Silent Hill f review: classic horror in the Japanese fog

Silent Hill f — is an attempt by game developers from the Land of the Rising Sun to revitalize the series by placing it in a completely different cultural and time context. Now we’re not wandering through familiar American streets, but instead find ourselves in 1960s Japan. On paper, this sounds like a perfect formula: combining the Western tradition of the “ghost town” with rich Japanese folklore and psychological tension. In practice, we got something much less clear: more atmospheric details, a stronger sense of anxiety, but also much more questions than answers. Read more about how the game combines classic horror with a new Japanese setting, what worked and what disappointed in our editorial review of Silent Hill f.

The history of the series and a new step in the Japanese setting

The Silent Hill series was born in 1999, at a time when horror still often relied on cheap screamers. Konami took a different approach: instead of sudden jumps in the player’s face, the game created a fog that hid everything that could scare more than what was shown on the screen. Every sound, rustle, or step in it worked to create a sense of uncertainty, and silence became an equivalent tool of fear. A psychological horror was born here, where the threat was invisible, and fear was unpredictable, like a shadow that follows you even in an empty corridor.

Silent Hill 3 took a step towards a larger scale and dynamics. And the young heroine Heather brought the theme of growing up and finding her identity to the series. It was a kind of bridge between a creepy legacy and a more personal drama.

Silent Hill 4: The Room surprised even the fans. Your apartment as the main location turned into a symbol of isolation and trap: the comfort of the walls gradually became a place where the air became heavier with every hour of the game. The idea of going to parallel worlds through a hole in the wall sounded fresh, but the players were divided: for some, it was an atmosphere on the verge of art, for others, it was a restriction of freedom. The experiment worked, but it left a taste of controversy.

What followed were years of hesitation and experimentation. Silent Hill tried to adapt to modern standards. For the fans, it looked like wandering in their fog, where each new part could either fascinate or disappoint.

These “dark times” became a litmus test: the series lost not only its balance, but also a certain integrity. And it is against this background that Silent Hill f feels like an unexpected breath of fresh air.

The plot of Silent Hill f

In Silent Hill f, the foggy town of Ebisugaoka becomes an arena for the intertwining of reality and imagination. From the very beginning, the game tries to immerse the player in the feeling of a closed world, where every street and house carries an atmosphere of mystery and danger.

Red capsules and spider lilies play an important role in the plot of Silent Hill f, symbolizing the inevitability of consequences and the influence of social and cultural norms. Hinako’s interaction with these elements determines her mental state and the further development of the story. Every step and decision has consequences that affect the psychological part of the narrative.

The environment has its own “character”. The town reacts to Hinako’s actions, and the fog and dynamic lighting create uncertainty: the player never knows what awaits around the next corner. This technique is classic for the series, but it also works in the Japanese setting.

The integration of Japanese cultural motifs is palpable everywhere: monsters, symbols on the walls, and familiarity with local life create a dense and authentic environment. This markedly distinguishes Silent Hill f from the previous installments of the series, where the setting was more of a generalized Western one.

In this sense, the game can be compared to Cronos: The New Dawn, which skillfully conveyed the atmosphere of socialist-communist Poland in the 1980s: there, history, details of everyday life and culture also formed a strong sense of time and place. In both cases, attention to local realities enhances immersiveness.

The puzzles are closely related to the narrative, but sometimes they look redundant. However, they are challenging and give a pleasant aftertaste after solving them, especially at the Lost in the Fog difficulty level, which is available after the first playthrough in the HG+ mode.

She resists, refusing to make adult decisions quickly, giving the story a light subtext of discrepancy between childhood expectations and harsh reality. The customs, family, and city seem different, and it is through this discrepancy that the player feels the burden of her psychological struggle.

The atmosphere of Silent Hill f

Silent Hill f tries to enchant the Japanese Ebisugaoka of the 1960s, but it doesn’t always succeed. Yes, the narrow streets and traditional architecture do create a colorful setting for the story, but sometimes it looks more like a set. The feeling that every hut and dead end exists only to scare the player is too obvious.

Fog, which is supposed to be a symbol of uncertainty and fear, sometimes irritates rather than helps the atmosphere. The limited visibility works for tension only in the first hours, and then becomes a monotonous obstacle that hides the unfinished details of the levels. It’s a classic of the series, but I’d like to see more flexibility and fresh ideas in the modern version.

Yamaoka’s soundtrack is undoubtedly strong, but it is not without its weaknesses. Japanese motifs are harmoniously interwoven into the horror context, but sometimes the music is too intrusive. In moments of silence, the game looks even scarier than with constant music.

The monsters look aesthetically pleasing and disgusting at the same time, but the design sometimes plays on the safe side. Japanese symbols and Silent Hill classics are combined beautifully, but there is not much novelty here. Everything is too familiar, as if the creators were afraid to go beyond the franchise canons.

The Japanese cultural specificity is noticeable, but again, sometimes superficially. Yes, the houses and household items look authentic, but their integration into the gameplay is weaker than it could be. Often it is just an aesthetic charm without any real impact on the story or atmosphere.

A minimal number of jump scares is the right choice. But if you want to build horror on psychology, you need more of it. Often Silent Hill f hangs in the zone between real horror and an attempt to imitate it.

