Reviewer Dani can’t cease desirous about Silent Hill f. Regardless of its nice attraction, she will’t forgive the sport for just a few main flaws. And these might additionally bitterly disappoint different Silent Hill followers.
With each hour I spend testing Silent Hill f, the long-awaited survival horror sport divides me an increasing number of into two elements.
One half of me is in love with the improbable setting, the nice staging, and the beautiful soundscape. I can’t cease desirous about the sport and am already planning my third playthrough.
The opposite half of me is disenchanted as a result of Silent Hill f leaves plenty of potential untapped, makes uninteresting design selections, and commits two main errors that I simply can’t recover from.
Silent Hill f sends me on a wild curler coaster trip that leaves my feelings in a sweat-inducing tangle. So the reply to the query you’re all dying to know is far more difficult than you may suppose: “Is it an excellent Silent Hill sport?” Let me take you on a sensory journey so you’ll be able to piece collectively the reply for your self.
A feast for the eyes with just a few minor drawbacks
For the primary time, the 26-year-old collection turns its again on the small US city of Silent Hill and takes me to Japan as an alternative. And the builders get rather a lot out of the brand new setting.
Silent Hill f is a good looking sport that mixes horror and sweetness to create a classy mix that feels otherworldly, dreamlike, and eerie suddenly.
After schoolgirl Hinako argues along with her father and flees to her mates, the village of Ebisugaoka is engulfed in thick fog and overrun by monsters. I sneak via the slender alleys of the village, remedy puzzles in a foggy rice area, search refuge in an deserted faculty, and repeatedly get up in an alternate dream world.
Silent Hill f presents me with many alternative settings – typically I’m in buildings, typically within the open air, however the sport stays linear all through.Right here and there, I can discover just a few non-compulsory areas – however Ebisugaoka is in no way a labyrinth through which I might get misplaced.
When the fog descends on the attractive Japanese village, I instantly really feel like I’m again in Silent Hill. When stunning, shiny purple flowers unfold like an unstoppable plague and progressively take over the village, I can’t assist however marvel at their magnificence and splendor. The horror on this small Japanese city is just not at all times apparent and typically hides within the surreal magnificence and small particulars that remodel a traditional atmosphere into a wierd twilight world. This uncommon mixture captivates me from the very first second.
The one slight damper on my enthusiasm is the know-how: even on our high-end check system with an RTX 5080 and AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, there have been minor stutters all through the sport throughout exploration, fight, and cutscenes, which detract from the general impression. For that reason, I’m deducting one level from the ranking for efficiency.
Not a simple digestible meal – with a particularly bitter aftertaste
I don’t need to reveal any particulars concerning the story, as a result of piecing it collectively is a elementary a part of the Silent Hill f gaming expertise. It’s primarily about Hinako, who’s torn between her mother and father’ expectations and her personal needs when a wierd fog descends on town.
Silent Hill f throws me straight into an online of mysteries, psychological photographs, and cryptic snippets of knowledge, and I’m comfortable to get caught up in it. It offers with Japanese tradition and the picture of girls within the Nineteen Sixties. It’s about household expectations and obligations. Bullying in school and friendships. Faith and in style beliefs.
The wildest theories are already dancing round in my head. I start to distrust Hinako’s mates, weighing their each phrase. Silent Hill progressively throws me into even deeper abysses that make my jaw drop.
At its greatest, this horror sport offers me goosebumps time and again. Disturbing conditions alternate with eerie staging that makes my abdomen tie itself in knots.
I’d love to attract a line underneath it right here and let you know that Silent Hill f will get all the things proper in its story…
… however then it makes two huge errors that put my love for the sport to the check. I gained’t reveal any particulars concerning the story, however I do want to speak about moments that might spoil the shock for you. So when you don’t need any details about the gameplay and the ending, skip the subsequent two sections within the spoiler field.
About halfway through the game, I witness an important change that raises many exciting questions from a story perspective and opens up the potential for numerous gameplay possibilities. To reinforce the metaphor, this change also spills over into the gameplay.
