Twin Peaks meets Silent Hill in horror metroidvania Silver Pines

Finding himself in Silver Pines in search of Eddie Velvet, a musician who has seemingly vanished, private investigator Red Walker perhaps isn’t ready for the horrors that await him. You see, this small American town in the middle of nowhere, abandoned in a hurry, hides a terrible secret.

Silver Pines is the type of game that wears its inspirations on its sleeve; just glance over a few screenshots and you’ll easily pick up that Twin Peaks and Silent Hill are clear influences. You might get a hint of what the game plays like, too. Developer Wych Elm has combined two genres here that make sense but haven’t been paired up much in the past: survival horror and metroidvania.

Jump into Silver Pines, then, and you’ll find yourself in control of Red Walker, exploring the titular town of Silver Pines from a 2.5D perspective. Along the way, you’ll unravel what has the potential to be a riveting story, although in your path you’ll find an assortment of terrifying adversaries, as well as frequent obstacles that will put halt on your progress.

Being a survival horror, resource management will be important in Silver Pines. You’ll need to make every bullet count, and be mindful of how fast you’re making your way through healing items. A limited inventory means you’ll have to consider what you carry around with you, too. The latter will be made tricker by those obstacles mentioned earlier; sometimes you’ll need to locate and then hold onto specific items in order to solve puzzles or open the way forward.

With a playthrough expected to take around 14 hours or so (though thorough players may end up spending closer 20 hours in the town to see and do everything), Silver Pines is very promising indeed. And considering it’s made by a small team, which has had to get creative when it comes to such things as implementing eye-catching animations, it appears very impressive.

It’s safe to say that Silver Pines is firmly on my radar, and it should be on yours, too, if you’re a fan of games such as Alan Wake and Silent Hill, and the works of David Lynch. The good news is that you can give it a try ahead of its October launch if you wish, at least on PC, with a demo available on Steam. Mysterious and perhaps a bit terrifying, it’s a game that has potential to put you on edge and draw you into exploring every nook and cranny to see what secrets they hold.

Silver Pines launches 8th October on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch and PC.