The Australian Classification Board has essentially given away the story of the yet-to-be-announced Silent Hill game.

Silent Hill: The Short Message was leaked last December, and now Konami’s unnecessarily secretive project has resurfaced in the Australian Classification Board’s annual report, revealing a wealth of information. We warn you in advance that there are spoilers in the following quote:

“Strong suicide themes, horror violence, and coarse language: an exploration-based psychological horror game in which players control characters in an apartment building called The Villa in present-day Germany. The player assumes the role of a young woman, Anita, who must explore The Villa through first-person gameplay to gather clues and discover what happened to her friend. Anita explores a bathroom environment that includes a bathtub filled with bloody water, blood-spattered tiles, and a razor blade on a bloody sink. While examining the razor, Anita experiences a flashback.

In a first-person cutscene, a voice yells, “This is all your fault! Bad things are happening because of you!” and a hand holding a razor enters the frame. The character’s left arm enters the frame, with horizontal scars visible across the character’s wrist. The scene cuts to a black screen before the razor makes contact with the character’s wrist. The following shot shows an image of the character’s left arm with old and new scars. In a cut-scene shot in a mix of third-person and first-person perspective, the player character stands on the edge of the building’s roof, looking down. It is implied that Maya committed suicide by jumping off the edge of the roof. The player character, in a desperate state of mind, speculates that she will never be like Maya. Echoes of her mother’s abusive rants are heard in the background as Anita prepares to jump, saying, “Maybe I can be like her… Here goes…”

A first-person view shows her feet near the edge of the ledge, before a third-person view shows her stepping off and beginning to fall. Throughout the game, cutscenes depicting self-harm and suicide are followed by black screens with white text encouraging players to seek treatment and help if they are at risk of self-harm and suicide, and to offer support if they see people around them struggling. In the Board’s view, the depiction of suicide and self-harm in the game occurs within the broader context of a discourse that explores issues surrounding mental health and encourages players to seek help or offer support to those in need. As such, the impact of the depictions does not exceed strong in impact and can be accommodated within the MA 15+ classification.

It’s incredible how much it’s leaked.

Source: Gematsu