A good set up for the series future
Silent Hill Short Message is a quick, free Playstation 5 exclusive horror game developed by HexaDrive. HexaDrive is mostly known for porting other games but you may know them for their game The 3rd Birthday (A parasite eve game) and the Resident Evil 7 DLC, Not a Hero. Short message takes place in an abandoned building where our main character Anita keeps waking up. This building has become an infamous spot where young girls go to unalive themselves. She is meeting her friend Maya there, Maya is a popular graffiti artist who uses this building as her studio. Anita can’t seem to find Maya and there is a monster stalking her throughout the building. This game explores cyberbullying, female friendships, child abuse, neglect, depression and the struggle to become popular online. Anita is extremely self deprecating and it’s a struggle to read each text. Personally, this game is difficult for me to play, since I knew people similar to Anita.
The game is creepy but has very little jumpscares, much more of a walking sim with chase scenes. The chase sequences can get frustrating but once you understand the monsters patterns it’s not too bad. I like the use of the phone as an indicator if the monster is nearby, similar to the radio in previous titles. It definitely feels like an experience more akin to Silent Hill 2 than the others. It sets up the future of the series in an interesting way. One of the newspapers in the game talks about the “Silent Hill Phenomenon” that’s happening around the world. Basically those effected by this phenomenon see fog and then lose conciseness very similar to our protagonist Anita. The fact that this is happening all around the world and not just in that small mining town means they can take the series global. I am excited to see where they take the series, but in regard to The Short Message it’s a fine little psychological horror walking sim you can finish in a couple of hours.
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