Previous to getting an enormous, fats, four-hour demo with it at Gamescom, I used to be anxious that banging on about Silent Hill f’s newfound enthusiasm for monster combating – with all its parries, zippy dodges, and slow-mo focus meters – can be doing a disservice to its bolder, extra ‘attention-grabbing’ collection departures, like the brand new Sixties setting or its deep embrace of homegrown Japanese tradition and myths. A sure lacking of the purpose, like setting out for a beautiful drive by the Scottish highlands then stopping to gawp at a evenly crashed Peugeot on the onerous shoulder.
However no. Fight is as deeply ingrained inside Silent Hill f as responsible moping was to Silent Hill 2, and from what I’ve performed, doesn’t work practically as nicely.
To be clear, I don’t consider that thonking wretches with metallic pipes is antithetical to good survival horror. Nearly each mainline Silent Hill (save 2024’s experimental The Brief Message) has had its share of combating again, and it’s not like SHf’s main survivor Hinako is busting out the backflipping weapon arts. Her offensive strikes are nonetheless largely sluggish, unskilled swings or slashes, and even the extra superior methods (parrying included) are introduced by competent animation work because the determined, usually fortunate hits of a struggling teenager.
There are issues, although. The largest lies in Hinako’s extra defensive skillset, which features a dodge-dash that already appears weirdly beneficiant even earlier than it provides in a whooshing gradual movement impact on notably well-timed evasions. That is no modest, SH2 Remake-style sidestep – the lady rattling close to flies off the display screen, simply swooping out of most monsters’ assault ranges except you fully bung the timing.
The impact on the horror facet is… unlucky. When every little thing in need of a scripted boss might be sprinted previous or danced round, the truth that your remoted hometown is infested with murderbeasts immediately turns into lots much less intimidating. And the dodge undermines among the heavier-handed moments of pressure, too. Late within the demo, I used to be compelled to flee a spooky Shinto shrine as a deadly pink mist nibbled away at my well being and sanity bars. Enemies spawned on slender walkways to dam the trail, and sporadic bursts of ache restricted my capacity to dash – however my dodging prowess was left fully unaffected, permitting me to casually breeze previous risks and attain the exit with loads of life to spare.
Buying and selling scares for battle drama isn’t essentially a foul deal, and I personally don’t thoughts an actionised sequel so long as the motion is completed nicely. Sadly, Silent Hill f’s aggressive play additionally wants vital tightening-up. Even the only melee swings are frustratingly inconsistent: generally it’s like Hinato lunges midway throughout the prefecture to land a strike, different instances she’ll swipe at a baddie that’s proper up in her face and hit air. I’m not even positive it’s a success detection downside, as there have been quite a few events the place I’d lock on to a foe, transfer into eyelash-tickling vary, and will solely watch as Hinako slashed two toes to the abomination’s facet. However I used to be locked on! Locked! And when a blow does join, it would produce a weird non-response. Too many instances, my enemy-stunning heavy assaults had been met by delayed stun animations, as if the enemy momentarily forgot the “fall down” stage route.
The impression I’m getting to this point, then, is of an action-horror sport the place the motion isn’t very compelling and the horror isn’t very scary. Uh and, certainly, oh. Although that also wouldn’t be so dangerous, if there weren’t additionally heaps of real qualities to Silent Hill f that I in any other case actually appreciated. Cherished, even.
Take the alternative for Silent Hill itself, the agricultural, past-its-prime city of Ebisugaoka. No acre-wide roads or towering residence blocks right here: it’s all slender alleyways and creaking wooden, a spot of unimaginable density that’s by some means change into a ghost city, and thus the right set for chases and ambushes. I’ve solely fought (or dodged) a handful of creature sorts however these are strongly designed, too, particularly the twitchy, double-jointed flesh/doll hybrids and a decaying, uncomfortably lanky shrine maiden who serves as the primary main boss.
Silent Hill f isn’t anyplace close to the primary horror sport to take action, but it surely does dig deep into Japanese folklore and customized. Shortly after duelling the above mad miko, there’s even a lovingly rendered scene of 1 character performing the total Temizuya ritual. Once more, it’s not particular for overlaying these items, but it surely does cowl an terrible lot, and works the tradition into characters, surroundings, puzzles, and mechanics extensively.
Even when the demo was hardly ever able to scariness, it was very able to eeriness – a sense that, in some methods, takes larger artistry to drag off. No story spoilers, however I stay intrigued by the mysteries that the sport spins round Hinako and her more and more bizarre pals, and for what it’s value, there are occasions when the fight backs off and allows you to discover or work on puzzles. The excessive level of my 4 hours was a trek by a supernaturally huge, fog-smothered farm discipline, your solely firm being clusters of school-uniformed scarecrows. This part can truly contain numerous combating in the event you don’t grasp its puzzle hints, because the mannequins will spring to life with murderous intent upon you interacting with the fallacious ones, but the mix of strange backdrop, sparse sound design, and lingering sense of an imminent risk makes it a memorable set-piece even in the event you by no means get the pipe out in any respect.
I fear, although, whether or not moments like this might be value slogging by a full sport’s value of iffy brawls, assuming they’re not all instantly compromised by that superhuman dodge. Because it stands, Silent Hill f’s opening hours counsel a wrestle to stability its motion and horror halves, and whereas it may theoretically polish its combating in order that it at the least doesn’t really feel so wonky, a September twenty fifth launch means it has lower than a month to take action. That’s an enormous ask – perhaps too massive, at this stage.
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