Silent Hill f isn’t some spin-off or experiment for Konami to indoctrinate its players into performing perfect dodges or counters—it’s the next step for the iconic horror series, which is finally dragging itself to new horizons.
| Silent Hill f – Key Details | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Action-adventure horror |
| Setting | 1960s Japan |
| Release Date | September 25, 2025 |
| Price | $69.99 / £69.99 |
| Developer | NeoBards Entertainment |
| Publisher | Konami |
| Reviewed On | RTX 3070, AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, 16GB RAM |
| Multiplayer | No |
| Steam Deck | TBC |
| Official Link | Silent Hill f on Steam |
Watching as the fog settled on Ebisugaoka, listening to the eerie sound design, and witnessing the emotionally tumultuous story, I felt the same pit in my stomach that I experienced back when I stumbled across the original Silent Hill as I searched for Cheryl. While this new installment may leave behind that old rural American town, it shares more than just a name with its predecessors.
Landed with a new protagonist, Shimizu Hinako is at a crossroads in her life. Just finished with school, she faces pressure from her parents to settle down and get married like her older sister. But she’s plagued by the fears of heading down a path that broke her mother and sent her sister off somewhere far away.
Fears of what has happened, but crucially what may come to pass, is what haunts Hinako’s journey through Silent Hill f. Her friends Shu, Rinko, and Sakuko, are also in similar uncertain positions. But what makes matters worse is that Hinako is forced to watch on as the people she thought she knew change and prove themselves to be strangers in front of her eyes.
But there’s more to our protagonist than just her friends and who she interacts with. James Sunderland undoubtedly has big shoes to fill, so it’s no small task taking on the mantle of Silent Hill protagonist, but Hinako does it effortlessly.
Her character is vulnerable, strong, stubborn, and caring throughout the game, making it not only easy to sympathise with her but also easy to like her and want to do right by her in any way you can. For me, that’s the secret for making a great horror game protagonist: someone I actually want to put effort into saving.
Riddle me this
Silent Hill f’s puzzles are just the right amount of challenging, and completing each one left me feeling satisfied and just that little bit smarter. There are three difficulty settings for puzzles and action: Story, Hard, and Lost in the Fog. When it came to puzzles, I decided to play on both Hard and Lost in the Fog, and while some definitely stopped me in my tracks, most were intuitive enough that I managed to piece the answers together after exploring a location and gathering all the clues.
This wasn’t just a great way to break up the action and horror; it was also reminiscent of what I’d come to expect from the franchise’s legacy. Solving odd riddles, piecing together research notes, or deciphering veiled insults from friends skillfully changes up the atmosphere, allowing for more relaxed moments. These puzzles also serve as a brilliant vessel for storytelling, sharing information about Hinako’s friends and family. Turns out you can learn a lot about someone via a well-crafted puzzle box.
I’m very happy NeoBards didn’t skip over this feature when making Silent Hill f, because it’s one of the most underrated parts that ties the whole experience together.
Location, Location, Location
The isolated setting and somewhat unusual inhabitants make Ebisugaoka the ideal place to carry on the themes and story of Silent Hill. Not only does the layout of the town make for some fantastic exploration as you wander around on your lonesome, squeezing through small gaps between houses and puzzling together new ways to traverse the many roadblocks which will complicate the map.
But there’s just something about walking through an almost entirely abandoned town which is so unmistakably Silent Hill. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but the feeling of being watched never goes away.
Then there’s the joy of finding all the hidden treasures, which are sprinkled throughout. I’m something of a magpie in that I have to meticulously sweep through every section of the map, picking up anything that catches my eye. It’s a trait that helped and hindered me during my playthrough as some items are better left untouched.
You can grasp the core of Silent Hill f‘s narrative by just watching the cutscenes, but you gain a wealth of information and nuance if you take the time to meticulously search the map, picking up all the documents, letters, and notes left by the vanished inhabitants.
Through these, I not only learnt more about the friends that Hinako keeps, but I also understood the town of Ebisugaoka and its history, traditions, and everyday happenings better. Taking your time to read about the traitorous origins of the town, the aversion to new kinds of medicine, its obsession and wariness of foxes and their relevance in folklore, adds so much more to the story. I can’t stress enough just how rewarding it is to explore parts of the map that seem irrelevant at first glance.
