‘Silent Hill f’ hands-on preview: Finding beauty in terror

What defines a Silent Hill game? 

At first, I thought it was Silent Hill itself, a Stephen King-esque town that can reflect the deep-seated trauma and repressed memories of people and manifest them as grotesque monsters. But I later thought that couldn’t be right since Silent Hill f, the latest game in the psychological-horror franchise, is no longer set in the eponymous town in Maine. Yet, in many ways, it still very much looks and feels like a Silent Hill game. 

So as I was playing Silent Hill f in a media-exclusive preview, I came to the realization that Silent Hill has less to do with the actual town and more to do with the distinct sense of isolation and dread it evokes and creates. 

Japan of old

This new game brings the franchise’s setting back to its roots in Japan, in the fictional Ebisugaoka, a remote mountain town where nature intertwines with everyday life. Gone are the picturesque lakeside views and dense forests of the archetypal New England town, and in their place are verdant expanses of Japanese rural countryside. 

It’s a dramatic change that, in my opinion, works tremendously to the game’s favor. Ebisugaoka is very different from Silent Hill in almost every aspect; chief of which is its layout. The Japanese town’s labyrinthine alleyways are purposely designed to confuse you, the player, and keep you on your toes. And it works to great effect, especially when combined with the ever-present fog — a franchise staple. By limiting your visibility, the game manages to heighten the tension and suspense of not knowing what dangers lurk behind every corner, opening up plenty of room for jump scares. 

While the “hidden monster” horror technique is not something new or innovative, it’s implemented so effectively here that it deserves some praise. Then again, I could say the same for just about every other game in the franchise. Cultivating that fear of the unknown has always been one of the franchise’s strengths, and that remains the case with Silent Hill f. 

After the first few jump scares, I found myself panning the camera as far as I possibly can to peep corners and blind spots to see if some surprise was waiting for me. That’s part of the game’s thrill. It wants you to be on your guard, so it can maintain that tense and gripping experience the franchise has become known for. And just when you start to think you’ve seen it all, the game manages to find new ways to surprise you, which I won’t spoil here. 

Beauty in terror

Something Silent Hill also does so well is create a chilling atmosphere. From the close to six hours I spent with the game, Ebisugaoka is just as, if not more, unnerving than Silent Hill. It’s a town characterized by a stark dichotomy — it appears quiet and peaceful on the surface, yet silently guards a hidden darkness underneath. That contrast fits so well with the concept of “beauty in terror,” which is an important tenet of Japanese horror. In addition to this, the town’s cultural nuances also lend themselves well to setting up an air of supernatural mystery that’s seemingly ingrained in ancient customs and superstition. 

At the center of the story is Hinako, a seemingly ordinary schoolgirl living in Ebisugaoka. You take control of her shortly after she gets into an argument with her parents, which sees her run off to town to be on her own. And as you wander through the quaint streets of Ebisugaoka in that opening sequence, it starts to become more apparent that something unsettling has descended upon it. A pervasive sense of emptiness hangs over the homes and shops you pass, and the eerie quietness is only broken up by the sound of the wind and your footsteps. 

Not too long though, you run into your friends: Sakuko, Rinko, and Shu. Their interactions with you, however, immediately suggest things between all of you are, for lack of a better term, complicated. Sakuko, for instance, calls you a “traitor”. 

Then, your little reunion with your friends is abruptly interrupted by a violent, dark fog that barrels through town like a tornado, forcing all of you to split up and find cover. You eventually outrun the fog and meet up with your friends again, but now the lines between what’s real and what’s not are more blurred than they were before. 

Hinako and Shu at some point pinch each other to see if they can wake themselves up from what they think is only a vivid nightmare. But their efforts come to no avail as they find themselves in the same reality as they were in before — a reality where their once-familiar home has become desolate and infested with grotesque monstrosities. 

Conflicting realities is another fundamental aspect of Silent Hill’s unique approach to horror, and Silent Hill f handles this pretty well. Hinako’s struggle for survival is multi-layered; it’s both internal and external. As a result, it becomes difficult to trust the things you see and hear. It wants to keep you guessing, and that ambiguity is what makes the story engaging. 

Action-oriented combat

The core of Silent Hill f’s gameplay is not all that different from other games in the franchise. You’re, of course, still exploring a haunted town, solving weird puzzles, and fighting unsettling creatures, though this time around, it’s a bit more action-oriented. Developer NeoBards Entertainment said it put a heavy emphasis on combat, which is purely melee-based; no firearms or ranged weapons here. This might sound like a weird creative decision for a survival-horror game set in the not-too-distant past — the 60s — but it kind of works for the most part. 

The combat, at least for me, feels sort of similar to the combat of Dark Souls, where careful observation of enemy patterns and precise timing of attacks and dodges are key to survival. 

As Hinako, you can perform and chain together light and heavy attacks. Light attacks don’t deal a lot of damage, but they’re fast and consume less stamina. Heavy attacks, meanwhile, are big, impactful attacks that can stun enemies, but they’re slow and consume a lot of stamina. You can also dodge enemy attacks to avoid damage, and a perfectly timed dodge can slow down time, replenish your stamina, and open up your enemy for a counterattack. 

To go back to that Dark Souls comparison, like in that game, Silent Hill f’s combat is easy to learn but tough to master. Enemy attack patterns and movement can be erratic, so a bit of patience is required to learn them. Hinako is also no action hero; she’s a teenager, after all. While she doesn’t have that intentional awkwardness of Silent Hill 2’s James Sunderland, her attacks do feel weighty and slow. I assume that’s by design. You’re meant to feel vulnerable playing as her, not powerful. This is why smart resource management is also critical in combat. 

