The game is simply not a good Silent Hill game. Recently there is a phenomena where people say it is a free game and therefore deserves no criticism, but I say that only a person who truly loves something will view it with a critical eye.

TSM does phenomenal in the music department and the art and atmosphere, but that’s because both Akira Yamaoka and Masahiro Ito worked on it. They were both part of the original Team Silent, who made the first 4 games.

Where TSM falls very very short is in its writing. It leaves little to no nuance and instead spoon feeds everything to the player. The main character will not shut up. The dialogue is cringe. Even SH3’s Heather Mason, a teenage girl just the same as TSM’s main character, was not as cringe-y. There are other, far better ways to handle the writing.

So while it gets high marks in other aspects, Silent Hill games are very dependant on their writing. Since all other aspects of the game are supposed to prop up the story, dialogue and writing are key to get right. This is where TSM fails, and why it absolutely deserves its low scores.