A Fan’s Concerns About the Series’ Direction

After 13 years, the newest mainline installment in the Silent Hill series is almost here with Silent Hill f. Coming a year after the phenomenal Silent Hill 2 Remake, Silent Hill f seems to be taking the franchise in a different direction. There was a brand-new trailer at this year’s Gamescom, showing off more of the story and announcing a notable FF7 Remake voice actress as the protagonist.

Silent Hill F is arriving on September 25, and while it looks good on its own, as a long-time Silent Hill fan, I’m worried. To me, the first four Silent Hill games, along with the SH2 Remake, are the only ones that feel like Silent Hill. All the future games lacked what made Silent Hill special, and it seems like Silent Hill F is already repeating one of the franchise’s biggest mistakes.

What Killed Silent Hill Off For 12 Years

Lacking The Fear Factor

After Silent Hill 4: The Room, the original Japanese developers at Team Silent left the series, with future games being developed by Western studios that struggled to understand what made the series special. These later titles didn’t click with fans for many reasons, one of which is that they were not good games to begin with.

Besides Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which was a decent Wii horror game on its own, the titles often had poor visuals and compromised technical aspects. Most importantly, they weren’t scary.

What made Silent Hill such a great and unique horror experience were two things. First was the sound design. No other horror game makes better use of sound design to scare the hell out of players without anything actually happening. A freaky sound could go off in an empty room, and that alone would make certain players want to shut off the game.

The second aspect was the disturbing visuals, which, while not fully explicit, were just uncomfortable enough to evoke the heart-shaking feeling the developers were aiming for. These later Silent Hill games largely didn’t use these two principles.

Games like Homecoming and Downpour felt more like Resident Evil or Dead Space, as opposed to Silent Hill, in how they scare the player. These titles just weren’t scary, which was the main problem. Moreover, they weren’t scary in the trademark Silent Hill way. Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills seemed to be going in the right direction, but the cancellation of that game is something the series still hasn’t recovered from.

Silent Hill F Seems To Be Another Silent Hill In Name Only

Another Potential Silent Hill Letdown

While the Silent Hill 2 Remake was absolutely amazing, I feel like the next mainline installment should play it safe, considering Silent Hill’s rough track record since the classic games. In my head, I envisioned a Silent Hill title that brought back the series’ core identity, with a freaky soundscape, disturbing visuals, and a great atmosphere. Unfortunately, Silent Hill f doesn’t seem to be going in that direction.

Silent Hill F brings the series to Japan instead of the usual town of Silent Hill, which isn’t a bad thing. However, the trailers leave a lot to be desired for me as a longtime Silent Hill fan. The sound design isn’t very impressive, although the radio appears to be back, which is great. The visual designs of the monsters resemble standard Japanese horror fare, akin to Slitterhead, rather than the creatively disturbing designs of the classic games.

The atmosphere also isn’t giving off Silent Hill vibes for me, and I’m especially worried about the game’s heightened focus on melee combat, which has a pretty bad track record in the series. It seems Silent Hill f is targeting a totally different audience, acting more like a combat-oriented Fatal Frame instead of Silent Hill.

Why Can’t A New Silent Hill Capture What Made The Series Great To Begin With?

It’s So Frustrating

After all these new details on Silent Hill f, the game looks like a very solid horror title on its own, but not a Silent Hill game. As someone who was there during Silent Hill’s dark period in the early 2010s, I find it very frustrating. What brings the Silent Hill community back to those first four games time and time again is their distinct, unique quality.

There are only a handful of games similar to Silent Hill’s trademark psychological horror style, and while many try to copy its success, few can truly imitate it. Silent Hill 3 remains one of the scariest games of all time, with a visual style and sound design that still holds up.

The scare factor and its unique execution are what make Silent Hill what it is. It’s disappointing that Silent Hill f, at least for me, appears to be another title in the series that barely even resembles the franchise in question.

Silent Hill f

Systems

Released

September 25, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity

Developer(s)

Neobards Entertainment

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

Number of Players

Single-player

Steam Deck Compatibility

Playable

PC Release Date

September 25, 2025

Xbox Series X|S Release Date

September 25, 2025