Silent Hill: The Short Message is out now

[DirectorsCuts]

Not a fan unfortunately. I hope this isn't representative of what Silent Hill 2 remake will be.

[W0ndrful101]

This game was so awful, I actually want to puke, what an insult to Silent Hill...
Sadly, this name doesn't even mean anything these days...
I think the franchise is coming to the grave again, this time for good, what a sad thing to witness, a true tragedy...

Edited February 1 by W0ndrful101

[foxische]

Few facts without emotions:

- no trophies

- it has nothing to do with the silent hill franchise

- walking simulator in narrow corridors with a single direction

- main message: bullying and harassement is bad and suicide is bad

- good graphics

Subjective thoughts:

- being psychologically stable and mostly independent from the social influence and opinion can’t relate to the topics or characters

- therefore for me this walking sim is boring and was not worth launching

- it’s not a horror, chasing sequences and the monster could be made scarier 

- if someone can’t figure the locker code: 0312

 

Edited February 1 by foxische

[Ares_Peverell]

For someone that has never played a Silent Hill game. The game was ok.

But It was bare minimum for a horror game. My biggest issue was the fact that there is no trophies!

Like, how does a game release with no trophies and call itself a "Playstation exclusive"?

Edited February 1 by Ares_Peverell

[proud2bNs]

- I liked the story although i couldn't relate to the social media influencer topics (because i don't care).

- Gameplay is a walking sim with many, many "press X to interact" prompts.

- Good graphics, but only 30-ish FPS.

- I HATED the running sequences while being chased by a monster. One mistake and you'll have to repeat 5 minutes of running through corridors that all look the same with no clue where to go.

 

I rage quit the game 5-10 minutes before the end because i couldn't bear another retry of the last chasing sequence. i watched the ending on YT instead.

 

4/10, for free it's worth a try

[Jeanolt]

I don't have a PS5, so I can't believe I had to read up until the page 3 to see someone actually talking about the game.

 

The obsession of some people with the trophies before the actual game, and how it affects their experience should be studied in the future.

Edited February 1 by Jeanolt

[r2d2ptz]

I liked

[Solid-Fisch]

Played it because it's free and wanted to see how Konami fucked up this time. Also thought I would be quite short like 30 mins or so. Well, it's longer. Played for more than 2 hours and gave up when you got chased for the third or fourth time by that whatever thing it is (mommy?) when you can collect several pictures. I just couldn't make it and wasn't motivated either. There was like almost zero horror up to this point. It felt boring and the message didn't bother me. Social media isn't that social? You don't say! Well maybe this works with younger players, maybe that's the new target audience. I'm not. It felt like a poor man's version of P.T. and that's what it is. I don't know why they call this Silent Hill in any way, but to be fair I had similar thoughts when I first played Resident Evil 7 (changed my opinion later on this). Seems like Konami basically trying to reinvent the series, just like Capcom did with their franchise. Could work out for them or could fail. Personally I don't wish Konami any luck but as a gamer I wish for good games for all of us.

[Intoner_Zero]

Finished it last night, took me about 4 hours (I fell asleep a few times lmao). The last chase scene is indeed annoying; you definitely need multiple attempts to remember where the item locations are (unless you are super good at this stuff) and you can somewhat bait the monster into controlled runarounds if you've the patience to get the lay of the area as well.

 

This game felt pretty meh. I can relate to the self esteem and isolation issues presented here, but I'm kinda getting tired of playing as a teenager in these scenarios. 

Also don't care that it doesn't have trophies.

 

It was also interesting that they introduced (afaik) "the Silent Hill phenomenon" as a means of similar supernatural incidents potentially happening around the world, but at the same time I'm one of those old fans that be like "Silent Hill should be IN Silent Hill". 🫠

[APCGrayLocked]

Extraordinary. I finished watching it on YouTube yesterday evening. It's amazing that they gave it to us for free, because it's Awesome, between the Graphics, Soundtrack and the STORY, which deals with very current issues. Also there are obvious references (of easter egg or quotes) to the previous chapters and there is even a note, very fascinating, that connects everything. Wonderful. And as I expected, it is an appetizer of F.

 

For the ones who says that this title as nothing to do with SIlent Hill... you don't know shit about the series. This game has everything of Silent Hill. Pay more attention

[DEMONICRUBLE18]

I just finished it here's my Playthrough if you're interested 

 

 

First time playing a Silent Hill game aside from PS1 and all I remember was running around in a hospital, aside from that the movies back when they came out I remember really enjoying the first one and can't remember anything from the second. 

 

Anyway I really liked the game yes the psychological issues is more about teenagers but it helps to make those unaware of them aware also probably useful for parents who don't know about them, then they can look into it more. 

 

I also quite liked the last chase sequence not sure if anyone has noticed but it does tell you where to go for what you need. 

 

I did notice Blossom was quite easy to evade once you got a knack for it did have her kinda glitch and no move so I tried just running past her and I was stabbed, that sucked. 

 

Only thing that bugged me was the hair in the glasses, seriously that smudges them. 

[UlvenFenrir]

2 hours ago, APCGrayLocked said:

Extraordinary. I finished watching it on YouTube yesterday evening. It's amazing that they gave it to us for free, because it's Awesome, between the Graphics, Soundtrack and the STORY, which deals with very current issues. Also there are obvious references (of easter egg or quotes) to the previous chapters and there is even a note, very fascinating, that connects everything. Wonderful. And as I expected, it is an appetizer of F.

