Is there something left that Silent Hill can provide us? Final yr, I felt the reply to that query was a powerful no. The sequence’ comeback recreation The Brief Message, a brief teaser of a horror expertise, landed far, distant from my tastes, and final yr’s Silent Hill 2 was a remake of a recreation that wanted one maybe lower than another. This yr is totally different although, as a result of it has a real, full-sized, and most significantly new entry to deliver this query again to the forefront. And Silent Hill f is a recreation that has, annoyingly, put me in my place.
The sport’s series-first setting, Nineteen Sixties Japan, feels fairly effectively positioned to take care of some fairly large themes exterior of the same old guilt and grief – specifically, gender inequality. Going into it, that is most likely what made me essentially the most nervous. Having now performed it, that anxious feeling has quietened, as I believe what it does need to say is partly value saying within the first place, but additionally value participating with – even when I’ve some caveats. An intriguing flip of occasions for Silent Hill revival sceptics like myself.
Silent Hill f begins us off with teen lady protagonist Shimizu Hinako bailing on an argument together with her alcoholic, abusive father to go see some pals, together with Shu, her male (that is necessary) finest mate. That traditional fog begins to roll in quickly after her arrival, one other good friend turns into flowers, and a monster provides chase, sending the remaining lot of them right into a surreal, twisted model of the place they name house. Similar shit, totally different nation.
Instantly, I felt shocked by the way it did all really feel like ‘a Silent Hill recreation’. For one factor, Hinako is launched with treasured little context for her life and backstory: she’s simply thrust into the mess of all of it and compelled to take care of no matter trauma she’s been maintaining bottled up. It is a related trick to the one Silent Hill 2 pulls early on, withholding particulars on why James has come to city, and Silent Hill f is definitely profitable at spinning the intrigue on who Hinako is and why she’s on this place herself.
Its extra necessary accomplishment, although, was having me Scooby-Doo-style spinning my legs within the air in an try to run away in terror. SHf’s monsters, beasties, and bodily manifestations of [insert interpretations here] had been actually horrid to have a look at, and worse to have snarling up in your face. A few of them transfer erratically, which makes their violent lunges more durable to foretell, and whereas larger enemies are slower and extra lumbering, they nonetheless transfer with an domineering sense of risk. All of which makes the extra Souls-influenced melee fight fascinating, if nonetheless more likely to show divisive.
{Hardware} ed James, for one, wasn’t the most important fan when he performed at Gamescom final month. I do not know if any tweaks had been made since then to tighten up the bludgeoning, however I had no issues with it myself. Lacking a swing typically felt like my fault, the influence of metal pipes and axes all the time landed with a satisfying thunk, and nothing – be it my arsenal or the fog’s monsters – felt imbalanced for an action-horror journey.
It is simply.. it’s fairly actiony. You’ve got a stamina meter, which depletes with weapon swipes in addition to dodges, although good dodges will restore that stamina whereas slowing down time. Mixed with a parry-ish transfer that stops enemies of their tracks so you’ll be able to launch right into a counterattack, the combating is never unhealthy, but it surely by no means feels very Silent Hilly (Shilly?).
This is not the Resident Evil 4ification of Silent Hill both, to be clear. Hinako would not do any sick flips, and never as soon as does she parry a chainsaw. I might even say I loved the fight as a rule. However nonetheless, I am undecided at house it feels inside a world like Silent Hill’s, particularly contemplating Hinako is a teenage lady with no obvious fight coaching. It is one thing I ended up justifying in my very own head: Hinako is sort of an indignant teenage lady, as many are and needs to be – the world is just not identified for being type to that individual demographic traditionally – so why should not she get to exert a few of that rage?
Because it occurs, the reasoning behind Hinako’s rage is one thing that Silent Hill f manages to discover with each zero subtlety and a surprisingly quantity of nuance, whether or not it’s specializing in Hinako herself or exploring why her dad is such an abusive drunk. In the end, Silent Hill f isn’t about dash-dodging round yokai: it’s about expectations of gender.
See, there are two different issues to find out about Hinako. The primary is that she has an older sister, Junko, whose youthful kindness and playfulness light away as soon as she received married – not that it damage her place as their mother and father’ favorite daughter. The opposite is that Hinako is seen as fairly masculine by her family and friends. She’s a bit tough and tumble; she would not look after dolls, however she does like taking part in House Wars together with her platonic “companion” Shu.
Now, I am not saying that within the yr of 2025 we’re completely free to specific concepts round gender as and the way we like, but it surely definitely was a rattling sight worse within the sixties, and Silent Hill f would not draw back from that. It is instantly obvious that there is an expectation positioned upon Hinako that she should match into society and, identical to her sister, finally discover a man to quiet down with – notions she wholly rejects. Shu’s simply her companion, folks.
Even so, they’re notions she will be able to’t appear to flee, even when she’s repeatedly plucked from the ‘actual’ world to a different, extra mystical one, as this can be a realm the place custom reigns supreme. There are torii gates. There are previous lanterns. There are Zen gardens and Shinto temples. At my most cynical, that is the place Silent Hill f’s presentation of its new setting appears to teeter on the sting of Factor, Japan just a little too precariously. It is not with out objective, nevertheless. The trials that Hinako endures right here definitely really feel tantamount to being compelled to suit into society, and it is one thing that I believe that may even ring a bell with gender non-conforming of us on the market.
I do not need to spoil an excessive amount of of what textually occurs, as a result of Silent Hill has all the time been its finest if you’re decoding its themes for your self. Likewise, it is exhausting to look at the results of author Ryukishi07’s signature method to construction with out giving an excessive amount of away, even when it is executed splendidly. However for me, it is a recreation about determining who you might be when the folks near you (and society at giant) have such slim expectations for you. There’s even an eyebrow to be raised right here at Hinako’s mom, a parental determine you’d assume, or hope, can be extra protecting than she is proven to be in such a world. Nuance! All of this can be a highly effective factor to really feel and expertise in a recreation, and a recent one for Silent Hill particularly.
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I nonetheless maintain sophisticated emotions on Silent Hill f. There is a large a part of me that wished to withstand it, merely due to the trade’s present overreliance on wringing out (and recycling) present sequence. And but right here I’m, always interested by it, what it is saying, coping with how I have been confronted with messy feelings and upsetting realisations. It’s, actually, fascinating, and video games being fascinating is extra necessary to me than how they fall on a easy good/unhealthy scale.
So sure, Silent Hill does nonetheless has one thing to supply, and proper now I am unable to cease interested by the sport that gives it. Or speaking about it! I am excited for my companion, a fellow Silent Hill lover, to play it, so I can dig into its themes with them. After which seize my good friend, who’s solely simply received into the sequence, and do the identical with them.
There’s nothing I really like extra in life than a bit of artwork that triggers a want for dialogue, and within the face of my very own assumptions, Silent Hill f has achieved that for me. Its fight, its new setting, and even its material won’t try this for you, however the backside line is, it seems that even in any case these years, Silent Hill can nonetheless strike up an thrilling dialog.
