The short message? A demo of another not scary “Silent Hill” or a full-fledged game?

Many new products were announced during the recent State of Play 2024. One of them is free Silent Hill: The Short Message, which immediately became available on PS5. We liked the first-person horror game with its atmospheric trailer, so we started the walkthrough. It wasn’t difficult to reach the final; the plot lasts only a few hours, but this is enough to appreciate the project. In a short article we will tell you what the new product is and whether it is worth spending time on it if you are tired of waiting Silent Hill 2 remake.

The story starts suddenly. No unnecessary explanation or explanation. You will have to find out all the details yourself by studying various notes, newspaper clippings and diaries. 17-year-old Anita wakes up in an abandoned high-rise building. It’s unclear how she got there, but this is where her old friend Maya paints her graffiti. The heroine only has a mobile phone with her, on which she regularly receives messages from both Maya herself and her second friend. Wandering through a deserted place, Anita must find out what happened to the young artist and also face her own fears.

The plot seems to be completely in the spirit of the series and the game has the necessary psychology. However, it soon becomes clear that the heroine’s mental traumas do not actually go beyond the problems of an ordinary school child. She is bullied in class and considered a nerd, but she is sure that she is not capable of anything and that life will not get better. The developers present all this as important psychological issues, but the necessary experience does not arise. The childish maximalism with which Anita assesses her own condition is rather annoying. Literally all of us have experienced something similar to one degree or another, so the endless pity with which the girl treats herself is surprising.

As the story progresses, the plot gradually starts to turn and even becomes interesting for a while. However, connoisseurs of the series, accustomed to the fact that the main characters, as a rule, seek redemption for their own sins, will quickly reveal the main “unexpected twist”.

In addition to notes, the story is told through video inserts with real actors. Most of the time we see Maya looking at the camera and appearing to communicate with the player herself. The technology is interesting, but the writers didn’t bother to explain how it works in their world. Are these Anita’s memories, phone videos, or ghostly visions? There will be no answer.

The walking simulator with telephone is diluted by a monster that will occasionally appear between the dark corridors. The girl has nothing to oppose the creature, so the only way to survive is to run away. At first, these stages seem like a pleasant change, but the developers decided to completely connect the final clash with the catch-up, which clearly did not improve the atmosphere. You don’t have a map, so you will have to randomly run through the rooms in search of some pictures that will allow you to remove the locks from the desired door. A wave of irritation quickly begins to arise, as the building changes, it is difficult to remember the location of the photos, and if the monster catches Anita, everything will have to start again.

And since we have discussed the gameplay part, it is worth paying attention to the general atmosphere. The high-rise building turned out great. Painted walls, flashing lights and jump scares create tension. Another plus is the soundtrack. Various beeping, howling and other barely audible effects are of surprisingly high quality and chosen to match the theme.

The result is that the game leaves mixed feelings. It’s very short and won’t bore you, but it may still annoy you with its questionable decision to continually run from the monster. At the same time, the atmosphere and atmosphere in it were absolutely successful. Until you understand how the scarecrows work here, you’ll have to look around every corner with your phone flashlight and peer intensely into the gloomy hallways.

Silent Hill: The Short Message was rightly made free. Such a project certainly makes the series more memorable than the recent ‘interactive series’, but it is certainly not called ‘the real Silent Hill’. The psychological problems of children are not impressive, and the intrigues are guessed much earlier than the screenwriters reveal their cards. However, if you don’t have enough excitement, there’s no shame in spending two hours on this.