Silent Hill: The Short Message delves deeply into themes of self-harm, suicide, and abuse, making it essential for readers to approach with caution.
Konami's Silent Hill: The Short Message marks the company's return to the series since Hideo Kojima's P.T. experiment (disregarding Silent Hill: Ascension). It presents an intriguing parallel to its predecessor. P.T. initially masqueraded as a demo for an unnamed game from 7780s Studio, a fictional entity, quietly appearing on the PlayStation Store without much hype. It wasn't until players completed P.T. that they realized it was part of a new Silent Hill installment.
In contrast, Silent Hill: The Short Message debuted during PlayStation's State of Play event in January 2024, alongside a "combat trailer" for the planned Silent Hill 2 remake. This complete, concise, and free first-person horror experience is downloadable from the PS Store for PS5 owners, reminiscent of P.T. It shares similar eerie elements early on, such as cockroaches, a blood-stained bathroom, and slightly glitchy door animations hinting at unseen entities loading in. However, it opts for a less subtle approach, with varying degrees of effectiveness.
Stating the Obvious Up Front
With The Short Message, it's evident that one of Konami's primary objectives is to modernize the Silent Hill universe. This goes beyond mere textual conversations, although they play a significant role, and extends to incorporating recent events like the COVID-19 pandemic directly into its storyline. Players step into the shoes of Anita, a teenager searching for her friend Maya in an abandoned apartment complex. However, this complex isn't located in Silent Hill; instead, it's situated in a fictional German city named Kettenstadt (translated as "Chain City" by Google Translate).So, why retain the Silent Hill moniker? Aside from leveraging brand recognition, the involvement of original Team Silent members adds weight to the connection (Masahiro Ito handled creature design, and Akaira Yamaoka composed the music for The Short Message). Yet, throughout the gameplay, there's a persistent feeling that it could have been titled something entirely different. At first glance, Silent Hill: The Short Message seems to emulate P.T. mixed with elements from Resident Evil 7 & RE8, making its ultimate resemblance to Life is Strange all the more intriguing.
What The Short Message Is
Two Gameplay Types To Observe
Silent Hill: The Short Message features two primary types of gameplay that alternate throughout the story. The first involves intense chase sequences where the player must flee from a terrifying monster in an alternate dimension of the apartment building called the Otherworld. In this Otherworld, a disturbing creature with a head adorned in cherry blossoms and entangled in barbed wire relentlessly pursues Anita. If the player gets too close, they're caught, killed, and must restart the sequence.
While this gameplay mechanic isn't particularly groundbreaking in the horror genre of the past decade, Masahiro Ito's creature designs are as unsettling as ever, adding to the immersive experience. The second type of gameplay involves standard first-person exploration segments. The player doesn't have a traditional inventory; instead, they rely on a cell phone, which serves as a communication device, flashlight, and menu screen for reviewing discovered documents. Controls are straightforward, with options to look behind oneself, zoom in on distant objects, and walk, with other actions triggered by contextual X button presses.
Visually, The Short Message impresses, particularly with its transition effects between the normal world and the Otherworld. Hallways suddenly come to life, resembling a stadium full of people performing a wave, complete with giant eyeball posters. The game also utilizes FMV sequences, often for flashbacks, which adds to the detached atmosphere, deliberately separating these moments from the in-game characters. Given the limitations of Anita's appearance and animation in cutscenes where the player isn't in first-person, this approach seems fitting.
Unreliable Expectations
Story Effectiveness & Implementation
Silent Hill: The Short Message carries a significant message. In a PlayStation blog post accompanying the game's release, producer Motoi Okamoto mentioned the team's exploration of modern youth communication through online platforms and phones, and how this could contribute to a psychological horror narrative. Early in the game, there's a poignant moment where Anita observes her friend's social media page, feeling disheartened by her friend's growing followers while she herself loses them. The game delves into the impact of negative online interactions, including hurtful comments from strangers and trusted individuals, depicted both on-screen and through graffiti and post-it notes covering the apartment complex's walls.
The narrative explores how seemingly minor incidents can accumulate over time, leading people to feel overwhelmed while concealing their fears and frustrations from others. It emphasizes that appearances can be deceiving, highlighting the internal struggles hidden behind seemingly put-together exteriors. Silent Hill: The Short Message delves into themes of trauma, suicide, and the struggle to resist descending into despair. While it incorporates a frustrating puzzle section seemingly inserted for gameplay's sake, its handling of these sensitive topics may resonate differently depending on individuals' personal experiences.
Speaking from personal experience as someone who grappled with suicidal thoughts for the first two decades of life, I found Silent Hill: The Short Message to effectively depict and convey its message regarding these issues. It's regrettable that the gameplay didn't offer much beyond this poignant narrative.
A Short Message On Silent Hill
A Strong Start For New SH
For a free game offering a glimpse into Konami's direction with the Silent Hill franchise, Silent Hill: The Short Message is definitely worth experiencing. However, it's not without its flaws. The repetitive "find the interactable object" gameplay doesn't innovate, and the escape room segments lose their fear factor after a few encounters with the monster, particularly the final one. The dialogue can feel a bit too direct, and the initial emphasis on social media references fades as the true story unfolds. Nevertheless, it's a promising start and undoubtedly the best new Silent Hill content since 2014.
Silent Hill: The Short Message is available for free download on the PlayStation Store for PS5 owners.
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