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Silent Hill: TownfallPS5Hideo KojimaJapanPlayStationSwitch 2The Wall Street JournalXbox
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Latest Silent Hill articles

Silver Pines review – a stylish, neo-noir detective drama

Silver Pines review – a stylish, neo-noir detective drama

PC, PS5, Switch 2; Wych Elm Games, Team 17 Abandoned shops, ruined apartment buildings and rotting sewer networks make up a dark landscape in which you play a private eye searching for a missing singer-songwriter In a weird deserted town miles from anywhere, a troubled detective searches for a missing musician and the girl he may or may not have murdered. It could be a Silent Hill game or a lost David Lynch movie from the 1990s – in fact, it’s neither. And also both. If that whets your appetite, stick around, there’s plenty more to come. Developed by Scandinavian studio Wych Elm Games, Silver Pines is a dark Metroidvania-style adventure, where you play as shambling private eye, Red Walker, exploring a 2D universe of abandoned shops, ruined apartment buildings and rotting sewer networks. Officially, everyone has left because of an incoming storm, but very quickly you learn that something much darker is afoot. Someone has hired you to find singer-songwriter Eddie Velvet, but you don’t know why; your only contact with your client is via the payphones dotted around town, where you can also save your progress – as long as you have a dollar to pay for the call. Each location is filled with clues and puzzles – a weird newspaper story pinned to the wall, a strange statue that needs a missing piece – and through these artefacts you unlock new rooms and descend further into the mystery. Continue reading...

PS5Silent HillSwitch 2
Oct 6, 2026 · byThe Guardian
How to Play the Silent Hill Games in Order

