Like the shadows that lurk in the dense fog, Silent Hill f sort of snuck up on the gaming world. The enticing Silent Hill 2 remake seemed to cast a large shadow over a new, intriguing entry in Konami’s psychological horror franchise. Perhaps it was the change of scenery, the penmanship of Higurashi author Ryukishi07, or the fact that we were getting a brand new Silent Hill game (not remake/remaster) in over a decade that piqued my interest. Silent Hill f honours the legacy of the series while boldly proving that the eponymous town might not be the core ingredient to making a Silent Hill game that’s every bit as delicately crafted as Team Silent’s legendary titles.



Silent Hill f attempts to create some distance from the titular town, setting itself in 1960s rural Japan in the small town of Ebisugaoka. Hinako Shimizu is a high school student struggling to come to terms with her turbulent personal life; growing resentment towards her parents, an abusive father, and an older sister who is getting married and moving away. One day, the town is blanketed in a familiar fog as strange creatures begin to torment and close in on Hinako, leading her deeper into her own personal hell.



Before Silent Hill f, I was curious to see how the series would create a compelling game that still feels like Silent Hill without the American town’s iconic setting. Sure, you could’ve said the same thing about Silent Hill 4: The Room, but even that eventually tied back to the town. Silent Hill f bravely detaches itself from its usual setting in favour of a new time period and location, but the core pillars of the franchise – its psychological scares, careful treatment of mental anguish, and strong character-focused storytelling – are all present here and firing on all cylinders.

The best games in the franchise have always done a great job at exploring both the internal and external turmoil of its characters, and how those threaten to overlap with its horrifying manifestations and abstract terrors.

Hinako Shimizu is one of the most interesting protagonists that the franchise has seen so far. She’s initially a deeply sympathetic character who is going through hellish ordeals, both at home and in the nightmare-infested streets of Ebisugaoka. The best games in the franchise have always done a great job at exploring both the internal and external turmoil of its characters, and how those threaten to overlap with its horrifying manifestations and abstract terrors. Hinako’s situation is unique in that her story and character arc is built around the real struggles that women faced in 1960s Japan – a society where women were confined to roles against their will, thrown into arranged marriages, and undermined by dominant male figures. Silent Hill f explores these intricacies exceptionally well, tackling its subject matter with a surprising level of maturity and emotional depth rarely seen in video games.



This can mostly be attributed to Ryukishi07’s stellar writing. Similar to his Higurashi: When They Cry visual novels, Silent Hill f’s most compelling, and often alarming, narrative turns happen to drive the otherworldly suffering of its characters forward as they come to terms with their horrific situation and in the process, wrestle with their own personal dilemmas. The Silent Hill formula lends itself well to Ryukishi07’s style, and fans will definitely pick up on some familiar storytelling beats that hit with bloody impact – especially its devilish twist midway and a handful of endings that require multiple playthroughs to fully grasp and appreciate.

The town of Ebisugaoka is not a replacement for Silent Hill, but it's every bit as twisted and frightening to explore. Lifting its architecture, rural landscapes and historic shrines from 1960s Japan, it gives Silent Hill f a distinct identity - one that, as much as we love the famous spooky US town, began wearing off its charm as the series went on. With the new setting, NeoBards Entertainment is able to break free and experiment with locations fitting of the time. Thanks to the Eastern aesthetic, it's decidedly more culturally rooted in Japanese horror like Ju-On: The Grudge, House or Ringu, throwing back to the cinema that inspired its look, tone and even its slow-creeping scares.



Silent Hill f captures the essence of the franchise through its story and characters, but it also delivers an unnerving experience thanks to its signature fog and grotesque, well-designed horrors that roam its depths. Hinako must navigate the labyrinthine layout of both worlds while solving puzzles, exploring the town’s decrepit morphed state, and occasionally stumbling into encounters with its creatures. On that note, the puzzles (and not-so-obvious solutions) are definitely head-scratchers, sometimes bordering on frustrating. It’s a nice throwback to the early days of the franchise when the puzzles were equally as obtuse and confusing, but some of Silent Hill f’s conundrums require degrees of mental gymnastics to solve. There are settings to tone the difficulty of the puzzles down, but if you aren’t paying close attention, you could still very easily get lost as you figure things out.

Thanks to the Eastern aesthetic, it's decidedly more culturally rooted in Japanese horror like Ju-On: The Grudge, House or Ringu.

The combat in Silent Hill f has been described as clunky or sluggish. Admittedly, I felt this way in the game’s first half. Hinako, being a teenage girl, naturally swings heavier weapons like sledgehammers or large pipes very slowly, adding an ounce of realism to the flow of the action. It finally clicked once I figured out Hinako’s limitations and timing. On top of that, you also have a stamina bar to manage (I promise you, it’s not a Soulslike) and a madness metre that gradually fills up the more you’re engaged in combat, making it easier for other enemies to close in on you. It’s a careful balancing act that works, but it’s not going to cater to everybody’s taste.



Silent Hill f also introduces parrying, which is a refreshing mechanic that quickly becomes the key to your survival in some of its tougher fights. It’s not as intuitive as something like Sekiro or the recently released Ghost of Yotei, but parrying and deflecting feels great and there’s a satisfying crunch to pulling off a well-timed counter before dealing a punishing blow. Silent Hill f’s slower-paced combat eventually sinks its claws into you, encouraging a high risk, high reward playstyle that’s crucial to the survival horror experience while also making you feel powerless, but in a very good way.

Silent Hill f’s slower-paced combat eventually sinks its claws into you, encouraging a high risk, high reward playstyle.

Silent Hill f is a well-orchestrated carnival ride of scares, bringing back the crushing atmospheric tension and grimy world design of past games – particularly Silent Hill 3 - while emphasising its distorted, almost unsettling natural beauty. Developer NeoBards Entertainment delivers incredible art direction with its vivid, haunting imagery, dreary landscapes coated in blood-red fauna and tendrils, and highly immersive, off-kilter sound design that adds to its nightmarish, unnatural allure. It’s arguably the most impressive Silent Hill game presentation-wise that I’ve played to date; save for character models and animations that can look a tad bit wonky at times.



I reviewed Silent Hill f on PS5 Pro and for the most part, it’s a gorgeously polished package that looks and runs well on Sony’s high-end hardware. I did stumble into a few instances of frame rate dips – one mishap in particular completely froze the game, requiring a reboot – but I rarely ran into many noteworthy graphical hiccups or performance problems in the roughly 10 hours it took to finish my first playthrough. I can’t speak for the game’s PC version, which apparently has some performance issues in dire need of addressing that Konami hopefully remedies quickly.

Silent Hill f is not a perfect game, but it’s easily one of the franchise’s best entries in recent memory, not counting remakes. NeoBards Entertainment and Ryukishi07 have delivered a refreshingly different kind of Silent Hill experience that absolutely nails its strong character-driven horror, white knuckle suspense, and mature, topical storytelling that should please long-time fans of the series while serving as a good entry point into it as well. Silent Hill f now casts its own shadow over the survival horror genre.

PS5 Review code provided by Konami | Silent Hill f is available to purchase at Nexus Hub