It's intriguing to hear what you thought of Short Message as someone who's never played a Silent Hill game.
As for me, I've played a good chunk of the games, including Silent Hill 2. So my thoughts on Short Message are...I liked the monster design and a few of the effects, but that's it. The chase scenes wore out their welcome really quick, and the sheer lack of subtlety/subtext in the themes and story just made it an absolute SLOG to get through. It just repeatedly beat it over your head and constantly reminded you like it thinks you'd forget the moment it was just given to you.
The better Silent Hill games don't do that, they let you explore and discover the visible and underlying horrors.
They can be wonderful psychological slow burns that don't hold your hand or beat you over the head, which is the exact opposite of what Short Message was. I know it can be tricky doing a slow burn on a short game, but they could've absolutely pulled back on overly pounding the traumas/messages from the get-go and often.
All in all, I really didn't like it. I know the series hasn't really had a good game in a while, but Short Message instilled the wrong kind of dread, the series' future. And anything I see of the remake of Silent Hill 2 just makes me uneasy, as it looks like it could be taken in directions that will screw things up.