Silent Hill f looks to be one of this year's more promising titles, though recent gameplay footage that has been circulating on social media has a few people worried. For starters, many describe the game's combat as something akin to a soulslike (I personally don't see it), as protagonist Hinako can be seen fighting a variety of horrid monsters with melee weapons and a swift dodge.
Regardless of how you see the gameplay, it seems pretty evident that Silent Hill f will be a lot more combat and action-focused than previous Silent Hill games, and this was apparently a pretty deliberate decision by those in charge. In an interview with GameSpark (translated by Automaton), Silent Hill series producer Motoi Okamoto and Silent Hill f director Al Yang explained this game will have "more entertaining and thrilling action".
Silent Hill f Has Challenging Combat To Stop Silent Hill 2 Comparisons
There are apparently a couple of reasons for this combat-heavy approach, one of which was to avoid the inevitable Silent Hill 2 comparisons. According to Yang, there was a concerted effort to avoid making a Silent Hill 2 "clone", and leaning more into action was one of the ways they tried to do this.
"We didn’t want to end up recreating Silent Hill 2 over and over again, and we were aware that there was no reason to keep making clones of it. So, in order to avoid repeating what previous major titles did, we decided to make the action stand out more.”
Another reason for the combat-heavy approach - and one that I'm personally concerned about - is to try and make Silent Hill more appealing to new players. According to Okamoto, action games are becoming more popular among younger gamers, so adding more action to Silent Hill is an attempt to start building up a younger audience.
Now, anyone who is a fan of the Resident Evil series is probably on their hands and knees right now, and for good reason. Resident Evil 5 and 6 are arguably two of the weakest games in the series, despite sales numbers, and a lot of that is down to the abandonment of its horror roots in favor of more action. Hopefully, given how long it's been since we've had a brand-new Silent Hill game, the series isn't going down its action game arc.
Silent Hill f
- Released
- September 25, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
- Developer(s)
- Neobards Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Konami
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Franchise
- Silent Hill
- Number of Players
- Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Playable
