Summary
Silent Hill: Ascension’s currency lies in the “Influence Point,” used to vote towards available choices in the story. These points can be accrued through meeting daily goals like logging in or contributing IP to a decision, completing puzzles (though most are limited to season pass holders), or purchasing through real-world money. While this creates an issue with a “pay-to-win” system, as those with more points will inevitably have more hold on the story, the nature of community choices as a whole presents even more ramifications for its storytelling experience.
Silent Hill: Ascension’s Community Choice Model is Clever in Theory, But Lacking in Execution
Replayability Is An Attribute That Silent Hill: Ascension Can’t Capitalize On
The nature ofSilent Hill: Ascension’s community choices makes it so that the story advances only through its most popular choices, a clever concept in theory, but one that isn’t able to shine through its branching narrative structure. With other titles, likeSupermassive Games’The Dark Pictures Anthology, the ability to replay and make different decisions comes as one of the core selling points of its experience. WithAscension, any alternate choices offered that don’t get picked by the audience essentially become lost, as only the dialogue and/or actions that are most voted for are broadcasted.
This concept begs the question of just how muchSilent Hill: Ascension’s story differs based on its choice structure. Choices are tagged on the app to demonstrate how much of a repercussion they will have. Gold, for example, denotes a “modest effect” on the story, while Platinum is stated to have a “large impact.” Based on how much of a ripple effect choices are intended to have in branching narratives – a trait that games likeUntil Dawnemphasized through “the butterfly effect” – the selection of certain choices over others should invariably change the direction of future cutscenes. WithAscension’s model, however, this would mean a lot of content being scrapped, as the audience isn’t seeing the other ways its story can play out.
How Much Can Silent Hill: Ascension Branch?
Branching narratives in games often deploy effects to make it seem like choices are more substantial to make sure stories don’t get too unwieldy, though that doesn’t negate the amount of effort and resources that go into optional dialogue and character actions. It would be hard to imagineSilent Hill:Ascension’s teamworking on a number of FMVs for alternate routes that never end up getting shown to the audience, though this is how its community choice experience is structured. There’s a chance that the team thought about which choices were likely to be favored beforehand and focused more on fleshing those out (so far, the “Redemption” choices have been leading for the most part), though the unpredictable nature of voting means they would inevitably have to account for any possibility.
Silent Hill: Ascension’s plot and toneseem pretty multifaceted so far through its wide range of characters, as two casts navigate death and complicity, though its unclear if or when the two groups' stories will converge. Another unfortunate byproduct ofAscension’s monetization is that characters seem to have a hope system that “raises their chances of survival,” though some of the mini-games to raise a character’s hope are locked behind the game’s season pass, much like the majority of its puzzles that help players earn more IP. So far, the way in whichSilent Hill: Ascensionstructures itself feels limiting not just through a monetization standpoint, but in its story as well. While its concept has been a novel one, it doesn’t quite feel conducive to the allure of a branching experience.
