Silent Hill has gone by way of greater than its justifiable share of reinventions over time, however Silent Hill F could be its greatest change but – not simply by way of the place it’s set, however the way it performs too.
Silent Hill F tells the story of Hinako Shimizu, a highschool pupil who lives with a violent drunken father and a subservient mom who simply desires to maintain the peace.
Juggling her terrible household life with the awkwardness of highschool politics can be dangerous sufficient, however when her house city of Ebisugaoka is enshrouded by fog and begins to grow to be infested with grotesque monsters, it’s truthful to say she’s having a tough time of it.
Initially, the intention is for Hinako and her buddies to stay collectively, however as the sport progresses a much more curious plot emerges, one through which Hinako finds herself in a mysterious setting she’s by no means been to earlier than.
As a spin-off from the primary sequence, Silent Hill F has the liberty to fiddle with the method a bit. Clearly one of many principal examples of that is the shift from the everyday setting – an American city, typically Silent Hill itself – to a small Japanese village within the Sixties.
This makes for some astounding surroundings, as Ebisugaoka is created with a powerful diploma of element. Within the early components of the sport whenever you’re really capable of examine the setting with out an excessive amount of strain, the streets and homes have been splendidly designed and actually do really feel like an actual sleepy Japanese city from the previous.
The element extends to the quite a few grotesque monsters Hinako encounters on her journey. Whether or not they’re really scary is a matter of style – I personally don’t suppose they’re up there with such sequence staples because the nurses or Pyramid Head – and one or two of them are a little bit of a chore to struggle (particularly one huge one which takes up a lot area and simply soaks up assaults for ages), however they’re definitely fascinating to have a look at.
A bizarre creature made out of doll heads that slowly hopscotches in the direction of you is undoubtedly a singular sight, however as the sport progresses it turns into much less a case of “oh no, don’t let it close to me” and extra “oh no, I’m going to have to determine learn how to get previous that”.
There are occasional soar scares (fairly actually) the place enemies will leap out at you, however normally there are such a lot of enemies within the recreation that for essentially the most half whenever you see one showing out of the fog you put together to struggle somewhat than run.
That’s as a result of Silent Hill F has a a lot larger emphasis on fight than different video games within the sequence. There’s a gentle stream of lead pipes, baseball bats, knives, sickles and the like mendacity round, every with their very own energy and sturdiness stats, and whereas they ultimately break you may as well discover toolkits which can be utilized to restore them on the fly.
The sport’s builders have already requested that folks cease describing it as a Soulslike, and with good purpose. On one hand, it’s straightforward to inform how folks come to that conclusion – it’s melee-only with no weapons to talk of, and there’s lots of dodging to keep away from huge, gradual assaults then touchdown some huge, gradual assaults of your individual.
That’s actually the place the similarities finish, although, and anybody anticipating the form of large problem offered by different video games in that style can be dissatisfied. There could also be much more fight in Silent Hill F than in some other recreation within the sequence, nevertheless it’s definitely not as deep or difficult as FromSoftware’s output.
With out wishing to spoil an excessive amount of of the storyline (which, by the way, is as head-scratchingly complicated as different Silent Hill video games lots of the time), Silent Hill F is generally cut up into two varieties of world – the actual world and ‘one other’ world – with the sport switching between them at completely different factors within the story.
The sections happening in the actual world are essentially the most like your typical Silent Hill recreation. Sources are restricted, weapons have sturdiness, that trademark fog is ever-present, it’s very a lot a survival horror state of affairs. You possibly can tackle each monster if you need, however it’s possible you’ll end up breaking all of your weapons should you do, so selecting when to struggle and when to dodge is essential.
When issues change to the opposite world the state of affairs is identical in some methods – well being objects are nonetheless finite and also you’re nonetheless restricted with issues like stamina and ‘sanity’ meters (the latter of which is used for ‘focus’ assaults) – however essentially the most essential facet is that the weapons you discover right here have infinite sturdiness.
