This game is just trying way too hard to go back to the glory days of Silent Hill.
The Short Message is roughly a 2 hour experience, with great graphics and a great enviroment, but terrible gameplay and mind-boggling sections as the core SH monster chases you around, it's done terribly. TLDR Will be at the bottom if you hate reading.
Here's the only positives for me, after that, it kinda stops. Like I said earlier, the graphics and enviroment are a hit for me. You feel like you are succumed to the world you're placed in, especially the drawings on the walls, and the eerie graffiti really makes you feel compressed in the dystopian-esque buildings, proving that you are on your own, but being watched by the graffiti. Ito did really knock it out of the park with the cherry blossom monster which will chase you around the world. It's tall and even though it's made out of flowers, it's towering figure is always putting pressure on you, and if you die, the death scene is brutal. Also, stuff like shadow monsters and people with bags on their heads, they were scary, eerie and put the icing on the cake for immersing me into the despair.
Well, that's my only postivies, now here's my reasoning why I give it a 2/5, I will have to get into spoiler territory, but i'll mark it accordingly.
Eventhough I complimented the graphics, I have a minor gripe about the lighting, it felt really unnatural and bright at times.
[SPOILERS START HERE]
The first big gripe for me, and made not be a gripe for some is the suicide warning multiple times in the game. I completely get that this is done by law, and this game focuses on very sensitive topics, but I don't want to be taken out of immersion by reading the same notice each time Anita jumps off the building to her supposed death. I honestly think a warning before you start a game and a warning after you finish the game would've sufficed. I didn't need to see the message more than twice.
Also, what the hell was that mish-mash of a story? I think it was just way too scrambled to be coherent. I get that characters were getting bullied, Maya killed herself due to people not liking her art or whatever, Anita was jealous of Maya taking away Amelie.. It's just, so weird and thrown together in a really terrible way. While it did explore saddening topics such as social media status which is still a problem to this day, I really do not think what they were trying to convey landed with me. I felt sad at times, but it never got me to bawl out in tears or whatever.
Well, the gameplay is... Certainly something. Your main gameplay is just texting people back, and running away from the cherry blossom monster.. That's..it... Nothing really original, it feels more like a movie than an actual game. However, the final chase at endgame was absolutely awful, it even knocked the 2.5 rating I was going to give it. I was pulling my hair out trying to find each picture while also paying attention to the monster chasing me. If you die? Yeah you gotta go through the entire section again. Most of the time I was getting lost and confused on where to go. I think I died 3-4 times while trying to figure out what was going on. It was tedious, stupid, and really took the horror out of the game for me.
Finally, this game does not feel like a Silent Hill game to me personally. Eventhough Silent Hill is based around trauma, and overcoming guilt, throwing things in like 'The Silent Hil Phenomenon' and 'COVID' things in notes just make it boring. The whole point of Silent Hill is you go TO Silent Hill, it's not a folk tale from what I gathered (I have played SH 1-4 & SM.). It again, was mumbo jumbo that really bothered me about it. If this was a standalone game which didn't include Silent Hill, I would honestly have apprecieated it more.
[SPOILERS END]
Overall, my closing thoughts on this are that this could've been a great game if they potentially put more time on this. Honestly considering it's free, I do recommend everyone give it a try and see what they think, but I would go into it removing 'Silent Hill' from the title, I think it would be apprecieated better that way. Thank you for reading!
TLDR:
Pros
- Great graphics (Apart from lighting)
- Great Enviroment
- Terrifying monsters
Cons
- Meh gameplay
- Story is scrambled
- Last chase scene is fustrating
The Short Message is roughly a 2 hour experience, with great graphics and a great enviroment, but terrible gameplay and mind-boggling sections as the core SH monster chases you around, it's done terribly. TLDR Will be at the bottom if you hate reading.
Here's the only positives for me, after that, it kinda stops. Like I said earlier, the graphics and enviroment are a hit for me. You feel like you are succumed to the world you're placed in, especially the drawings on the walls, and the eerie graffiti really makes you feel compressed in the dystopian-esque buildings, proving that you are on your own, but being watched by the graffiti. Ito did really knock it out of the park with the cherry blossom monster which will chase you around the world. It's tall and even though it's made out of flowers, it's towering figure is always putting pressure on you, and if you die, the death scene is brutal. Also, stuff like shadow monsters and people with bags on their heads, they were scary, eerie and put the icing on the cake for immersing me into the despair.
Well, that's my only postivies, now here's my reasoning why I give it a 2/5, I will have to get into spoiler territory, but i'll mark it accordingly.
Eventhough I complimented the graphics, I have a minor gripe about the lighting, it felt really unnatural and bright at times.
[SPOILERS START HERE]
The first big gripe for me, and made not be a gripe for some is the suicide warning multiple times in the game. I completely get that this is done by law, and this game focuses on very sensitive topics, but I don't want to be taken out of immersion by reading the same notice each time Anita jumps off the building to her supposed death. I honestly think a warning before you start a game and a warning after you finish the game would've sufficed. I didn't need to see the message more than twice.
Also, what the hell was that mish-mash of a story? I think it was just way too scrambled to be coherent. I get that characters were getting bullied, Maya killed herself due to people not liking her art or whatever, Anita was jealous of Maya taking away Amelie.. It's just, so weird and thrown together in a really terrible way. While it did explore saddening topics such as social media status which is still a problem to this day, I really do not think what they were trying to convey landed with me. I felt sad at times, but it never got me to bawl out in tears or whatever.
Well, the gameplay is... Certainly something. Your main gameplay is just texting people back, and running away from the cherry blossom monster.. That's..it... Nothing really original, it feels more like a movie than an actual game. However, the final chase at endgame was absolutely awful, it even knocked the 2.5 rating I was going to give it. I was pulling my hair out trying to find each picture while also paying attention to the monster chasing me. If you die? Yeah you gotta go through the entire section again. Most of the time I was getting lost and confused on where to go. I think I died 3-4 times while trying to figure out what was going on. It was tedious, stupid, and really took the horror out of the game for me.
Finally, this game does not feel like a Silent Hill game to me personally. Eventhough Silent Hill is based around trauma, and overcoming guilt, throwing things in like 'The Silent Hil Phenomenon' and 'COVID' things in notes just make it boring. The whole point of Silent Hill is you go TO Silent Hill, it's not a folk tale from what I gathered (I have played SH 1-4 & SM.). It again, was mumbo jumbo that really bothered me about it. If this was a standalone game which didn't include Silent Hill, I would honestly have apprecieated it more.
[SPOILERS END]
Overall, my closing thoughts on this are that this could've been a great game if they potentially put more time on this. Honestly considering it's free, I do recommend everyone give it a try and see what they think, but I would go into it removing 'Silent Hill' from the title, I think it would be apprecieated better that way. Thank you for reading!
TLDR:
Pros
- Great graphics (Apart from lighting)
- Great Enviroment
- Terrifying monsters
Cons
- Meh gameplay
- Story is scrambled
- Last chase scene is fustrating