I think the idea of linking story and gameplay is great…
… but this endeavor fails completely due to the technical implementation. Within minutes, all the tension that Silent Hill f has built up so well up to this point is shattered. The game mechanics turn the horror game into a run-of-the-mill action orgy that doesn’t fit the tone of the game at all.
This could have been solved in a much more elegant and subtle way, which would have had a thousand times greater impact. As it is, it just feels like a huge foreign body that I can’t ignore until the end and which, for me, becomes a real turn-off.
2nd mistake: Take two!
Silent Hill f offers a total of five different endings. On the first playthrough, all players see the same finale. Only in New Game Plus are there opportunities to unlock the remaining endings. So far, so familiar.
On my second playthrough in New Game Plus, a significant part of the story actually changes. I get to see completely different dialogues and new or slightly modified cutscenes, and I can delve deeper into the story thanks to new documents.
Suddenly, I experience a completely new interpretation of events that change the story so much in places that the second run feels like a new game. New Game Plus cleverly intertwines with the first playthrough and motivates you to engage with the game even more…
…but it also leaves a bitter aftertaste.Because at this point, at the latest, it becomes clear to me: if you want to understand the story of Silent Hill f even a little bit, you have to finish the game at least twice.The first ending cannot stand on its own, feels unsatisfactory, and seems more like a teaser for NG+ than a complete story.
Silent Hill f raises so many different themes: family, friends, role models, folklore, illness, and so on. None of these are brought together or explained.
I’m not talking about having to fill in a few gaps here and there yourself, as in the Silent Hill 2 remake, for example. No, I miss the common thread, and it feels like I’m missing a huge chunk of the game. And I can only find it by playing through the game a second time.
A combat system to turn your nose up at
The new action-oriented combat system caused a lot of discussion in the run-up to the release. After two playthroughs, I can give you the all-clear: Silent Hill f is not a Souls-like game. The combat system has perfectly normal game mechanics with a few gimmicks that may be new to Silent Hill games, but have been seen a thousand times in other action games.
I attack with light or heavy attacks, dodge enemy attacks, parry at the right moment…
… I have to watch my stamina consumption and also keep an eye on my sanity when I activate focus mode. My special attack can stun enemies – a breather! – My melee weapons don’t last forever and I have to repair them, I can upgrade my stats, Omamori lucky charms give me small buffs, there are light and heavy weapons…
As you can see, Silent Hill f almost overwhelms me with tutorials on the combat and level system. It feels bloated and out of place – and it’s not even particularly well implemented.
There is hardly any hit feedback. Hinako takes strange breaks between all her actions, which drive me crazy. The hitboxes of the enemies are all over the place. Targeting only seems to work on odd calendar days.
And I’ve given up counting how many times I’ve smashed my baseball bat against a wall. The combat system and the narrow corridors just don’t mix.
The limited durability of the weapons adds neither tactical depth nor excitement to the game; it’s just annoying. At least on the first two difficulty levels, there are always enough weapons or repair kits lying around.
Speaking of difficulty: in story mode, which Konami recommends as the “classic Silent Hill experience,” the fights feel very easy, with a few exceptions. The bosses in particular go down faster than I can think “Pyramidhead.”
The “hard” mode, i.e., the second difficulty level, is more reminiscent of a normal difficulty level, as we know it from the Silent Hill 2 remake, for example. Here, however, the game becomes frustrating towards the end because the combat system remains fiddly and the ever-increasing waves of enemies make it a torture. The boss fights also drag on too long thanks to the excessive health bar. The perfect gaming experience would therefore lie somewhere between the two modes.
Goosebumps you can hear
If I haven’t scared you off yet, be sure to play Silent Hill f with headphones! Because the sound design is really – pardon my casual language – absolutely awesome!
Intense background music and oppressive silence alternate skillfully. As I sneak through the supposedly deserted corridors of the school, I flinch at the sound of stomping footsteps. I turn around in panic at the rustling of leaves in the forest. My stomach tightens when I hear a rumbling noise and don’t know where it’s coming from.
The highlight, however, are the magnificent pieces created by Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka. Traditional Japanese instruments and melodies meet dissonant tone sequences, distortions, and series-typical creaking that sounds like someone is playing on old building pipes.
