It is the end of the month, and I barely had any time to play a spooky game, so I buckled down and played a really, really, really good one.
I want to give a shoutout to the Developer, publisher, and PressEngine for the key. I needed to play at least one spooky game this month.
Silver Pines is a survival horror game from Wych Elm and Team 17. The game was released on all the major consoles and PC on October 8th, 2026. The game retails for $25.
Silver Pines follows a private investigator who looks eerily like Dwight Schrute, named Red Walker, and his search to find a musician named Eddie Velvet, who could also be responsible for the death of a woman in a seemingly abandoned coastal town somewhere in America. A “storm of the century” has made land fall at around the same time as Walker, complicating things, as the townsfolk have been replaced with monsters. As Walker explores more of Silver Pines, he begins to battle his own demons and sees much of himself intertwined in the story of the man he is supposed to find. Much like the Silent Hill series, Silver Pines often blurs the line between reality and a dreamlike nightmare, which Walker acknowledges on numerous occasions throughout the game.
It did not take much for me to be all in on the story, as it does not miss a beat at the beginning and ramps up the spooky and the action at an alarming rate.
It is safe to say that David Lynch is the prime influence here, and I personally like it. I like the noir investigator theme, the blurred lines between reality and nightmare, and the strange, odd characters who speak in a surreal fashion. What I am still reeling from is how well the rotoscoped-like characters look and move. That being said, Wych Elm does a fantastic job at creating a game that, up until recently, I did not realize was a pixel game. The environments are so well done, with so much detail in every area; even the out-of-focus background that highlights important routes, and Siah Kopa looming, have a dreamlike or otherworldly vibe.
Though the storm has evacuated much of the town, only the truly strange ones remain to direct the player, relaying information that borders on vague and complete nonsense. The ever-persistent Mr. Jackman over the phone had me on edge because there was a coldness in his voice that had me constantly wondering who the man was and why he had so much leverage on the character the player controls.
Silver Pines’ narrative and world are very forthright about their inspirations, and though they take a lot from them, I still feel like Silver Pines stands on its own two feet, independent of those influences, to give the player a real, nail-biting, thoughtful, engaging narrative.
I thought little about the genre-bending experience that Wych Elm was going for: a 2D survival horror Metroidvania. All I saw were more doors/obstacles that needed a key, or that I needed to find an alternate way around using tools I found throughout the environment. The tools are interesting, as they serve as melee weapons that can beat back the monstrosities and as a way to unlock new areas of Silver Pines. The crowbar, for instance, can break wooden panels, allowing access to wider areas, but it cannot break through drywall. Areas that cannot be accessed are labeled on the incredibly useful map for when the player has to backtrack. I am an absolute huge fan of the camera. The camera lets the player take a picture that doubles as a puzzle aid or a reminder, with the photo plastered on the player’s map for future reference.
Wych Elm does an incredible job of creating a fictional place that could pass as a real American small town while also feeling 3D within a 2D space. The entirety of Silver Pines is broken up into areas, like Downtown, where the town hall is, and businesses are littered throughout the streets; Riverside, where the police department is located; and Church Hill, where, that’s right, the parish resides. These places are positioned within the game so that, when traveling, it feels like the player is moving through layers, which is reinforced by backdrops that show where they were just behind them.
The name of the game is resource management because Walker only brought enough space to fit a few cans of soda and a weapon, and with a town overrun with bad guys that want to take a chunk out of the player, the player will need to, on many occasions, make quick judgments on combat encounters. I spent a lot of time hanging out in safe rooms, to the point of frustration sometimes, evaluating ammo and guns to take on the next nightmarish trek.
As a note, the player will get lost, and sometimes the map does not do it justice, but there are signs/guides everywhere to help the player get around, which saved me on multiple occasions.
Combat has weight, and the melee has crunch to it, though the boss fights do not live up to the hype. Swinging melee weapons pause for a moment so you can see how they connect with the baddies, and when it’s the final blow, watch as the top half separates from the bottom. There is a stamina bar, and melee, dodging, and jumping consume stamina, so management is key to a successful fight. The gun combat is just as heavy as the revolver CRACKS through the eerie silence, throwing Walkers aim right off into the sky and the shotgun BOOMS, lighting up the room and the bad guy, respectively. One hulking monstrosity is already difficult to dispatch, and pairing it with another enemy really does let the anxiety of the situation sink in, making for more fun, frantic fights. Boss fights take this and ramp it up, but they lack depth to really make an impact. Each boss has a move they do and introduce a second when they are at the half-health mark, but it becomes nothing more than a simple dodge, wait, and shoot at the correct time, making them more of a chore than anything else.
Silver Pines shines in the puzzles for sure. I always partake in horror game puzzles, as they are usually quite clever, and Wych Elm did not disappoint. Most of the time, the puzzles boil down to going to another area to find the item to slot in, like acquiring bells to call a ski lift to get up the mountain, but it’s the unique areas and their level design that shine. Trekking through ridiculous winding sewers to turn on some knobs to blast a sealed door open or mixing clay in the town hall open area to sculpt a rough mask to fit into a quite haunting statue. Solving these elaborate puzzles grants players access to new areas or rewards that let them backtrack and solve earlier puzzles for goodies.
Fans of Silent Hill, Resident Evil, or pretty much any horror game will enjoy Silver Pines. The puzzles are clever and rewarding, the game looks stunning, the audio is top tier, and the narrative kept me on the edge of my seat the whole 11-hour ride. The enemies, and for that matter the combat, do the job and get a little wonky when there is more than one baddie that shows up. The boss fights are where the game stumbles the most, with very boring fights that don’t amount to much other than dodge, shoot, dodge until dead. Regardless, Silver Pines is an absolute hit for Wych Elm’s debut game, and at its price point, I recommend it to anyone looking for a horror game.
9/10