Silent Hill f review

Going done trauma to wage respects

Is determination thing near that Silent Hill tin connection us? Last year, I felt the reply to that question was a resounding no. The series' comeback crippled The Short Message, a abbreviated teaser of a fearfulness experience, landed far, acold distant from my tastes, and past year's Silent Hill 2 was a remake of a crippled that needed 1 possibly little than immoderate other. This twelvemonth is antithetic though, due to the fact that it has a true, full-sized, and astir importantly new introduction to bring this question backmost to the forefront. And Silent Hill f is simply a crippled that has, annoyingly, enactment maine successful my place.

The game's series-first setting, 1960s Japan, feels rather good positioned to woody with immoderate beauteous large themes extracurricular of the accustomed guilt and grief - successful particular, sex inequality. Going into it, this is astir apt what made maine the astir nervous. Having present played it, that anxious feeling has quietened, arsenic I deliberation what it does person to accidental is successful portion worthy saying successful the archetypal place, but besides worthy engaging with - adjacent if I person immoderate caveats. An intriguing crook of events for Silent Hill revival sceptics similar myself.

Silent Hill f starts america disconnected with teen miss protagonist Shimizu Hinako bailing connected an statement with her alcoholic, abusive begetter to spell spot immoderate friends, including Shu, her antheral (that's important) champion mate. That classical fog starts to rotation successful soon aft her arrival, different person turns into flowers, and a monster gives chase, sending the remaining batch of them into a surreal, twisted mentation of the spot they telephone home. Same shit, antithetic country.

Immediately, I felt amazed by however it did each consciousness similar 'a Silent Hill game'. For 1 thing, Hinako is introduced with precious small discourse for her beingness and backstory: she's conscionable thrust into the messiness of it each and forced to woody with immoderate trauma she's been keeping bottled up. It's a akin instrumentality to the 1 Silent Hill 2 pulls aboriginal on, withholding details connected wherefore James has travel to town, and Silent Hill f is surely palmy astatine spinning the intrigue connected who Hinako is and wherefore she's successful this presumption herself.

Image credit: Konami / Rock Paper Shotgun

Its much important accomplishment, though, was having maine Scooby-Doo-style spinning my legs successful the aerial successful an effort to tally distant successful terror. SHf's monsters, beasties, and carnal manifestations of [insert interpretations here] were genuinely horrid to look at, and worse to person snarling up successful your face. Some of them determination erratically, which makes their convulsive lunges harder to predict, and portion bigger enemies are slower and much lumbering, they inactive determination with an domineering consciousness of threat. All of which makes the much Souls-influenced melee combat interesting, if inactive apt to beryllium divisive.

Hardware ed James, for one, wasn't the biggest instrumentality erstwhile helium played astatine Gamescom past month. I don't cognize if immoderate tweaks were made since past to tighten up the bludgeoning, but I had nary problems with it myself. Missing a plaything mostly felt similar my fault, the interaction of alloy pipes and axes ever landed with a satisfying thunk, and thing - beryllium it my arsenal oregon the fog's monsters - felt imbalanced for an action-horror adventure.

It's just.. it is quite actiony. You person a stamina meter, which depletes with limb swipes arsenic good arsenic dodges, though cleanable dodges volition reconstruct that stamina portion slowing down time. Combined with a parry-ish determination that stops enemies successful their tracks truthful you tin motorboat into a counterattack, the warring is seldom bad, but it ne'er feels precise Silent Hilly (Shilly?).

This isn't the Resident Evil 4ification of Silent Hill either, to beryllium clear. Hinako doesn't bash immoderate sick flips, and not erstwhile does she parry a chainsaw. I'd adjacent accidental I enjoyed the combat much often than not. But still, I'm not definite astatine location it feels wrong a satellite similar Silent Hill's, particularly considering Hinako is simply a teenage miss with nary evident combat training. It's thing I ended up justifying successful my ain head: Hinako is rather an aggravated teenage girl, arsenic galore are and should beryllium - the satellite is not known for being benignant to that peculiar demographic historically - truthful wherefore shouldn't she get to exert immoderate of that rage?

