Yikes?
With a surprise release, The Short Message got a lot of people talking, and understandably so with it being related to Silent Hill. I jumped in with cautious optimism, thank goodness for that. The environments looked great, with the graffiti everywhere and the general atmosphere. The only thing I’d nitpick regarding the visuals was the character HAVING HER HAIR UNDER HER GLASSES? As a spectacled person I found it a bizarre design choice.
As for the meat, gameplay-wise it took a lot from other psychological horror titles with walking around doing very little. Repetitive chase sequences spiced it up a bit, with one chase in particular being a horrid experience. It reminded me of many indie games—unfortunate, yes, but it didn’t do a whole lot to stand out from the crowd and instead relied on the big name attached to it. The narrative on bullying and social media, while prevalent today, was extremely heavy-handed to the point the protagonist was downright unlikeable. Let's face it, depression is common, bullying is common, the pressure of social media is common; it didn't deserve praise for including all those topics in the shallow ways it did. People, real people, actually have nuance and depth.
With a surprise release, The Short Message got a lot of people talking, and understandably so with it being related to Silent Hill. I jumped in with cautious optimism, thank goodness for that. The environments looked great, with the graffiti everywhere and the general atmosphere. The only thing I’d nitpick regarding the visuals was the character HAVING HER HAIR UNDER HER GLASSES? As a spectacled person I found it a bizarre design choice.
As for the meat, gameplay-wise it took a lot from other psychological horror titles with walking around doing very little. Repetitive chase sequences spiced it up a bit, with one chase in particular being a horrid experience. It reminded me of many indie games—unfortunate, yes, but it didn’t do a whole lot to stand out from the crowd and instead relied on the big name attached to it. The narrative on bullying and social media, while prevalent today, was extremely heavy-handed to the point the protagonist was downright unlikeable. Let's face it, depression is common, bullying is common, the pressure of social media is common; it didn't deserve praise for including all those topics in the shallow ways it did. People, real people, actually have nuance and depth.