Review: Silent Hill F (PS5) – Brutal Survival Horror Walks a New Path

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After disappointing fans with two unsuccessful games over 13 years ago, Konami had a great opportunity with a new, classic Silent Hill title. With the recent success of the Silent Hill 2 remake, a brand new game could have revitalized the series and launched a new era for the iconic town.

In reality, the Japanese publisher has done the opposite.

The new Silent Hill F, developed by NeoBards Entertainment, is a major departure for the series. Instead of taking place in the familiar town of Maine, it’s set in 1960s Japan. The story was written by a guest author, Ryukishi07, and focuses heavily on close-quarters combat – it’s not just a fallback option, but the core gameplay mechanic.

Silent Hill F occasionally evokes the feel of classic Silent Hill games as new character Hinako Shimizu tries to escape her fog-covered hometown. However, this installment confidently forges its own identity, delivering a gripping and intense experience that ultimately succeeds.

Sixty years in the past, high schooler Hinako discovers her hometown of Ebisugaoka shrouded in fog, overrun with strange flowers, and haunted by monsters. Trapped and isolated from the outside world with a few friends, she must confront internal challenges as they search for a way to escape.

The game is largely focused on uncovering mysteries. As Hinako navigates her daily life – traveling to school, home, and other locations – she discovers secrets about her family, all while desperately trying to find a way to escape. This makes the story both deeply personal and shrouded in mystery.

And then, on regular occasions, Hinako faints.

The game also features sections set in a fantastical, mythical world where the player explores a shrine. These areas are quite disturbing and contain extremely violent scenes and shocking moments, earning the game its mature content warnings. This part of the story offers a different style of gameplay, distinct from the puzzle-solving and dangerous combat found in the town.

The game takes around 15 hours to finish on your first try, but the ending feels surprisingly short. It’s designed for multiple playthroughs, created by the writer of *Higurashi When They Cry*, Ryukishi07, with extra story details and different endings to unlock. While replaying might not appeal to everyone, dedicated players will uncover a much deeper story in New Game+. Consider the initial ending a prologue – it’s meant to entice you to continue playing.

The game keeps you engaged with a mix of gentle exploration, challenging fights, and the occasional puzzle. While you’re navigating the world, you’ll follow a fairly linear path through the narrow streets and alleyways of Ebisugaoka to reach each goal. It’s not a truly open world, but there are still opportunities to explore side streets and discover useful items, upgrades, and collectibles.

Once you’re indoors, the game starts to feel more like a classic Silent Hill, though it’s not a perfect match. The main difference lies in how the fighting works.

NeoBards Entertainment’s game completely focuses on close-combat weapons, with no guns included. Combat requires careful timing and strategy, as both your stamina and enemy attacks can quickly deplete your health. You also have to worry about your weapons breaking, meaning sometimes the smartest move is to avoid a fight altogether – the game constantly presents challenges to overcome.

Despite the challenges, fighting feels powerful and rewarding when you get into it. The game uses a brief pause after each hit – called hitstop – which makes attacks with weapons like sickles, knives, and hammers feel truly impactful. You can use light and heavy attacks, dodge to avoid damage, or parry to deflect enemy blows.

Before its release, people compared Silent Hill F to Dark Souls, but while it’s definitely a challenging game where mistakes are punished, the gameplay is actually quite different from those classic FromSoftware titles.

While the game constantly puts monster battles front and center, they aren’t very complex. You basically just attack an enemy repeatedly, step back when they strike, and then move in for more. It’s a simple cycle, but it can be satisfying while you’re playing.

The biggest problem is that the game becomes repetitive quickly, making it hard to stay engaged with the core conflict. Beyond the boss battles, there aren’t many different enemy types – only about four – and you’ll encounter them constantly. While some enemy designs fit the game’s theme of a town overtaken by blossoms, others are simply bizarre creatures. You’ll likely grow tired of fighting them after just a few hours of gameplay.

Fortunately, puzzles generally help clear the way forward. The Silent Hill series has always been known for its challenging and intricate riddles, starting with the original PlayStation game. Silent Hill F includes a good number of these puzzles to satisfy longtime players.

The game truly shines when you’re dropped into a detailed environment with lots of locked doors and challenged to solve several puzzles simultaneously. Exploring the halls and classrooms of Hinako’s school, or a distorted version of her house, and gradually figuring things out to move forward is incredibly satisfying.

As a long-time fan, I was really relieved to find that Silent Hill F still *feels* like Silent Hill, even though the developers are clearly trying something new. The combat is actually pretty good, and it definitely keeps that tense, scary atmosphere we all love. But honestly, it’s not quite the same as the older games – it’s leaning more into the style of titles like Fatal Frame and Forbidden Siren. It’s a different vibe, but it still has that core horror that keeps you on edge.

This game builds on the style of Silent Hill 2, but unfortunately shares a problem with the Bloober Team remake: technical glitches. Even on a PS5 Pro, using its special “Enhanced” mode, we experienced frequent, brief pauses and slowdowns during gameplay.

Honestly, the game runs at a solid 60 frames per second, which is great. But, and it’s a pretty big ‘but’, it keeps stuttering – just for a split second here and there – especially when a lot is happening on screen during fights. It’s super noticeable and really takes you out of the moment. Hopefully, the developers can patch this out after release, because it’s pretty annoying right now.

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2025-09-22 10:08