Over the past two days I've been trying to finish Silent Hill for the first time. I always got up to the hospital and stopped playing. I started fresh yesterday. I got tripped up on one puzzle in particular for two hours, which is why I'm writing this.

I was in overthinking mode due to the game's themes and storyline. I analyzed everything being said. When I got to the “Nowhere” area, I got stuck on the door where you have the alphabet as an input, and there is a list of names next to it:

35 Lydia Findly

60 Trevor F. White

18 Albert Lords

45 Roberta T. Morgan

38 Edward C. Briggs

The hint for the puzzle said that you had to input the names in the right order, by age. I knew I had the right order, Albert, Lydia, Edward, Roberta, and Trevor.

What I didn't know was how to input them. I first tried all the initials of the people, inputting ALLFECBRTMTFW. That didn't work. I tried inputting their first names in order. Then I tried their full name, which took forever. That didn't work. Finally after staring at it I realized the names formed the word ALERT when in the right order, going by the first letter of the first names. It was SO OBVIOUS!

I was relieved and pissed that I missed that at the same time.