At the most recent State of Play event, Konami surprised everyone with the surprise launch ofSilent Hill: The Short Message,a short game that was described as being an “experimental” title that would help serve as a preview for the “new, modern” takes onSilent Hillset to come with theSilent Hill 2remake andSilent Hill f.Even if was just a relatively brief, free game, clocking in at ninety minutes or so, the fact that this was still the first officialSilent Hillgame inover a decadewas enough to make some heads turn. Especially since it was shown that this would be the first-ever first-person game in the series, which combined with its shadow drop and position as a taste of things to come for the series, made for a lot of comparisons toP.T.But canThe Short Messageeven match its predecessor, do the series justice and provide hope for the series?
Terror Travels to German Housing
Set in the dying town of Kettenstadt, Germany,The Short Messagesees players stepping into the shoes of Anita, a teenage girl who finds themselves waking up in an abandoned apartment complex, with no memory of how she got there. Anita then receives texts from her friend Maya, a prominent local graffiti artist saying to come find her in the building. The complex is indeed a popular spot for graffiti artists, but also the site of many suicides, so Anita is naturally concerned. Moreso when she discovers haunting findings in the building. It would appear that there’s more than meets the eye here, but does Anita have something to do with Maya’s sudden disappearance?
Well, to answer that, you also just need to ask yourself another question: has the franchise been trying to recapture the glory ofSilent Hill 2for quite a while now? I don’t consider myself aSilent Hillexpert, but I still knew enough to predict one of the big plot twists, especially once one document made it painfully obvious. Even just mentioning the second game feels like a spoiler. It isn’t exactly the most complex plot, to say the least. That said, there’s at least one more macabre twist that I didn’t see coming, which marked one of the best points. Obvious twist aside, the story is decent, even if it’s blunt about its themes of suicide, bullying and the impact of social media on mental health.
You Have Been Warned…Again…
How blunt are things, you may ask? Well, for one, there’s a content warning about the themes included, as is expected for many games these days tackling tough issues. Where most games would just present it once at the beginning and/or the end, however,The Short Messagedisplays it no less thanthreetimes over its short length. Now, I don’t mind whenever entertainment has to drop anvils if they’re necessary, but this felt excessive. Still, as Anita explores the building and discovers what she, Maya, and her other friend Amelie have gone through, the presentation is effective enough, with nice, creepy visuals juxtaposed with beautiful murals, and a unique use of live-action cutscenes as well.
There are also times where things just feel a bit too corny, though. In particular, wheneverThe Short Messagehas to present the bullying the characters have gone through. A wall of post-it notes with childish insults scrawled on them and shouted at Anita by ghostly figures hardly feels like an accurate representation of bullying. I sawMean Girlsthe night before playing this game, and even that had a more genuinely-complex look at bullying than this game. Still, the game is to be applauded for at least trying to address such subjects, even incorporating elements like the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect and had on people’s well-being into the story through a few clever ways, and the three main characters are well-designed and likeable enough that they can practically carry the plot on its own. So the story, while not the most spectacular, was perfectly fine. AllThe Short Messagehad to do to stick the landing now was nail things on the gameplay front.
Unfortunately,The Short Messageseemingly forgot that it had to be…you know, a game.
The Chase is as Dull as The Catch
For the most part,The Short Messagecould arguably be described as a walking simulator, where you explore the building and interact with objects to learn more about the story and open new area, occasionally stopping to text with Maya and Amelie on Anita’s cell phone. And I would be okay with that. After all, if the goal is to just establish the visuals, style of storytelling and atmosphere that the series is going for, that would get the job done. Unfortunately, at certain points, a massive, twisted cherry blossom monster appears, and kicks off a chase sequence where if it catches you even once, you die instantly and get flung back to the nearest checkpoint, all without any way to fight back.
