Browsing: Silent

Silent Hill f from developer NeoBards Entertainment is a standalone spinoff and the latest in a strong recent surge from the iconic horror franchise.Â

Roughly one year ago, the Silent Hill 2 remake breathed new life into a 2001 PlayStation 2 classic to great effect.Â

Silent Hill f, on the other hand, hopes to become a classic in modern times while steering away from the typical Maine-like settings for something closer to its Japanese roots.Â

Along the way, it invites players to enter a creepy, uncomfortable setting and story that hopes to dominate the minds of those brave enough to partake.Â

As hinted, Silent Hill goes more traditional to the roots of the series by embracing a fictional 1960s Japanese town in mountainous areas as the setting.Â

It’s a harrowing place, too, complete with perfectly creepy ambient music and sound design laced throughout an experience that is top-of-the-line visually. Narrow alleys and cramped quarters within tin-roofed homes are offset by sweeping outside areas, little rivers and rows of crops.

The game goes overboard on immersion not just through gorgeous, spooky, fog-laden visuals, but through the over-the-shoulder camera perspective and lack of a video game UI at all. It’s the type of all-encompassing vibe that makes a player feel uncomfortable simply for walking through an area.

Not that there aren’t standard video game UI elements at all. The game’s map is a real highlight, as it diligently records things like locked doors that players encountered. When it wants to, Silent Hill f can do the video-game-systems-and-menus thing with the best of them.

Silent Hill f does surprise a little with its gun-free, robust melee combat system. Where some horror games choose to give players a limited number of options to defend themselves, this spinoff throws out some almost Soulslike mechanics.Â

Players must carefully manage a stamina meter when not fleeing the grotesque and horrifying enemies that populate the town.Â

Beyond simple quick and heavy attacks, perfect dodges just before an enemy attacks restore stamina, while the hard-to-time counters that flash on screen when possible reward players with massive damage output.

Adding to this are Sanity and Focus mechanics to juggle while scrapping along, attempting to survive, too.Â

Besides opening the window for counters just a little longer, focusing charges up a meter that can unleash a devastating attack on enemies. The risk-reward balance, though, is that getting attacked while focusing will reduce a player’s max sanity.Â

Notably, it would be nice if the melee combat was a little more weighty. There’s some shocking damage detail to enemies, but staggering them or feeling the force of blows behind exchanges seems few and far between, which in turn, seems a little odd and floaty.Â

Did anyone mention weapon durability? The pipes and other hastily cobbled together weaponry players will gather over time are repairable, but the items necessary to do so are scarce and demand they keep finding new weapons. It doesn’t really feel unfair, though.

Boss battles offer unique moments that players won’t forget and tend to be more experience-driven than creators of frustration.Â

There is a little clunky item usage at times, requiring players to pop into a menu to assign it a shortcut button. Then, hit a shoulder button, then one of the face buttons. In this type of genre, though, some might use the word charm, as opposed to clunky. Eye-of-the-beholder thing.

Inventory management restrains players from hoarding items for later, though the amount players can carry can be upgraded. Still, like durability’s goal of keeping things tense and not as video gamey, this often feels good, adding to the never-ending stress and necessary care needed to survive.Â

Players assume the role of Hinako Shimizu, a high school student who leaves a nasty home to meet some friends and before long, the whole town becomes a nightmare and she’s in survival mode.

Fictional Ebisugaoka, Japan, is a stunner of a location for the wicked balance between picturesque and grotesque. Not to dismiss past locales, but it’s pulled off so well within the narrative that it feels like the best-ever Silent Hill location.Â

Plenty of environmental storytelling gets a major boost from notes and items players can find out in the world. Not only that, Hinako has a notebook that chronicles events in interesting ways as players progress, which fleshes things out nicely, too.Â

It leans into video game tropes to make the player simply uncomfortable, too. The best and surely oft-cited example is an early occurrence of working to get a key to unlock a door, only for nothing to be in the unlocked room.Â

Silent Hill specializes in this atmospheric, something-isn’t-right horror, of course. There are physical threats, yes, but a creeping sense of unease has a tendency to draw out tension that forced jump scares can’t. That’s true here, to say the least.Â

Narratively, things do get weird. For all of its shock value at some of the twists and turns, though, the game so adamantly seems to stick with to its folklore, though, that it never feels cheap or unearned.Â

To top it all off, one can safely presume the series staple of multiple endings returns. The way the story drops and shifts on a dime and the bold ways it mixes things up, to keep it spoiler free, is straight-up fantastic.Â

Where Silent Hill f does get video game-like in a good way is overall progression. It lets players exchange currency at save points for stat boosts or items that offer bonuses. Players who are careful about resource management, then, can find themselves rewarded in a big way.Â

Collectibles scattered throughout the world encourage a little bit of exploration, though those brave enough to go off the beaten path in a setting like this really don’t need a whole lot of extra motivation.Â

Silent Hill f offers a “story mode” difficulty setting that lessens the impact of sanity reductions and makes it easier to heal. That’s one example of a quality list of options, including control schemes mixups. Overall, the game runs well, too.Â

Silent Hill f is a strange game in the sense that, frankly, the player shouldn’t be grinning while playing it, given the subject matter and happenings on screen.Â

But it’s a smile of appreciation because it’s so good.Â

A reminder to the industry that Silent Hill is a juggernaut in its space, this spinoff is an atmospheric, palm-sweaty romp that will remain near the top of its genre for a long time. Some of the Soulslike combat options feel a little almost out of place, at times, but it’s nitpicking at something sure to set the tone for its genre from here.Â

Beautiful, horrific and memorable, Silent Hill f accomplishes its goal of setting itself apart from the locales of its past while retaining the spirit of wonder, tension and unease that helped it stand out in the first place.

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