| Platform | Studio | Release | Played |
|---|---|---|---|
| PS5 | Konami Digital | January 2024 | March 2024 |
Being a mix of walking simulator and horror escape sequences Silent Hill: The short Message fails to excel in all of its aspect. The story around Anita and her friend Maya tries to tackle difficult and complex topics like suicide, negative influence of social media and bullying. However, the game does not manage to create the required depth of characters in the short cutscenes and dialogs, leaving an awkward feeling of those important matters not getting addressed adequately and subtle enough.
As in-depth character drawing would have anyway been a challenge in a game taking only roughly two hours for a playthrough the developers decided to interrupt the walking simulator like adventure sections with horror escape sequences. You must run away from a monster covered in cherry blossom to find a safe exit while the monster is chasing you. The lack of a proper map for orientation alongside the multiple corridors make orientation difficult and leading to those sequences being a long trial and error activity until you finally find the correct way to the exit and knowing the way the monster chases you. In addition, frame rate drops in those escape sequences form an additional source of frustration.
Overall, a game not worth the name Silent Hill in all of its aspects and neither a good horror game nor narratively outstanding.
Positive
- available for free in PS store
- courage to tackle difficult topic in a very short game
Negative
- lack of character build-up
- setting appears to be selected randomly
- trial and error horror escape sequence
- no map for orientation
- frame rate dops in escape sequences
Verdict
45
“Silent Hill: The Short Message is a narratively disappointing and frustrating horror game”
Sources: Screenshots: own screen captures