| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PC | 8.70 |
| Overall | 8.70 |
|
After years of being dormant the Silent Hill franchise is back in full force, Silent Hill 2 remake is a modern horror classic, and it’s follow up, the first all new game in the series in over a decade manages to be another great entry. Silent Hill f is the most unique mainline title in the series, leaving behind the titular town for a completely new setting, mid 20th century Japan. It also loses it’s combat identity forgoing guns for an all melee system that is more Souls like in nature. Despite it’s major changes the essence of Silent Hill remains, with a great story and unique sequences f manages to be one of the best horror games this gen. You play as Hinako, a supposedly teenage girl coming of age in a time when women were forced to be subservient and put into arranged marriages. While some will look at the setting and gameplay and say this game is only SH in name, I think the story and key elements in the game are as Silent Hill as it gets. This is Hinako’s twisted journey into her deepest fears, manifested into disgusting monstrosities and morphing the town into her personal hell; basically what Silent Hill does to all its protagonists. The subject matter covers a wide variety of topics mostly related to being a female in a male driven world. It is heavy on metaphor, on dream like scenarios and even loops that reveal new layers the more times you play. I don’t think the story is as good as SH2 but it’s intriguing and one of the better story lines of the genre. I think Hinako is a standout protagonist. Like most SH games there are multiple endings, you must play the game multiple times and perform specific side objectives to achieve the different endings. Unlike previous SH games the new game + doesn’t just add a few new items to find and a new ending, it also unravels the story in a different way and gives each ending it’s own unique final boss. I don’t think the advertised changes to the subsequent runs were as interesting as some reviews made it sound, 95% of the game is mostly the same, if you enjoy the game play it again. If you don't, the second run isn't going to change enough to change your mind. I see some people complain that the story shouldn’t be hidden behind multiple runs and endings, again this seems like a series staple, not sure why this one is being singled out. It is longer and more linear than most SH games which could make it annoying to do a full replay, but I found the experience to be fun so I played it a full second time on the hardest difficulty. Most of the split opinions on this game is going to come from the combat, not just to the big change in its style but how much of it there is. Gone is the RE style to manage your ammo for your firearms with a side of melee than SH has always been. Hinako has only melee weapons which can break after enough use, this serves as your weapon management though its never as deep as managing ammo in past games, especially SH2 remake. As you are about to break a weapon there is usually another coming up soon, or a toolkit which lets you repair the one you have. You can carry three at a time and more often I had too many weapons rather than about to run out of them. The focus is not on managing your weaponry, instead it’s on items that don’t just heal but sustain two new stats, stamina and sanity. Stamina is what you think it is, a classic Souls like stamina bar that gets drained with every swing and dodge. As you upgrade it, the amount of swings you have is rather generous. It seems to limit dodging more as I found myself stuck and taking a hit at the worst moments possible as I ran out of stamina as a big attack from a monster hits. There is an item that stops stamina draining for a good two minutes, an extremely valuable item during bosses and the more complicated battles. The other meter is the sanity meter and this serves as a sort of special attack bar. You can use sanity to charge of a special attack that stuns an enemy. As you charge using sanity the game goes into a slight slow down and lets you see counterable attacks much easier, normally they flash red but when focused the game will pause to give way more time to counter. If you are hit while using sanity you will lose a big chunk of it. Enemies also sap your sanity and if you run out you take extra health damage. Many items you get refill sanity, prevent it from being drained and one allows infinite charge of it for some time. Sanity is a big help in fights, the charge attack is extremely useful so I found managing it to be the most interesting of the three. So when you put it all together the combat actually works rather well. Enemies tend to have repeated attack patterns, they try to be odd with their animations to throw you off but ultimately it’s pretty easy to learn when they will attack and how to avoid them. One of the most useful strategies is to stay just out of range of the enemy and wait for them to flash red for a counter, easy to do with one or two enemies. The only time combat becomes tough is when the game starts to throw multiple enemies at you. This is where the combat suffers a bit because I think with gunplay these situations become much more dynamic, when you are stuck fighting one way the only option is to try to get all enemies in front of you and slowly beat them down dodging at the right time and using specials to stun. There