Review – Silent Hill f

Konami got it! We have a new Silent Hill made of the way Team Silent made in PlayStation 1 and 2 times. That is, with an impeccable setting, an impactful story of psychological terror, creative enemies, and a fearful journey for players to suffocate. Forget the Western attempts… Silent Hill F is the maximum proof that franchise games should be produced exclusively by the Orientals.

It is undeniable that Konami made a good choice selecting the to take over the production. Although little known here in the West, the Chinese developer has collaborated in productions from Capcom and Square Enix in recent years, such as. The studio is a format by industry veterans and this is evident as Silent Hill F, which definitely came to revitalize the series.

Recovering the essence of Japanese horror

The story of Silent Hill F, set in the rural city of Ebisugaoka in the 1960s, tells about the anguish of young Shimizu Hinako. While living a quiet routine, she needs to deal with family problems and personal trauma. Fighting with her parents, Hinako leaves home to meet her friends from school. On the way, she discovers that the residents disappeared and a fog has dominated everything. And so begins his journey, filled with introspective horrors and discoveries.

This is the first Silent Hill set in Japan, which in itself is quite special. Ebisugaoka, a city surrounded by mountains and nature, is beautiful and promotes many moments of admiration even when dominated by melancholy brought by the mist. An attractive and equally dangerous beauty, ensuring continuous apprehension of the player during exploration.

When starting the game, the option of difficulty and puzzles is offered separately. I strongly recommend choosing “difficult” both to have the full experience. The option “Lost in the mist” brings the highest difficulty of the game, which I only indicate to anyone playing again after completing the story for the first time, because enemies are relentless and puzzles are much more complex.

Silent Hill F promotes an extraordinary experience, whose history – very well written by – makes him ask what is real and what is not. What happened to the residents of Ebisugaoka? Why do Hinako’s friends act a strange way? What happened to the older sister, Junko, who left to get married? Thanks to the notes found and added in the diary, the player can understand a little more of each character, each location, each monster, etc. The Japanese culture is also very well explored here, with explanations of local traditions and the worship of Inari-sama (Japanese Kami of foxes).

Traditional gameplay, but with news

Gameplay follows the basics of classic games, but offers some new things: Hinako has a stamina bar and a sanity, which allows to focus on the enemy. By filling the focus bar, you shoot a stronger blow, but lose health in the process. If the sanity bar clears, you start to lose life slowly. To maintain sanity, the protagonist needs to take painkillers or calm her mind in the Hokora, a miniature Shinto shrine used in the game to save progress, offer items found in exchange for faith and draw Omamori (spending points of faith).

Omamori are Japanese amulets that give passive improvements, very useful for various situations (such as needing more vigor to face combat), and it is important to switch among the amulets available in the inventory. You will find some Omamori on exploration and you can get it in Hokora when you draw. The items that give faith are informed in the inventory if you prefer to offer them instead of consuming them. Some give a lot of faith points, such as dried carcasses and Kudzu tea. You also find important items to increase the inventory’s ability and make the protagonist’s upgrades (increasing life, health, vigor and spaces to use omamori).

For combat, Hinako can carry up to three white weapons, such as sickle, steel pipe, knife, ax, etc. Speed ​​and damage varies between them, and the largest allows them to carry the attack. When using them, these weapons are losing durability, which can only be repaired using a tool kit (item with single use). When facing enemies you need to learn the patterns of attacks, both for dodging and counterattacking, and yet you can be surprised. When they appear in quantity, the broth thickens a lot and fleeing it becomes a good option. Especially because defeated enemies do not give reward. It is merely a case of survival or necessity to open passage.

In general the combat is simple, but it works very well and is satisfactory. There is only nothing soulslike as they said on the internet. And surprisingly, such a combat evolves a bit later on the campaign. However, not to give spoilers, I will not comment on what happens…

Beauty in Terror

Silent Hill F is an extremely beautiful game. The city, inspired by the Showa period, was very well designed to create the setting that is expected of a Survival horror, with detailed scenarios and a sense of strange and tension with each new explored area. Such a world shares space with the dark sanctuary, where Hinako goes to his nightmares, representing the “Otherworld” of this new title. The game intersperses the realities to evolve its story, always at the right pace and surprising the player.

It is really interesting to see an ordinary city being corrupted gradually by a rug of red flowers and purple and purulent organic matter. And, as usual in the franchise, everything has a meaning, a symbology behind the manifestations. Fortunately nothing is presented for nothing, without connection, just to be fright. Here the experience is really psychological, as every Silent Hill has to be. Uncomfortable and thought -provoking at the same time. And all this tension would not be the same if there was no participation of the legendary composer Akira Yamaoka, who signs most of the songs, along with Kensuke Inage – responsible for the shadowed sanctuary trails.

Silent Hill F runs very well on PC, version I tested for this review. The performance is impeccable even in the maximum settings. It doesn’t even look like a game produced at Unreal Engine 5, so smooth that it runs. And certainly the most surprising aspect in the game is in its lighting, which abuses the lumen. Just one important warning: all animated scenes run in 30 fps by artistic choice.

The campaign has a great duration of about 12 hours. This duration will depend on the difficulty you choose and especially the time you take to solve the puzzles. They are all very creative, although some of them are very cruel and make you trapped in progress. But that’s where the grace of the traditional horror survival lives. Completed the game, you will see the main end and will have access to the new game+, which opens areas previously closed to explore. You will also find new notes, complementing the story, as well as access the 4 extra finals (including UFO, of course).

As a fan of the franchise, I could not be happier. Silent Hill F is a masterpiece, an exemplary horror. A striking and special experience, those that will be in memory for a long time and will promote the discussion among players to interpret their meanings.