Silent Hill: Downpour (Video Game 2011) — Brandy Barber as Devil’s Pit Announcer
[Murphy is riding the mine train through the cave]
Devil’s Pit Announcer
:
Welcome aboard the Devil’s Pit historic mine train with stops and Hillside Station and the Superstition Caverns. Please keep your hands and arms inside the train at all times and remain seated until the train comes to a full and complete stop. Failing to comply with safety regulations can result in severe injury or death. Enjoy your ride and please, no flash photography. Before it became the charming resort town we know and love today, Silent Hill was once a center of trade and commerce thanks to its rich seams of coal and iron ore. You are riding aboard a fully-restored mine train originally owned and operated by the Gillespie Coal and Iron Company, which first began extract ore from the Devil’s Pit in 1860. This subterranean railroad was built to in order to haul men and equipment as far and 1200 meter below the surface, making it the deepest coal mine of its day.
[as the lights flicker, Murphy sees horrifying images of miners coming for him in the dark]
Devil’s Pit Announcer
:
Long before the discovery of its rich coal seams, this labyrinth of limestone caves and grottos were used by the local indigenous tribes for religious ceremonies, particularly as a gateway to the spirit realm and for communicating with the dead.
[as the ride continues, the cave degenerates it a nightmarish hellscape]
Devil’s Pit Announcer
:
We are now descending into the Superstition Caverns, an area of the cave steeped in mystery and folklore. According to local legend, in 1911, miners discovered mysterious symbols carved into the walls of a limestone grotto, leading to wild speculations about witchcraft and the occult. Soon after, a series of unfortunate accidents and reports of mysterious creatures forced the company to suspend mining operations along this seam.
[a hideous monster jumps onto the train and attacks Murphy]
Devil’s Pit Announcer
:
Today, visitors to the Superstition Caverns occasionally reports seeing ghosts and other strange phenomenon…
[the guide voice begins to break up as the train speeds through a monster infested nightmare until leading to a hideous, monstrous face stretched across the tracks]
Evil Face
:
Did you enjoy the ride, Murphy?
[the train suddenly shoots backward along the track]
Silent Hill: 10 Hardest Puzzles, Ranked
During the time that both Resident Evil and Silent Hill were releasing new games, one thing that Silent Hill did far better was the puzzles.
In old-school Resident Evil, a lot of puzzles were switching up gold and silver keys or performing switch puzzles, where you needed to get to a certain number with a limited amount of moves.
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The puzzles in Silent Hill, on the other hand, were much better at making you think, and they were much more difficult as well. There are a lot of people that hit a brick wall when encountering the hard puzzles in these games.
10 Silent Hill 2: Coin Puzzle
As the first big puzzle in Silent Hill 2, the coin drawer’s challenge is fair and expected for the three base puzzle difficulties. Even on hard it’s not too difficult since it is the first big puzzle. However, extra puzzle difficulty is where the challenge ramps up significantly. The poem hint is the hardest and most complex one yet, but that’s not the main reason it’s so difficult.
Each of the three coins now has a reverse side for you to consider. Since completing the other three puzzle difficulties is required to play on extra, when first playing, you’ll likely not even realize there’s a reverse side now.
You need to manually examine the coins to reveal the other side.
9 Shattered Memories: Gumball Puzzle
The puzzles in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories are quite simple, for the most part. It often requires you to use the controller in some way or observe your surroundings to find the solution. The gumball puzzle, on the other hand, is quite irritating. Later in the Toluca Mall section, you’ll come across a gumball machine. You are given a hint that the solution has to do with the colors of the toucan mascot.
The issue is the mascot isn’t in that room. It’s actually far back from where you are, and you maybe didn’t even realize it’s there because enemies are in that area. You need to backtrack and evade the enemies again, just so you can take a picture of the toucan and return to the machine. This puzzle’s backtracking was frustrating.
8 Downpour: Train Puzzle
Silent Hill: Downpour features various types of puzzles, but the one involving the train is the only poem-based puzzle.
It shouldn’t be too much of an issue on easy and medium puzzle difficulty. However, hard puzzle mode is when the difficulty spike occurs.