These were the points where any expectation that I had for the game plummeted. The points where, if it weren’t for the backing of a triple-A game company,The Short Messagewould easily just be mistaken for a third-rate indie horror title on Steam. This may be the type of horror gameplay revolutionized by the likes ofOutlast,but that was over a decade ago, and this game brings nothing new to the table. As the mod forSOMAthat removed monsters later proved, it’s even the type of gameplay that gets in the way of the story by having it come to a screeching halt. Worst of all, it’s not even scary, just aggravating, as repeated failures make you even more frustrated and just wanting the current section to be over with. They don’t even have the element of surprise, as a bit of static gives away when each chase scene is about to happen.
Sony Hints at 2024 Release for Metal Gear Solid 3, Silent Hill 2 Remakes
A new PlayStation montage seems to suggest that the remakes of Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 are both coming later this year
The worst offender is the finale, in which you’re chased around a massive maze looking for five pieces of art to unlock a door. The monster is just as fast as you, so there’s barely any time to concentrate, all the areas have a same-y industrial visual style, so it’s easy to get lost, and if you get caught even once, it’s back to square one, having to find everything again, but not without an overly-long death animation. It’s practically a textbook example of whatnotto do in a horror game.
You Do Plan to Have Silent Hill in Your Silent Hill Game, Right?
It’s not just that the gameplay is bad, it’s that it’s so unoriginal. Again, for what’s supposed to be a look at the “new, modern"Silent Hillgames, there’s nothing here that you can’t already get from other years-old, cheap indie horror games. In fact, if you remember the mention of how this game takes place in Germany, you might be thinking “wait, how is this aSilent Hillgame if it’s nowhere near Silent Hill?” Well, the connection to Silent Hill comes in the form of…a single newspaper clipping. One that basically just exists to provide a hand wave as to why future game will be set in entirely different countries. EvenSilent Hill 4: The Roomdid more to wedge in the rest of the series.
This may be where you start thinking “Aren’t you being too hard on a ninety-minute game that partially exists as a teaser and is available for free?” Well, if you did ask that, let me reply by saying that one, I have played several other amazing games with short lengths and/or cheap price tags (one earlier this week,in fact), and two, all of that could be said aboutP.T.,and that was considered one of the most influential and important games of the past decade, and unlikeThe Short Message,it wasn’t even billed as a full game, it was a full-on playable teaser. For that matter,P.T.perfectly captured a lot of what we want fromSilent Hill:unsettling, surreal imagery, unknown, twisted horrors and deeply-layered puzzles that were intended to be part of a communal experience by Hideo Kojima, wanting us all to communicate and figure it out.
In contrast to that last part, not counting the maze chase at the end,The Short Messagehas approximately one puzzle in a series known for challenging puzzles. And it’s a puzzle so unbelievably easy and tacked on that it practically feels like an insult to the point where it would almost be better if it justdidn’t have puzzles at all. And after all this, I started to see exactly what was wrong here. The disappointing puzzle, the overly-simplistic gameplay and action, the repeated content warnings, the blunt story elements…this and more makesThe Short Messagefeel like a dumbed-downSilent Hill.One that feels less like psychological horror and more like streamer bait. Maybe a stronger story could have improved things, but I’ve still seen streamers play vastly better, short horror games, so even with the allure of being free, do yourself a favor: SkipSilent Hill: The Short Messageand play those games instead. This is just dull, which is thelastthing that aSilent Hillgame should be.
Closing Comments:
The sad thing is thatSilent Hill: The Short Messagehas a lot of good story ideas, characters and world-building, but then proceeds to waste them on completely unoriginal, shallow gameplay. It paradoxically wanted to move ahead and tackle more mature themes and stories, yet has gameplay that feels blatantly regressive, settling for the most generic aspects of modern horror games. If this is the direction that the franchise wants to take, then it’s headed straight for a cliff. Hopefully the likes of No Code will be able to salvage things with their side games later, but for now, you can easily skip overThe Short Message.
Silent Hill: The Short Message
Version Reviewed: PlayStation 5
After waking up in an abandoned apartment complex associated with suicide, Anita searches for her missing friend Maya, facing twisted horrors along the way. This bite-sized game is Silent Hill’s first foray into first-person gameplay, not counting P.T. and the cancelled Silent Hills.
