Silent Hill: Ascension is a streaming show with the frills of a multiplayer game


Silent Hill: Ascension has been billed not as a game but, rather, as an interactive streaming series. And now, ahead of the show’s premiere on Halloween night, we finally have some sense of what that means. Developer Genvid Entertainment has just released a new explainer video that, well, explains how Ascension will actually work.
Essentially, the experience sounds like a mix of choice-based games like Telltale’s The Walking Dead and “choose your own adventure” shows like Netflix’s Bandersnatch. (Notably, the team at Genvid consists of a number of ex-Telltale staff.) Each evening, part of the story streams live, and there are various ways that players can interact with the experience. The most basic are quick-time events — called “endurance streams” — where players work together to keep a character safe during a dangerous scenario.
The much bigger feature, though, are plot points where viewers make a choice that will influence the outcome of the story. There are different decisions each day, and Ascension features a novel system for how the story will land on specific outcomes. Instead of straight-up voting, players will use an in-game currency called “influence points” that can be spent to sway a decision. The more influence you use, the stronger your sway. Influence points can be earned by participating in various ways, including helping with those deadly QTEs and solving daily puzzles on the Ascension website.
You can watch the show like a typical streaming series — the daily streams will even be recut into weekly noninteractive episodes for those who just want the story — but it also has a handful of multiplayer elements. You can have chat running while you watch, for instance, along with all of the on-screen information about pending decisions. When all that is turned on, it looks a bit like watching a Twitch stream:
a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Image: Genvid Entertainment
You can even customize an avatar like in a multiplayer game, with the chance that it’ll have a cameo in an episode.
Since the streams will be happening live, the experience is being designed so that people can participate even if they’re in a time zone that makes a 9PM ET stream difficult to check out. There are recaps to help you catch up if you miss a day, and viewers will have at least 24 hours to participate in the big decisions before the final choice is made.
Basically, it seems like Ascension is trying to marry the stickiness of a live-service game with the storytelling of a streaming series. We’ll be able to find out soon how well that marriage will work: the first episode is streaming on October 31st at 9PM ET. You can watch for free via an app on iOS or Android as well as the series’ site. New episodes will be running daily, and the developer says the story will unfold over “months.”
Silent Hill: Ascension has been billed not as a game but, rather, as an interactive streaming series. And now, ahead of the show’s premiere on Halloween night, we finally have some sense of what that means. Developer Genvid Entertainment has just released a new explainer video that, well, explains how…
Recent Posts
- 10 Best Laptop Stands for Any Setup, Tested and Reviewed (2025)
- Apple designer Susan Kare made 32 new, Mac-inspired physical icons
- Netflix reportedly suffers huge Stranger Things season 5 leak as launch date, release schedule, and plot details emerge online for the popular show’s final chapter
- Vimeo CEO Philip Moyer is betting on the human touch — and AI
- US government warns this popular CMS software has a worrying security flaw
Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2018
- October 2017
- December 2011
- August 2010