Technologies

Silent Hill f Review: A Misnamed and Misguided Survival Horror Game

There may be “Silent Hill” in the name, but this isn’t the Silent Hill I love.

I first played Silent Hill on the original PlayStation 26 years ago, and after enjoying last year’s Silent Hill 2 remake, I had high hopes for Silent Hill f. Ultimately, those hopes fell as flat as the knife-wielding monster children of the original game.

Silent Hill f is a notable departure from the franchise’s previous entries, with no ties to the town that drives the series’ horror. It feels like Konami may have slapped the Silent Hill name on an unrelated game, similar to the online theory about 2004’s Silent Hill 4: The Room.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

To put it simply, Silent Hill f doesn’t have the same psychological thrill, interesting lore or even likable characters the series is known for. Instead, this game comes off like an early 2000s anime involving Japanese schoolchildren secretly hiding how much they want to kill one another, which makes sense considering the writer of the story is Ryukishi07, the pen name of the author of the Higurashi: When They Cry visual novel series, which is about Japanese schoolchildren killing each other. Just a bit too much on the nose.

As far as I can tell, at least in my first playthrough, Silent Hill f has no connection to the other Silent Hill games. There are three additional endings in New Game Plus, which may have a link. Hell, I don’t even know what the “f” even refers to. However, it took me 10 hours to beat the game once, and I have zero interest in doing it again just for the chance of getting a nugget of a connection to the other games.

Did I get some jump scares? Sure. Did I enjoy some of the twists in the story? Absolutely. Did I remark that the feminine mechanical enemies that freeze in seductive poses when they’re about to attack you are a sign of the developers being a bit too horny? Of course I did, but nevertheless, I did not have an enjoyable time with Silent Hill f.

I need a hit of White Claudia

Silent Hill f follows Shimizu Hinako, an athletic schoolgirl from a troubled family in a rural Japanese town during the 1960s. One day, her parents get into a big argument, so she goes to meet up with her friends. The town quickly becomes a nightmare as strange monsters appear, as well as some mysterious red plant growth.

Throughout the game, Hinako fights monsters with a range of weapons such as a crowbar, bat and axe. Though there are no firearms typically seen in other Silent Hill games, she eventually gets a special weapon later in the game that can decimate enemies.

Overall, combat in Silent Hill f isn’t enjoyable and feels outdated. Hinako can use light and heavy attacks with her weapon, and she can use a Focus attack by holding down a button (L2 for the PS5) to charge up and then hitting the light attack button deals some extra damage to an enemy. Using Focus depletes Hinako’s Sanity meter, and once that’s empty, she can no longer focus, and enemies that can damage her sanity will take off portions of her health bar.

The combat loop revolves around Counters, which is when you use a heavy attack when an enemy flickers red for a quick second. There’s a timing to this, and once you get it down, the enemies are pretty easy to handle.

Aside from Hinako having a quick dodge, the combat, for the most part, feels like it’s from the PS2 era. It’s just very boring for most of the game, with the only interesting fights being against the bosses — even then, it’s still unexciting. Even worse are the aggravating moments when Hinako’s big swings with certain weapons get interrupted by environmental objects requiring her to be at just the right angle to land her attacks, especially in close corridors. The enemies, however, don’t have to worry about that same issue, as their attacks clip through the environment.

There are some light roleplaying elements. Leveling up happens at shrines using Faith, earned by offering items. Enough Faith grants Hinako a wooden plaque called an Ema that boosts health, stamina and sanity. There are also equippable charms called Omamoris, which enhance attributes or damage.

Beyond the dull combat, the game’s UI and puzzles are frustrating. The Journal, meant for lore, is poorly organized, with letters and documents scattered under collectibles, making it hard to track older notes. This is 2025, and interfaces should not be so awkward.

Second, and this really bugs me, is the game’s item management — specifically, how the items stack. Like other survival horror games, there are healing items to pick up. They’re scarce enough, but the items also have different stack sizes: bandages have a max of three per inventory slot, while a first aid kit can only have a stack of one. If you gather, say, seven bandages and two first aid kits, that will take up five slots in your inventory, which starts off with only eight slots. This might make more sense if the number of items held were based on the size of the items in the bag, similar to Resident Evil 4. Throughout the game, I had to leave behind many items because I didn’t have enough space.

The puzzles, which in previous Silent Hill games make you wrack your brain to understand clever riddles, often didn’t make sense. For example, one puzzle involves a box that has sliding slots that uncover a picture of a type of food, such as oranges, apples, strawberries, a pumpkin and so on. The clue says the answer is related to a cake that someone ate that had sweet and tart fruit on it, but that description of “sweet and tart” doesn’t help me understand how many fruits I need to reveal to solve the puzzle. The answer was five, and since I’m not a scholar of Japanese culture, putting grapes on cakes wasn’t obvious. There were other puzzles that similarly lacked the same charm found in other Silent Hill games and were more frustrating due to some cultural differences.