The gameplay of Silent Hill f

Silent Hill f continues the series’ tradition of emphasizing exploration, but it has its own nuances. The locations look thoughtful only at first glance: narrow paths and abandoned houses create a mood, but at the same time limit freedom. At times, it seems that the game leads the player by the hand, even when it should frighten with the unknown.

The puzzles are integrated organically, but their balance is lame. Some tasks can be solved in a minute, while others force you to wander around pointlessly searching for a clue. It’s not the level of intellectual challenge you expect from Silent Hill.

The stealth segments look like a good idea, but the implementation is mediocre. The monsters are too predictable, and the escape routes feel scripted. What should be an adrenaline-pumping chase often turns out to be a slow game of hide-and-seek.

The combat in Silent Hill F is limited but strategic. Hinako uses melee weapons (there are no firearms at all) with different attack styles, and the stamina system forces you to plan your actions: strikes and dodges consume energy, and misallocated resources can end unexpectedly. The perfect dodge mechanic slows down time and allows you to effectively counterattack enemies, adding tactical depth to confrontations with monsters.

Weapons and inventory also play a role in survival: resources are limited, and items for repair are not always at hand. This heightens the sense of tension and forces the player to constantly assess risks and opportunities, emphasizing the theme of limitation and danger in the Silent Hill world.

Puzzles are organically woven into the environment. They can be symbolic, reflecting Hinako’s psychological state or cultural motifs of the Japanese setting.

The difficulty selection system is another layer of game customization. “Story” emphasizes the plot and atmosphere, while “Hard” and “Lost in Fog” add more enemies and more difficult puzzles, forcing the player to plan every step. This allows you to adapt the game to the style of any player — from a beginner who wants to immerse himself in the atmosphere to a veteran who appreciates a challenge.

The sound as a gameplay amplifier works, but sometimes it seems too straightforward. The rustle of footsteps or moans out of the heroine’s sight scare well the first few times, but then the player starts to guess the algorithm. Then the horror turns into a technical trick.

As a result, the gameplay of Silent Hill f leaves mixed impressions. There are interesting ideas here, there are attempts to combine the classics with new mechanics, but the implementation falls short. And while the atmosphere can still keep the player engaged, the gameplay often seems compromised and uneven.

Sound and music of Silent Hill f

Silent Hill f should be praised for its sound, which is able to subtly and expressively emphasize the atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty. The feeling of immersion increases many times over, sometimes resembling a living audio picture that not only accompanies but shapes the player’s psychological state.

Akira Yamaoka’s music combines classic franchise motifs with Japanese instruments, adding local flavor. It changes depending on the situation: it signals danger or emphasizes key plot points. At the same time, some transitions are rather predictable, which makes the psychological effect a bit weaker.

Silent pauses in the music increase the tension, allowing the player to anticipate danger. Sudden effects combined with silence work for classic moments of anxiety, but their use is sometimes too predictable, which reduces the effect of fear.

Sound works effectively with graphics and lighting. When entering dark corridors, muffled footsteps and rustling create depth and increase visual tension. However, in some locations, an overabundance of sound effects can distract from the game and make scenes less tense.

The technical state of Silent Hill f

Silent Hill f runs on the Unreal Engine 5, and it looks really modern: detailed buildings, natural mountain environments, and interiors of the Dark Temple create the feeling of a “living” and at the same time dead world. However, an attentive player will quickly notice the repetitive textures and sometimes “decorative” architecture that adds more atmosphere than functional depth.

The light and shadows are physically correct, the lights react to the character’s movement, and the reflections add depth to the scene. The problem is that even the best lighting doesn’t save weak levels: they look good in the photo but sometimes feel hollow when the character moves.

The fog in the game is dynamic, changing density and color depending on the location, but the effect quickly gets boring. After a few hours, it becomes just a “foggy coating” that hides the imperfections of the landscape.

Silent Hill f even has a “hello” from the PS2 era — all cutscenes are limited to a 30 fps frame rate. However, the well-known Nexus platform already has a mod to unlock this console relic.

Optimization on modern PCs and consoles is not bad, the game runs smoothly even on high settings. But the lack of support for frame generation looks strange: on NVIDIA cards, you have to rely only on Smooth Motion. This will not be to everyone’s liking.

In 2560×1440 and 2560×1600 resolutions, the game consistently maintains 120-140 FPS on average, and in the most intense scenes with numerous effects and shadows, the drop does not exceed 100 FPS. But it is there because of stators.

The lighting system is particularly noteworthy: Lumen effectively models dynamic light and shadows, creating a sense of depth and presence. If you want even more realism, you can activate Hardware Ray Tracing.

Silent Hill prices, editions, and localization f

Silent Hill f is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. On Steam, the basic version costs UAH 1,475, and the Digital Deluxe Edition — UAH 1,665. Deluxe adds a digital artbook, soundtrack, and a pink rabbit costume for Hinako. All of these are decorative bonuses that do not affect the gameplay but can be pleasant for fans of the franchise.

Prices for PS5 look like this: 2,199 UAH for the basic version and 2,399 UAH for Deluxe. For Xbox Series X|S, the prices are UAH 1,795 and 2,050, respectively.

KONAMI, unfortunately, did not repeat the pleasant and successful step like their colleagues in Silent Hill 2 Remake. There is no Ukrainian text translation, and even less voice acting. The most complete experience is provided by English and Japanese: sound, subtitles, and text.