are some really annoying enemies that stun, or are just huge with wide sweeping attacks. A later enemy creates baby sacs that explode into new enemies creating a whole host of problems, the late portions of the game love locking you into fights with them. There is a whole extra gameplay mechanic never shown that comes into play in the second half of the game that I think was a nice change of pace for the combat, I really enjoyed these segments. Bosses are the best in the series, they feel more at home in a souls game than a SH game and that is for the best. These bosses have great attack patterns that can be learned, they evolve during the fight, they require all the skills you would need in a souls like action game. I do wish they were not as spread out, you get one in the first two thirds of the game and then get like 3 in the last third. As I mentioned before, the different endings have unique final boss battles; these are very different from one another plus have amazing character designs. Silent Hill f starts off rather slow as you explore the fog filled town, though explore is a bit of a stretch. The levels are mostly a series of hallways with a few branching paths, this is not a large town to explore. Most sections are blocked, the game funneling you to the next objective. The atmosphere is creepy, the series staple fog and unsettling music is present at all times. Monsters lurk around every corner, there are a few good jump scares and tense moments in smaller spaces as you can be ambushed. Rather than have an otherworld that morphs the level around you, during times in the story Hinako is transported to this sort of mythical location that is all dark and filled with ancient Japanese style buildings. Here enemies don’t die when downed, at least at first, they will get up after a certain amount of time. Later on there is a location with blue light that if an enemy is killed there they stay dead. These locations have a heavier load of enemies and often has puzzles mixed with more elaborate maze-like levels, its also where the different unique mechanics are introduced. The game shifts back and forth between the fog world and the other world quite a few times, each time having a sort of level between switching to the next. Toward the midpoint the game hits its stride and the levels get very creative and hit all the right notes. Starting with a middle school which is something all SH fans be fond of. It is the first indoor location with multiple locked rooms, a bunch of puzzles and loads of enemies to deal with, the classic SH setup. After that every area keeps building in complexity and starts to play with new mechanics. The story gets more and more wild with some very brutal disgusting scenes playing out. My favorite section involves a house where you can travel through three different points in time, having to do so to find all the right items to escape. Sadly toward the end the game leaves the great level design behind and instead ends with a stream of chases and enemy gauntlets which are more frustrating than fun, well at least until the final boss which is always a great battle. Overall the game is paced very well during the majority of the game, it just starts and ends poorly compared to the rest of the game. I still think SH2 remake overall is more creative and consistent with its level design, and its a much scarier game, but f maintains a level of quality that many SH games don’t reach. SHf is a very beautiful game to look at, it looks as good if not better than SH2 remake. The town and its locations are very detailed. Enemy design and animations stand out; as do some of the more action oriented chases as red flowers take over the very ground you walk on. I do think they saved some money by reusing a lot of the assets from location to location. There are a lot of woods and shacks that feel repeted. The other world has no real background, it’s like a dark void and all the interiors are of old style Japanese homes and temples. They did the most with what they had, it is just not as visually varied as SH2. The music is very good and unsettling, making it sound like something from an old Japanese movie but distorted enough to still have that SH DNA. Voice work is ok when on english, it sounds like an anime, the Hinako actress handles the assignment well. I do think it fits more to just have it on Japanese voices and do subtitles. Silent Hill f is another shockingly great Silent Hill game from another surprising developer. When f hits it’s stride in the middle I was enjoying it nearly as much as the amazing SH2 remake and better than most classic SH games. The combat works, especially with boss battles because they leaned fully into the Souls like bosses. The story, combat, levels, puzzles and eerie situations are so well done, I had no issue playing it twice to see some other endings. I can see some not enjoying this game as much, I think the combat could turn off many, I think the way the story has to be replayed to get the whole picture will anger some too. To me I care mostly about level design and that feeling of desperation while exploring these levels and for most of the game I felt that. Konami is absolutely cooking with this series right now, I feel we might be seeing the golden age of Silent Hill. |
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Posted by Dvader Tue, 04 Nov 2025 05:06:19
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