How Silent Hill: Ascension, The Interactive Series Works

Interactive TV series are not exactly new in Hollywood, but this latest series could potentially blow your mind. Silent Hill: Ascension is an interactive multigame revival of the Silent Hill franchise. Here is everything you need to know about the plot, release date, streaming prices, and how the interactive series works.

What is Silent Hill: Ascension Really About?

Credit: Genvid Entertainment

Right on time for Halloween day comes Genvid Entertainment publishing the live series premiere for Silent Hill: Ascension: The Interactive Series.

Based on the popular supernatural horror franchise, this is the first time that a Silent Hill interactive 'game' series will be made available exclusively on Android and IOS devices.

The thing about Silent Hill: Ascension is that the storyline will be based on how multiple game players decide to vote on the fate of the characters and on the flow of the story itself.

Think of Netflix's Bandersnatch episode from the Black Mirror series, except, you, as a viewer, are also a player whose decision will affect the endgame of the series.

However, when speaking with Polygon, Genvid Entertainment CEO Jacob Navok debunked that Silent Hill: Ascension is beyond what Bandersnatch had introduced:

"We create interactive streaming shows, but they're not [Black Mirror] Bandersnatch. You're not just individually playing it as a live stream - we're actually using the same back end that Twitch operates on, and it's streaming live from a game engine [that] is accepting all of the inputs from the audience [all] at the same time. You're basically doing crowd-control decision making."

How Does Silent Hill: Ascension Work, Exactly?

On the premiere day for Silent Hill: Ascension: The Interactive Series, Konami and developer, Genvid Entertainment, released a little 'The Essentials' video, in which, as they described it, players "learn how this one-of-a-kind series works."

You can check out the video above to get the full view of the mechanics of the interactive game, but here's a little summary to help you out:

Multiplayer Decision-Making

Essentially, as Navok previously stated, the multiplayer game means that the ultimate decision will not only come from a single player but rather a global choice that would lead to the next episode's outcome.

Each day, players will be given an ample amount of time, 24 hours to be exact, to make their decision.

The timezone wouldn't matter as long as the players start up on the 9 PM ET stream to check out the choices.

And if they end up missing an episode, viewers can use the 24 hours to catch up on the recap and participate in making the big decisions before the next episode's outcome is released.

Watch It Like a Series, Play It Like a Game

Credit: Genvid Entertainment

That said, the interactive series feels like Black Mirror's Bandersnatch, but way better.

You can watch the story unfold, all the while unlocking the hidden features of the story and the game simultaneously. This includes playing puzzles to unlock and find out the deeper lore stories for readers to dig deeper into.

Not to mention, the user interface is a similar display to that of Twitch, where players can also interact with one another and see the overall results of how many viewers voted on which choice.

Silent Hill: Ascension Age Rating Guide: Is the Interactive Series Safe For Kids?

While Silent Hill: Ascension has not been officially given a rating yet, the horror game is not appropriate for children below 17 years old due to the gore and supernatural content the interactive series contains.

There are potentially mature scenes that might affect children upon viewing them, and with the game specifically just kickstarting on Halloween day, it would be best to keep an eye on your kids while each episode's premiere comes out.

Silent Hill: Ascension: When & Where Does the Interactive Series Start Streaming?

Credit: Genvid Entertainment

The aforementioned interactive series began streaming on October 31 this year at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT. Genvid Entertainment tells its players that the interactive series is available on the App Store, Google Play, and their main website, Ascension.com.

The Tuesday premiere episode is expected to run 45 minutes, with nightly episodes ranging around 5-15 minutes each.

Genvid plans on generating 45 minutes of content for the series on a weekly basis.

Back in a May 2023 interview with Polygon, Navok added that the interactive series will be "playing out for months":

"Every single day, there are new scenes. No day is the same as the previous. Starting week one, we're taking you into it like a television show. We're setting up characters, we’re setting up the locations, you’re going to learn a little bit about them. And then every day, at predetermined times, there are going to be new sequences and new action settings happening. So you’re there on day two, and day three, they are not the same. Day four, they are not the same. The story is unfolding, every single day, differently."

As of writing, there are no specific end dates yet for the series, considering that Konami is testing out the interactive game series and how it would play out with the audience.

In the meantime, the current schedule to expect new episodes to come in every single day starts at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT.

Is Silent Hill: Ascension: The Interactive Series For Free?

Credit: Genvid Entertainment

In the same interview, Navok clearly stated that Silent Hill: Ascension won't be a pay-to-win type of game.

This would allow fair game among viewers since the Influence Points have to be earned from playing the narrative scenes yourself.

However, Genvid is offering the season pass for $19.99 which grants six months' worth of content from the interactive game and would include the 16-week playthrough of the series.

This season pass is available as part of the Founder's Pack only up until November 14, which also allows you exclusive cosmetics to the characters to enhance your enjoyment of the series even more.

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