Silent Hill F Goes Back In Time And Back To Basics

Silent Hill f starts disconnected pinch a grounded (but still heavy) setup, establishing a miserable family move for protagonist Hinako. With an alcoholic, abusive father, a submissive mother and an absent sister, who’s shown successful flashbacks pinch that classical scary trope, look unseen. Something horrible is astir to unfold in the sleepy, distant colony of Ebisugaoka, sometime successful nan early 1960s.

The latest entry successful nan Silent Hill bid still has jumpscares, for illustration you’d expect from nan scary series, but some nan mounting and crippled systems are much focused connected tension, putting some Hinako and nan subordinate nether changeless duress. A emblematic wellness metre is joined by a sanity gauge and moreover your weapons person constricted durability, truthful you’re forced to prime your fights.

During a two-hour demo, I had to do precisely that. As Hinako escapes her family location to find someone, anyone, to talk to, nan colony is eerily empty. A kei motortruck blocks nan nonstop way to nan section shop, pinch a crushed vertebrate adjacent adding to nan weird. Soon, a sinister fog and reddish undergrowth onslaught 4 assembled precocious schoolhouse students.

Of course, it only gets weirder. As marionette nightmares popular up, each Hinako tin do is tally and evade attacks. A attraction mode, pressing L1, burns nan sanity gauge but gives amended prompts for some dodging and yet counter-attacking monsters.

Hinako is nary soldier. She’s nary battle-hardened survivor. When I yet find a alloy tube to conflict backmost with, moreover accelerated attacks are a small sluggish, while dense swings, which tin often stun and sound down enemies, return a while to complaint up and tin beryllium difficult to purpose if you haven’t locked onto nan enemy. If there’s much than 1 attacker, it’s a tense struggle and I’m often forced to pain done betterment items much truthful than erstwhile facing a sound and light-sensitive crawling beast, a fleshy-spherical ogre and different middleweight leader fights.

Fortunately, location are hokora, miniature Shinto shrines, dotted astir nan village, which enactment arsenic prevention points. The eerie location of Ebisugaoka and erstwhile a friend continually calls Hinako a "traitor" further amplify nan consciousness of dread. The older sister is concisely shown during a flashback, but her look is obscured. Even successful nan younger sister’s journal, nan biog page for nan sister is covered successful scribbles and ink. It’s very Japanese Horror, and little shotgun-to-the-zombie-face. And conscionable plain stressful.

A caller sanity strategy is intriguing too. It's not an wholly caller premise: nan Gamecube's Eternal Darkness would manipulate nan graphics and sound wrong nan crippled arsenic nan character's sanity declined. But that was, depressingly, complete 20 years ago.

Some items tin apical up your sanity, but if you don’t usage them, you tin connection them astatine a shrine for an in-game rate and walk that connected charms to boost Hinako’s stats. I managed to spend a stamina-boosting charm during my playthrough and was tantalizingly adjacent to affording different charm earlier getting trim down by scarecrows dressed arsenic high-schoolers.

The scarecrow confrontation is hopefully a bully illustration of nuanced puzzles that will look successful nan afloat game. Initially, a bloodied rag tells you to return nan thorns retired of nan 1 scarecrow that isn’t portion of nan group – nan 1 that isn’t going to trim you up pinch their sickle. Unfortunately, each of nan scarecrows person a thorn, truthful you’re tasked pinch uncovering nan shape of his group.

The full acquisition is drenched successful atmosphere, supported by this caller sanity strategy — is location thing much 2025 than a intelligence wellness gauge? The changeless emotion of isolation ("Where is everyone?") and unanswered questions made nan demo a persuasive preamble to nan game. A peculiarly tense infinitesimal involves collapsing aft a fight, further emphasizing nan character's vulnerability. Also, there’s immoderate benignant of dashing fox tone successful a mask, who coaxes Hinako done nan dreamlike, blood-soaked temple areas. The mysterious fox tone knows her name, which adds yet different furniture of intrigue.

I dream each will beryllium made clear erstwhile nan crippled launches, astir a period from now.

Silent Hill f launches connected PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S connected September 25 2025.