Silent Hill the Short Message is a short horror game launched for free on the PlayStation 5. It's only about an hour to two hours long, but it packs a lot into that short time frame. Here's a complete walkthrough for those who are stuck at some point like I was.
Silent Hill the Short Message walkthrough guide
The story of Silent Hill the Short Message is about bullying, child abuse, child death, suicide, depression, self-harm loss, and some other heavy topics. It is certainly not for everyone, so use caution before hitting the start button on this one.
If you or anyone you know is dealing with suicide, contact your local lifeline for help. This story is incredibly heavy, so everyone who decides to pick this up and play should take care of themselves!
However, if you are still on board for this Silent Hill the Short Message walkthrough, let's take a dive into what you'll be facing.
To start, you are dropped into a deteriorating building. Your friend Maya has asked to meet you here. After walking out of the first room, there will be a building model that you can interact with to your left; you will also need to find and interact with both the newspaper and the planning pamphlet inside the room to get the door unlocked.
Next, head out into the hallway and make your way down to room 202. Once you're inside, the door will close behind you until you interact with the Cherry Blossom painting in the back room. On the opposite side of this room, you can find an article about Cherry Blossom's work. Interact with it, then head out the door again.
Once you're in the hallway, you'll get a couple of texts from Amelie, another friend. Read them, then head into the door that opened at the end of the hallway. This is the sticky note room, where a short cutscene will play.
To the left (after the cutscene), you can interact with a note about child abuse on a wooden cabinet. Head deeper into the sticky note rooms to find a bedroom; there is an interactable on the side table by the bed for the antidepressants. If you continue deeper into the rooms, a door to a bathroom will open up; interact with the razor on the sink to see a disturbing cutscene of someone cutting themselves.
Next, leave the stink note room for a cutscene, then run through the maze of chain-link fences. After that, you'll find yourself locked in a new room. There are two interactables in this apartment: a newspaper article about teens committing suicide at this building and another Cherry Blossom artwork on the backwall of the other room. Interact with them and leave the apartment.
Head into the hallway and turn left, then make an immediate right into the room. There will be another book you can pick up on the left-middle side of the room, on a table near the open door. If you go onto the balcony outside the open doors, there is a spot you can interact with by zooming in. Go back inside and head out of the room, then down the hallway to the right.
Make a right at the end of the hallway, continue, then make a left. At the end of this hallway, there is an interactable at the end: a sign behind the grate that says "Warning DO NOT ENTER." There will also be a door to the right of the sign, room 214, that has been spray painted in pink with the letters CB (Cherry Blossom, who is also your friend Maya). This is the studio she has been texting you about, probably, so head inside.
Interact with the sketchbook at the back of the room to the left; a cutscene will play after you flip through all the pages. Turn around and a sheet will fall on the left side of the room; this will show off a half-finished artwork of Maya's that you can look at. Once you try to leave the studio, the monster will begin to chase you.
You'll need to turn around, circling around the chain link as it follows you from the other side. Circle around and out the door, then run down the hall and to the right. The hallway will close itself off, so you have to take the door to the left. Keep following the fences around until you find yourself facing the monster. Turn around and run back the other way until you find the stairs to the roof.
After a cutscene, you will wake up back in the Villa. There are no interactables in the room you wake up in, so head outside. You'll be back in room 201 again; go out into the hallway. Interact with the refrigerator across from the door to 201, then go down the hallway with the swinging light. On your right is an open door to 202. You can go inside for two more interactables: a light on a desk and the Cherry Blossom artwork that has been destroyed.
If you walk back into the hallway, there will be another open door to the left. There is a book to read on the desk in front of you and another damaged CB painting on the wall.
After that, you will be able to leave through the now-open balcony door. This will lead you back to room with all the tables and chairs. Walk into the hallway, then cross over it to get to room 206. You've been in this room before, but now there are several more doors open than there were before!
In the kitchen, you can interact with the fridge and a book on the kitchen table. In the room on the opposite side of the den from the kitchen, there are two more things to look at: an altar and a book about witchcraft. On the way out of this room, there will be tarot cards on a small table to your right that weren't there before.
