The Silent Hill mystery game, titled The Short Message, is surprise-dropping on PS5 today, and it'll be available for free.
We first caught word of the previously unannounced Silent Hill game when The Short Message was rated in Korea back in September 2022. It was then rated again, this time in Taiwan, in December 2022, and it was then that we first learned some vague details of the plot, involving a woman named Anita meeting with her friend Maya at an abandoned apartment and becoming trapped there.
Today's surprise reveal and accompanying gameplay trailer gave us our first official look at the protagonist, who wanders through dimly lit tight spaces while witnessing hallucinations. Staring down phantoms at the end of hallways and seeing walls shapeshift into pure nightmare fuel, it's easy to be reminded of Kojima's 2014 psychological horror "teaser," PT.
I'm definitely impressed by the trailer, but I'll wait until I can have some time with it tonight before I decide whether it deserves to be uttered in the same breath as PT. At the time of writing (3:20pm PST), there's still no trace of The Short Message on the PlayStation Store, but one of my colleagues in the UK said he spotted it on the storefront but was unable to load it. On my side, the search function on the PlayStation Store seems to be unavailable, likely due to the rapid influx of users looking to play the new game.
Along with Silent Hill 2 Remake, here are all of the upcoming horror games we can't wait to play.