What's the deal with Silent Hill: Ascension?

If you log onto Sony Pictures Core today – an entertainment app for PlayStation I hadn't even heard of until yesterday – an advertisement for Genvid's new Silent Hill project, Silent Hill: Ascension, confidently straddles the page. Its blurb is brief but intriguing: "An occult ritual gone wrong. A monster on a farm, two deaths in two towns on the opposite sides of the world cause horrific monsters to manifest."

I've now watched over an hour of Silent Hill: Ascension and spent many more hours playing (and re-playing; even a week after launch, most progress I make from engaging in its activities habitually disappears) its mini-games and mooching around its various sub-menus, but that two-line description has told me more about what's happening in Silent Hill: Ascension than anything I've watched so far. Which is a bit depressing, actually.

I daresay you've already seen the jokes and the "IT'S TRAUMA!" memes, so forgive me if I skim over all of that. Those who know me will know that Silent Hill and I go back some – it was, in fact, the subject of my very first commission here almost a decade ago now – and I still run the fan site/forum I set up 20 (!) years ago when I was eleventy thousand months pregnant and on forced bed rest. I know its people and its stories and its creatures better than most, which is probably why I just can't be arsed with the dogpiling and memes. In the words of a very pissed-off parent (something I suspect would be waiting for me in my own Silent Hill, actually), I'm not angry; I'm just disappointed.

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