Platforms: Android, iOS, Browser
Release Date: October 31, 2023
Publisher: Konami, Genvid Entertainment, LLC
Developer: Bad Robot Production, Behaviour Interactive, dj2 Entertainment
I had another article written that started out as a First Impressions but ended up ballooning into what would amount to a Game EXP article for a serial mobile app online TV series. By the time I realized that I wasn't going to have that article ready for today, I had decided that I needed to either do a serious rewrite, or just start all over again. So now we're here, starting over.
The SILENT HILL: Ascension app can be broken down into two components. First, there is the actual show, where you watch characters do things, you know, like a regular TV show. Normal and creepy things happen to them and they react. The show itself, I am actually quite enjoying. The story follows three different and as yet not fully connected characters as strange events begin to happen around them in a format that wouldn't have been out of place airing on Sunday nights on FOX before X-Files in the mid-late 90s. Because all of the characters are CG, a fair amount of the physical and voice acting can come across as stilted, but when viewed as a cutscene from a game, it feels about on par with what I would expect out of a survival horror video game franchise in 2023.
How the characters react is the "interactive media" aspect of the show that leads directly into the second component. Every day, characters are faced with a decision to make that is influenced by people voting for any of the three options using in-game currency called Influence Points (represented by the Norse runes ᚾ ᚹ, presumably because they look like the Latin letters I and P, not because they represent N and W sounds respectively, otherwise the runes would look like ᛁᛈ), that you earn by completing various daily tasks such as watching new episodes, completing mini-game puzzles, or by giving Konami et. Al. money specifically for more Influence Points or by way of a Battle Pass-type system. There is a lot that I do not like in this second camp, which ended up being 80.55% of what I had originally written.
What it boils down to for me, is that I like short daily episodes, each one lasting a couple of minutes, and I would hope that a full uncut release of this entire series is released at a later date, separate from the app itself, and I dislike nearly everything else. I am not a fan of the monetization of basic cosmetics for your avatar like hair type/color and skin color/facial structure. I have also had a pretty negative experience with the app as cosmetic items that I have unlocked through using IP have disappeared from my account and often the game will not register that I have claimed a goal (by logging in, voting in a poll, etc) and will have to perform the same actions multiple times.
Actual Show: Decent enough to be good.
Everything Else: Bad.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
In the Rivers of Grief We are Drowning
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