Chapter 766 - 766: Does This Game Even Have Multiple Endings?

After fully completing the game and seeing the UI return to the game's starting screen, Zack was filled with a lot of emotion.

The top ten thousand spots were clearly not related to him in the slightest.

As for the achievement of completing the game, he had clearly reached it.

Right now, he was feeling very happy.

It wasn't about the money at all.

As everyone knows, getting things for free is a source of happiness.

It's like how Nebula Games often gives players free games.

And were those games blockbusters?

Not at all.

Were they high-quality indie games?

No, not really.

Except for some special holidays, the games usually given away for free were what many players jokingly called "games even dogs wouldn't play." But even so, players would eagerly claim them.

Whether they played them or even downloaded them was another matter. Just seeing an extra free game in their library brought a sense of accomplishment.

And now Zack had a similar thought: the money he spent to go to Silent Hill was completely worth it.

At the same time, he also got a CD KEY, a special gift for his good friend.

Even when he passed by the official Silent Hill merchandise flagship store on his way to Ben's party venue, he saw official merchandise for Silent Hill on sale.

He didn't hesitate to buy one directly, adding to the gift he was preparing for Ben.

Of course, it wasn't the rather alluring nurse figurine, but the third brother with the big cleaver.

Compared to the wallet he casually bought at the mall, the main focus of his gift today was undoubtedly the third brother's figurine and the CD KEY he worked hard to get. Zack hoped his good buddy Ben would remember the joy he found in the town of Silent Hill during the night.

This was his way of expressing his most sincere brotherhood.

Reflecting on his experience in Silent Hill, he could say he loved and hated the game.

A good horror game always has a reason why you might not feel it's that scary.

Of course, that's in hindsight. What about in reality?

Was Silent Hill scary? It was incredibly terrifying, even making many veteran players feel it was scarier than Outlast.

This is because its terror doesn't come from powerful monsters or jump scares, but more from a feeling.

In an environment that isn't particularly scary, with just a bit of atmosphere, it seems to possess a bone-chilling magic that makes everyone shiver.

It's a psychological dread, a powerful mental suggestion.

Every element in Silent Hill taps into the players' deepest feelings.

It doesn't rely on external factors in the game, but rather stimulates and manipulates the game environment to evoke fear within the player.

What was even more amazing was that Silent Hill's story also dealt with psychological themes.

After completing the game, many players also summarized the implied meanings behind the monsters in Silent Hill.

The faceless, armless monsters encountered at the beginning, whose main attack was spitting poison mist, were jokingly called "spitters" by many players.

This monster symbolized James's distress during Mary's illness: unable to touch or hold her, as if his hands were bound.

The monster's twisted body symbolized Mary's contorted body from the pain of her illness.

Furthermore, the monster's attack of spitting poison mist also alluded to the hurtful words Mary spoke to James during her illness.

Additionally, the mannequin James, a manifestation of his sexual repression, composed of two lower bodies, can be seen as a monster devoid of thought, only desire.

The bloated nurses in the hospital symbolized James's delusion born from his sexual repression during Mary's hospitalization. The fact that the nurses' faces were covered also alluded to Mary's suffocating death.

Pyramid Head is a reflection of James's cruelty and guilt, representing James's judgment and punishment for his own sins.

Because James felt powerless about his crimes, he couldn't harm Pyramid Head and could only helplessly flee, watching it repeatedly kill Maria, thus re-enacting James's murder of his wife.

It can be said that the entire game not only presented a tragic love story to the players.

It also presented content with a sufficiently deep core.

"Zack, thank you so much!" Ben said, looking at the drawing of the third brother on the packaging with a pained expression.

"You're welcome, we're brothers, right?" Zack chuckled. "Have you played Silent Hill? I specially got you a CD KEY."

Hearing this, Ben flashed a smile that made Zack feel a little uneasy.

"Of course I've played it. By the way, Zack, which ending did you like?" Ben said casually.

"Which ending? This game even has multiple endings?" Zack was dumbfounded.

"The game has three endings, you didn't know?" Ben seemed surprised.

And Zack was completely bewildered.

He really didn't know about Silent Hill having multiple endings.

In reality, it was the same for most players. After being scared from beginning to end, they assumed the game was over.

But who knew the game actually had multiple endings.

Some players left Silent Hill with Laura after finishing the game.

Some players, after killing Maria, chose to drive into a lake with Mary's corpse, sinking to the bottom of the lake with Mary forever.

And some players ended up killing Mary and then leaving Silent Hill with Maria.

These different endings also influenced players' interpretations of the game's story.

And this kind of design in Silent Hill also greatly surprised many players.

After all, a horror game adopted a multiple-ending model?

Did these endings have different meanings?

And how were these endings achieved?

Like games such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which have multiple endings, players are usually given various choices within the game.

But Silent Hill was entirely a linear experience.

It was exactly the same as Uncharted or The Last of Us; there were no dialogue or action choices whatsoever.

The cutscenes triggered were also fixed.

Therefore, if one only completed it superficially, they really wouldn't know the game had multiple endings, just like Zack now.

"It's okay, Zack, it's not shameful not to have completed the other endings. After all, this game is quite terrifying, and you need some courage to achieve different endings," Ben said, pretending to comfort him.

"By the way, Zack, I've fully completed this game, and with this one, my Platinum trophies on the Nebula Games platform have exceeded 100. It wasn't easy!" Ben chuckled slyly.

Looking at Ben's sly smile, Zack fell silent for a few seconds.

At this moment, a sentence suddenly came to his mind: 'He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.'

When he was thinking of giving Ben a big gift at his birthday party, it seemed the other person had already been thinking of how to reciprocate much earlier.

(End of chapter)

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