How to Play the Silent Hill Games in Order

Silent Hill has appeared in the restless dreams of horror fans for almost three decades now. The foggy town and its various iterations, plagued by the Otherworld, continue to define the mechanics and ambience of psychological horror to this day. Each Silent Hill game contains a relatively standalone story, tied to whatever character the Otherworld has decided to bring to its doorstep. However, the lore of Silent Hill develops across games through returning characters as well as memos, posters, and other small details. Despite its fill of contradictions, some of which are only natural for games with multiple endings, there’s a larger story lurking in the background of each protagonist’s path to atonement (or madness). If the release of Silent Hill: Townfall has sparked your curiosity about how the timeline all fits together, we’ve got you covered. Note: This is not a timeline of the town of Silent Hill, which is revealed throughout games, comics, books, and other supplementary materials. Instead, it’s focused on which games connect to one another and how, with some discussion of each game’s multiple endings. How Many Silent Hill Games Are There? Approximately 18 Silent Hill games have been released since the franchise debuted in 1999. Four Silent Hill games were originally developed by Team Silent between 1999 and 2004. Subsequent games, including plenty of spinoffs, were developed by a variety of studios across Japan and North America. Konami has also published four Silent Hill games for mobile devices: The Orphan trilogy and Silent Hill: The Escape . These have some murky connections to the rest of the franchise. For simplicity’s sake, we are not including these on the full timeline, but there’s still some lore in those for anyone trying to get the full Silent Hill picture. We also won’t be including the Play Novel , which reimagines the original game, or the interactive streaming series Silent Hill: Ascension . Main Silent Hill Games in Release Order: Just looking for a quick list of the hits? These are what we’d consider the most important Silent Hill games in release order, with the first four games making up the “major canon:” Silent Hill Silent Hill 2 Silent Hill 3 Silent Hill 4: The Room Silent Hill: Origins Silent Hill: Homecoming Silent Hill: Downpour Silent Hill ƒ Silent Hill: Townfall Which Silent Hill Game Should You Start With? Where to start is really a matter of what drew you to the series and whether you’re interested in the original gameplay. If you’re looking for a taste of the series on modern consoles, Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake is a faithful recreation with some quality of life improvements. If you’re interested in Silent Hill for lore reasons, there’s no harm in starting at the beginning or even with the original Silent Hill 2. Unless you still have a PS1 and can somehow get your hands on an original copy (very cool, if so), your best bet here is looking for emulation guides. Every Silent Hill Game in Timeline Order The first four Silent Hill games are considered the “major canon,” with subsequent spin-offs and standalone games making references to the original story, but also creating some contradictions. Some games are directly connected, some loosely reference one another, and others are pretty much entirely their own thing. Still, we have a rough sense of when these games take place, and it’s up to you how they fit into your understanding of the Otherworld. 1. Silent Hill ƒ Release Date: September 25, 2025 | Read IGN's Full Review The timeline of Silent Hill games actually starts with one of the most recent installments. Silent Hill ƒ takes us to the town of Ebisugaoka in the 1960s, marking the first time the series was set in Japan . While some loose connections to the lore of the American Silent Hill are revealed through memos and documents, Silent Hill f’s characters, locations , and “version” of the Otherworld are entirely distinct. You play as Hinako, a teenaged girl living in fear of her own future and family, with a unique approach to save states and endings enhanced by writing from Ryukishi07 . 2. Silent Hill: Origins Release Date: November 6, 2007 | Read IGN's Full Review Silent Hill Origins is a prequel that, despite releasing later, directly connects to the original Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 as part of the “Alessa Gillespie” arc. It also marks the start of some inconsistencies and, despite its direct connection to the mainline games, is debated in its place as canon. The story, which by in-game logic takes place around the late 70s, follows the truck driving Travis after a crash brings him to Silent Hill. There, he slowly discovers the cult-driven secrets of the town while reckoning with his own traumatic childhood. It’s specifically the “Good” ending from this game that leads into the original Silent Hill, quite literally paving the way for the character of Cheryl. 3. Silent Hill Release Date: February 23, 1999 | Read IGN's Full Review The original Silent Hill, naturally, stood on its own two feet. It introduced us to the opaque fog that, while serving a practical purpose around real-time generated environments, became the series’ atmospheric staple. In the late 80s (if you go by Silent Hill 3 logic), a mysterious car crash leads Harry Mason to the eponymous town of Silent Hill. There, he searches for his now missing young daughter, Cheryl, while encountering the original strange cast of characters and nightmares of the Otherworld. While the canon on this is a bit iffy, we can now think of it as continuing from the “Good” ending of Silent Hill: Origins. And, of course, paving the way for everything else. Note: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories , released in 2009, is a reimagining of this first game with different narrative beats. It functionally takes place within its own timeline, but we’d recommend having some familiarity with the first game to get the most out of it. 4. Silent Hill 2 Release Date: September 25, 2001 | Read IGN's Full Review Perhaps the best-known game in the series, Silent Hill 2 extends the lore of the town from the first game while introducing new characters and plotlines. And, of course, it gave us the iconic Pyramid Head. James Sunderland heads to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his deceased wife saying that’s where he can find her. Art director Masahiro Ito has mentioned the game taking place in the late 70s, but documents in later games peg Silent Hill 2 as taking place about a decade after the original. The 90s timeline slot aligns with the dates we see in a number of diaries, and is thus what we’re going with. Unlike some of the other games on this list, Silent Hill 2 does not necessarily have a “canon” ending that directly leads to future events. Note: The 2024 remake from Bloober Team follows the same beats as the original story, though with some changes to possible endings . 