{"id":2155,"date":"2024-03-13T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/?p=2155"},"modified":"2024-03-13T03:46:12","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T03:46:12","slug":"silent-hill-the-short-message-review-the-death-of-subtlety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/13\/silent-hill-the-short-message-review-the-death-of-subtlety\/","title":{"rendered":"Silent Hill: The Short Message Review – The Death of Subtlety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HEAR YE, HEAR YE, MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!!\u00a0 You must think of me as some kind of masochist at this point.\u00a0 I have a long and weathered history of standing atop this soapbox and ranting about the most lackluster horror game to have graced my presence.\u00a0 From AAA behemoths like Callisto Protocol<\/em> to small obscure indies, such as Martha is Dead<\/em>, I seem trapped in my own metaphorical morgue as I cut into the corpse of these games looking for the root of the infection.\u00a0 Messy gameplay, nonsensical plot, and clones of better games; I have seen it all.\u00a0 I know I can walk away, but I can\u2019t compel myself to stop.\u00a0 To me, horror is such a creative genre that can say so much with its gruesome imagery.\u00a0 There is often a deeper meaning lurking below the surface that I am drawn to like a moth to the flames.\u00a0 Plus, I find it exhilarating to be scared.\u00a0 So when a movie, game, or other media, completely fumbles the ball, I can\u2019t help but ready my scalpel and get to the cause of the problem.\u00a0 So gather my loyal subjects, and lend thy ears as we dive deep into a tale void of subtlety: Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Our story begins with our depressed heroine, Antia, waking in an abandoned villa commonly used by the local teens to practice graffiti art.\u00a0 Antia\u2019s friend Maya, who would frequently paint in the villa, had texted Antia to meet her there.\u00a0 She starts wandering the dark desolate hallways until she gets a call from Amelia, another close friend, who reminds her Maya had jumped off the roof of the villa resulting in her death.\u00a0 Confused as to why she was still getting texts from Maya, Antia goes to the roof of the building and jumps off.\u00a0 Rather than embrace the sweet relief of death, Antia awakes inside the building in the exact spot that she started in.\u00a0 Thus beginning a loop not so dissimilar to PT<\/em>: another Silent Hill demo that we will certainly draw comparisons to when all is said and done.\u00a0 The creativity thus indeed flows from Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em> like an oozing sludge.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

So what riveting gameplay will you encounter in Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em>?\u00a0 You will experience two distinct gameplay styles sitting on opposite sides of the fence; glancing but never interacting with each other.\u00a0 Our first type of gameplay style is your cookie-cutter walking simulator.\u00a0 Wandering around and interacting with any and all objects littered about the environment.\u00a0 When you interact with an object, Antia will frequently comment something obvious as the writers feared subtly more than I fear the giant rats that chew on the cardboard box I sleep in.\u00a0 For example, interacting with a no-exit sign will get Antia to comment that she always feels trapped just in case you missed the giant neon sign saying gloomy teen with no ambition stuck in a small town.\u00a0 These sections are used to slowly piece together the story, but Antia\u2019s constant prattling does nothing but suffocate the mystery of the story.\u00a0 AS SUBTLE AS A SLEDGEHAMMER, I CLAIM THIS STORY TO BE!!!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On the physical and metaphorical side of the fence, we have gameplay involving classic played-out chase scenes.\u00a0 Fearful of the walking-simulator label, Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em> will occasionally take a break from story time for you to be chased by a giant concrete monster.\u00a0 I must confess, I do like the concrete monster\u2019s design as it appears like Maya and a traditional Silent Hill<\/em> monster were thrown in a blender.\u00a0 This creature sports Maya\u2019s fluffy white sweater with cherry blossoms, which were commonly found in her art, covering her face and extremities with a rusted-on razor wire, a Silent Hill<\/em> staple, holding the monster together.\u00a0 The maze-like environment also has that twisted Silent Hill<\/em> feel.\u00a0 From hallways littered with pictures of laughing mouths to rusty industrial grates above what appear to be industrial vats of molten metal, these maze sections thoroughly felt like the otherworld Silent Hill<\/em> is known for.