Review: SILENT HILL: The Short Message
by William Hernandez
The Silent Hill franchise has been quiet for quite a while, but things are starting to change with Konami's interest in the series being revitalized. SILENT HILL: The Short Message is just one of Konami's pieces in their long-term franchise project and the first game made available since they've revealed their upcoming plans. Making it a free game is definitely an easy sell-in and a welcome surprise. The Short Message, by all means, had the ability to set the tone of the franchise's future. After playing it, though, maybe it would be better if it didn't...There's not too much to say about the game because it is a short message after all, but it's rather unimpressive with how it explores its themes and just makes really poor decisions with its design. This will be a short review considering that there's not too much content to work with, but just know that the problems with the game loom large when thinking about what comes next.
Enjoyability: 4/12
When playing through any horror-centric game, the minimum expectation is to be at the edge of one's seat. Anything less is a job done poorly. But even then, there's usually something else about a game that might be interesting enough to keep you playing. SILENT HILL: The Short Message just barely gives you that much with the game being short enough that you can put up with almost anything just to see how things resolve themselves. The game is not unplayable in any technical way, but the experience sours tremendously after the first hour. Games generally shouldn't feel like a chore to play through, but The Short Message definitely does. The narrative and environment pull you in, but then nothing of value comes out of it. After enough time, the experience even becomes slightly frustrating because certain moments within the game just feel so uninventive. In terms of fun, there's not much here.
Gameplay: 6/12
You walk around. That's pretty much it. It's hard to mess that up. Even then, normal traversal feels just a bit too slow. There's legitimately not a whole lot to say here because the game only has two different modes: one where you explore at a snail's pace and another where you're running for your life without even a moment to think. The Short Message is just bland in terms of gameplay. There's some level of interactivity to keep things slightly interesting, but it's all just basic. It's hard to expect more from a short, free game, but that doesn't mean it should be held to different standards.
Atmosphere: 10/12
The only real positive takeaways from SILENT HILL: The Short Message come through its environments. Unreal Engine 5 is clearly the future and it allows for some really beautiful and captivating scenery. And when it comes to horror, it clearly does a great job of creating a tense atmosphere. The lighting and, inversely, the shadows are impeccable. The building in which The Short Message takes place looks amazing and its realism truly validates the live-action cutscenes by making them fit in pretty seamlessly. The soundtrack doesn't quite grab your attention while playing, but it fits the mood almost perfectly. Unfortunately, how the environment gets used isn't exactly the best. The result is a feeling of monotony which is a bit of a shame. Still, it's impressive enough and should be the main thing they try to emulate in a future game.
Design: 4/12
SILENT HILL: The Short Message is what some people might call a "walking simulator." The experience is wholly dependent on moving forward and nothing else for the most part. The interjections of horror don't really provide much value at all. If anything, they take away from it. After all, it really just boils down to running away from a monster and that's not exactly something all that impressive after you've experienced it once. And once you experience it again, you start to realize how dumb it all is. The escapes get more convoluted and that really just means that you get more and more lost with each one. Instead of adding any variation to that formula, the game puts you in an even more frustrating set piece that is effectively the same exact thing but infinitely worse. Unironically, walking for the entire game would have felt better. I'll give the game credit for putting in a single puzzle, but it's mostly a dull adventure that doesn't seem to understand what makes games feel good.
Direction: 5/12
The story isn't very satisfying, but at least it's interesting enough to play through the whole game. I appreciate the attempt to incoroporate heavy themes into the narrative, but the experience doesn't exactly come out as all that authentic. Everything is a bit too exaggerated for players to feel properly invested. And the further the game goes on, the cloudier the message gets. It's to the point that I'm not exactly sure what I should be taking away from the story. Your friends really care about you? I kinda thought that was already established from the first minute...The middling narrative aside, my only other complaint again has to do with the running sections. I mean, c'mon, there's just no way to know where to go when you have half a second to think about every turn you make. Sure, you might end up taking the right path out of sheer chance, but that's no way to set up an escape sequence. Overall, it's a bit tragic how this game was directed. If its story felt just a bit more grounded, it would've at least felt like a worthwhile narrative to experience. Instead, it has basically nothing going for it which is just a shame.