5. Silent Hill: The Arcade Release Date: July 25, 2007 Now we’re getting into spin-off territory. Silent Hill: The Arcade is particularly unique, focusing more on action shooter mechanics than the eerie psychological horror elements the rest of the series is known for. Still, it’s Silent Hill, and specifically a spin-off game that takes place around the same time as Silent Hill 2. While it’s generally its own thing, Arcade still offers some interesting insight into earlier Silent Hill history, particularly the sinking of the Little Baroness ship back in 1917. 6. Silent Hill: Townfall Release Date: September 25, 2026 | Read IGN's Full Review Yep, things get weird again. The latest Silent Hill game takes place in 1996 on the fictional island of St. Amelia, which places it firmly in the middle of the original Team Silent games. Protagonist Simon wakes up at the docks of the island with no memory of how he got there. In typical Silent Hill fashion, he quickly encounters some funky characters and his own variation of the Otherworld. These encounters slowly reveal his and the town’s past, and how exactly they’re connected. Like Silent Hill f, Townfall has looser connections to the initial cult elements of the series, instead staying connected through themes of guilt. And, of course, the joke ending . 7. Silent Hill 3 Release Date: August 5, 2003 (NA) | Read IGN's Full Review While Silent Hill 3 doesn’t technically pick up the story until after Townfall, it most directly follows the events of Silent Hill: Origins and the original game, concluding the aforementioned Alessa arc. Its place on the timeline generally lines up with its own release year in the early 2000s. The connection here is pretty blatant. You play as Heather, daughter of Harry Mason. The murder of her father (the OG protagonist) prompts Heather to return to Silent Hill 17 years after the first game to learn the true circumstances and implications of her birth. 8. Silent Hill 4: The Room Release Date: September 7, 2004 (NA) | Read IGN's Full Review The last Silent Hill game originally developed by Team Silent carries on from Silent Hill 3 in the early 2000s. One letter in particular clarifies that it’s been a “few years” since the events of the third game. We’ve since gotten plenty of different iterations of what exactly makes “Silent Hill,” but this was the first game to literally move the game’s location away from the specific town, instead bringing us to Ashfield. There are some character connections to the second and third games, but this one largely stands on its own as you try to help Henry Townsend escape his apartment (and the “Nightmare”). 9. Silent Hill: Homecoming Release Date: September 30, 2008 | Read IGN's Full Review Homecoming was the first "mainline" Silent Hill game released after Konami disbanded Team Silent. It once again leaves out the actual town of Silent Hill, instead following the protagonist, Alex Shepherd, as he returns to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen. Homecoming doesn’t have a particularly concrete place on the timeline, but it generally takes place within a few years of The Room. Travis the truck driver makes an appearance, marking a loose connection to Origins, and the game directly addresses the cultish machinations of “The Order” from the original canon. 10. Silent Hill: Downpour Release Date: March 13, 2012 | Read IGN's Full Review Downpour is pretty standalone in the grand scheme of things. However, it does bring us back to the actual town of Silent Hill through the classic means of a sad man getting into a car (well, prison transport bus) crash. There’s not an obvious in-game year attached to the story of Downpour, but general fan consensus places it around the release date of the game itself. Despite its titular setting, there aren’t too many references to the other Silent Hill games, but a certain Pyramid Head does make an appearance. In the joke ending , at least. 11. Silent Hill: Book of Memories Release Date: October 15, 2012 | Read IGN's Full Review Yep, another funky spin-off. This one is particularly distinct, in large part because it’s the one Silent Hill game where you create your own character . It’s also your birthday! And it's a dungeon crawler! Again, a weird one. In all of its weirdness, though, we do know that Book of Memories takes place very specifically in 2010. Just don’t expect too much insight into the rest of the franchise. 12. Silent Hill: The Short Message Release Date: January 31, 2024 | Read IGN's Full Review The timeline ends with a recent free-to-play spin-off that followed the cancellation of P.T. and is once again generally its own thing. The Short Message takes place in “modern day” Germany, specifically the small town of Kettenstadt. Events like the COVID-19 pandemic appear in-game, bringing us into the 2020s. However, the course of the game’s events are heavily influenced by the town’s history back in the 1930s as well as the childhood of its protagonist, Anita. BONUS: P.T. Sure, it might have been pulled from the PlayStation Store , but P.T. certainly made some waves when it was first released. P.T., which stands for Playable Teaser, was an early demo for the full game of Silent Hills, a collaboration between Konami, Hideo Kojima, and Guillermo del Toro. Unfortunately, the project’s cancellation means we’ll never truly know how it was going to connect to the rest of the series. The Future of Silent Hill Silent Hill fans have had plenty to chew on over the past couple of years with the back-to-back release of Silent Hill ƒ and Silent Hill: Townfall. These were two of the wonkier additions to the full timeline, suggesting Konami’s focus is now on experimenting with what exactly can (and should ) be “Silent Hill”. While Konami has openly discussed annual Silent Hill releases , we have yet to hear any official announcements about future new games in the franchise. We do know that Bloober Team is following up their Silent Hill 2 remake with a remake of the original 1999 game . In the meantime, studios continue to take cracks at trying to make a decent Silent Hill movie.

