Gab Hernandez 
Silent Hill Ascension has arrived and it’s getting lambasted by fans and critics for everything from the content to its season pass.
Konami’s Silent Hill Ascension is an interactive horror TV series set in the Silent Hill universe and boasts interactive, real-time community features. Viewers can participate in a live chat, and characters’ decisions are partly decided as the episode progresses via fan vote. The app for Silent Hill Ascension is free on the App Store, Google Play, and compatible desktop browsers.
With its debut on October 31, fans found themselves scared of something else entirely. Although the series itself was free, there was an option to buy a season pass for the show. Once details about the season pass were revealed, the backlash was swift on social media.
How much is the Silent Hill Ascension Season Pass?
The Silent Hill Ascension Season Pass costs $19.99.
Although the project was advertised as a free choose-your-own-adventure experience, Silent Hill Ascension revealed its season pass pricing of $19.99 to widespread negative reaction. This was the first time that any Silent Hill project had featured paid DLC, and it wasn’t even for an actual video game.
On top of the cost, Silent Hill Ascension’s first episode was heavily criticized upon release. The web series features subpar animation, a clunky UI, and an unmoderated chatroom which resulted in several trolls regularly spouting offensive messages during the livestream. The content and the overall experience were lambasted by fans and critics, with many saying that the project is doomed already.
What’s in the Silent Hill Ascension Season Pass?
The Silent Hill Ascension Season Pass features in-game cosmetics, puzzles, emojis, stickers, and “Influence Points.”
The season pass includes a plethora of cosmetic items and other ways to spice up chat interactions. This included a variety of stickers that could pop up on-screen during key moments, potentially breaking any immersion the viewer had. One rainbow-patterned “It’s Trauma!” sticker has been cited by many as particularly galling, with both its design and nature being antithetical to the psychological horror franchise.
Some puzzles in the app are also gated behind the season pass paywall. However, the most thoroughly hated of the season pass offerings were Influence Points.
A core mechanic of the series is players getting to vote over what decisions characters make. However, some viewers can spend Influence Points to sway the game’s narrative towards their choice. This effectively makes Silent Hill Ascension a “pay-to-win” show, communicating to viewers that the best way to help someone overcome personal trauma is through microtransactions.
Silent Hill Ascension is part of a larger revival of the classic series by publisher Konami that is set to include multiple remakes of past games. Silent Hill Ascension is still ongoing, but it will need to rebound in a big way in order to keep fans aboard.