Your health isn’t the only thing you must keep track of; you also need to watch out for your stamina, your sanity, and your weapon’s durability. 

Stamina in particular I found to be quite important during my playthrough. Almost every action uses stamina, and depleting it can render you helpless against your enemies for a short period. But that short period can sometimes mean the difference between life or death, especially when you’re fighting multiple enemies or bosses. 

Sanity is equally important since it’s the resource that determines how long you can use focus for. Focus is a mode that you can activate to be able to see and execute counterattack opportunities against your enemies. These counterattacks are very powerful because they interrupt enemy attack animations and stun them momentarily, opening them up for further attacks. Later on, you also gain access to a focus attack, which is a heavy blow you unleash after charging your focus long enough. 

Using focus too often and getting hit by certain enemy attacks can drain your sanity. You want to avoid that and preserve your sanity as much as possible because focus can quickly turn the tide of a fight. I used the focus attack a lot during my hands-on session, and without it, I probably would have had a more difficult time surviving enemy encounters. 

Your weapons also have limited durability and will break after a certain amount of use, so it helps not to get too attached to them. 

According to the developers, giving you more resources to manage is supposed to enhance the combat’s intensity and at the same time balance the action aspect of the gameplay with the survival-horror. And the gameplay trick does indeed prove effective. 

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of panic when I had to find a specific key item in a seemingly endless, fog-covered farmland, flanked by scarecrow-like mannequin creatures, with only a single weapon and half my maximum sanity. It was a lengthy sequence of high-tension gameplay that I found somewhat distressing. But that’s what I know I’m supposed to feel in a horror game — in a Silent Hill game, no less. The fact that the sequence was able to elicit these emotions out of me means it was able to do its job. 

If I have one critique about combat, it’s that it could use a tad more variety. Being purely melee-based sort of limits your strategic options. Regardless of what weapon you’re using or what enemy type you’re against, you’re essentially performing the same few actions in the same order for almost every encounter. 

Franchise staples

Between combat encounters, you’ll be exploring different areas of the now grim and abandoned Ebisugaoka. It’s not an especially big town, but it’s incredibly dense, with something interesting to uncover in just about every corner. 

The whole town is rendered in exceptional detail, making it all the more compelling to explore. Even the interiors of homes have a lived-in feel that hints at how they were once inhabited by living people. And it’s this attention to detail, along with other pieces of set dressing like the collectible pieces of lore, that build the seductive mystique and strange allure of the town. 

As you explore, you’ll also find Hokora shrines scattered across the map. These checkpoints sort of function like the bonfires in Dark Souls; they’re small havens of respite from the horrors of Ebisugaoka, where you can save your progress and upgrade your stats.  

This being a Silent Hill game, you’ll also be solving a bunch of weird puzzles. Some of them feature or are inspired by Japanese cultural and spiritual elements, which is, of course, only fitting for the setting. 

In terms of difficulty, the puzzles aren’t too bad. For me, they’re just stimulating enough to get you to stop and think for a while. They’re more a test of your observational and comprehension skills than your critical thinking and wit. I do like that, in typical Silent Hill fashion, the puzzles share important clues to Hinako’s psyche and past. And I just think that it’s such a clever way to use interactive puzzles to help unravel the mystery behind whatever’s happening in the town. 

Silent Hill f’s soundscapes deserve special mention. Akira Yamaoka, the renowned composer behind many games in the franchise, including the original Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2, returns for this one. But whereas Silent Hill 2’s soundtrack features a mix of genres, from industrial to trip-hop, f’s soundtrack is more stripped-back, focusing instead on an ancient style of Japanese music. 

Despite that change, the soundtrack manages to wonderfully capture the oh-so familiar atmospheric soundscape of Silent Hill. The main track in particular has a slow and deliberate tempo, as well as sustained high notes, that I think brilliantly capture the ubiquitous eeriness and oppression you feel in Ebisugaoka. 

The game also makes clever use of 3D audio technology to deliver sounds in a wide soundstage. As a result, you’re able to perceive and pinpoint where specific sounds are coming from. A creak from a window to your left, creeping footsteps behind you, or the rustle of the wind above — the game’s deeply immersive audio not only guides your attention but also heightens the terror. 

If the remake of Silent Hill 2 is what revived the franchise last year, I think Silent Hill f is what can bring it back into the mainstream. This standalone spinoff, in my opinion, not only captures the essence of Silent Hill but also evolves it in meaningful ways. It treads that oh-so precarious line between familiar and fresh that I think it can satisfy the wants and wishes of longtime fans of the franchise, while serving as a welcoming entry point for new fans. 

While I prefer to reserve my judgement of the game until I can play it in full, I left the six-hour hands-on session very much enjoying what I played. I love the decision to set the game in a rural Japanese town. Its labyrinthine layout and narrow alleyways are perfect for creating tension-filled scenarios that survival-horror fans crave. 

However, I’m less of a fan of the more action-oriented approach to the gameplay. Not that I don’t like the combat itself, I just think the game could use a little less of it. Combat should only serve as a kind of last resort to enemy encounters. Fighting enemies over and over again not only becomes repetitive but it robs them of their fear factor. 

Then again, I’ve only played a part of the game, so my opinion on this could still change. 

Silent Hill f releases on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on September 25, 2025. – Rappler.com