At one point, I stumbled upon my friend Sakuko’s family shrine. I didn’t need to go here, but the winding woodland path intrigued me enough with the potential promise of trinkets that I just had to follow it. I was met with more items, a note from Sakuko’s mother, a key to their family post box, and the most unearthly and uncanny glimpse of a dance I’d ever seen.
You can miss it if you don’t look into the shrine straight away, but behind the closed paper doors, you can see a faint flicker of light which will illuminate some strange figure who dances in traditional robes. I didn’t know at the time that this figure was someone I knew and would be one of the brutal encounters I’d face later on, but the realisation when I finally connected the dots made the moment all the more horrifying.
Pick your battles
Konami and NeoBards openly shared that Silent Hill f would tread new ground, incorporating more combat and action. This revelation initially caused concern among some veteran fans, fearing the game would abandon the essence of prior entries for broader appeal. While producer Motoi Okamoto clarified that increased action wouldn’t make it a soulslike, a degree of apprehension persisted.
The reality, however, lies in the middle. While Silent Hill f offers a more action-focused experience on difficulties like Hard or Lost in the Fog, it distinctly lacks the hallmarks of a soulslike, such as arduous boss run-backs or cryptic NPCs resorting to blunt force. It carves its own path, offering tailored combat experiences without conforming to another genre.
If you play on the easiest setting, Story Mode, which I did, combat is far from the core experience, even with the counter and dodge mechanics. During my first run-through, I fought everything I could see out of pure fear and panic. It wasn’t until halfway through that I realised I didn’t have to face up against every bloody mannequin or twisted version of Lickitung.
So, when I returned to Ebisugaoka for a second playthrough, I embraced a stealthier, more survival-oriented approach—running and hiding from monsters—a tactic I often favor in horror games, and it worked like a charm.
Enemies in Silent Hill f have quite short lines of sight even before I decided to use the clam charm, which made them even shorter, meaning turning a corner was almost always good enough to get them off my back. This turned my experience from one in which I was blindly swinging a pipe around to something slightly more thoughtful. I plotted out my route on the map, crept around corners, solved puzzles, and explored every inch of the map, all while going by undetected.
In doing this, I quickly got used to the dodge mechanic, which refills your stamina bar if you’re able to pull off a perfect dodge. Utilising this, a knowledge of the map, and some helpful charms, I managed to get through the story from start to finish without breaking any of my weapons, which you can fix with toolkits, pretty effortlessly.
Now there are moments when you can’t run away from a fight. Trust me, I tried. When in the shrine realm, you’ll be met with circumstances where you’ll need to clear out rooms of grunts to progress. While this can be annoying, your weapons in this space don’t break and enemies are easy enough to defeat so I usually came out of scraps with most of my health intact. It’s not really explained why your weapons don’t decay, but it’s helpful, so I won’t question it.
Hinako also receives a significant upgrade later in the game: an entirely new arm that functions as a formidable weapon. While this evolution aligns with her character’s journey, it somewhat diminishes the pervasive sense of horror, transforming me into a powerhouse eager to seek out engagements. Yet, the sheer enjoyment of wielding this new power meant any minor disruption to the horror wasn’t a significant detractor.
Then there are the larger monster encounters. I hesitate to call them ‘boss fights,’ as any adversary I can overcome by strategically weakening them with a spear doesn’t quite fit that classification in my book. This isn’t to imply these encounters are overly simple; rather, they didn’t demand the intense focus or challenge typically associated with boss battles, which aligns perfectly with my Story Mode experience.
These big fights are more about showcasing hauntingly beautiful monster designs, some incredible music, and work as an exposé as to what awful thoughts Hinako has locked away in the darkest parts of her mind.
Silent Hill f is a true return to form.
Silent Hill f is a game that not only stands proudly shoulder to shoulder with other goliaths in the series but is also brave enough to take risks and implement changes, setting the groundwork for what I hope will be the new standard for the franchise going forward.