Silver Pines takes the best of the horror genre to create one of the most memorable adventures in recent years, in no small part due to its effective metroidvania design.
When a piece of media borrows from well-known classics of a genre, it can become a bit difficult to discern where the homage stops and the original work begins. Especially when honoring among the most recognized icons, their shadow can loom large. This is why Silver Pines should be recognized as not only a modern classic of the survival horror genre but also of supernatural fiction at large. Deliberately taking from another genre with a high bar of entry—Metroidvanias— developer Wych Elm paints confident brushstrokes of macabre genius, taking what works best for its instant classic.
No One Will Save You
“There is something in the water,” “What is that horrifying screech?” and “Did that corpse just move?” are a few of the questions you will ask yourself while playing Silver Pines. It is no surprise then that it is currently sold on Steam in a pack with Alan Wake, another tale of a man facing a dark parallel reality while searching for a missing person. Cut from the same cloth, Silver Pines confidently carves its own identity by borrowing just the right amount of inspiration from survival horror juggernauts.
Eddie Velvet is a rockstar who came to cause a ruckus in a small town called Silver Pines. He is currently MIA alongside a young woman who fell in love with him. As a private investigator, you take on the role of Red Walker to find him. An apparent storm of the century is coming, ready to decimate everything in its path. It’s initially as tragic and as cliche as it can be, but much like everything else that happens in this grief-stricken place, nothing is as it initially seems.
The darkness is encroaching on Silver Pines, so of course you need to snoop around the most cursed of places. Graveyards, abandoned apartment buildings, and seedy motels all make an appearance, highlighting the game’s unique art style. Bordering between lifelike and surreal, the situation presented seems like a warped take on a parallel reality. Using effective color changes from blood-red flashing at the screen to somber tones slowly walking through sewers, as a great survival horror, it never lets the pressure up.
Good Things Come To Those Who Explore
From a sidescrolling perspective, you explore this layered map that plays by the metroidvania rules. And it follows them oh-so well. Shortcuts that you can only unlock by obtaining certain tools like a sledgehammer or crowbar abound. Clumsy platforming—you haven’t stretched in ages—reveals an unseen key item. And scouring every inch of this well-designed cursed town reaps its rewards. Depending on the difficulty setting (from Relaxed to Nightmare), you will find ammo, food, and whatever else you may need to face what is coming.
And what IS coming, you might ask? This is a bit difficult to answer. Because the monsters in Silver Pines are… strange. Humanlike figures moving uncannily, their otherworldly voices penetrate Red and the player’s ears alike. Perhaps they are figments of the protagonist’s imagination. Maybe a demon has possessed them. The truth is out there, and it is up to you to piece it together. To fight them, the combat feels exactly like it should be.
Taking a page from Resident Evil, its attache case inventory management makes an appearance here. As they say, if it’s not broken, why fix it? Moving tools, weapons, and key items around makes exploring a bit of a hassle, but the smartly placed storage boxes reduce the frustration. To get specific endings, players must explore every nook and cranny in hopes of making sense of what is causing this evil night. But the reward is more than just narratively.
Aim True
Armed with a sluggish dodge, Red is equipped with the general arsenal seen in other games of the genre. Pistols, shotguns, machine guns, and a myriad of melee weapons are scattered across the drowning Pacific Northwest municipality. The debate over whether Silent Hill’s earlier games’ combat was good comes to mind. Was the intention to make the player powerless in a hopeless situation, therefore making the combat clunky and imprecise? Or was it a limitation of the time? Regardless, it works in creating a crippling scenario where the player feels suffocated. Silver Pines is the same.
As established, Red is not agile. Neither are his enemies. That does not mean that the combat is slow-paced by any means. Dodging at a precise moment is almost required. Shooting freely will also result in a missed bullet. A heavy recoil insists on not losing your cool in such moments. This becomes mighty difficult when deadly crows, killer squids, or demonic dogs lunge at you while trying to aim. What makes Silver Pines such a tense experience is how everything is seemingly trying to chip away at your sanity.
A Mystery Beckons
Because the storm was scheduled in advance, scarce people are to be found in a playthrough. To boot, each one is weirder than the last. A bloodthirsty sheriff who dislikes you the instant he looks at you makes the journey uncomfortable throughout. A seductive yet nonchalant woman played to perfection by Suzi Hunter seems like a friendly face, or is it? At last, the voice of reason, the man on the payphone (where you save) who hired you to find this fiendish rockstar, is impatient every time he hears your voice.
Halfway through the game you reach a predictable pace, but the scares don’t stop there. Hallucinatory sequences signal hellish boss fights that ask you to be well stocked before such encounters. As the storm ascends to its highest point, the rain increases to emergency levels. Finding seldom comfort in random 80s horror TV shows that break the fourth wall, Red only leans on coffee that raises his stamina to at least face the demons better. If only he could face his inner ones with that same courage.
Verdict: Silver Pines
Silver Pines is an incredibly ambitious first entry from new developer Wych Elm. Yes, it deliberately takes the addictive Resident Evil inventory system and Silent Hill’s imprecise but unnerving combat. The narrative itself percolates Twin Peaks and The X-Files to a perfect distillation of them, but never losing its identity. Wrapping it up in a metroidvania layout that dukes it out with the best of them, and you have a wicked formula for success. Red may be having the worst night of life, but you most certainly will enjoy one of your best.
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Reviewed on PlayStation 5 Pro. Also available on Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
A key was provided for this review.
Developer: Wych Elm
Publisher: Team17
Release date: Out now
Pros
- Plenty of secrets
- You can pet the cat
- Weird horror TV shows
- Rewarding multiple endings
- Combat is appropriately desperate
- Narrative keeps you guessing throughout
- Metroidvania level design is well executed
- Strange encounters make the playthrough deeply unnerving
Cons
- Flimsy platforming
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Amazing
