Content warning: This evaluation discusses Silent Hill: The Short Message’s story, which incorporates references to self-harm.As a lifelong horror fan and longtime horror critic, I did not anticipate to evaluation a free Silent Hill recreation that launched, PT-style, just some minutes after it was revealed. And I actually did not anticipate it to be as forgettable as it’s. After greater than a decade away from consoles, Silent Hill: The Short Message revives the sequence as the primary of a number of video games over the subsequent few years. I sincerely hope future installments within the franchise can rekindle the long-absent magic as a result of The Short Message doesn’t do this. In extra methods than one, it isn’t the playable teaser Silent Hill followers hoped for.
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Now Playing: Silent Hill: The Short Message Full Playthrough Gameplay
Silent Hill: The Short Message is a first-person horror recreation constructed on the concept of a time loop by which its tormented most important character is trapped. If that sounds acquainted, wait till you play it. The recreation is blatantly impressed by PT (or “Playable Teaser”), Hideo Kojima’s guerrilla demo for the never-released Silent Hill title he was as soon as engaged on. The Short Message isn’t Konami working again PT’s story with out its director. It’s a brand-new entry into the sequence meant to be one thing of a jumping-on level for gamers uninitiated with the beforehand hibernating horror sequence. It’s neither tied to any previous entry, nor a teaser for a future installment.Clocking in at about 90 minutes, its time dedication is temporary, its monetary dedication is non-existent, and but I nonetheless cannot advocate it as a result of it winds up feeling like a caricature of itself and will solely sour–or bitter further–one’s reminiscences of what was, for a time, the style’s finest sequence.The Short Message does not happen in Silent Hill, nevertheless it explains why that’s and tries to inform a narrative that checks all the standard packing containers. Main character enjoying the position of an unreliable narrator? Check. Horrors which are heightened every time that character descends into the supernatural Otherworld? Yup. A twist that recontextualizes all the things you have seen earlier than it? Of course. These may very well be seen as non-negotiable components of any recreation sporting the Silent Hill title, however the method felt recent in Silent Hill 2, was nonetheless pleasurable in Silent Hill Homecoming, and was obvious–but not, I suppose, game-ruining–in Silent Hill Downpour. In The Short Message, nonetheless, it simply feels performed out, prefer it’s writing a guide report utilizing solely the Spark Notes, understanding Silent Hill to be a metaphysical jail for a tortured wrongdoer, and taking the shortest doable path to inform that story.Referring to an in-universe worldwide prevalence coined “The Silent Hill Phenomenon,” the sport explains that locations of despair have been recognized to be enveloped in fog earlier than issues get even worse. Basically, the sport suggests, you’ll be able to have a Silent Hill wherever, even within the unusual German city stuffed with Japanese teenagers the place the sport is ready. It appears like a foolish addition to the lore when, beforehand, Silent Hill has by no means actually been thought of as being in the identical bodily place anyway. Silent Hill wasn’t precisely a city a lot as a vibe, however The Short Message confuses that strategy, or maybe intentionally reimagines it for the more severe.These superficial particulars of what Silent Hill has been and, as I infer it, “should be,” are worsened by a script that lacks subtext or subtlety to a groan-inducing diploma. Characters communicate their thoughts with such precision that they depart nothing unsaid, ever. As the participant, there is not any room to misconceive, to ponder a personality’s intentions, or to be misdirected in any means apart from the a technique it does attempt to, which is probably going the plain one you will see coming after just a few minutes within the recreation.The Short Message does not take lengthy to harm Silent Hill’s already combined fame.The Short Message does search meaningfulness in its narrative, telling a darkish story about self-harm, bullying, and a condemned constructing affected by recurring suicides amongst younger ladies. There’s a kernel of one thing price exploring there, nevertheless it must be completed deftly. Rather than paint in vibrant colours to create one thing poignant that each spooks its viewers and carries its meant message to the end line, the sport appears like a firehose with two settings: platitudes and nonsense.With frequent frame-rate drops that see the sport endlessly floating between 40 and 60 frames per second, the sport additionally feels suboptimal on a technical degree. Given the strictly linear strategy and the restricted environments or