Silent Hill: The Short Message Review – The Modern, Misunderstood Return of the Series

After a decade without receiving a new game, Silent Hill made an unexpected return with a transmission that gave a few hints and trailers at what to expect from the series in the future. The wait feels unbearable, and it is still unclear when we will be able to play Silent Hill 2 Remake. However, on PlayStation’s latest State of Play event, Silent Hill was the undoubted protagonist: giving us not only a divisive combat trailer for the aforementioned remake, but also dropping a new, short, and free game called “Silent Hill: The Short Message” on that same day. The community feedback surrounding the game quality has been all over the place, being just as divisive as everything related to Silent Hill since the release of the fourth entry. Today, I’m here to review The Short Message and share my opinion and thoughts on whether or not it’s a good Silent Hill game, if there’s any hope for the series, and what should you expect not only from this game but also the future entries.

Silent Hill: The Short Message is available for Free exclusively on PS5.

Story – A Short Nightmare of Sensitive Topics

The long-awaited return of Silent Hill includes a very different story compared to the main entries. While this may still displease a few fans out there, I believe The Short Message has a powerful narrative that shouldn’t go unnoticed.

The story occurs in the fictional town of Kettenstadt, Germany. We play the role of Anita, a teenager who is desperately looking for her friend Maya inside an abandoned apartment complex. The reasons why Maya told us to go there through several text messages are unknown, so we’re there to find out.

Anita, the protagonist of the game.

Considering the game is very short, there’s not a lot to read from this story other than what we’re told throughout the development of it. I sincerely believe the narrative is powerful enough, and the script has a few points that make it different from other horror games. Remember how Silent Hill was usually, back then, a disturbing story with dark themes with subjects that nobody dared to bring up in their videogames? I think this is also the strong point of this story. It feels like it dared to cover a few themes that no other developers are willing to address. Suicide, self-harm, bullying, family abuse, social media, and the need to grasp a few likes on the internet are some of the most important subjects of the story. There are obviously a lot of games out there that already touched these subjects, sure, but… How many of them belong to a very important IP for the game industry?

Most people would say this Silent Hill game doesn’t have mature themes and it’s just a teenager, high school drama. And guess what? They’re right. The game transmits a sensation that most people will never understand because even if being a considerably “privileged” teenager is tough enough, society can’t understand it and thus cannot feel empathy for them. And that has been paradoxically accurate in both the public reception of the game in real life and the teenage horror story it tells inside of it.

What is the truth behind Maya?

I think this Silent Hill story will be, as always, incomprehended until at least a decade later when everyone looks back and remembers how badly they misjudged this return of the series. For a free game that marks the return of one of the most crucial series for the survival horror genre, I would say the story was engaging enough and it also added several key points to the series lore (most of it found on scattered documents and collectibles). The most important of them confirmed what most people hate about the series since the release of the fourth game, which is that Silent Hill isn’t just a physical place, but also a psychological state. Even if it’s hard to understand the complexity of that phrase with the little information that Silent Hill: The Short Message provided us, I think it definitely sums up the most valuable piece of lore we’ve gotten for the series in ages. And that is, at least to me, the most brilliant part of this game.

Gameplay – Simple but Engaging

We play the whole game from a first-person perspective. Due to the length and simplicity of it, there aren’t any combat mechanics. It is mostly an exploration-based game with a few cinematics and chase sequences along the way. The chase sequences haven’t been very well received by the community because the controls feel clunky. I admit the camera movement felt kind of sloppy, but I honestly didn’t mind it at all. The chases felt distressing enough and brought the tension the story needed after the usual calmness of it.

It is hard to describe, but the overall atmosphere made me very uncomfortable as well (in a good way, of course). Being in a place where you know a lot of people have committed suicide can give you a very weird sensation, and the game keeps constantly making sure you’re feeling that. Even if that feeling of despair and loneliness of the classic Silent Hill games isn’t as powerful in this entry, it is still present. We never get to go back to the old town of Silent Hill, but it didn’t feel necessary at any point in the game. The overall message of this game’s entry is that monsters are real, even if they’re just inside your head. So don’t get your hopes up… we’re not going back to the town of Silent Hill. Well, at least not yet.

The atmosphere is unnerving.

However, I definitely liked how the game’s story unfolded with every step you take and every door you open. Most “walking simulators” (I hate that term), don’t have a well-crafted narrative tied to their gameplay mechanics, they’re usually very slow-paced and dull. Fortunately, The Short Message has a more powerful rhythm in both elements, which makes it an actually engaging journey.

The exploration mechanics don’t bring anything new to the first-person horror formula, but they work perfectly fine. I believe the game actually lacks a lot of horror elements (like significant jumpscares, for example), so I would say it’s not really a “scary” game. It doesn’t even feel it ever intended to be scary, but the overall story is disturbing enough to create a psychological horror ambiance that’s more psychological than horror… if that makes any sense. I still wish I felt a little more insecure about walking forward because of the fear of what I would encounter up ahead. Hopefully, Konami is waiting to return the actual horror for the bigger Silent Hill games. I will place all of my bets on Silent Hill f for that.

The game heavily criticizes social media.

Graphics & Sound – Mostly Great

The graphics are very solid in my opinion. The environments feel realistic and the graffiti aesthetic was actually great. I’m not very pleased with the in-game character models though, as they looked slightly weird and out of place at most times. The overall graphic design was still good though, which is a slightly noticeable improvement since the release of P.T. back in 2014. I also loved the new creature design from Masahiro Ito (which the community decided to name “Sakura Head”), which is proof that the return of the OG Silent Hill designers is great because they still come up with brilliant ideas for monsters and environments!

I have mixed feelings regarding the sound. While the overall sound design was very good, the soundtrack went unnoticed in most of the experience. I still like Akira Yamaoka’s unique guitar style, but sadly his newer compositions don’t hit as hard as the old bangers from the first four games do. Maybe the absence of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn has something to do with that…