We have to push the numbers in the right order. What happens when we push the wrong button? They pop back out and we have to start again. There are zero clues at this point what the order is, so it's entirely just trial and error. The combination, for the record, is 5-6-2-12-9. Once we hit those, the clock slides to the side, like so:



There! Strange though... I don't remember a clock standing here and little less a passage through it.

Stop living Ben.

What? That voice again... It's only in my head!

Why don't you go weeping in the shower room like you did that night?

But...? What...? Who...?

You look pale Ben.

Oo-kay, I'm not so sure Ben is alright. Anyways, lets go through this hole, and onward to the next room, the kitchen.



Now this room is a great example of how dull a lot of the coded scenery is in this game that I've been overlooking. See that closet and each and every cupboard door there? They all count as individual items you can do things with. Each and every one of them is stuck closed, and gives the same LOOK flavor text:

Before we ate dinner, two of us were in charge of setting the table with plates and stuff that were in this cabinet.

Most of the environments are like this. Pretty much every window has the same speech about it being dirty, every chair is uncomfortable looking. Someone went to the trouble of coding in all these little details to the game, and someone else just decided screw it, that's not worth dealing with. Oh well, let's go see what's in the pot on the stove

There's some disgusting sludge in here. It has probalby been in this pot for 30 years.

Showing clarity beyond his peers, Ben refuses to touch the sludge when you tell him to. Well, if this stuff is so nasty, maybe it can eat away at the candle wax enough to get us whatever goody is sitting inside?

Let's see if I can make this dinner any worse...
(Drops the candle in)
The candle is floating on top of that disgusting sludge.

Well that didn't work. And Ben certainly still won't touch the stuff to get it back. Maybe we can add some heat to melt the candle? Let's check this oven out a little more.

It looks like it has been a while since this was in use.

And if we USE the oven, Ben opens it

Uh... There!



Oh dear. That isn't an oven. That's an old fashioned fire-stove. At least it has wood in it, but we'll need something hot to get this supper going. Maybe one of the other floors has something useful. Let's take a look at the other floors on our map.

Floor 2


Basement


Well, there's a storage room down in the basement, let's take a quick jaunt down there. When we get there, we find unfortunately the door is locked. Add to our "to do list" on that one I suppose. Also, while we're down here, something else is on my mind.


Let's check out that shower room while we're down here.

I know this door leads to the shower room, but I feel like something bad will happen if I open it now.

Well that was certainly not ominous. Fooey, let's go upstairs then and continue our room by room search. First up once we reach the second floor is the bathroom.



Help!

What? Who is it!?

H... Hey! Is someone there!?

Yes. I'm Ben! Who are you?!

My name is Karen! I've been shouting for hours! I'm locked up in some sort of strange storage room!

Oh I get it! So we can talk through the ventilation system?!

Yeah, I guess! Why are you here?!

I used to live here 30 years ago! I don't know why I have returned to the orphana... Wait! Did you say your name was Karen?!

Yes?!

I think I remember you! You were that quiet girl! You got away that night, when everyone was killed?!

Who got killed?!

What?! 30 years ago in this orphanage, all of the children except three were killed in their beds!

Death Count: 9
This game absolutely reeks of death. This number will only go higher.

Really?! I... I can't remember...

Listen! I'll try and get to you! Hold on!

Please Hurry Ben! It's so dark in here!

So we're not alone after all here in the orphanage. Also, I suppose that explains why the room in the basement was locked as well. Also, note that we're apparently both survivors of the building fire from 30 years ago. That's a weird coincidence. well let's take stock of our surroundings and figure things out. Hmm, we have three stalls here, with the middle one chained up-

Strange... There's a padlock on this door? Why?

Yeah, I was getting to that. Then we have a cracked and dirty sink. Is there anything in it?

Four teeth lie here. There are (sic) dried up blood all over the washbasin. Someone must have used something in order to pull them out.

Oh. Um, moving on. It's hard to see here but there's a vent above the sink close to the ceiling.

I think this is the reason why Karen and I could speak to each other

Which gives us an opportunity to finally use the SPEAK command

Karen!

Ben! Have you found a way to reach me?!

