Last time around in our on-going spotlight series PSU got chummy with Resident Evil’s floppy-haired hero Leon S. Kennedy, tracing his roots in the series’ second instalment to present day. Keeping in with the horror game vibe, we’re now taking a peak at one of the heroes from Konami’s pulse-pounding psychological horror franchise, Silent Hill. Here, we scrutinize original protagonist Harry Mason as a trip to the eponymous town with his daughter doesn’t go quite according to plan….
Mason’s debut in the 1999 horror classic Silent Hill was pretty memorable for a number of reasons. However, it has to be said his character wasn’t something gamers of the time were used to. Unlike Resident Evil and Dino Crisis, where you were hopping into the boots of hardened coppers and military types, Mason was merely Joe Average; an ordinary bloke with no discernible combat training whatsoever. As a result, his character brought a sense of vulnerability to the proceedings, and more than often, outright clumsiness. This is exemplified largely in combat, where Mason handles weapons with great uneasiness, and will often miss a shot unless you lock your target for a few seconds and from within a reasonable distance. While potentially frustrating from a gameplay perspective, these traits help craft a far more believable protagonist, and one you ultimately sympathize with in a world full of hellish creatures and hanging corpses.
A writer by trade, Mason is a bit of a loner when it comes to day-to-day relationships, devoting his time to his work and marriage. Harry became acquainted with his future wife, Jodie, in high school, and a loving relationship quickly develops and the pair soon wed. Tragedy soon struck, however, when Jodie contracted a mysterious illness, dashing the couple’s hopes of starting a family together. However, fortune seemingly smiled upon the pair when they discovered an abandoned baby on the side of the high way; Harry and his wife adopted the child, naming her Cheryl.
Three years later, Jodie tragically passed away, leaving a distraught Mason to raise Cheryl on his own. At the age of 32, still heavily traumatized by his wife’s death, Cheryl suggest the pair visit the quaint resort town of Silent Hill for a family vacation. The trip is relatively peaceful until Mason arrives on the outskirts of town, where he crashes his jeep after swerving to avoid a young woman standing in the middle of the road. After waking up and chasing what appears to be his daughter down a dingy, dark alleyway filled with blood and mutilated bodies, Mason is attacked by unknown creatures and wakes up in a nearby café in the company of Office Cybil Bennett. Thus begins Harry’s search for Cheryl, which takes him on a journey through Old Silent Hill, New Silent Hill and Silent Hill Amusement Park.
Along the way he encounters numerous grotesque creatures, from demonic canines, knife-wielding infants and airborne predators. Furthermore, Mason also witnesses Silent Hill’s transition from foggy ghost town to the rusty, blood-drenched ‘Other World,’ home to all manner of warped abominations and cerebral challenges. Throughout his quest, Harry bumps into a number of survivors, including Alchemilla Hospital staff Michael Kauffman and Lisa Garland, and local weirdo and cult leader, Dhallia Gillespie. Through much chin-wagging and snooping it becomes apparent Silent Hill was embroiled in drugs trafficking at some point, with the occult and a local fire - which severely injured Dhallia’s daughter Alyssa - playing an instrumental role in the recent happenings. Cybil however, is initially incredulous at Mason’s claims of demonic creatures and shifting dimensions, though soon changes her mind after she becomes possessed by an unknown entity and is only saved thanks to Harry’s swift actions.
Eventually, our hero winds up in the Otherworld dimension known as ‘Nowhere,’ an area that is essentially an amalgamation of various places Mason has visited on his travels. Nowhere holds many shocking revelations for Harry, who manages to piece together the awful truth of what’s happened in town. It turns out that Dhallia and Kauffman are followers of a cult known as the Order, who worship their own dark God. The fanatical group attempted to utilize Alyssa - who had attracted strange paranormal phenomenon from a young age – to birth God, hence the burning of the Gillespie house in an effort to expedite the process. Alyssa survived but suffered horrendous injuries, and, impregnated with the God in embryonic form, splits her soul – the other half becoming the same child that Harry and his wife find on the side of the road outside town. Unfortunately for Mason, Kauffman lobs the mysterious Aglaophotis (the same strange substance Harry assumed to be drugs earlier on) at Alyssa, expelling the God and bringing forthe winged beast Incubus, whom Mason manages to defeat.
Bathed in light, the tortured young woman then hands Mason a baby; a reincarnation of herself who would adopt a new identity and raised by Harry alone. Our hero then escapes Silent Hill to start a new life. Five years pass since that fateful turn of events, during which Mason and his adopted daughter enjoy a peaceful life, the young girl being oblivious to her former life as Alyssa. However, while living in Portland, a member of the Silent Hill religious cult attempts to abduct the reincarnated Alyssa, forcing Mason to shoot and kill the fanatic in self-defence. The pair eventually moved to several towns, ultimately setting up home at Daisy Villa Apartments. In order to protect his child’s identity from The Order, Harry has her hair dyed and renames her Heather.
12 years later at the age of 49, Mason is brutally murdered in his apartment by a cult missionary under direct orders from Claudia Wolf, now leader of The Order. Heather, devastated by her father’s death, swears revenge, and lays Harry to rest following her climatic battle in Silent Hill.
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