This actually modifications the dynamic of those sections, and the ‘survival’ facet very a lot switches from flight to struggle. It’s in these alternate world areas, then, the place some Silent Hill purists could begin to really feel the gameplay slipping away from what they’re used to, and whether or not that’s a great or dangerous factor can be down to private style.
This variation turns into even larger midway by way of, the place – with out spoiling something –a wild pivot takes place (and can likely cut up the fanbase). From this level on any semblance of survival horror goes out the window and all enemy encounters within the alternate world grow to be a straight-up motion recreation.
“This variation turns into even larger midway by way of, the place – with out spoiling something – a wild pivot takes place (and can likely cut up the fanbase). From this level on any semblance of survival horror goes out the window and all enemy encounters within the alternate world grow to be a straight-up motion recreation.”
Even when the sport reaches this manner it nonetheless retains some Silent Hill parts. The sequence has had some sensible map screens over time and it’s the identical right here, consistently updating with visited areas drawn in and pink markers over key areas of curiosity to ensure you don’t get misplaced an excessive amount of.
It’s additionally received the puzzles typical of a survival horror recreation like this, though they aren’t the most effective on this case. The most effective of the bunch entails a sequence of locker room combos which finally ends up placing a enjoyable spin on the standard ‘discover a observe with the quantity on it’ trope, however not all of them are this entertaining.
One puzzle particularly involving fox and chook crests, which seems close to the tip of the sport, is totally infuriating and easily gained’t present sufficient info to most gamers to assist them keep away from going by way of a doubtlessly prolonged interval of pure guesswork.
Whereas I’m on the negatives, the sport’s focus extra on fight than earlier Silent Hill video games doesn’t at all times conflict effectively (so to talk) with the environments anticipated from the sequence. Whenever you’re out within the open, exploring the city or different giant areas, all the things works completely effectively and the dodge, counter and stun mechanics are all actually satisfying.
Nevertheless, the character of Silent Hill means there are additionally areas within the recreation – home interiors, labyrinths, one other college – the place there are lots of tight corridors and small rooms, and that is the place issues break down a bit, particularly in terms of the digital camera.
It’s perhaps carried out by design to encourage the participant to keep away from these conditions, nevertheless it additionally manufactures sufficient set items to pressure them to occur, and battling a dashing, knife-wielding enemy (or two) whereas additionally preventing with the digital camera – to not point out your weapon clanging off the partitions and beautiful you since you don’t have sufficient room to swing it – is massively infuriating at instances.
It speaks volumes of the remainder of the sport’s high quality, nevertheless, that the extra annoying puzzles and fight parts aren’t full recreation breakers, however somewhat downgrade Silent Hill F from completely important to ‘merely’ glorious.
“It speaks volumes of the remainder of the sport’s high quality, nevertheless, that the extra annoying puzzles and fight parts aren’t full recreation breakers, however somewhat downgrade Silent Hill F from completely important to ‘merely’ glorious.”
It’s nonetheless very a lot an expertise that followers of the sequence and survival horror video games normally ought to undoubtedly check out, so long as you’re ready for extra motion than regular and are keen to just accept issues going fairly left-field and fully altering the fight mechanics about midway by way of.
It appears completely attractive, it sounds excellent – the soundtrack, together with contributions from Akira Yamaoka, is superb and you actually ought to play with headphones to listen to the grotesque, otherworldly sounds happening round you – and the plot is as unusual as it’s participating (although the standard content material warnings apply, with lots of abuse and self-harm references to be discovered right here).
It’s a recreation that in some way manages to really feel identical to a Silent Hill recreation and nothing like a Silent Hill recreation in equal measure, however on condition that the sequence has had its justifiable share of disappointing releases over time I’ll fortunately take extra video games like this which take the method in several, generally very stunning instructions.
With the trademark a number of endings the Silent Hill sequence is understood for there’s loads of replay worth available right here, and the plot is so downright odd that you just’ll probably want a number of playthroughs to totally get your head round it anyway. Fortunately, the sport’s gratifying sufficient that the prospect of taking Hinako by way of her personal private hell another time gained’t really feel like a chore.
Nicely, for you, not less than.
