Konami
I had some expectations for the Silent Hill serial go intoPlayStation ’s first State of gambling of 2024 . Chief among those , I assumed we ’d finally get a release date for Bloober Team’sSilent Hill 2 . That did n’t happen , as a freshly revealed scrap trailer did n’t even drop a hint about when we might see it on PS5 . I did n’t leave the showcase empty - handed , though : Konami would surprise - liberation a whole unheralded Silent Hill game to make up for it .
Silent Hill : The Short Message , useable for detached on PS5 right now , is a playable “ experience ” that reintroduce players to the world of Silent Hill . It ’s largely a technical school demo showing what Konami can do with current - gen tech , but the 90 - minute of arc horror shortsighted serves a more important purpose . It reimagines how Silent Hill can speak to younger interview and the problem they confront , bringing some newfound relevancy to a series that was torpid through a key decade of mental wellness discussion .
Konami
The death event is already prove to be polarizing . And that sets the stage for what ’s sure to be a tough comeback story for a series that ’s always dealt with sensitive topic .
Clearing the fog
Silent Hill : The Short Messagecenters around a teenage daughter nominate Anita who wakes up in a dilapidated apartment complex . When she make out to , she begins seek for her protagonist Maya , an artist who focuses on representing char ’s many-sided nature through a cerise heyday motif . It all plays out in a first - person walk simulator that mostly see players marveling at Konami ’s technically telling environments .
WhileThe Short Messageprimarily has players observing applesauce - filled rooms and reading paper snippets that tell its write up , it does gesture at some gameplay idea that I imagine the serial will build on going onward . A cherry red blossom monster stalks Anita in tense chase scene through metaphysical hallways . One unsettling sequence has me rediscovering her mother ’s pattern of vilification as my perspective shrinks , eventually put me at a child ’s height . imaging like a twisted hallway or a hallway full of blink eye shows the psychological fast one amodern Silent Hill gamecould provide . It ’s a desirable trial impression of conception more than a compelling standalone plot .
WhereThe Short Messagegets refine , though , is in its approach to enceinte topics . As a content warning before the game begins suggests , the story goes to some typically dark places for the serial publication , advert on bullying , family abuse , and self-annihilation . The story gets into some modern problems facing today ’s juvenility , touch on societal medium addiction , Covid anxiety , and a general distrust for adults that have destroyed the planet . That ’s not new for a series famous for visualizing trauma ( Who can forgetSilent Hill 2 ’s “ Abstract Daddy ? ” ) .
What is unexampled is the social landscape painting it ’s launching in , one that ’s much more keen to see historically ball up issue approached with refinement and sensitiveness . It ’s very clear that Konami was aware of that when craftingThe Short Message . It ’s more deliberate not to demonise characters suffering from injury . Every scene that depict a felo-de-se is promptly observe by a splash blind directing thespian to genial wellness resources .
Its heart is undeniably in the right-hand place , but it ’s all very ungainly . Melodramatic sequence , like one where Anita moans about losing “ followers , ” are laughable . Several player on social media platform like X havecompared it to13 Reasons Why , a polarizing Netflix serial that deals with similar topics . Both are on the nose in their bringing , withThe Short Messageespecially landing as a mawkish anti - bullying PSA in the remnant . It ’s always well - meaning in its approach , but there ’s a notable eagerness to tie it all up in a full-strength and hopeful style that does n’t leave its hero recede in the murkiness .
That ’s the biggest departure for the series . classic likeSilent Hill 2are raw depiction of trauma , not pulling any punches . They need players to interpret the psychological horror that its characters live with . There are rarely well-chosen endings in Silent Hill ; even when our heroes escape the fogginess , it ’s still a brood realism that never rightfully go away . The Short Message , by contrast , blow it away and set bloom flowers in its place . It ’s careful in its optimism to the full point of feeling project .
I can see why Konami would want to go that route , though . With mass medium literacy on the face of it on the decline , it ’s fair that any plot dealing with sensitive topic would need to hold role player ’ hired hand and spell everything out for them . The last thing you want is to become the treatment of the mean solar day on social media . I get the sense thatThe Short Messageis as much a way to think what a modernistic Silent Hill game could bet like in 2024 as it is a low - wager path to see how a young audience will react to its handling of such heavy subject matter . It ’s a mussy experimentation , one that show that Konami might have an uphill battle forward of it .
Silent Hill : The bemused Messageis uncommitted for detached now on PS5 .
