Highlights

  • Silent Hill: The Short Message is a free spin-off experience in the psychological/survival horror genre.
  • Intriguingly, the Short Message feels more like an entry from the Layers of Fear franchise than a traditional Silent Hill game.
  • The game addresses serious psychological horror material and shares several similarities in gameplay and design with Layers of Fear.

Silent Hill: The Short Message was just shadow-dropped in the course of PlayStation's State of Play showcase on January 31. Konami Producer Motoi Okamoto appeared at the presentation to introduce and announce its immediate, and entirely free of charge, release for PS5 players. The Short Message is described on the official PlayStation blog as, appropriately, a "short, experimental" Silent Hill spin-off experience in the stylings of the titular psychological/survival horror series. It was also, at least in part, previously leaked, as glimpses of The Short Message's existence and some related material surfaced in the course of 2022, but nothing was officially confirmed until now.

As fans await more information about the highly anticipated upcoming full Silent Hill 2 remake, Silent Hill: The Short Message aims to serve as something of a lead-in appetizer. And while it has the official Silent Hill seal and appears at first glance in many ways to indeed promise this, in practice, The Short Message plays and feels much more like an entry from the Layers of Fear franchise than any in the series it is technically part of.

silent-hill_cover
Related
25 Years Later, the Original Silent Hill Still Has the Series' Best Atmosphere

On the 25th anniversary of the release of Silent Hill, it's apparent that no other survival horror game quite matches its oppressive atmosphere.

Silent Hill: The Short Message is More of a Layers of Fear Entry Than a Silent Hill One

Layers of Fear and Silent Hill's Psychological Horror Styling

Layers of Fear consists of two titles from 2016 and 2019 respectively, and received an updated collection that included all content for both in 2023. The first focused on the tale of a painter, while the second was not a direct sequel, but revolved around an actor whose star power was waning. Falling within the walking simulator genre, Layers of Fear focuses on exploration and puzzle solving in first-person sans combat. The narratives involve characters' mental anguish and torture over their past guilt and actions, making Layers of Fear not unlike Silent Hill in that respect. However, that's where most of the similarities in this case end, as once players who are familiar with Layers of Fear experience Silent Hill: The Short Message, many may agree that, for better or worse, it might as well be another Layers of Fear title.

Silent Hill: The Short Message's Similarities to Layers of Fear Over Silent Hill Itself

Silent Hill: The Short Message concerns Anita, a teenager on the verge of adulthood, who receives an odd and alarming text message from her friend, Maya. Anita is battling depression and committing acts of self-harm due to a number of pressures, particularly regarding the climate of modern social media for people her age. After waking up in a local abandoned and decaying apartment complex, disoriented and confused about how she arrived there, Anita begins to search its eerie echoing hallways for Maya. Players may immediately notice that the environmental aesthetics, gameplay, and other design choices strongly resemble those seen in Layers of Fear. One could easily be forgiven for mistaking The Short Message as such if they were unaware of its status as an official Silent Hill release.

The situation is a bit of a roundabout connection as well, given that Layers of Fear developer Bloober Team has been tapped to produce the Silent Hill 2 remake, but was not involved with Silent Hill: The Short Message. The Short Message does address some quite serious psychological horror material, though, closely adjacent to what was incorporated in Layers of Fear previously. Visually, the game frequently presents players with distortions/hallucinations and shifting room configurations. Admittedly, Silent Hill is no stranger to using similar tricks and components too, but the overall presentation in The Short Message can be said to bear a better resemblance to Layers of Fear upon closer inspection.

None of this is a mark against The Short Message in any way, as it does provide a very solid experience in terms of atmosphere, gameplay, and narrative structure. However, fans who might be expecting a more "traditional" Silent Hill game may wish to be aware of the difference, and that The Short Message shares much more in common with Layers of Fear in general.

Silent Hill: The Short Message is currently available free for PlayStation 5 owners. Silent Hill 2 remake is still in development, but a firm release window is yet to be provided.