‘Silent Hill: The Short Message’ heralds the era of the gaming trailer
Gaming is big business, so it should not come as a huge surprise that the teaser trailer has found its own incarnation in the gaming world. Beyond a simple demo, it is a means of garnering interest in a free download that could convert into people buying the full yet to-be-released game. “Silent Hill” has a long gaming pedigree and history dating back to 1999 and features some 17 titles, including spinoffs. Japanese developer Konami’s combination of psychological horror and survival gameplay has become legendary, despite the mixed quality of the games.
In the “Short Message,” you are given a snippet of the production that will surely be going into the remake of “Silent Hill 2” — scheduled for release in May this year. It is a stand-alone title that is almost more of a simulation than a game. It offers a two-hour experience that is a short story touching on many themes again that underpin the franchise — loss, relationships, and human nature all combined with subtle horror. A teenage girl finds herself lost in an abandoned building looking for a friend whom she soon remembers recently killed herself. Cue spooky music and pained internal monologues that delve into the backstory of the main character and those around her, interestingly using cinematic cut scenes of actors to give depth to proceedings.
According to producer Motoi Okamoto, “Short Message” started off as an experiment and a chance for younger developers to create something new in the franchise. Its focus on teenage angst, social media, bullying, and self-harm is combined with the terrifying unknown.
You navigate claustrophobic surroundings learning more about the town’s sad background, with a nice topical narrative on how COVID-19 destroyed a generation. The graphics are polished and detailed with the Unreal Engine 5 doing justice to shadow and light.