Silent HillSilent Hill: Townfall
Sep 26, 2026 · byIGN
How Silent Hill: Townfall Brings a New Perspective to the Iconic Horror Series

How Silent Hill: Townfall Brings a New Perspective to the Iconic Horror Series

For nearly three decades, the Silent Hill series has evolved through new protagonists, settings, and approaches to psychological horror. Silent Hill: Townfall continues that tradition by introducing the franchise's first full-length first-person experience, a new setting outside the typical Silent Hill town, and a cast featuring acclaimed actors from film, television, and games. While previous entries have largely centered on the town of Silent Hill itself, Townfall takes you to St. Amelia, a remote Scottish island that’s been abandoned by its residents. Although the setting differs, the game continues to explore themes that have long defined the franchise. You play as Simon, a man with a connection to the island who begins the game armed with nothing more than a handheld CRTV, which serves as an evolution of concepts familiar to longtime fans. Similar to how earlier games used radio signals and environmental cues to build tension, Townfall's handheld device becomes a central tool for uncovering story details and navigating threats. These story details are tied to narrative-driven puzzles that will reveal past events or allow you to see how people lived in St. Amelia before it fell into its current state. They go a long way toward filling out the world and adding important details between major plot moments. When you use the CRTV to detect enemies, you’ll then have to choose how to deal with them. If you’re the type who likes to rush in and destroy as many enemies as you can, there are options for that. You’ll pick up melee weapons that you can use to block or swing in face-to-face combat, or you can use firearms for longer range damage while managing your limited ammo. For the more cautious among us, stealth is also a viable (and often preferable) option. The first-person perspective limits visibility and heightens the sense of danger, but that’s where the CRTV can help. It allows you to track movement even from behind cover, so you’re not forced to potentially reveal yourself just to figure out where enemies are. You can also use things in the environment to distract enemies and lure them away long enough for you to sneak past. The sense of tension is heightened by the sound design and music, with all the creaks, cries, and creepy noises you’d expect from the series. Townfall uses a dynamic soundtrack created by Canadian musician Pilotpriest that reacts to actions you and enemies make and shifts with the ebb and flow of combat and stealth. The voice cast is also a standout, including Emmy Award nominee Jovan Adepo, Emmy winner Terry O’Quinn, and Kezia Burrows from Observation, one of developer Screen Burn’s previous titles. Adepo plays Simon, while O’Quinn plays Richard, a voice beckoning Simon back to the island. Burrows plays Zoe, a former resident of St. Amelia whose voice reaches out to Simon through his CRTV. The cast brings to life a story that’s haunting for more reasons than just the creepy monsters plaguing the island. It deals with introspection, loss, and the consequences of past decisions, with the island and its current nature shaped by that past. Silent Hill: Townfall brings several notable firsts for the franchise, but it still focuses on the psychological horror that has defined Silent Hill for nearly 30 years. That combination of new and familiar makes it approachable for series newcomers as well as veterans. It’s out now on PlayStation 5 and PC.

Silent Hill
Sep 24, 2026 · byIGN
Silent Hill: Townfall review

Silent Hill: Townfall review

As I watch the credits roll on Silent Hill Townfall, it's hard to believe this is the same series that had, until just a few years ago, been neglected into near-irrelevance. Like 2025's excellent Silent Hill f , Townfall is a fascinating thing; a game of bold creative swings that's part inversion, subversion, and evolution of the near-three-decade survival horror series, charting its own idiosyncratic path while still feeling entirely Silent Hill. Read more

Silent HillSilent Hill: Townfall
Sep 21, 2026 · byEurogamer