The Silent Hill franchise has been one of the most recognised horror games since its debut title in 1999 on the original PlayStation. Each game put more focus on the psychological side of horror, messing with players’ minds and making them experience genuine fear, but the well-written stories kept them coming back for more. Like many of Konami’s big titles, the Silent Hill series seemed to come to an end after Konami shifted its focus to mobile games and pachinko machines from 2015 onwards, which is also where Silent Hill ended up.

Thankfully, Konami has since gone back to making AAA games with their ports, remakes, and sequels of classic games to modern consoles with incredible success. The critically acclaimed Silent Hill 2 received a well-deserved remake in 2024 and was well-received by critics and fans, which led to a brand new game in the franchise. It has been 13 years since the last Silent Hill, as the highly anticipated Silent Hill f haunts its way onto PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

Silent Hill f is a standalone spinoff story set in 1960s Japan, putting players in the shoes of high school student, Hinako Shimizu. The story begins at Hinako’s home in the small town of Ebisugaoka, where she lives with a controlling, abusive, and alcoholic father, and a mother who doesn’t stick up for Hinako or herself. After another family quarrel, Hinako gets out of the house and walks into town to find her friends, who aren’t exactly great friends, but it’s better than being at home.

Soon, a mysterious fog engulfs Ebisugaoka, turning it into a nightmarish landscape filled with mysterious and grotesque monsters. Hinako manages to escape, and she must navigate the town and confront the horrifying manifestations of her own trauma to survive and find her friends.

Silent Hill is the name of the fictional American town where all the previous games are set, but the latest game takes the franchise to the fictional Japanese town of Ebisugaoka. Despite the new setting not reflecting the game’s title, it still has everything that makes it a Silent Hill game, and the new location in Japan provides a whole new mysterious world to explore. The game features various elements inspired by Japanese folklore to create a horror game that stands out from the rest.

Gameplay mixes exploration, puzzle solving, and combat to take on the horrifying beings that players will encounter. Every Silent Hill protagonist is just a regular person, which adds to the vulnerability that players must deal with throughout, and the same goes for Hinako, and being a high school student, she isn’t built for combat, but she must do what she can to survive.

This time, there are no guns to be found anywhere, but players will find various weapons such as baseball bats, steel pipes, sledgehammers, axes, knives, and more, which can only be used a limited number of times before breaking, and players must replace them with a new weapon. It makes sense that bladed weapons can dull over time, but weapons made of steel and used for bludgeoning should realistically last for the whole game, especially as the enemies are made of flesh and do no damage to steel. There are tool kits that help repair weapons, but this concept still lacks logic.

Putting logic aside, this forces players to be aware of their weapon use and choose their battles where possible. The combat can be intense, especially when fighting creatures that are hard to look at, but it’s one of the game’s weaknesses. Not only do players have to make the most out of their weapons, they also have to be mindful of the stamina meter, which drains when doing attacks and quicksteps to get out of danger. With Hinako being a regular schoolgirl, it makes sense that her fighting skills are sloppy and she gets tired easily, but this game sometimes makes the combat feel unfair.

If all your resources are exhausted, enemies can hack away at your life, leading to a game over, and the more this happens, the more frustrating it can get. Some enemies can do a lot of damage too, and will take advantage of the situation. A big fault is that you can still take damage while opening and closing a door, and the enemy keeps attacking you.

Even though Hinako doesn’t react, scream, or even flinch while casually getting moving into the next room, your health meter still depletes during these moments. It is possible to avoid certain battles altogether, and that’s usually the better option, as there are no rewards for killing enemies, and it helps your weapons last longer.

Hinako does gain new abilities and stronger weapons later on, which are more effective in combat, especially for the epic boss battles, but since they’re heavily story-based, we’ll let players discover them for themselves. Past Silent Hill games didn’t worry about a stamina meter, but still had more than enough to keep players on their toes, so hopefully this can be tweaked in the future.

What the game does best, however, is its dark and haunting storytelling. Hinako was already living a tough life at the beginning of the story, with a toxic home life and not-so-great friends. After the world changes around her, the game never forgets the story elements from the beginning, as her relationships with her parents and friends play into the story later. Hinako does see them again later in the game, but not in the way she would’ve wanted, and their voices can be heard throughout, haunting both her and the player.

This all plays into the psychological aspect of the game as it messes with your mind, making you hesitant to continue, but intrigues you enough to keep going and find out what happens next. The game will have you questioning your morals as you’re sometimes forced to make impossible decisions. In simple terms, this is a seriously f***** up game.

Hinako goes through the most changes throughout the game. She wears her school uniform from beginning to end, but it gets torn as the game progresses, and she gets various scars along the way, too. Her scars and torn uniform are permanent to show the absolute hell she goes through, adding a sense of realism and urgency.

Even with the game set in a different country, the game still has that signature Silent Hill feel, with players having to work their way through heavy fog and dark, creepy rooms. The fictional setting of a small Japanese town during the 1960s provides a refreshing take on the franchise. Graphics are of high quality, and the beginning of the game is a nice display of its graphics power, as you can admire the beautiful sights of a traditional Japanese town, the architecture, the mountains in the distance, and the interiors of each building before the fog changes everything.

Everything has so much detail, even the character designs, which keep things simple, but their animations are what give them plenty of personality. The talented voice cast all bring the characters to life in both Japanese and English, with the former feeling more natural to the game’s style and presentation.

To complement the dark atmospheric tone is the game’s soundtrack, and Akira Yamaoka returns once again as the composer. Akira has composed most of the games ’soundtracks since the original game in 1999, and even for the three film adaptations as well. Silent Hill games have always had that slow-paced, creepy, dark, and industrial vibe, creating an uneasy feeling while navigating through fog and dimly lit rooms. Silent Hill f’s soundtrack features similar tunes but mixes in some traditional Japanese instruments, perfectly fitting of a haunted Japanese small town.

There was a time when it seemed Konami’s best years were behind them, but over the past few years, they have proven they’re back in the game, and we hope to see them keep this momentum going. Silent Hill f is further proof of that with its dark, haunting theme and strong storytelling that will challenge your morals. Its combat may not be the best, but it more than makes up for it with everything else it has to offer. No matter the setting, Silent Hill f is a true Silent Hill game through and through, and it’s not for the faint of heart.

Written by: Sammy Hanson