Silent Hill f Review

Despite being a horror fan my entire life, I had never gotten into Silent Hill prior to the Silent Hill 2 Remake. I jumped right into it and absolutely loved it, playing through it numerous times and getting the platinum trophy pretty quickly. After the success of that game, I kept my eyes on the next Silent Hill title, Silent Hill f, a brand-new entry into the franchise that is set in Ebisugaoka, a fictional town in 1960s Japan. While the setting, atmosphere, and story are all top-notch, and at times better than Silent Hill 2's, the overall package did not have me coming back the way the previous game did.

You play as Hinako, an early teenage girl who very quickly shows her struggles at home and with her friends. Throughout the game, you explore themes of domestic violence, gender discrimination, emotional abuse/neglect, and trying to break through societal and cultural norms. This has been a point of contention for some people on the internet, but the game starts with a content warning going over these sensitive topics, and boy, does it earn that warning. I am not one who is typically affected by disturbing themes or content, but there were a few moments where even I was thinking, “Yeah, maybe that’s enough.” Not many other games have been able to pull that off.

The main way the game tackles Hinako’s internal struggle, between living up to the world's expectations for her and wanting to live her own life, is by switching back and forth between what we assume to be the “Real World” and a dark, mysterious “Other World.” In the Real World, you are mostly following or trying to find your two friends, Shu and Rinko. Shu is Hinako’s male best friend, with hints of a stronger relationship, while Rinko is jealous of their bond and is always shown staying close to Shu, trying to keep him and Hinako apart.

The Real World is pretty standard survival horror throughout. You find basic weapons such as steel pipes and sledgehammers and use them to kill enemies scattered through the town as you make your way to the next checkpoint. This is where my main issue with Silent Hill f comes in. Survival horror games are typically not known for having the best combat. They tend to be a bit clunky, with limited options to make things tense; the Silent Hill 2 Remake was able to handle this extremely well without making it seem like a chore. Silent Hill f’s main combat loop, however, relies on weapon durability. You have items that can repair your weapons, and I never ran into a stretch where I was completely weaponless, but juggling which weapon to use and which to conserve, coupled with the limited “light attack or heavy attack” options, meant I didn't enjoy combat encounters as much as I did in Silent Hill 2.

The Other World is similar, minus the weapon durability, but your time there is largely about atmosphere and storytelling, so it felt more enjoyable. Throughout your time here, you follow a mysterious person who goes by Fox Mask. He seems to care about you and saves you a few times leading up to the first part of a big ceremony. About halfway through, the Other World is when the story really kicks it up a notch. This starts with Hinako chopping off her arm and having it replaced with a fox arm. After this point, Hinako uses this arm for combat, replacing the normal weapons you carried from the Real World.

This change made the combat in the Other World less cumbersome, as the fox arm also came with a couple of upgrades, like a charge attack and eventually an overpowered “Beast Mode.” The ceremony continues, and Hinako becomes more and more like Fox Mask, eventually having a fox mask permanently attached in place of her face. This was one of those “hold up” moments I mentioned earlier. It is extremely effective at triggering goosebumps while also expressing the changes women are expected to go through when becoming someone’s wife.

I wish there were more of these moments throughout the game, as they mostly appear in the Other World during the second half. The Real World portion of the story is nearly all atmosphere with very little development of Hinako and her feelings towards everything she is going through. This is something I felt the Silent Hill 2 Remake did really well: the pacing of the story, with bits of development and realization sprinkled throughout the entire playtime. This brings me to my other issue with the game: the puzzles.

Silent Hill is a franchise with creepy psychological horror and strong puzzles, compared to Resident Evil, which has more of a focus on gunplay and big set pieces while still having puzzles in the background. In the first playthrough of Silent Hill f, you only encounter about a dozen puzzles in just as many chapters. As with Silent Hill 2, the puzzles were at times a bit confusing or convoluted, but that is what you come to these games for. In Silent Hill f, it felt like I was spending more time fighting the four or five different enemy types than I was trying to figure out a room puzzle, and that was disappointing. I don't know if just adding more of the same kinds of puzzles would have made it any better, but it would have made it feel more like Silent Hill.

On the technical side, the developers really nailed the look and sound of both worlds. The signature fog takes over Ebisugaoka, while the sounds of creaking, groaning, moaning, and even near-silence at times really let the tension ramp up. Meanwhile, the Other World has a more surreal feel, with designs closer to that of Feudal-era Japan, which ties nicely into the narrative of old-school culture creeping into more modern times. This is one of the aspects where the game really shines.

Overall, my time with Silent Hill f was very enjoyable, but the tedious combat and lack of puzzles kept me from jumping right back in to see the rest of the endings as I did with Silent Hill 2. If you enjoyed the Silent Hill 2 Remake, I have no doubt you will enjoy your time with Silent Hill f, but a few design choices hold the game back from truly shining in a genre I love. I am happy Silent Hill f exists, happy that Silent Hill seems to be back from the dead, and happy that the horror genre is having a renaissance.

4/5