13 years after the 2 failures that killed the franchise for a era (the one-two punch of Downpour and E-book of Reminiscences), a brand new, conventional, and protected entry within the Silent Hill collection will need to have been a tantalising prospect for Konami. It’s simply obtained the fanbase again on board with a wonderful remake of Silent Hill 2, and solely a 12 months later, a recent entry might have kickstarted a totally new chapter within the mysterious city.
In actuality, the Japanese writer has finished the other.
Silent Hill F, from developer NeoBards Leisure, is something however standard. It strikes the IP away from the fictional Maine setting to Nineteen Sixties Japan, exterior expertise Ryukishi07 has written the story, and melee fight isn’t only a begrudging choice — it’s your complete level.
You’ll catch shades of basic Silent Hill in suits and begins, as franchise newcomer Hinako Shimizu works to flee her hometown, now engulfed in fog. Nonetheless, Silent Hill F walks its personal path. It is a ruthless and intense instalment within the saga that, whereas completely different, works properly general.
Turning again the clock 60 years, highschool scholar Hinako finds her house of Ebisugaoka consumed by fog, flowers, and monsters. She and a small group of mates attempt to discover a technique of escape, however now reduce off from the remainder of the world, they’re compelled to look inside.
Greater than half the sport is spent looking for these solutions. As Hinako survives the treks to her college, house, and wherever in between, household revelations turn out to be twisted within the seek for a getaway route, making the plot simply as private as it’s cryptic.
After which, on common events, Hinako faints.
Making up the remainder of the expertise are sequences set in a type of legendary realm, the place the principle character explores a shrine and its innards. Inside its partitions is the place the sport earns its content material warnings; these sections are significantly brutal, with ludicrously gory cutscenes and sudden twists. Because the story there develops, it offers a special type of gameplay expertise from the puzzle-solving and dangerous fight of the city.
Put collectively, 15 hours of playtime must be sufficient to roll credit on the title, which is concluded by a surprisingly abrupt ending… in your first playthrough. From the thoughts of Higurashi When They Cry author Ryukishi07, Silent Hill F is designed to be performed once more, with extra plot factors and endings to find. To finish further playthroughs could also be an excessive amount of of an ask for some, however these prepared to take a position will discover much more to be taught in New Recreation+. The primary credit roll is nearly like a tease, because the preliminary ending actually is sudden.
It stays intriguing as much as that time, nevertheless, complemented by gentle exploration, hard-hitting fight, and rare puzzles. When outdoor, you need to discover a path by the tight streets and lifeless ends of Ebisugaoka to succeed in the subsequent goal. It’s removed from an open world; there’s usually just one path that’ll lead you to the aim — however you possibly can nonetheless do a contact of exploring with aspect roads hiding objects, upgrades, and collectibles.
If you head inside, the title strikes nearer to a conventional Silent Hill expertise, but it surely’s nonetheless not fairly the identical factor. That’s due to the fight.
NeoBards Leisure has positioned all its concentrate on melee weapons, to the purpose the place there aren’t any weapons within the sport by any means. Your assaults are deliberate and have to be well-timed; in any other case, you’ll fall foul of both your stamina meter or the heavy harm each enemy offers. There’s additionally weapon degradation to handle, so typically, the best choice is to easily run away — the whole lot is working towards you.
Nonetheless, the fight feels weighty and satisfying while you do select to have interaction. It makes use of hitstop to wonderful impact, making the conflict of your sickles, kitchen knives, and hammers with enemy flesh impactful. There are gentle and heavy assaults, then a dodge transfer and a parry window to utilise.
Comparisons have been made to Darkish Souls within the lead-up to launch, besides that, in addition to the actual fact Silent Hill F is a troublesome sport that punishes careless play, it doesn’t actually play something like a FromSoftware basic.
Regardless of the heavy focus positioned on it throughout moment-to-moment gameplay, battling monsters lacks depth. You observe a easy routine of wailing on an enemy, then retreating after they assault, and going again in once more for just a few extra hits. It’s routine and primary, however nonetheless feels good within the second.
The one draw back is you’ll rapidly lose curiosity within the belongings you’re really combating. Exterior of the bosses, there are solely perhaps 4 completely different sorts of enemies in the entire sport, that are repeated advert nauseam. A few of their designs lean into the blossom taking on the city, whereas others are simply straight-up monstrosities. You’ll tire of seeing them only some hours in.
Fortunately, they often filter when fixing a puzzle. Ridiculous and marvelously complicated riddles and enigmas are a staple of the Silent Hill franchise, courting all the best way again to the PS1 days. There are simply sufficient in Silent Hill F to please returning followers.
The sport is much and away at its finest while you’re let free in a full setting the place the overwhelming majority of its doorways are locked and advised to unravel a number of puzzles without delay. As you discover the hallways and school rooms of Hinako’s college, or search a twisted model of her house, slowly placing the items collectively to progress is a rewarding feeling.
With pleasing fight sequences blended in between, Silent Hill F retains sufficient of its roots regardless of the brand new route the developer and Konami have taken. It nonetheless has all the stress and blood-curdling environment of a survival horror favorite; there’s only a completely different sort of fashion and tone to all of it. Assume extra Deadly Body and Forbidden Siren than any of the PS2 classics from Crew Silent.
It’s a continuation of the shape kick-started by Silent Hill 2 final 12 months, but it surely replicates the Bloober Crew remake in a single unlucky means: technical points. We performed on a PS5 Professional, which, in a devoted “Enhanced” mode that you simply’re locked into, incessantly hitches and pauses the motion for break up seconds at a time.
The body charge itself doesn’t appear affected, because it reliably maintains a 60 frames-per-second goal. Nonetheless, significantly throughout heavy fight sequences, the title consistently pauses for tenths of a second to the purpose of annoyance. It’s a flaw that’ll want fixing in post-launch updates.
