The very second I saw Silent Hill F revealed I got extremely excited, and the more I saw of it the more the hype got. And I’ll gladly say this is one of a few games that actually lived up to the hype.
Silent Hill is typically very hit or miss, which is why Konami likely played it safe with a recently released Silent Hill 2 remake, but then fumbled with Silent Hill: The Short Message. Very luckily Silent Hill F joins the remake in being an incredibly great title in the series, and very arguably the best since the original Silent Hill 2 was released.
Silent Hill F
DEVELOPER: Konami
RELEASE DATE: September 25, 2025
PLATFORMS: PS5, XBOX, PC
Silent Hill F changes a lot of the core dynamics of the franchise, but it does so in a way to open up more opportunities to develop Silent Hill in new ways. The most obvious change being the main protagonist being a female in 1960’s Japan, which is dealing with circumstances that luckily many women don’t need to deal with today. It’s also the first entry in the franchise that isn’t located in the town of Silent Hill, instead encompassing a new town called Ebisugaoka, which has very similar issues in terms of folklore and erupting water spouts from underground.
These changes are extremely welcomed to me because it allows the game to branch out and make up its own lore to everything, which gives the town and characters the same depth you expect, while allowing the story to have multiple layers of depth. Setting the game in Japan allows the team to do what they do best, which is simply Japanese horror. Every fine detail of the town, the 1960’s Japanese backdrop, and the puzzles that blend into the gameplay are so finely tuned that it makes exploring an otherwise mostly empty world so interesting.
However it’s the simple fact that the game allows itself to develop characters that are all incredibly full of depth. The main character takes you on a journey that starts off confusing, but the more you read and discover on your multiple play throughs, the more you connect with her and understand all the different aspects of not only her, but her group of friends she grew up with. This game very easily dives into the mental state of a young woman discovering herself, and the pressure involved in being available for everyone she loves. This is substantially better than The Short Message which somewhat tried to tread along the same path, but felt a bit too afraid to dive in.
Instead Silent Hill F doesn’t hold back in any regard. The exploration of abuse, addiction, phobias, and so many other aspects are introduced via all the characters and their unique experiences. Other stronger aspects such as gender discrimination, child abuse, and drug dependency are explored via visual manifestations of Hinako, which is seen through symbolic monsters and the town she lives in being engulfed in a strange flower of darkness. But the game does a fantastic job of telling the story both visually and through gameplay, which creates a beautiful and oddly discomforting environment that remains interesting from beginning to end. Tense moments will have you on the edge of your seat, leading you to “safe” spaces of a clear mind which are peaceful and yet eerie, but then it quickly turns into edgy gruesome sequences that are heightened due to this conflicting nature.
This is where Silent Hill F shines the most. The game isn’t afraid to make you uncomfortable, it dives deep into visuals with unnerving sequences that make you want to look away, but it uses it to power home the metaphors it’s trying to convey. It never backs down. When things seem like it’s getting too gruesome, it goes a step further. There is one sequence in particular where my spouse and I had to look at each other and verbally say “they really just did that?!” Then in a later sequence you knew things were not going to be held back and my spouse was loudly exclaiming “no no no!”
The whole 9(ish) hour adventure never felt like it was walking down a narrow path. Every twist and turn and horror filled cutscene felt unpredictable. But ultimately Silent Hill F felt like a magnificent art piece that was crafting itself around a story, and the world and visuals were telling the story just as much as the dialogue itself.
In terms of gameplay, Silent Hill F does something I most welcome. It removes guns. Every time I come across a horror game that includes guns, I feel “safe” and it ruins some of the horror. This time we are instead utilizing tools to physically fight monsters. This works well because it forces you to get up close to enemies, and be a little more strategic in your approach to rooms. It means monsters will be jumping at you, surrounding you, or just being outright terrifying on approach.
The bad part is that the actual combat is hit or miss. I didn’t have an overall problem with combat besides a few moments on harder difficulty where enemies got into an unbeatable pattern. This normally happened when I accidentally triggered more than one enemy, and got stuck in corners with them perfectly timing their attacks in a way that couldn’t be defended. For a game that is extremely limiting your ability to carry items and weapons, this can get frustrating when you’re then forced to heal and step back.
There are also a lot of different meters you need to track as well. One feature is something I have always despised, weapons degrading with use. F doesn’t offer many items to pick up, and during one sequence I was literally speed running the town because I had no weapon available to fight. This is due to the fact weapons degrade way too fast, until you start picking up perks that slow it down a tiny bit. I hate this feature in any game, but the fact the game limits your ability to find tools and the ability to repair said tools is even more limited, it gets old really fast. This often led to me outright avoiding encounters entirely and just running past enemies to the exit.
