Silent Hill: The Short Message is not just, not what I want from Silent Hill it’s also a bad game. And it’s not just a bad game, it’s also embarrassing. I really hope this is not what we can expect from modern Silent Hill. I also need to ask, do people need to leave this one installed?
I’m going to get the good out of the way first because that won’t take long. It’s free and only around two hours long. The visuals, sound and monster design is pretty great.
That’s it let’s move on to the problems. The writing isn’t good and the performances don’t help. It handles the subject matter poorly. There’s no subtlety or nuance. The main character talks too much and a lot of stuff is delivered through text messages, which is really irritating. This in game phone needed a silent mode or maybe the messages could have just appeared on screen while you continued to play. There are warning/help screens that pop up throughout the game. While I appreciate the sensitivity, it hurts the experience. Perhaps a warning at the start and then this screen at the end would have been enough.
Silent Hill: The Short Message is a horror game with not a lot of atmosphere, no tension and no scares. The gameplay is just slowly walking, looking around the environments and reading documents and your messages. It’s very linear, so exploration is limited and straight forward. There is only one time where you get something that you could maybe call a puzzle. This is all occasionally broken up by awful chase sequences or cutscenes. That’s it, no stealth or hiding or combat. I don’t have a problem with ‘walking sims’ and enjoy them if they excel at what they’re trying to do but this just doesn’t.
Okay it isn’t completely a lost cause. Every now and then you might notice something and go ‘that’s kind of cool.’ There is also one brief section that made me think ‘this section isn’t a bad horror experience.’ But then this game is only two hours long and that still felt like too much, I actually found myself hoping it would end soon a couple of times. There were times when I groaned and one moment that actually made me laugh out loud. It’s also hard not to be cynical and not constantly think you’re just playing through an advertisement they were hoping the streamers would play.
Look, I know it is free, but what the hell is this? I guess it’s just a test, so hopefully they get what they need and we don’t see something like this again. At least they proved they still know how to do visuals, sound and monster design. I don’t know, maybe I’m out of touch and too cynical. Despite this being free and two hours it is hard to recommend. But I would still say give it a go, at least to quench your curiosity.
2.9/10
Silent Hill: The Short Message combined with the recent trailer we got for the Silent Hill 2 Remake has only increased my fears for that remake and the future of this series. Oh well, at least we have really good quality remasters of the classic games everyone knows and loves… wait, oh no. Not to worry, anyone interested in those games can go grab a used copy. Let me just go check the prices of a PS2 Silent Hill game on Ebay… for fuck's sake. At least this series is at the point where they can no longer do any further harm.
I’m going to get the good out of the way first because that won’t take long. It’s free and only around two hours long. The visuals, sound and monster design is pretty great.
That’s it let’s move on to the problems. The writing isn’t good and the performances don’t help. It handles the subject matter poorly. There’s no subtlety or nuance. The main character talks too much and a lot of stuff is delivered through text messages, which is really irritating. This in game phone needed a silent mode or maybe the messages could have just appeared on screen while you continued to play. There are warning/help screens that pop up throughout the game. While I appreciate the sensitivity, it hurts the experience. Perhaps a warning at the start and then this screen at the end would have been enough.
Silent Hill: The Short Message is a horror game with not a lot of atmosphere, no tension and no scares. The gameplay is just slowly walking, looking around the environments and reading documents and your messages. It’s very linear, so exploration is limited and straight forward. There is only one time where you get something that you could maybe call a puzzle. This is all occasionally broken up by awful chase sequences or cutscenes. That’s it, no stealth or hiding or combat. I don’t have a problem with ‘walking sims’ and enjoy them if they excel at what they’re trying to do but this just doesn’t.
Okay it isn’t completely a lost cause. Every now and then you might notice something and go ‘that’s kind of cool.’ There is also one brief section that made me think ‘this section isn’t a bad horror experience.’ But then this game is only two hours long and that still felt like too much, I actually found myself hoping it would end soon a couple of times. There were times when I groaned and one moment that actually made me laugh out loud. It’s also hard not to be cynical and not constantly think you’re just playing through an advertisement they were hoping the streamers would play.
Look, I know it is free, but what the hell is this? I guess it’s just a test, so hopefully they get what they need and we don’t see something like this again. At least they proved they still know how to do visuals, sound and monster design. I don’t know, maybe I’m out of touch and too cynical. Despite this being free and two hours it is hard to recommend. But I would still say give it a go, at least to quench your curiosity.
2.9/10
Silent Hill: The Short Message combined with the recent trailer we got for the Silent Hill 2 Remake has only increased my fears for that remake and the future of this series. Oh well, at least we have really good quality remasters of the classic games everyone knows and loves… wait, oh no. Not to worry, anyone interested in those games can go grab a used copy. Let me just go check the prices of a PS2 Silent Hill game on Ebay… for fuck's sake. At least this series is at the point where they can no longer do any further harm.