REVIEW: 'Silent Hill: The Short Message' Gives Hope for a Future
A short message arrives from a long dormant franchise to give hope on its future, or perhaps simply repeats mistakes of the past.
It’s strange to sit here and write about a new entry in the Silent Hill franchise. Sadly, I somehow missed out on the gaming nostalgia of this franchise. My main experience has been the depressing remaster of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. I ended up avoiding most of the newer mainline entries due to the overall reception. In a way, I was a part of the horror franchise as a passive consumer, falling in love with something many others gushed over online. Missing out on Silent Hill: Downpour after its release, I never thought I would ever get a chance to explore it the moment Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills beached into something completely different.
Yet, after a special transmission announced a remake of Silent Hill 2 by Blooper Team, the minds behind games like The Medium and Blair Witch seemed like this franchise might make a major comeback – if only it wasn’t back in October of 2022. We did get the monetization-riddled Silent Hill: Ascension which certainly left a sour taste in people’s mouths. There’s still no sign of Silent Hill: Townfall or Silent Hill f but then we randomly got the announcement of a free-to-play entry in the franchise in the form of Silent Hill: The Short Message during PlayStation’s State of Play.
It’s certainly not something you’d expect to just get dropped out of nowhere, but the fun aspect of its reveal was that it’s a long-rumored entry that was only known as Project Sakura back in 2022. The concept even echoes P.T. almost exactly ten years later. Akira Yamaoka and many others from the original trilogy returning to the franchise just adds that little bit of something that could make this the entry point back into the long-dormant franchise.
The game is free. So, there’s not going to be the same expectation of polish that I’d have with other horror entries like the recent Alan Wake 2 or Resident Evil 2 Remake. Any comparison would simply not be fair given what we’re getting without having to pay anything. Taking that into account, it’s an impressive, short entry in the franchise that feels like a step closer to the way the originals explored heavy themes with a splash of modern entries’ lack of subtlety.
The story explores a heavy theme of suicide with Anita living through a waking nightmare, as she wrestles with what happened in the German town of Kettenstadt. She ends up trying to find her friend Maya, who is a famous graffiti artist known as Cherry Blossom or C.B. in this town. Her friend Amelie is her only lifeline in the story that pulls her through, as we slowly see Anita lose her grip on reality as she’s chased down by her past and a mysterious cherry blossom creature in an apartment building known as Villa.
Given it’s not longer than about two hours, the story isn’t going for an elaborate storyline. We get quite a few glimpses of the relationship between the various characters in this story, especially Maya. What stands out is the location of the Villa, which offers some surprisingly interesting locations. The hallways you’re chased down may seem repetitive after some time, but it all jells together quite nicely to give you that feeling of loneliness and dread.
The Short Message is quite strong in building atmosphere but also stands in its way due to Anita having the terrible habit of spelling out every detail. Given the themes, a character who is very open about her inner anxiety is a great choice but does tend to mumble out more than necessary. Silent Hill is famous for its subtlety, which made it famous as the definition of what one would expect from a psychological horror game. Oddly enough, there are quite a few powerful moments that give you that same feeling as P.T. did but the game seems to not fully believe enough in itself to allow what we’re experiencing to say what needs to be said.
There are some creative decisions here that also seem to echo current trends within the horror genre. The live-action addition as a way to flashback to events of the past has some of the most visual stand-out moments in this entry, but there’s a bizarre choice to have it dubbed while the lip synchronization does not match the mouth movements. In a way, it does add a nice touch of eeriness that the game is going for but it does feel like it wasn’t fully realized.
It’s what creates a bit of a conflict in the story, as this game even has one of the best monster designs we’ve seen in a long time with the unnamed cherry blossom creature. The chase sequence is a bit repetitive; given that we’ve seen games do this for so long at this point; but it certainly is quite memorable. It only ends up truly dragging the experience down in the last big chase sequence as you’ll get lost easily. At some point it simply isn’t scary but a bit frustrating given how the boss gest teleported around.
In a way, the game acts as a demo for the franchise. Anyone who hasn’t gotten a chance to experience Silent Hill should give it a try though keeping in mind if they can stomach the heavy themes. It’s not the perfect showcase of what this franchise is capable of but as a prelude to Silent Hill f, it shows the potential direction they could be taking. From a theming standpoint, they are definitely on the right track and they are on the right track with some of the elements presented. Its shortcomings stand out though and if the developer takes that into account, we might see a true revival of the franchise moving forward.