Silver Pines is a ‘survival horror Metroidvania’ that takes a few leading concepts and jams them together into something that will offer you around 10 to 14 hours of entertainment, depending on how fast you play your games. It’s part noir-style detective thriller, part eerie horror game, part side-scrolling shooter, and it delivers on that mix quite well, but it’s just not really for me.
I should preface this by saying I’ve never been a fan of the Metroidvania space, and that notion followed me into my time with Silver Pines. I genuinely enjoyed the visuals and the story, but the perspective is what threw me. I’d prefer this game with a first- or third-person perspective, and that might piss some people off, but guess what? It’s my review.
Silver “The Door is Opened From the Other Side” Pines
My first hour or two with Silver Pines was a relatively slow-paced introduction to the world from which the game has taken its name. Enter our hero, ‘Red Walker’, a grizzled detective on a mission, sent to Silver Pines amid a region-wide evacuation that has left the town mostly abandoned.
From the moment you land, you sense that something isn’t quite right with this place, and that those who sent you there might have ulterior motives. You’re searching for Eddie Velvet (I love the names in this game), a musician who has vanished without a trace from his motel room in the town.
As you dig through Silver Pines, you’ll find yourself faced with countless obstacles, most of which present themselves early on as doors that are opened from the other side or padlocks that are rusted shut. You’re also presented with progressively dark and somewhat delirious scenarios that have you second-guessing your own sanity.
And by that, I mean Red Walker’s sanity. It’s obvious the guy is tormented by something, and that the world you’re exploring links into that notion in some way.
But what is Silver Pines at the heart of it all?
It’s a classic survival horror with serious retro vibes. The animation feels almost rotoscoped, the inventory mechanics are reminiscent of Silent Hill and Resident Evil, and how you navigate the environment reminds you of unforgettable games of days gone by.
You’ll need to manage your inventory, deciding whether you want to prioritize healing items, offensive items, clues, or other miscellaneous supplies that you find on your journey. You’ll want to interact with everything in the environment, trying to find hidden doors, paths to cut through, or trinkets known as ‘Mementos’ that give you unique buffs and debuffs when equipped.
I mock the repetitive lines that Red Walker utters to nobody in particular, but one thing I did marvel at with Silver Pines is the voice acting. It’s pretty stellar, and the game’s audio cues and the ambience are very well done.
I just wish I could have been exploring it from a freer, alternate perspective. I think I’d love Silver Pines if it were a third-person title, but then it might be leaning way too far into some more recent Resident Evil and Silent Hill vibes.
I was surprised to see just how much combat matters in Silver Pines. You’re not a defenceless moron bound to run away from every threat. Instead, you’re a capable combatant who can stand his ground very effectively. You’ll start by finding a box cutter, but before long, you’re using a revolver, a shotgun, a rifle, and more melee weapons to dispatch the otherworldly foes that inhabit Silver Pines.
The multiple difficulty levels reflect nicely enough, and the higher tiers, which I did not experience much of at all (I’m a wimp, see), offer a solid challenge that I understand can border on suffocating at times. The lowest difficulty was extremely forgiving and made for a great tour around Silver Pines without too many major concerns.
If you want to get through the game in as little as eight to ten hours, consider leaning into those lower difficulty levels.
But combat and capabilities aside, Silver Pines is a typical a 2.5D Metroidvania as you could hope for. There are some tasty puzzles to figure out that involve things like radio codes, safe dials, climbable areas that aren’t immediately obvious, and you always get that concept of finding something at some point that suddenly resolves ten things you were forced to leave behind earlier in the game.
It’s an easy way to ‘cheat’ more play time out of a user, effectively forcing them to go back on their journey.
Ultimately, this debut title from Wych Elm Games is a decent outing, and it’s one that boasts a sumptuous retro vibe, great acting, and interesting combat mechanics. The art style is impressive, the duration is more than worthwhile for the $30 launch price, and I’m a fan of the characters and how they’re presented.
I just really wish it wasn’t a 2.5D Metroidvania game.
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Silver Pines
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Silver Pines
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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