A rising tide lifts all boats, and the tsunami wave that Silent Hill has been riding lately is the same one that many brand-new horror game IPs, like Cronos: The New Dawn, and legacy franchises, like Alien: Isolation, are enjoying. It wasn’t that long ago when Konami’s survival/psychological horror Silent Hill franchise was considered dead, not just on ice, yet it can never be overstated how influential it has been for the last 27 years.
It may stew less in the same campy brand of quirky horror and surrealism that is shared by the likes of Twin Peaks, Alan Wake, or Apple TV’s phenomenal Widow’s Bay, but Silent Hill similarly immerses itself in rich folklore within a particular town or location and occasional dreadful sensations. If ever there was a love child of all of these IPs, it would surely be this upcoming Steam horror game.
Per its Steam store page, Silver Pines is a survival horror game. What makes it unique is that it’s simultaneously a 2.5D Metroidvania side-scroller, boasting an excellent presentation with a noir, watercolor expressionist art style. Plus, with it receiving an official release date scheduled for this fall, Silver Pines is sure to be a perfect spooky season game.
Indeed, Silver Pines has all the survival horror trappings that fans could hope for, such as resource management, environmental puzzles, and a cryptic, nightmarish narrative (complete with red-inked, handwritten annotations on maps). And, not unlike Alan Wake’s Bright Falls or Silent Hill’s titular Silent Hill, developer Wych Elm is seemingly wearing its inspirations on its sleeve by following the same naming convention popularized by Twin Peaks for Silver Pines.
Silver Pines wedges itself into the year’s most festive horror month, launching on October 8. This successfully keeps it at arm’s length from a September that is stuffed to the gills with games that are desperately hoping to launch before Grand Theft Auto 6, perhaps by design, but it also means, for better or worse, that it will be released on the same day as Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, a titan of a horror game that is highly anticipated.
Even the newest Silent Hill game, Townfall, won’t be launching in October, choosing instead to try its luck in the back half of September.
Silver Pines released a demo for Steam Next Fest 2026 that is still available to download for free. This demo is no slouch, either, as it has apparently taken some players more than two hours to finish, and is currently sitting at an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam (96% of 634 reviews), which bodes well for the full release in three short three months.
Silver Pines is scheduled to be released for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
- Brand
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Valve
- Original Release Date
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September 12, 2003
Developed by Valve and released in 2003, Steam is a popular video game distribution service originally used by the company to provide updates for Valve games. In 2005, Steam expanded to distribute third-party titles. Steam users can not only browse games for purchase, but they can also post reviews and upload self-made content.