Which is kinda lame because to me, fighting the enemies mostly 1 on 1 was really fun. It was more strategic than just shooting from a distance. The slow combat and swift hard hitting tools felt engaging. In fact the game splits itself from the “real world” and a dream world where Hinako is metaphorically fighting her inner demons. In this dream world you’re almost instantly given weapons that simply don’t break, but are also much more powerful than the weapons in the real world. In these sequences, traversing puzzles and fighting was way more enjoyable.
But then you get tossed back into the real world and your tool breaks and you’re stuck running again. It’s potentially done on purpose to make the two sides dramatically opposite of each other, but breaking tools is so damn annoying!
The only real issue mechanically I had with Silent Hill F combat is the inability to confine you to small spaces. Every encounter needed to be in more open spaces, which never really made you feel trapped. Any time the game tried to condense the space, the combat became grueling because if you swung your weapon it would clang against objects (or walls) and make you stumble, while enemies had the ability to still do their full attacks.
Other meters include a sanity bar, which overall feels like it was overplayed by the game. Supposedly depleting it led to more effects than I was presented with on standard difficulty, but ultimately it just didn’t let me focus on enemies. The focus ability allowed you to absorb some of your sanity in order to deal powerful blows to enemies. Which was fun, but not necessary for a majority of my playtime. However on harder difficulties the sanity bar just became another nuisance like your tools breaking. Sanity basically depletes with everything, it’s constantly draining for whatever reason, and once it runs out on higher difficulty you open yourself to more damage by enemies. You then need to utilize items to refill it, or visit a Hawka to pray and regen it. This means you then need to waste valuable praying points and items to keep the bar filled, slowing your overall progression.
Another meter is your stamina bar. This one caught me off guard many times. During combat it made sense that swinging away would deplete stamina, and lead to me basically standing helpless for a moment. However a tricky part was that running also depleted stamina IF you were near an enemy when you start sprinting. Basically you could sprint to your hearts content, but if you start sprinting away from an enemy you suddenly couldn’t run as far. The bar, similar to sanity, runs out very quickly until you start unlocking more abilities.
Exploring the town that was slowly being covered by bloody flowers and tendrils chasing you at every turn was thrilling to say the least. There is actually a lot to explore in Silent Hill F, and while you might not be finding inventory filling treasure troves, it was still worthy to search every crevice of the map. Even when enemies are attacking you, it felt like you needed to strategize around them to make sure you covered the whole trail. Interestingly the game also does a phenomenal job of spooking you without having to use jumpscares. You can tread the same path over and over, to a point of getting comfortable, and then one time you turn a corner and a stationary enemy will be surprising you, placed perfectly just around the corner so you run directly into them and get scared. This got me so many times!
There are also a ton of areas to explore simply to discover more aspects of the story as well. Buildings that will have lore hidden them, and puzzles to unlock new areas. Luckily a majority of the major puzzles take place in the dream sequences, so you have the ability to fight your way around as you figure them out. The real world offers some softer puzzles, but with your weapon durability at risk they are not nearly as complex with enemies.
One notable gameplay feature that I’m at odds with is the new game+ mode. Once you beat the game for your first time, it makes it pretty clear that the story isn’t done. This isn’t leading you to DLC or a second title, instead it’s hinting at the 4 additional endings you can unlock by playing the game again on the same save file. You need to do specific objectives within these playthroughs to unlock new endings, which expand on the overall story of Hinako. Not only are multiple endings offered, but the game itself also expands in several ways with new lore objects to discover within the world, and once locked doors now being opened.
I found this confusing at first because I wanted to explore every aspect of the world on my first play through and multiple times you come across doors that either outright say they can’t be opened, or need a key that can never be found. Eventually after searching everywhere on how to open one door I did some research to learn these doors can’t be opened until a new game plus. It’s cool overall to have new areas to explore in a second playthrough, but I’m not sure why the doors can be interacted with if they are useless on an initial run.
It’s interesting that the team found a way to give a single player story experience a way to have replay ability in a way of discovering new aspects of areas you already visited.
Overall Silent Hill F is one of the best games in the franchise I played, and overall one of the best horror games I’ve played. The visual storytelling alone is something that needs to be appreciated, and the return to classic style horror blends beautifully with updated visuals and gameplay. The slower paced combat is welcoming, and the removal of guns makes you feel just a bit more vulnerable against monstrous enemies.