 

For the ones who says that this title as nothing to do with SIlent Hill... you don't know shit about the series. This game has everything of Silent Hill. Pay more attention

Even if it did have everything to do with silent hill then Konami did a poor job of trying to make it one.

 

The tech demo was boring. At least they tried but yeah a few references here and there and slapping silent hill on the game doesn't make it a silent hill game really.

 

That's like saying metal gear survive is a metal gear solid game.

[Garamoth]

I like it. It’s not groundbreaking, but it checks all the boxes of what a current-day Silent Hill should be. It has: terrible trauma, a “symbolic” monster, the Otherworld, a plot twist about the nature of your character, nods to PT, a pivot, Yamaoka music, plus a bunch of lore notes full of red herrings that maybe the game is not really about what it says it is. It even has a goofy Engrishy ending credit song!

 

It doesn’t seem to be a demo for anything. It’s a full 2-3 hour game. It’s short, but not PT short, more like “indie devs would charge you 20$ for it” short. But it’s free.

 

Let’s start with the bad... and the game does give a bad first impression. It’s a bit too upfront about the trauma and the sob stories. Silent Hill usually eases you into this stuff. The script feels poorly written in parts. “Bad things happen because of YOU!” has got to be one of the worst trauma-inducing insults. It has odd real-actor cutscenes that have dubbing on top. The game is Japanese, but pretending to be German, but most of the in-game text is in English. Of all the things Silent Hill could pretend to be, German is a strange choice considering Signalis did such a bang up job of aping Silent Hill 2 with a Germanic touch. On the other hand, having a bit of a weird, “Who made this?” vibe is pretty much an authentic Silent Hill experience.

 

It also bugs me that the game has a lore file that tells you the “Silent Hill phenomenon” is that now anyone anywhere that has any kind of trauma can basically have their own Silent Hill game with fog and everything. Well duh. You don’t need to be so direct about it.

 

The game also pesters you with suicide prevention hotline messages. It’s mostly US-centric info, but I’m not American... I think I’m screwed. Those messages are earnest, but probably oversell how effective the game is. But they do make the game creepier, in a way. Anyway, I appreciate the thought, but it also touches on something that annoys me. The game uses the cliché media version of suicide, which is that suicide only really matters when it happens to photogenic teenage girls. The typical suicide victim is usually a middle-aged male, which incidentally commit suicide all the time in video games, with nary a help message in sight. Good luck getting the world to think about that. But I digress.

 

Now for the good. I like that it integrates the cell phone. It’s your flashlight, your “huh, radio” enemy radar and your source of NPC interaction. It also gets to do a bit of pulling the rug from under you, SH-style. They could have done waaaay more with it though, but it is a short game. I am, however, now fully convinced that the next great Silent Hill game has to do something with cell phones.

 

The game has street art as a theme, and it showcases some pretty cool pieces. The Otherworld is well handled. The game goes gradually from messed up real world, to rust world, to full blown metallic hell. The added theme here is the use of post-it notes full of high school insults. I like how those evolve in particular: they start moving and then morph into eyes, then into nostalgic photos. It’s a shame you’re too busy running away to get a good look.

 

Only the final segment poses any kind of challenge, but it is a bit tough. At least dying a few times shows that death is handled as a part of the story. With each death, your character is actually feeling the pain of the cycle. Also, kudos to the controller vibration/audio in the final segment. Seriously, that’s the weirdest, most unnerving controller vibration I’ve experienced.

 

Now for the story. I’m just going to spoil it, so I’ll put this between tags.

 

 

Spoiler

The loop idea from PT is actually used to good effect here. It basically works as three “acts”, which each one delving deeper into your character :

 

1. Character hates herself; she’s not as cool as her idol. Kills herself.
2. Character’s idol is actually dead, turns out character played her part in this. Kills herself.
3. Character had a pretty shit life, so despite everything, maybe she could cut herself some slack. Doesn’t kill herself.

 

So yeah, the game gets a passing grade for me just from having an effective pivot.

 

What is a pivot? Glad you asked. You see, I have a theory. Horror for horror’s sake is gross. To make great horror, you need a pivot, i.e. to appeal to another emotion than just fear. Melancholy, nostalgia and sadness are the usual choices, joy too with the right touch, comedy if you’re feeling really brave.

 

Here, the game does pivot into hope quite well. Even the title screen changes for the better after beating the game. That’s a nice touch.

 

This game also subverts the usual Silent Hill recipe in that the thing your character is looking for in the fog is not actually some awful repressed secret, it’s something positive. She too can “bloom despite her scars”.

 

 

Some self-compassion doesn’t hurt once in a while, y’know? 3/5 stars

Edited February 3 by Garamoth

[dieselmanchild]

On 2/1/2024 at 10:55 AM, Jeanolt said:

I don't have a PS5, so I can't believe I had to read up until the page 3 to see someone actually talking about the game.

 

The obsession of some people with the trophies before the actual game, and how it affects their experience should be studied in the future.

What do you expect? This is a trophy-centric website populated with trophy hunters, not to mention the first page-and-a-half of replies were posted before anyone had even downloaded and played the game, let alone had time to form an opinion about it.