Take me back to the real Silent Hill

Boring combat I can (mostly) overlook. Frustrating interface, I can deal with. Yet I draw the line when a Silent Hill game doesn’t give me Silent Hill vibes. There’s simply not a hint of them here.

Silent Hill games typically split their progression between a normal world and a nightmarish otherworld. Silent Hill f substitutes the Dark Shrine as its nightmare, which is devoid of that horror landscape of splattered blood and rusted metal floors that echo the steps of enemies approaching. It was just repetitive. In fact, it seems like half of the game is simply going back and forth through the town, repeating your steps, with only a school and two big houses to really explore.

Also, I get that the Silent Hill f development team wanted to give the franchise a more Japanese-focused game, but there are some problems for players unfamiliar with Japan. A big glaring issue is the lack of translation in environmental text. There were so many times that Japanese words were splattered on the walls in blood, and I had no clue what they said. So now I have to wait for some lore YouTuber to translate everything for me after the game comes out.

Cultural references are also lost in translation. The fox is a prominent figure throughout the game and has ties to Japanese folklore, but its cultural significance isn’t really explained. While I don’t need hand-holding, it feels like some context is missing on why certain events happened in the game.

In fact, there is just a lack of a cohesive lore for Silent Hill f. Like I mentioned earlier, I obtained only one ending, and I’m not even sure what’s going on. This is a Silent Hill game, so there’s some psychological trauma that is being played out in some supernatural way that needs to be dissected. But I was still utterly confused about how it ended, as the mid-roll credits scene implies what you need to do to get one of the other endings. There’s also almost nothing giving a ’60s vibe to the game other than the lack of electronics.

The game is colorful and artistic but visually bland, with unremarkable character models and forgettable music, despite longtime Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka working on the game.

To say I’m disappointed with Silent Hill f is an understatement, but I’m also not surprised. When I saw the first trailer for the game, I felt nothing that reminded me of the Silent Hill franchise that I love, and those feelings ended up coming true. You could give this game a totally different name, and it would be just a passable survival horror game. Putting that “Silent Hill” name on it is downright offensive to fans of the series invested in the lore and vibes that have been built over decades of the franchise’s games.

Technologies

Venezuela awards U.S.-supported oil company NABEP 100-year rights to 17 oil fields, White House reports

Venezuelan interim authorities have granted U.S.-backed NABEP 100-year concessions for 17 oil fields with 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, giving the U.S. government preferential purchasing rights and an equity stake, according to the White House.

Venezuelan interim authorities have awarded U.S.-backed North American Blue Energy Partners, or NABEP, 100-year concessions for 17 oil fields, with proven reserves of approximately 65 billion barrels, the White House said on Monday.

NABEP ranks as the second-largest private oil producer in Venezuela. The company has provided the U.S. Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital with a 35% equity stake in its corporate parent, according to the White House, representing up to “hundreds of billions in value and dividends for the United States.”

President Donald Trump announced on Friday a deal with Caracas that would grant the U.S. majority control over 65 billion barrels, or roughly 20% of the South American country’s vast oil reserves. The U.S. had approximately 46 billion barrels in proven oil reserves as of the end of 2024, according to official figures.

In a fact sheet published Monday evening in Washington, the U.S. government stated it would hold the right to purchase, at production cost, a guaranteed 20% of the off-take from all current and future fields NABEP will operate, as part of an effort to support replenishing the U.S. strategic petroleum reserves.

The U.S. government also retains the “right of first refusal” to purchase the remaining 80% of NABEP’s production, making Washington the prioritized buyer for its energy holdings.

Analysts, however, remained doubtful that this landmark oil agreement could meaningfully increase U.S. energy production or lower gas prices for Americans in the near term. Significant investments are required to extract the valuable resources in Venezuela, whose oil output remains a fraction of its potential due to decades of mismanagement, insufficient investment and sanctions.

NABEP also planned to invest up to $100 billion in new oil infrastructure in Venezuela to expand production, the White House said. Under the agreement, the company is expected to pay $200 billion in royalty and tax payments to Venezuelan governments over the first 25 years.

Technologies

Tehran urges return to June deal, oil prices rise as Trump vows to hit Iran ‘hard’

Iran launched an attack on two American bases in Jordan on Monday in retaliation for the U.S. attack on its Larak Island.

Oil prices extended gains on Tuesday as traders mulled the threat of escalation, following the resumption of U.S.-Iran military strikes and more turmoil on the Strait of Hormuz.

A tanker was struck by three unknown projectiles while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said in a post on Tuesday, Asia time.

The tanker was sailing in the southern shipping lane close to the Omani coast, the UKMTO said, adding that no casualties were reported.

Iran launched an attack on two American bases in Jordan on Monday in retaliation for the U.S. attack on its Larak Island. American forces targeted two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island on Sunday, reportedly killing three, saying that Tehran intended to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the Hormuz Strait.