No, not yet! How did you get here?!

I don't know! I just woke up here!

Okay! I'm on my way Karen!

Thanks Ben!

Weird that Karen has no idea what's going on, or where she is, but okay. Let's take a look at the non-locked stalls.

I remember that we couldn't lock these doors from inside. Although if the toilet was busy we would know it since we could see the legs of the person that was using it. Still, kids could be mean to each other...

We can open both stall doors. They just have toilets in them. Ben notes that they look clean and "unused". Well, let's go ahead and "use" one then.

I don't need to right now. But wait! There's something inside the toilet...

We receive a pair of tongs...which we probably should dwell on them being here...

This might help me pick up dirty or hot objects in this hellish place.

Yeesh, someone's feeling a bit melodramatic. But that's all we can do for now. Back on to our search room by room. Next up are the trio of dormitory rooms.



Again, off out of camera in this shot, there are a pair of small red shoes at the foot of the left bunks.

Somehow I feel that those don't belong here.

Then let's try to pick them up.

They are kid shoes. I don't think they'll fit me.

So we leave them there due to an accute case of adventuregameitis. If we look at the left bunk, we learn...

I used to lie in this bed. Couldn't really sleep though... Hmm... Why was that?

We could try now?

I'm not tired and even if I was, I couldn't rest in a place like this... Too many bad memories that unfortunately are beginning to come back...

Like what? Maybe something to do with the right hand bunks?

This was Leonard's and George's beds. They were both killed in their beds 30 years ago. I wasn't in my bed at the time. I was in the shower room... But I can't remember why...

Oh. Yeah, that would do it. Hey, speaking of memories...


There were just clothes in these when we lived here since no one was allowed to have personal belongins.

However, if we check the bottom drawer, we get a gold lighter! The middle drawer holds first aid kits. We can hold up to 2 at a time. And the top drawer holds bullets. After taking the lighter, bullets also appear in the bottom drawer. These are in infinite supply, but we have limited inventory space. This will be important to keep in mind later, trust me. The other two dorms look identical to this one, only without the shoes, and Dorm 3's dresser contents are reversed. If we examine any of the bunks, we get the same message:

I don't remember who slept in these beds but I know that they were killed in their beds 30 years ago. I wasn't in my bed at the time. I was in the shower room... But I can't remember why...

The final room upstairs, the classroom, is shut tight, unable to be opened at this time. Ben blithely thinks nothing of it, and in any case, we have a puzzle to solve! Can you guess what we have to do next? That's right dear readers, back down to the Kitchen, to use our shiny new lighter on the wood stove!



The candle looks a bit softer now, but I don't think the heat is strong enough to make it melt.

And this is one of this game's trademark make you feel dumb moments, because you think you have it all wrapped up. But how do you make more heat from the stove? The answer's obvious in real world terms if you know how one of these stoves work: You're letting all the heat out through the door, jackass. Let's close the door.

The candle was is (sic) mixing with that disgusting sludge. Wait! I think I can see something sticking out from the candle!

And now we have to grab something out of a pot filled with hot, dirty stuff. Good thing that's what the description on those tongs said they were for! Using them, we get a small key! Well, luckily we know someone that could use a key...to the Basement! When we get to the basement hall, let's make sure that we know that that's really where our new friend is at:

Karen! Karen! Are you down here?!

Ben...? I can hear your voice loud and clear. I'm right through this door.

Hmm... It sounds like your voice is coming from the door to the right.

Please hurry Ben...

Yup, that's the right door alright. Unfortunately, the key doesn't work on the door. Shoot. Well, we do know one other place that's locked. That Stall in the bathroom! So, we go back up to the second floor, and use our key on the padlock.

It fits!



Well. Look what we have here. Veterans of the Silent Hill series might be able to recognize that scrawling on the wall as The Halo of the Sun, a mystical symbol used throughout the series.



Let's try for a closer look at this thing

You don't belong here Ben... You should be Dead...

That voice again... In my head... Or... No... I can't... Stand... Straight...

We cut to a white screen






Whoa, what just happened, and where am I? This looks like the wash room I just entered. It seems as if the red sign can be used as a portal.



Well then.