The poem is challenging due to the number of red herrings. Although you only use blood once in the correct solution, blood is mentioned three times. It mentions Toluca’s subterranean claws, but the latter two words are just to trip you up. You are supposed to focus on Toluca, which would be blue. In this type of puzzle, you will either breeze through or hit a brick wall.
7 Downpour: Prison Workshop Code
Near the end of Downpour, you’ll come across a section where you must find a code to progress while dealing with respawning enemies. You must explore and use the blacklight to find the numbers in the environment. The numbers are quite easy to find except for the first number.
RELATED: Silent Hill Protagonists, Ranked
On medium and hard puzzle difficulty, the first number is in an almost intentionally unfair spot that you would only look for after spending hours searching.
It’s on the ceiling right above where you pick up the blacklight. Who would look there? Considering the enemies respawn indefinitely, most players just gave in and looked up the answer, but this number placement is devious.
6 Homecoming: Church Organ Puzzle
Out of all the puzzles in Silent Hill: Homecoming, the church organ one was the most frustrating. Near the end of the game, you must collect five plates to open the front door of the church area. Each side of the puzzle has a description, and the descriptions are vengeance, desire, sorrow, sacrifice, and penitence.
You need to match the sides with the correct plate, but the issue here is that some of the correct placements don’t make any sense. You’ll mostly be guessing and assuming which plates go where, which can result in spending a long time on this puzzle. By the time you decide to look up the answer, it’s possible that you were entirely off track from the correct solution.
5 Silent Hill 1: Valve Puzzle
Near the end of the elementary school in Silent Hill 1, you’ll be given this simple but challenging puzzle.
You must clear the path ahead by using two valves, and both can be turned left or right.
Considering there are only four actions to perform, you might think you can brute force it by doing random combinations until it’s solved. If you do that, you will be in a world of hurt. The puzzle will go on and on. You must learn the puzzle and understand what both valves do to complete it.
4 Silent Hill 2: Rotating Cube Puzzle
The rotating cube puzzle is by far the most unfair in Silent Hill 2. In the labyrinth, you must rotate a cube in the correct position to progress into the other room. On easy and normal puzzle difficulty, it’s quite fair since the solution is always the same, and it requires you to learn how the movement of the cube affects the rotating room.
RELATED: Silent Hill: Every UFO Ending, Ranked
On hard and extra difficulty, though, the puzzle is random every time. At that point, it’s just a guessing game. Brute forcing the puzzle can be quick or take a really long time.
3 Silent Hill 3: Crematorium Puzzle
Silent Hill 3 is probably the most difficult in terms of its puzzles. One of the more challenging ones is the crematorium puzzle on hard difficulty. On the surface, it doesn’t seem too hard. You are given a poem and ten bodies with numbers on them. New to the hard version is that each body has a poem attached, each relating to a specific bird.
To solve it, you simply match the poem’s verses to what’s stated on the bodies, right? Not exactly. One digit in the correct solution requires knowledge outside of the puzzle area. It’s in relation to a minor character you read about in files and a creepy phone conservation you have. It’s entirely possible you may not even think about that outside information when doing the puzzle.
2 Silent Hill 1: Piano Puzzle
The piano puzzle is the most infamous one in the first Silent Hill. Midway through the school, you’ll have to do a puzzle involving a piano to get a silver medallion.
You must read the poem hint and use that information to press the piano keys in the right order.
Doing this puzzle legitimately is incredibly difficult, especially if you’re unfamiliar with a piano. However, there is an easier way to do it. Each correct key you choose will result in a noticeable press sound. Since there are 12 choices in this puzzle, you can guess until you get the correct sequence of keys. This would be much harder if there wasn’t an audio queue to signify a correct choice.
1 Silent Hill 3: Shakespeare Puzzle
Silent Hill 3 offers the series’ most difficult and infamous puzzle with the hard version of the Shakespeare anthology. This is the first puzzle in the game, too. You are given a long poem as the hint and need to match five verses with actual Shakespeare tragedies.
You’ve probably read at least a few of these tragedies during your education, but there’s the catch. If you’ve read three of them, for example, you might think you can accurately choose three of the placements and guess the other two, but that’s not the whole puzzle.