Yamaoka creates an eerie cloud of sound that caresses my ears but at the same time sends a shiver down my spine. And above it all hangs a hypnotic melancholy that draws me deeper and deeper into this unique atmosphere.
…
What? No objections at all?
Nope. The soundscape is top notch. We absolutely agree on that…
…
Can I play it in German?
Silent Hill f has English and Japanese voiceovers. Both are good, but I highly recommend the Japanese one because it sounds and feels a lot more authentic.Of course, you can select a German translation and have all the text and subtitles displayed in German. There is no German voice acting.
So does it all feel like Silent Hill or not?
Yes…
No.
Now let me finish!
In its best moments, yes.
Silent Hill f does a lot of things right. The masterful interplay of sound, visuals, and staging is dripping with Silent Hill flair. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up when the camera plays with perspective in cutscenes and reveals things happening behind Hinako’s back. When Hinako’s friends suddenly say strange things during a normal conversation.
The horror game knows how to throw out a mystery to capture me as a player and keep me hooked.
But then there are all those moments that snap me out of this trance. The clunky combat system puts the focus on action, which in the long run distracts too much from the horror and the initial tension. Especially towards the end, Silent Hill f no longer feels like survival horror.
And then there are the two design decisions I mentioned earlier that I just can’t forgive the game for. Even the story, which is actually quite exciting, culminates in endings that reach the level of kitschiness of a “ride into the sunset” and unfold in a way that I would not have expected from a Silent Hill game. Many of the resolutions are so clumsy that they leave me disappointed. The build-up to the mystery is so much stronger than the actual explanation behind it – and I wish I hadn’t read some of the diaries and was still in the dark.
The rancid and rusty otherworld from the previous games made me feel very uncomfortable and gave me the feeling that I would catch an infection if I looked at the oxidized steel walls one too many times. In comparison, the alternative world in Silent Hill f seems very sterile and leaves me missing that certain something.
“So is Silent Hill f a good Silent Hill?” By now, you should realize how difficult it is to answer this question. The horror game is a classic case of “It’s great, but…”
For every positive and outstanding experience I had…
… is followed by something that bothers me, ruins the mood, or makes me feel like I’m being taken for a ride as a player.
Despite everything, I had a good time with the survival horror game and will definitely give it a third try to delve deeper into the story and its secrets. Silent Hill f is a good horror game with lots of great ideas, terrific sound, and fantastic staging, …
… but in the end, it still can’t keep up with its exceptional predecessors because it puts too many obstacles in its own way.
Editor’s conclusion
Silent Hill f doesn’t have it easy. It’s the first main game in the series in 13 years. The first main game in the series since Kojima’s infamous P.T. was scrapped. For the first time, the series is set in Japan. The pressure on the developers and the expectations of the fans are enormous.
When colleagues asked me in recent days what I thought of Silent Hill f, my right eye started to twitch. Because I simply can’t sum up this gaming experience in two sentences. The horror game makes so many mistakes. It takes paths that simply don’t suit my taste or disappoint me. The longer I think about it, the more faux pas and technical errors I notice. And yet it still affects me. I just can’t get away from Silent Hill f. Normally, I play games through once and watch alternative endings on YouTube. But for the first time, I really want to unlock every ending myself and experience the changes in NG+.
Silent Hill f is not a classic Silent Hill experience. It doesn’t even come close to the best spin-offs in the series. But it’s a special experience that, in its best moments, feels like a return to the foggy US town. It may not go down in history as the best Silent Hill game, but it will definitely remain in my memory for a long time to come – despite its undeniable rough edges.
Rarely have I been so glad that I don’t have to give a game a score. Rarely in recent years has a game captivated and enthralled me so much, only to frustrate me to the max the next moment.
Silent Hill f has an incredibly exciting story, scores points with truly creative camera work, and arguably the best sound design I’ve heard in recent years.
But the game also suffers from a terrible combat system, uneven pacing, and questionable design decisions. Why is there no mention anywhere in the game of how important a second playthrough is? With such an important New Game Plus, there simply has to be a hint about it.
Despite all its problems, I keep coming back to it. This Silent Hill just won’t let me go. Because even though Silent Hill f is awful in its worst moments, it is masterful in its best.
