Image credit: Em Stonham for Kyusai/Wych Elm/Team17
As a big survival horror geek, Silver Pines has been on my radar since its announcement. The game looked gorgeously atmospheric and unnerving based on the first glimpses shown of the game, with a few nods to legendary horror titles.
Based on a hands-on preview, I’m pleased to confirm that Silver Pines is looking like it could be an all-time favorite for fellow horror obsessives. The game is gorgeously dark and tense, with a striking art style. Here’s Kyusai’s first impressions of the game, keeping things spoiler-free.
Beautifully atmospheric
2026 has already been a strong year for horror fanatics, but based on my time with the upcoming game Silver Pines, it may be getting even better.
Developed by Wych Elm and published by Team17, this 2.5D survival horror Metroidvania feels dark, enticing, and foreboding all in one package. I got the chance to dip into the first segment of the game and was impressed with what I saw.
In Silver Pines, you play as private investigator Red Walker, and you’re tasked with tracking down a mysterious musician called Eddie Velvet in the titular Silver Pines.
Starting with a bizarre dream sequence before causing Red to snap awake in a desolate diner, the game is moody and dark off the bat. Red isn’t quite alone in Silver Pines, but he might as well be – the town is under an evacuation order, and the streets are littered with quiet tornadoes of trash and dead leaves.
The gameplay in Silver Pines is what you’d expect from a 2.5D survival horror Metroidvania. To start, you’ll be exploring the town and picking up resources, unlocking new areas of the map as you find keys and useful tools, all while solving puzzles and trying to complete Red’s case.
The map opens up slowly but steadily, and there’s a good feeling of progression baked into the core gameplay. I found it rewarding to explore and use Red’s camera to mark things down on the map that I wanted to come back to.
Nods to giants of the genre
The combat is a perfect nod to survival horror classics, too. The game takes a while to introduce its first creature, which is something that I’m a huge fan of.
Instead of chucking a horde of slavering zombies at you off the jump, Silver Pines focuses on building dread. It’s quiet, and the game felt almost gleeful at how subtle its soundtrack was in places. You might hear something in the distance or feel like someone’s in the room with you, but you won’t see it for a good while.
This is a game that I’d heavily encourage you to play with headphones. The music and soundscape are beautiful, and it’s frightening in places.
When combat is introduced – don’t worry, I won’t spoil the surprise of when it happens – the monster feels suitably gross and intense, and Red’s movements are clumsy, panicked, and desperate.
Some horror games thrive with action-heavy combat sequences; Resident Evil is a great example of this with Leon. I’m a strong believer that horror feels more intense when the protagonist feels like they’re fighting for their life, though. Red is a private investigator, not a seasoned killer, so his combat felt suitably themed.
I couldn’t get enough of the aesthetic in Silver Pine. The game is ridiculously beautiful; all hazy smog, flickering neon, and splatters of crimson on tiled walls. I felt like there were a few nods to classics like Silent Hill and Alan Wake, along with a few Lynchian motifs in places.
Quality-wise, the game was impressive. It ran smoothly on my admittedly low-range PC, and the controls were intuitive and easy to pick up. While I did play this preview on PC, I found the controller inputs to be more responsive than the keyboard and mouse setup.
My only complaint is that I spotted a few typos in the subtitles, along with a few instances of the subtitles not quite matching up with the dialogue. It’s not going to be a major issue for some players, but for folks relying on the subtitles, it’ll be frustrating.
Silver Pines enchanted me from the get-go. It felt like it’d been crafted by folks who have a genuine adoration for both survival horror and Metroidvanias, and if, like me, you also fall into that category, it’s a title worth keeping an eye out for.
FAQs
Silver Pines was developed by Wych Elm and published by Team17.
Silver Pines is a 2.5D survival horror Metroidvania with resource management.
Yes, based on my time with the game so far, Silver Pines is scary. It’s largely tense and atmospheric, but there are some gnarly monsters and surprising moments.
The best atmospheric horror games include Silent Hill 2, Project Songbird, and arguably, ROUTINE, despite the latter being more classic sci-horror than pure atmospheric horror.
