Genvid Entertainment’s ambitious new interactive streaming series, Silent Hill: Ascension, finally premieres today at 12PM AEDT, giving Silent Hill fans the opportunity to see first-hand whether or not their beloved series has fallen even further from grace or if this is a successful experiment in crowd-based storytelling.
You can access Silent Hill: Ascension right now in your browser on the official Silent Hill: Ascension website, on Android or a PC through the Google Play Store, or on an iOS device through the App Store.
Genvid also dropped a new introductory video called The Essentials, which introduces players/viewers to the interactive series and how best to experience it. It also explains how the crowd-based decision making will work, which sees users spend Influence Points or “IP” to try and sway the outcome in the direction they want. IP is earned by solving puzzles in the app or helping interact with certain scenes
Everything in the SILENT HILL: Ascension experience is free. You can earn IP through completing puzzles, completing daily and weekly goals and participating in live sequences where the audience works together to help a main character endure through real danger. #SILENTHILL… pic.twitter.com/76OP1eJDS0
— SILENT HILL: Ascension (@SHAscension) October 31, 2023
Each day will see a new episode of Silent Hill: Ascension with a new major decision to make that will then become canon, with decisions available up to 24 hours in advance of the episode so you don’t necessarily need to watch live. If you do watch live, you’ll also get to experience live moments where the entire viewer base will have to interact with a dangerous, on-screen occurrence using some basic swiping and tapping. Characters in the show also have mental states that shift as the series continues and can be influenced by players engaging in puzzles and other activities, and there’s even a character customiser where players can make an avatar with a shot at it being included as a cameo in the series.
Essentially, there’s a whole lot to this, and it’s seemingly just as much a freemium mobile game as a series. And yes, there’s even a Season Pass:
For those not into the whole interactive/freemium game element, the series’ canonised episodes will also be watchable for free after the fact either through the Silent Hill: Ascension app or in the Sony Pictures Core App, which is available for Bravia TVs and Sony phones and just launched on PS5 and PS4 consoles, with (non-interactive) weekly catch-up episodes coming to the service.