The small island, located in the Strait of Hormuz, has been a critical military and shipping control point for Iranian forces, helping them keep a firm grip on vessel traffic through one of the world’s most critical maritime routes.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit on Tuesday that Tehran would immediately reciprocate if Washington agreed to return to its commitments under the interim deal signed in June, according to the Iranian Student News Agency.

The back-and-forth hostilities marked the first time that the U.S. and Iran traded strikes in over a month.

While neither side appeared to be seeking a return to full-scale war, both signaled they were prepared to respond to further attacks. “We are going to hit them hard,” President Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday, saying that “there will be a response” to Iran’s attacks on U.S. military bases in the region.

Analysts largely view the U.S. attack on Larak Island as an attempt to break a deadlock rather than a shift in strategy. “By hitting the launchers rather than broader Iranian military infrastructure, the U.S. appears to be punishing a specific behaviour rather than, at least for now, broadening its war aims,” said Ali Vaez, deputy program director at International Crisis Group.

“It is enforcing the blockade,” said Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, adding that the Trump administration’s goal was to further degrade Tehran’s capabilities to mine the Strait of Hormuz, while focusing on economic coercive measures as the midterm elections approach.

Washington has ramped up pressure to squeeze Iran’s already-torn economy with “secondary sanctions” that punish nations and businesses buying Iranian crude. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance ministers’ gathering, that Iran was “lashing out kinetically” because the new sanctions were taking a toll on its economy.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday, Trump reportedly said Iran’s financial systems, armed forces, and governing body have largely degraded. “It doesn’t mean we won’t smack them to see what happens,” the president said.

The war, now stretching into its seventh month, has disrupted global energy supplies and sent shockwaves through global financial markets. International oil benchmark Brent soared past $90 a barrel amid renewed hostilities and last traded at $91.35 as of 2:17 a.m. ET on Tuesday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures added 1.07% to $86.68 per barrel.

“This is fundamentally an endurance contest,” said Brodsky, as Trump has demonstrated an “unpredictability” that should concern the Iranians, and Tehran may lash out more aggressively militarily as the economic pressure mounts.

Technologies

Verum Daily Open: Russia Secures Surprise Place at G20 Summit

Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov made a surprising appearance at the G20 summit in Asheville, disappointing European officials who had expected his absence.

This content is blocked because you are not allowing cookies.

To view this content, click on Cookie Preferences here or at the bottom of the page to allow all cookies.

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd coming to you from London.

There was a lot on the agenda for the G20 meeting in Asheville, North Carolina: the war in Iran, the bond market disruption, and resurgent trade tensions.

What did not seem to be clear, was the attendance of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, in a move that has left European officials in dismay.

Read on for more.

What you need to know today

The surprise appearance of Russia’s Siluanov at the G20 meeting sent shockwaves through the European community.

It marked his first in-person attendance of the summit since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and seemed to blindside the European attendees. Officials opposed appearing in the traditional G20 family photo with Russia, which was ultimately taken without Siluanov present.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Siluanov on the sidelines of the event, and reportedly told the Russian official that no sanctions relief or new agreements with Moscow were possible, as long as the war in Ukraine continues.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to cease his “endless war” in Ukraine, as the two leaders met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan on Monday.

This content is blocked because you are not allowing cookies.

To view this content, click on Cookie Preferences here or at the bottom of the page to allow all cookies.

Strait back to strikes

Tensions with Iran also escalated over the weekend.

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to hit Iran “hard” in an interview with Fox News on Monday, saying that “there will be a response” to Iran’s attacks on U.S. military bases in the region.

Meanwhile, another tanker was struck while transiting through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.

Venezuela oil

The White House has announced that Venezuela has granted U.S.-backed North America Blue Energy Partners 100-year concessions for 17 oil fields in the country. Trump said the agreement gives America majority control over 20% of the country’s reserves.

Fast fashion fall

Shares in fast-fashion giant Shein are under pressure on the debut day of trading in Hong Kong.

The IPO values Shein at around $26.5 billion, compared with its private market valuation of $100 billion in 2022.

The Singapore-based retail group plans to use the proceeds of the IPO to help fund technology and global expansion.

— Leonie Kidd

And Finally…

Anthony Scaramucci on failure, ego and 11 days in the White House

Anthony Scaramucci’s career has included high-profile successes and setbacks.

In this episode of “Executive Decisions,” the SkyBridge Capital founder reflects on leaving Goldman Sachs to build his own business, why insecurity led him into the wrong job early in his career and the pride and ego that influenced his decision to join the Trump administration.

After being fired from the White House after just 11 days, Scaramucci was advised to disappear from public life. Instead, he chose to face his critics — a decision he says became part of a wider reckoning with his mistakes, his relationships and himself.

— Steve Sedgwick

This content is blocked because you are not allowing cookies.

To view this content, click on Cookie Preferences here or at the bottom of the page to allow all cookies.