A Masterful Horror Experience That Rivals the Best in the Series

Ever since its first reveal, I have been skeptical of Silent Hill f. Changing the setting from small town USA to 1960s Japan and tossing out the established combat system for one that’s entirely melee-focused seemed like Konami was taking the series too far from what made it feel like Silent Hill. When reports came out that the combat was almost Soulslike in nature, I lost even more faith that Silent Hill f would live up to expectations. Imagine my surprise when I finished Silent Hill f and came away feeling like I had just played one of the best horror games of the last decade.

Silent Hill f stars Japanese teenager Hinako Shimizu, who leaves the house one day to find her hometown of Ebisugaoka shrouded in fog and terrorized by horrific monsters. Hinako has to defend herself against the creatures lurking in the fog, but with no guns available, she’s left with using whatever she can find lying around. Hinako arms herself with steel pipes, kitchen knives, and baseball bats, which are not always terribly effective against Silent Hill f’s twisted monsters. Even though Hinako doesn’t have a gun, resource management still plays a major role in Silent Hill f. Not only does Hinako have a limited inventory to work with, but weapons can break, requiring players to find new ones or use repair kits.

Silent Hill f’s combat is perhaps the biggest point of contention that longtime fans have with the game. At first, I found it to be comically easy thanks to Hinako’s almost-cartoonish dodge, but as the game goes on, things ramp up and the combat starts to click. Even though Hinako can easily dodge attacks, she has a stamina meter that keeps her from spamming it. In cramped rooms where Hinako has to fight more than one monster at a time, players have to be very smart about when they dodge and attack, creating genuine moments of tension. Many of the Silent Hill f monsters pack a punch, and even on Story difficulty, it doesn’t take many hits for Hinako to die. It takes some getting used to, and some might find Hinako’s purposefully clunky fighting frustrating, but it fits the character and helps make her feel vulnerable. Every enemy encounter is stressful on the higher difficulty settings, and players have to get good at not only fighting, but knowing when it’s best to avoid combat encounters as well.

One of my favorite moments in Silent Hill f came early in the game when I was tasked with exploring a house. I needed to find a key to get out, all the while being chased by a mannequin-like creature with a knife. Running away from the monster while trying to loot the building in such close quarters was scary and exhilarating, and the exact kind of feeling I’m looking for whenever I play a survival-horror game. I could have bludgeoned the thing to death with Hinako’s steel pipe, but hiding and running away from the monster kept the weapon’s durability high, reduced the risk of taking damage, and was simply the more fun option.

Silent Hill f Monsters Are Legitimately Horrifying

The Silent Hill franchise is known for its iconic monster designs, and Silent Hill f has some of the best in the series to date. Silent Hill f monsters are the stuff of nightmares, from a hopscotching mess of child bones to a fat blob of faces that spews blood. One of the creatures is a slug-like mass of what can only be described as bulbous grey boobs that lays eggs and spits green vomit at Hinako. There aren’t too many boss enemies in Silent Hill f, but the ones the game does have also look fittingly fantastic and creepy. It’s too early to say if any of the monsters in Silent Hill f will reach the same level of popularity as Silent Hill 2’s Pyramid Head, but I was thoroughly impressed with everything I encountered.

Managing Hinako’s health and stamina is important as players fight and avoid Silent Hill f’s many monsters, but there’s also something else to take into account. Like many horror games before it, Silent Hill f features a sanity meter that can be drained by certain attacks. If Hinako’s sanity meter is fully depleted, she will die, and so players need to keep an eye on it. An interesting wrinkle is that Silent Hill f lets players consume their own sanity meter on purpose to deliver more powerful attacks. Certain encounters may be easier if Silent Hill f players are willing to invest some of their sanity into the blow, but then it might put them in a tough spot later on.

I was unconvinced about Silent Hill f’s combat going into the game, but it won me over thanks to the clever twists that are used to expand on it and the strength of the enemy encounters. The worry I had that the combat system would keep Silent Hill f from feeling like a true Silent Hill game dissipated, and it has now become one of my favorite games in the franchise. Yes, the combat and setting are different, but fans can rest assured, Silent Hill f is still very clearly a Silent Hill experience. It even features the franchise’s trademark “otherworld” — arguably the most compelling one to date.

It’s all about the game and how you play it.

Whenever Hinako gets knocked out or otherwise falls unconscious in Silent Hill f, she awakens in a bizarre realm called the Dark Shrine. Here, the rules are different. Enemies respawn unless killed in specific rooms, and Hinako doesn’t have access to her weapons from the real world. The Dark Shrine is oppressive, spooky, and home to some of the game’s most memorable moments.

Silent Hill f Has Everything You Want from the Series

Silent Hill f’s story isn’t afraid to take risks. In an industry filled with game stories that play it safe or recycle well-trodden themes, Silent Hill f offers an absolutely demented, layered tale that takes multiple playthroughs to fully understand and appreciate. Like other games in the series, Silent Hill f’s story can be enjoyed on the surface-level, but those that dive deep and analyze the characters and significant story moments will come away with a much greater appreciation of the game.

I am confident that longtime Silent Hill fans will adore Silent Hill f. Silent Hill f is a classic survival-horror game through-and-through, meaning players explore the world in search of resources and key items, all the while fighting monsters and solving puzzles. A couple of puzzles in Silent Hill f are especially tricky, but figuring them out is immensely satisfying, and those that don’t care to engage with that side of the survival-horror experience can play with puzzles set to “Story” difficulty. Silent Hill f lets players customize the experience to their liking, with multiple difficulty settings for action and puzzles that can be mixed and matched. These settings can’t be changed once selected, but New Game+ gives players the opportunity to adjust things, which is a great quality of life feature and keeps subsequent playthroughs interesting.

Silent Hill f is built with multiple playthroughs in mind. Like other games in the series, Silent Hill f has multiple endings, and the game is short enough that replaying it isn’t an overwhelming task. After rolling credits for the first time, I immediately restarted Silent Hill f and cranked up the difficulty while I attempted to unravel the game’s deeper mysteries. There are few games I play that make me want to start over right away, but Silent Hill f is one of them. In fact, I don’t think I will be satisfied until I have seen all the endings, and even then, I can see myself returning to the game because of how engrossing it is.

Hinako’s journey in Silent Hill f is brutal, beautiful, and brilliant. As someone that has been playing survival-horror games for decades, Silent Hill f is exactly what I want from a modern-day entry in the genre. It features challenging puzzles, gruesome monsters, and a ton of replay value wrapped in stunning graphics, great performance, and smart quality-of-life features that ensure it meets today’s standards. Silent Hill f is a masterful horror game that stands tall alongside the likes of Silent Hill 2 and other survival-horror classics.

Silent Hill f launches for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X on September 25. Game Rant was provided with a PS5 code for this review.