\u00a0 My hopes were raised; could Konami be piecing together something worthy of the name Silent Hill<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I initially didn\u2019t mind these sections as they felt more stimulating than simply finding the next object to interact with.\u00a0 Yes, these mazes are airing on the simpler side, as the solution more often than not was just push-forward.\u00a0 If the monster somehow ended up in front of you, bait it to chase you down one of the conveniently placed roundabouts.\u00a0 Dark Souls<\/em>, this is not, but on the other hand, this is meant to be a small taste of what Konami had in mind for the franchise moving forward.\u00a0 So I stood at ease, eager to see if Konami could piece it all together.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Alas, Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em> makes the grave mistake of having the last maze be a headache to complete.\u00a0 The exit to the maze is locked and can only be opened by finding five pictures scattered throughout the maze.\u00a0 An utter chore of a task, as the Silent Hill aesthetics I praised earlier completely sabotage your effort to get any sense of direction.\u00a0 So often I take a turn only to end up at the beginning of the maze.\u00a0 In this state of constant sprinting through the gritty halls, the monster would catch me having only found a few pages, and forcing me to restart the whole maze.\u00a0 I soon began to see through this maze\u2019s clever ruse.\u00a0 Its only goal is to stretch this game\u2019s length a few more hours.\u00a0 A WICKED TRICK, THAT WILL YIELD NO SYMPATHY FROM ME.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This brings us to the metaphorical elephant in the room: Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em> is just not scary.\u00a0 Some of you might hurl around the accusation that Silent Hill<\/em> was never as terrifying as titles like Resident Evil<\/em>, but I argue these are two different tones of horror.\u00a0 Resident Evil<\/em> and Dead Space<\/em> are all about monsters jumping out and chasing you, while Silent Hill<\/em> has always wallowed in that eerie uncomfortable feeling of being somewhere you shouldn\u2019t be.\u00a0 An atmosphere perfectly captured by Silent Hill 2<\/em> as James wanders the empty town looking for his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em> starts with that familiar feeling as you venture into the abandoned building, but the atmosphere deflates like a leaky balloon as the dual gameplay undermines the tension.\u00a0 You can immediately know what type of gameplay you\u2019re dealing with based on your walking speed.\u00a0 You crawl at a snail\u2019s pace when poking and prodding at objects, but run like Usain Bolt when the concrete monster comes out to play.\u00a0 This trope in horror games needs to be smothered in its crib as it gives away when danger is present.\u00a0 With the threat of an enemy in only the carefully designated areas, the tension and atmosphere evaporate.\u00a0 I know the monster can only come after me when the music kicks up and Antia puts on her running shoes, so why should I be scared of the dark corners of this abandoned villa?\u00a0 This game desperately needs to take some cues from Lethal Company, <\/em>a game where entering a similar abandoned building sets my heart racing.\u00a0 TOOTHLESS IS THE ONLY WORD I CAN CAST ONTO THEE.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To further break down my grievances with this title, I need to delve into spoiler territory for both Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em>,\u00a0 the infamous P.T.<\/em> demo, and Silent Hill 2<\/em>.\u00a0 If you were hoping to experience these stories on your own accord, whether it be playing The Short Message<\/em> on your own or watching a playthrough of P.T., I will offer you this opportunity to duck out now.\u00a0 From here on out, CRIES OF SPOILERS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.\u00a0 YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As you experience more of Silent Hill: The Short Message,<\/em> you learn Antia was directly responsible for Maya\u2019s suicide.\u00a0 Maya was bullied in school, she wrote a letter to Amelia asking for help and Antia stole it back out of fear of the pair growing closer and abandoning her.\u00a0 You later learn Maya\u2019s fear of abandonment stems from her abusive mother who would lock her and her younger brother in a closet to the point where Maya\u2019s brother died from starvation.\u00a0 Thus Antia must learn to forgive herself and move on to break the cycle of jumping off the villa and awakening inside moments later.\u00a0 ART THOU TRULY A SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

With Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em> being a bite-size game about a protagonist who has done some naughty things stuck in an endless loop, naturally, my mind couldn\u2019t help but compare this demo to the 2016 P.T<\/em>.\u00a0 For those unfamiliar with P.T.<\/em>, it was a demo where the player was stuck in a looping hallway slowly piecing together that you were a father who came home one day to shoot your pregnant wife and two children just before hanging himself.\u00a0 However, the difference between the stories of P.T.<\/em>\u00a0 and The Short Message<\/em> boils down to a word that the recent crop of horror games and movies are forgetting: subtlety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Subtlety is a foreign concept to Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em>.\u00a0 So often Antia will cry about how nobody wants her around and how she will never escape this town.\u00a0 Antia\u2019s mother even has a partially infamous monologue where she yells \u201cShe Inflicted that curse on my womb and I gave it life.\u201d\u00a0 The story leaves no room for the player’s interpretation or digestion of the story.\u00a0 Whereas I can look at the story of P.T.<\/em> and take away several factors that drew the father to kill his family: the loneliness and isolation men experience, the misplaced anger from losing his job and no longer being the breadwinner, or the maddening realization that the child his wife was pregnant with was not his own.\u00a0 All themes I have pondered over as the story of P.T.<\/em> plays through my mind.\u00a0 So often I find these stories that allow me to draw deeper meaning to be the stories that stick with me, and a story like The Short Message<\/em> will be disposed of from my mind the second I step off this soapbox.\u00a0 I SAY UNTO THEE, THOU ARE SO SELF-CONSCIOUS YE NEED TO SPELL EVERYTHING OUT IN FEAR OF LEAVING THOSE WHO WOULD NOT UNDERSTAND BEHIND.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is also a textbook case of telling not showing.\u00a0 Rather than show us Antia has no plans for the future through college rejection letters or failing SAT scores, Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em> just has Antia drivel on about how useless she feels and how she\u2019s stuck in this town.\u00a0 Not to compare to another Silent Hill game, but this would be like if James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2<\/em> constantly cried about his guilt and sexual frustration.\u00a0 Instead, the game shows all of this through its monster design.\u00a0 From hyper-sexualized enemy nurses to the more masculine Pyramid-head, the town of Silent Hill is simply holding a mirror up to James.\u00a0 It is showing us and not having James turn to the camera and wonder aloud if this is all metaphorical guilt stemming from him killing his sick wife.\u00a0 THOU SHOULD TAKE SOME NOTES, THE SHORT MESSAGE<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Some of you might think I am too harsh on this free two-hour-long demo, but I truly believe this is not a good sign for Silent Hill.\u00a0 Take heed, my loyal followers, I do think some creative minds are working on Silent Hill properties.\u00a0 There’s a story to tell about teenagers, the constant hook of social media, and suicide in a Silent Hill world.\u00a0 However, the story and gameplay reek of a project that was not given the time or resources it needed.\u00a0 The story needed more time to flesh out the characters and themes.\u00a0 It needed more time to find a gameplay loop that allowed for a deeper story and tense gameplay.\u00a0 Silent Hill: The Short Message<\/em> is the metaphorical free sample the drug dealer hands out to get us hooked.\u00a0 Both The Short Message<\/em> and the laughable mobile game Silent Hill Ascension <\/em>show that Konami does not know how to handle the Silent Hill property.\u00a0 Alas, my followers, do not fret.\u00a0 Silent Hill<\/em> will live on through other projects by developers who want to craft psychological horror with tact and grace.\u00a0 Lone Survivor<\/em> is a perfect example of Silent Hill living on through other games.\u00a0 Look to the indie space and not to Silent Hill 2 Remake<\/em> for that psychological dread the series was once known for.\u00a0 All this truly leads me to believe that the end is nigh for not just Silent Hill but for Konami as well.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lend thy ears as we dive deep into a tale void of subtlety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","category-opinion","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2171,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155\/revisions\/2171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}