CONTENT WARNING: This post discusses abuse, bullying, and suicide.
The SILENT HILL franchise is known for exploring characters disassociating when confronted with guilt from the past, how they splinter in order to endure lived trauma, and the increasingly horrific steps they’ll endure to deny their trauma in order to survive.
SILENT HILL: THE SHORT MESSAGE, the first new SILENT HILL game since the P.T. debacle, certainly follows in that mould. You play as Anita, an insecure, mousy teen schoolgirl who idolizes her talented graffiti artist friend Anya. Anya texts her to meet at her hangout, an abandoned apartment complex where Anya and others display their spray painting prowess.
It’s also a popular place for teens to jump to their deaths.
Anita makes her way there and, upon arriving finds only Anya’s colorful renditions of bodies and cherry blossoms. Anita follows the works through the building. Flashbacks ensue and Anita confronts the neglect and abuse her mother doled out, plus recalling the punishing words she endured by bullies every school day.
She maneuvers that mental minefield while being chased through the building by a twisted manifestation of Anya’s portraits; a figure adorned in white and wrapped in wire and cherry blossoms and named C.B. Matters escalate as Anita dives deeper into her memories, reckoning with her guilt and lived trauma.
In other words, THE SHORT MESSAGE narratively features all of the psychological hallmarks of a SILENT HILL game.
Aesthetically and mechanically, it evokes a wide swath of SILENT HILL tropes:
Holes pepper the walls of the darkened, grimy complex.
You’re relentlessly chased by invincible beings, often through maddeningly disorienting hallways.
Your environments burn and fade into something else entirely.
Texts harp on psychological profiling, teasing out motives and compulsions.
Puzzles strip chains from doors.
Forgotten dolls and fragments of lost innocence and brighter days litter the corners of each room.
Characters act shellshocked, their voices occasionally affectless as if in a trance. Sometimes they utterances are far too heightened.
The major deviation from the SILENT HILL formula? Flashbacks are conveyed through full-motion video, of Anya walking and talking through overly white school halls in a clearly dubbed voice that doesn’t match her lips.
THE SHORT MESSAGE tries to toe the line between emotionally resonant character drama that, despite being rather clumsy on the page or to the ears, becomes far more meaningful with the context and framework of the game’s world and atmosphere.
Anita is stubbornly comprised solely of her guilt and trauma. While that is often the driving force behind SILENT HILL protagonists, there’s usually more complex matters surging through their blood.
The game is free, perhaps because it only lasts a few hours and perhaps because it’s intended as a welcome back for a franchise that hasn’t had a new installment for over a decade.
However, because THE SHORT MESSAGE costs nothing, coupled with the fact that you’re hammered over the head with suicide prevention messages every five minutes as well as Anita’s shallow character depths, lends the game an air of a public service announcement; that it’s an effort solely comprised to bring awareness to issues of suicidal tendencies, child abuse, and the perils of social media.
It doesn’t help that, apart from running away from C.B. and observing items and portraits and text messages, there’s very little in the way of interactivity here. No scavenging for ammo or inventory juggling to be had. The messaging is the primary goal here — not fulfilling gameplay.
Depending on your disposition, you may find the above intriguing or it may frustrate. I’m willing to embrace the myopia of Anita’s trauma because it has overtaken her life and everything else seem trivial in the face of this.
I’m also willing to overlook some of the stilted and irrational dialogue because these are extreme situations and folks act in all sorts irrational ways as a defensive and self-protective measure.
Lastly, if it does feel like a PSA? I am absolutely fine with that. Some messages need to be heard. Addressing suicidal ideation and coming to terms with abuse can help; it can deeply resonate; can be exactly what is needed at that time. It can be the most meaningful game of someone’s life, or it can feel like a hollow and heavy-handed and foolhardy attempt to impart material better handled elsewhere.
That’s the beauty of the SILENT HILL series. More often than not it tries to tackle difficult matters. It doesn’t always succeed, and it certainly doesn’t always succeed for everyone. However, when it works, if it works for you, it is unlike any gaming experience you’ll encounter.