Back in the hallway, there are two more rooms to look at: the Trash Room and room 207. The trash room has a book on the floor to look at and that is all for that room. Next, go into room 207. In the bathroom to the immediate left of the entrance is a college pamphlet; interact with it. In the bedroom across from the bathroom, you can find a book on the desk to take a look at. The second bedroom, which is past the bathroom on the left, has another set of journal entries to look through.
The kitchen of room 207 has an interactable on the fridge. Next up is the last bedroom on the other side of the kitchen from the second bedroom. This final bedroom has a readable diary on the bed and a newspaper article to find in the closet. This is all to find in this section. As you walk down the hallway, a brightly lit door will open at the end. If you turn right down the hallway instead of going out the new exit, if you walk up to the door of room 214 (Cherry Blossom's studio), you will hear a woman humming through the door, but you will not be able to get inside.
Go through the well-lit door, and it will go into a school hallway. There is nothing to look at here, so head into the double doors on the other side of this hall. On the right side will be a locker you can interact with that will start a cutscene. You will find yourself in a long hallway of black figures; walk in between them and out the door at the end to get to a red hallway that does all sorts of twisty stuff. You'll come out of this section back in the main hallway.
Go in through the door in front of you to start a new chase sequence.
Related: Silent Hill Ascension – Release date, trailer, and everything we know
At the end of it, you'll be back in 214, CB's studio. There will be a journal on the left to look through, a painting on the right that is now completed, and a pregnancy test in the trash can to interact with. After that, look through the sketchbook again to start a cutscene. Leave the room to find yourself in a school library to start another cutscene.
The library has three places to interact with: a set of blue books on the very back shelf, a book on the right side of the middle shelves by the door, and a book on the table opposite the bookshelves. This will open the door to another hallway.
Back in the school hall, you can interact with the messy desk in the middle of the hallway, Maya's locker, and Amelie's locker. Then, you need to open your own locker, which is on the same side of the hall as Amelia's locker. You'll need a four-digit passcode first; these numbers are painted up and down the hallway: 0312. Put it into the locker, and it will open, revealing a note for you from Maya. Heading out the door will start a new chase sequence. Complete it to find yourself back in the Villa.
To the left of the door out, there is a diary page to read. Through the door, there is a fridge with writing on it; interact with this as well. Head down the hallway; there is nothing to see in rooms 206 or 207, so keep going down the hall until there is a newspaper you can interact with. Continue down the hallway, bypassing room 211, and head down into the apartment, which is open at the end.
Reading the journal page on the cabinet before the kitchen will open the door immediately past the kitchen. Go in the door to see another copy of this room.
You can zoom in on the pizza box and read a diary page from your mother on the kitchen table. This will open the bedroom door; you can zoom in on the kid's drawing on the floor. There is also a diary to read on the desk opposite the bed. This will open another door into a bigger version of the same apartment.
Read the diary on the coffee table in front of the couch, then head into the bedroom to read the paper on the bed. After that, go back into the kitchen to read what's on the fridge. This will open the second door in the bedroom, where a newspaper sits on the floor of the closet.
When the cutscene is over, interact with the baby doll in the pile of trash outside the door. Exiting the house will start another cutscene; turn around and run away from the monster. This is a puzzle that is super long and a little confusing; there are five photographs that have to be interacted with before you can move on, and these will unlock each of the chains on the door to CB's studio. Since this section is so confusing, here is a quick walkthrough of it on YouTube.
Once you get into CB's studio, you'll need to interact with the diary entry on the left (1) and then the newspaper on the right (2). After that, look at the sketchbook on the floor (3) and flip through all the pages to start another cutscene. Walk into the darkened hallway and interact with each of the spotlighted images to complete the game.
What is the locker code in Silent Hill the Short Message?
The numbers are painted on the walls of the hallway; they are located on the top of the door out, on the ceiling, the wall, and then on the wall next to the double doors. The numbers start over the single door at the end of the hall, and go to the double doors at the other end, so the locker combo is 0312.
For more Silent Hill, check out Silent Hill 2 shows off polished combat in action-packed trailer on Pro Game Guides.
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Silent Hill the Short Message walkthrough
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