Luckily, we can all agree that bullying is a terrible thing, although many of us have probably experienced it in one form or another. This topic can of course be discussed in detail, and that is exactly what the plot of “Silent Hill: The Short Message” revolves around.
The protagonist Anita wakes up in a mysterious place and receives a message on her friend Maya’s cell phone telling them to meet. Anita feels useless, misunderstood and alone, and over the course of the game she finds out why things are the way they are, while the poor girl has a lot of things going through her head. There’s a lot to relate to, and the game doesn’t skimp on telling and showing it. We don’t really know why it’s where it is, but we start to explore it when the first change to the series’ gameplay occurs: the first-person perspective, which is used very well. The environments are incredibly detailed and technically beautiful, and for the most part it’s about running through them, like an extremely slow walking simulator with a slightly unsettling atmosphere.
This unsettling atmosphere is a little disappointing considering that The Short Message isn’t exactly scary. There’s a good atmosphere, but that’s mostly because the environments are well designed. Additionally, the game suffers from incredible pacing issues, meaning it occasionally throws me off. The biggest annoyance is the messages Anita receives on her cell phone, which also serves as a flashlight.
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Every time the phone rings, the game stops and the phone covers the screen and there are messages back and forth. I would have preferred a solution where you could walk around with your phone in front of you or where the interface simply appeared as text on the screen while playing. The idea of breaking up the entire experience at a series of strange moments doesn’t work and detracts from gameplay. As if Anita completely forgets the strangeness of the moment and then texts her friend that she slept well.
The game is also punctuated by a series of scenes with real actors. There’s nothing wrong with any of these, but they also add to the pace of the game and the ambiguity of the game’s main theme. I can certainly give the game credit for dealing with bullying, feeling like a failure, and even wanting to take your own life. It’s important, bold and something that needs to be highlighted, but the script pushes the player’s buttons too often and ends up diluting the mystery too much.
I don’t want to downplay any of the topics discussed, as in many ways I feel very identified with all of this. But when Anita picks up her phone and starts talking about how her friend gained a lot of new followers while she lost several herself, it just seems a little exaggerated to me one of many times. When you’re feeling bad, a lot of things pile up on top of each other, and feeling unpopular is one of those things that can affect a lot of people. But while I think the subject matter is treated with respect and the hard things are really allowed to happen, overall it isn’t written well enough and becomes heavy handed for all the wrong reasons.
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The story doesn’t entirely convince me and despite the very short duration of less than two hours, the game still seems slow and endless, which is of course a big mistake. They try to break the atmosphere of navigating environments while being chased by a monster multiple times. You also end up in a kind of labyrinth from which you have to find your way out with the monster that is hot on your heels. The sequences are okay, but not very scary either thanks to a trial and error sequence where you have to start over if the monster catches you.
In addition to the detailed and elegant graphics, we also have to praise the game’s sound design and music, which accompany it very well. If you like wandering around pretty environments, it might be worth playing for that alone, and since they had the decency to release it for free, you have nothing to lose. However, I think it’s a pretty boring adventure that fails in a lot of ways, and of course you should be happy to have a graphically beautiful adventure for free, but the criticism should still be voiced.
The last point of criticism I would like to say is that in my opinion the game does not belong to the Silent Hill series. The aesthetics, the atmosphere and the contrast between reality and nightmares are of course there, but there are too many things missing and for me it’s not enough that there is a strange environment and a disturbing atmosphere. More is needed.
“Silent Hill: The Short Message” falls short in many ways. It’s not scary at all, it tells its story and treats the subject ambiguously, it doesn’t really feel like a game in the series and then there’s that damn phone that offers more problems than solutions. I just hope that the remake of Silent Hill 2 is as good as the original and not of the same quality as this one.