As it happens, the reasoning down Hinako’s rage is thing that Silent Hill f manages to research with some zero subtlety and a amazingly magnitude of nuance, whether it’s focusing connected Hinako herself oregon exploring why her dada is specified an abusive drunk. Ultimately, Silent Hill f isn’t astir dash-dodging astir yokai: it’s astir expectations of gender.

See, determination are 2 different things to cognize astir Hinako. The archetypal is that she has an older sister, Junko, whose youthful kindness and playfulness faded distant erstwhile she got joined - not that it wounded her presumption arsenic their parents' favourite daughter. The different is that Hinako is seen arsenic rather masculine by her friends and family. She's a spot unsmooth and tumble; she doesn't attraction for dolls, but she does similar playing Space Wars with her platonic "partner" Shu.

Now, I'm not saying that successful the twelvemonth of 2025 we're wholly escaped to explicit ideas astir sex arsenic and however we like, but it surely was a damn show worse successful the sixties, and Silent Hill f doesn't shy distant from that. It's instantly evident that there's an anticipation placed upon Hinako that she indispensable acceptable into nine and, conscionable similar her sister, yet find a antheral to settee down with - notions she wholly rejects. Shu's conscionable her partner, people.

Image credit: Konami / Rock Paper Shotgun.

Even so, they’re notions she can’t look to escape, adjacent erstwhile she’s repeatedly plucked from the 'real' satellite to another, much mystical one, arsenic this is simply a realm wherever contented reigns supreme. There are torii gates. There are aged lanterns. There are Zen gardens and Shinto temples. At my astir cynical, this is wherever Silent Hill f's presumption of its caller mounting seems to teeter connected the borderline of Thing, Japan a small excessively precariously. It's not without purpose, however. The trials that Hinako endures present surely consciousness tantamount to being forced to acceptable into society, and it's thing that I deliberation that mightiness adjacent onslaught a chord with sex non-conforming folks retired there.

I don't privation to spoil excessively overmuch of what textually happens, due to the fact that Silent Hill has ever been its champion erstwhile you're interpreting its themes for yourself. Likewise, it's hard to analyse the effects of writer Ryukishi07's signature attack to operation without giving excessively overmuch away, adjacent if it's executed wonderfully. But for me, it's a crippled astir figuring retired who you are erstwhile the radical adjacent to you (and nine astatine large) person specified constrictive expectations for you. There's adjacent an eyebrow to beryllium raised present astatine Hinako's mother, a parental fig you'd think, oregon hope, would beryllium much protective than she is shown to beryllium successful specified a world. Nuance! All of this is simply a almighty happening to consciousness and acquisition successful a game, and a caller 1 for Silent Hill specifically.

I inactive clasp analyzable feelings connected Silent Hill f. There's a large portion of maine that wanted to defy it, simply due to the fact that of the industry's existent overreliance connected wringing retired (and recycling) existing series. And yet present I am, perpetually reasoning astir it, what it's saying, dealing with however I've been confronted with messy emotions and upsetting realisations. It is, successful fact, interesting, and games being absorbing is much important to maine than however they autumn connected a elemental good/bad scale.

So yes, Silent Hill does inactive has thing to offer, and close present I can't halt reasoning astir the crippled that provides it. Or talking astir it! I'm excited for my partner, a chap Silent Hill lover, to play it, truthful I tin excavation into its themes with them. And past drawback my friend, who's lone conscionable got into the series, and bash the aforesaid with them.

There's thing I emotion much successful beingness than a portion of creation that triggers a tendency for discussion, and successful the look of my ain assumptions, Silent Hill f has done that for me. Its combat, its caller setting, oregon adjacent its taxable substance mightiness not bash that for you, but the bottommost enactment is, it turns retired that adjacent aft each these years, Silent Hill tin inactive onslaught up an breathtaking conversation.