results, it strikes me as odd that the sport cannot preserve constant efficiency.But enjoying it is not only a technical eyesore. It’s an all-too-familiar haunted home story that takes the seeds of PT however bears solely rotten fruit. In truth, The Short Message is indistinguishable from the last decade of PT-likes which have crowded Steam and different platforms since Kojima’s top-secret demo hit PS4. It’s truly worse than a number of the many others I’ve performed given the way it retreads a lot acquainted territory however to a much less spectacular diploma.For instance, environments can morph within the immediate you flip away from them, meant to offer the sport with a way of disorientation a la Layers of Fear. But whereas that recreation enhanced this function with phantasmagoric Dorian Gray-inspired shows, the place up was down and its setting nearly got here to life across the participant, The Short Message tends to merely swap one hallway for one more. Virtually the whole portion of the sport that takes place exterior of the Otherworld exists in decrepit hallways stuffed with graffiti the place each hall seems to be the identical. Occasional live-action scenes solely re-color the monotony resulting from how each scene staged with actual folks unfolds in the identical featureless white area.The Short Message additionally makes use of disembodied voices to recall reminiscences you will unlock by choosing up notes and different clues throughout the story. Though that is fairly normal online game fare, I nonetheless assume it may be completed properly, corresponding to with the Amnesia sequence. But the standard of each the writing and performing can generally make these moments in The Short Message inadvertently comical, corresponding to once I interacted with a pizza and was scolded by the reminiscence of a pissed off mom.PT-likes seldom conceal their influences, selecting as a substitute to lean into them to attempt to catch hearth the best way PT did, however within the case of The Short Message, the story and gameplay each depart it in a decidedly worse place than different copycats. It presents the broad strokes of PT–a time loop, a haunting, some claustrophobic hallways, and even a child in mortal danger–but not one of the dizzying terror.Just because it misunderstands what made PT particular, and what made so many video games making an attempt to fill that void subsequently forgettable, The Short Message appears to not perceive Silent Hill’s personal well-established successes. In the previously iconic Otherworld, you will flee an unkillable monster with no means to defend your self apart from your potential to dash. This applies a contemporary horror recreation trope to a sequence that after proudly invented the inspiration for a lot of video games to return, and in flip hurries gamers by means of what has typically been the sequence’ finest side. Not solely are you able to not discover a lot of the Otherworld, which in previous video games has helped create a dire temper befitting of the style, however you’ll be able to’t even cease working. The monster is all the time chasing you in these scenes till you clear an invisible threshold, escape, and kick off the subsequent cutscene.It would possibly’ve been cool to discover the Otherworld, however The Short Message by no means offers you an opportunity.Even if that is how it will be, I’m not uninterested in the horror style’s monster chases once they’re completed properly, however The Short Message fails to take action. These sequences are widespread within the recreation and shortly develop tiring given how they have a tendency to have one proper path and several other flawed paths, resulting in many trial-and-error failures with checkpoints that ship gamers again to start out.While at first I discovered these moments elicited a little bit of pressure in me the best way an efficient horror recreation ought to, I quickly succumbed to frustration each time the hallways would flip into the burnt-orange Otherworld, as a result of I knew it meant extra guesswork with extreme penalties laid forward. The harsh industrial music organized by sequence legend Akira Yamaoka and a sincerely creepy monster draped in cherry blossoms, designed by the equally lauded Masahiro Ito, are the sport’s solely vivid spots and assist make these in any other case irritating sections a bit of extra memorable.Still, a brand new Silent Hill must be greater than a soundtrack and a cool monster. The sequence’ finest efforts include unforgettable tales that really feel as if they function on mystifying dream logic that lead gamers to query what they’re seeing at each flip. The Short Message is determined to be understood and devoid of novelty, leaving no room for interpretation, no sense of lingering thriller, and no sturdy impression for anybody who could also be enjoying a Silent Hill recreation for the primary time. Its unintended quick message finally ends up feeling sadly apparent: Do not obtain.