Hesitation is defeat, apparently.
Silent Hill f previews are out, and while the overall response is positive, some aspects of the title have raised some eyebrows in the Silent Hill fandom. Silent Hill f is a stark departure from last year’s Silent Hill 2, not just in terms of characters and settings, but also gameplay.
Unlike past games, Silent Hill f is an action-heavy game with an emphasis on challenging combat encounters. It’s ambitious New Game Plus mode also introduces different boss fights, thereby highlighting the heightened focus on combat, this time around.
However, much of this talk, and the general flow of Silent Hill f’s gameplay seen in previews, has some players wondering if Silent Hill f is a soulslike game. In this guide, we clear up this unexpected query and analyze various aspects of Silent Hill f’s combat system.
Does Silent Hill f play like a soulslike game?
Whether Silent Hill f is a soulslike game or not depends on the player’s perception of what such a title is. To put things into perspective, it could be anything or everything that has a brutal combat system, challenging boss encounters, checkpoints that respawn enemies, and a steep progression system.
Unlike past games, Silent Hill f only features melee combat. Hinako can scourge objects such as iron pipes, knives, baseball bats, and spears from the environment to deal damage to enemies. Like Silent Hill 4, weapons degrade over time in Silent Hill f, adding an extra layer of tension to the gameplay.
There’s an emphasis on time-based attacks, with dodges and counters being essential tools for avoiding enemy attacks and inflicting damage on them. Hinako has a stamina bar, which drains from sprinting and attacking. She can deal light or heavy attacks, with the latter naturally consuming more stamina and taking longer to unleash.
To gamify things further, Silent Hill f gives Hinako a focus mode, which allows her to slow down time and spot visual cues for countering enemy attacks. The extra time is also essential for dealing power attacks that stagger enemies. However, it’s worth noting that the focus mode isn’t tied to Hinako’s stamina meter. Instead, she has a third mental energy bar that decreases when she’s frightened.
Bosses in Silent Hill f require diligence and patience. Analysing enemy attack patterns is crucial for gaining an upper hand in the fights, which isn’t new to Silent Hill or survival horror games in general.
Overall, these new additions do make Silent Hill f a more mechanically sound and robust game, though, arguably, it’s still far from being a traditional soulslike title.
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Why is Silent Hill f an action-heavy game?
There’s a reason, however, why Silent Hill f is a more action-heavy experience than its predecessors. In an interview with gamespark, Silent Hill series producer Okamoto revealed the studio went in this direction to attract new and younger audiences.
“I think that challenging action games are popular among young users these days, so I thought that incorporating that kind of action would resonate with people who haven't played it yet.”
Okamoto also explained how Silent Hill f’s developer, NeoBards Entertainment, is a studio that excels at making action games. From the early stages of Silent Hill f’s development, the company wanted to incorporate “fun and excitement” into it.
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