Silent Hill: The Short Message

For nearly a decade, Silent Hill was considered a dead franchise following the cancellation of Silent Hills and subsequent delisting of P.T. While I was already upset with Konami’s actions after their treatment of Hideo Kojima (who would have directed Silent Hills with Guillermo del Toro) came to light, the idea that the series would remain dormant didn’t affect me as much until I actually played through every main game back-to-back, as well as multiple times each. In a very timely coincidence, however, Konami would announce a full-on series revival in late 2022, which would include a new movie as well as multiple new video game projects. The official start of this revival would start with Silent Hill: The Short Message (TSM), a short experimental concept game that received a surprise release after Sony’s State of Play on January 31, 2024, the 25th anniversary of the original Silent Hill’s release (according to Konami, at least). Naturally, as someone excited at the prospect of more Silent Hill content, I downloaded TSM the instant I learned of its surprise release and played through it shortly after. While it’s not a perfect experience, and not as good as some of the series’ highs, TSM still felt like a step in the right direction and gave me confidence about the future of the revival.

In the fictional town of Kettenstadt, Germany, a young woman named Anita Planert receives a message from her friend Maya, a graffiti artist, asking to show her something at the “Villa”, an abandoned apartment complex with a reputation as a famous suicide spot among teenage girls. Although she has no idea what Maya wants to show her, Anita presses on in search of her friend. As she explores the Villa, however, she encounters a creature covered in cherry blossoms and uncovers some shocking truths.

Anita has no idea what's in store for her.

Although the entire experience lasts about one to two hours, it acts as a good window into what would happen if you set a Silent Hill game in the modern day. TSM touches on modern topics like the negative mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of social media, as well as more universal and tragic ones like bullying (the in-person and cyber varieties), depression and suicide. How well the game handles these topics really depends on the player, but I liked that the development team didn’t shy away from trying to cover those topics in the first place. These topics also lead to powerful moments that reveal more about Anita’s past and relationships, including a sequence near the end of the game that reveals her home life and how that affected her outlook on the world. While there aren’t any alternate endings, the one we do get has a good message of being there for the people who matter in your life and letting them know they have someone they can talk to if they need it.

Anita herself is an atypical Silent Hill protagonist. She’s more helpless and vulnerable than Heather Mason from Silent Hill 3, but in this case, it works to the game’s advantage, as she’s completely left in the dark about what’s truly in store for her until the game gets closer to the end. While we don’t know much about her at the beginning, I found myself more attached to her by the end after learning more about her and her relationships. While we don’t get much of a glimpse into her inner thoughts when interacting with certain parts of the environment (not to say we don’t), there are also various files the player can read that do a good job at further establishing TSM’s world and filling in narrative blanks that help both the player and Anita realize what’s really going on.

For a short experience more akin to P.T., TSM has very simple gameplay that mostly consists of walking through the environment and interacting with items or certain landmarks. That said, there is still a puzzle element that while simpler than puzzles from the Team Silent era, still felt clever in its design and made me feel smart for figuring it out on my own. There are also a few sequences where Anita is chased by the cherry blossom monster without any way to defend herself and instead just run towards the exit in increasingly maze-like environments, which can call to mind similar sequences from Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Since Anita is a teenager with a smartphone, I liked how TSM integrated it into the gameplay, where the cell phone light acts as the traditional Flashlight and screen distortions mimic the traditional Radio. In addition, the player can reread any messages Anita has received or any files they’ve found within the environment.

For the most part, TSM has impressive graphics, aided by good lighting and a strong attention to detail. This and the first-person camera help with the amount of environmental storytelling that gives an idea of what happened in the room, including a powerful sequence where we see Anita’s past through her eyes as a child. Anita’s Otherworld also looks great, not only in the varied and individual rooms, but also the familiar industrial look from previous games that’s most present during the chases. Chases also have some tension not only in them having a single monster constantly stalk you, but also moving at a slightly different framerate that can look unsettling, at least at first. It certainly helps that both the monster and Otherworld were designed by series veteran Masahiro Ito. I also enjoyed seeing some nods to the other games in the series, including drawings of holes like the ones in Silent Hill 4: The Room (SH4).

The atmosphere is on point.

Similarly, series veteran Akira Yamaoka handled the soundtrack, which fits in well with the rest of the Silent Hill series and helps create an unsettling atmosphere. TSM also takes advantage of the PS5’s capabilities to increase immersion, like having some audio come out of the controller speakers or letting the player feel the humming of a nearby generator through the rumble.

As much as like a lot about TSM, however, I can’t ignore its flaws. For one, the story isn’t exactly subtle about its themes and messages. Whether this has to do with the short length, subpar writing or appealing to increased media illiteracy is debatable, though I don’t fault the game for displaying a splash screen for suicide prevention at certain intervals. While the game looks great, there are at least a couple framerate dips, fortunately not during any of the chases, and the lip-synch looked off during third-person cutscenes, including the live-action material, which made it more obvious that I was playing an English dub of a Japanese product. On that note, the voice acting is questionable at times, most noticeably Anita’s mother sounding a little over the top. Additionally, I couldn’t quite tell whether Anita’s hair existed in front of or behind her glasses due to some clipping, though that detail didn’t detract from the experience.

Two other aspects are more contentious, however. The first is the chase sequences, where you can’t defend yourself and can only outrun the monster, otherwise you’ll have to start the entire sequence over again. This didn’t feel so bad early on, but the issue is that these sequences get more labyrinthine the more they pop up and the final sequence also requires you find five objects to remove the chains on a certain door (another possible nod to SH4) so you can finally leave. I struggled enough on the final chase that I eventually gave up and traced the path of a speedrunner just so I could complete the game in a timely fashion. It can help when you figure out the ways the game subtly guides you, like having flashlights point at certain doors or looking at the static on your phone screen, as well as how to effectively kite the monster, but the persistent issues make these sequences go from tense to frustrating rather quickly.

Silent Hill 4, anyone?

The other point of contention is how the game justifies going beyond the eponymous town with the in-universe “Silent Hill Phenomenon”, which suggests that in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, psychologically unstable people can see fog even on fair weather days, with the fog representing uncertainty and sensory illusions. How well this justifies the series revival going into different locations depends on the player, though I personally don’t mind the idea of a legacy series such as Silent Hill trying something new.

Although I can’t speak to how well The Short Message represents the issues it portrays, and it’s certainly not as good as the best Silent Hill games or P.T., I like that the developer experimented with the formula and still made something pretty decent that has me curious about where they'll go from here. If you’re new to Silent Hill, it’s not the worst entry point and since it’s free, you’re at least not out any money if you don’t like it. If you’re a series veteran, at least consider giving it a shot.