Konami’s latest entry in the Silent Hill survival horror game series, Silent Hill: F, has been given an M rating by the US Entertainment Software Rating Board. The rating comes just a week after Konami revealed new details and a trailer for the game, two years after first revealing it. This will be the first mainline Silent Hill game since 2013’s Downpour.
While the ESRB rating suggests the game may be nearing release, it’s important to note that the timeline between rating and launch can vary significantly. The release dates for some games are only weeks after their ESRB rating, while others are stretched out much further. For example, the Silent Hill 2 Remake received its rating in March last year and wasn’t released until October.
The ESRB rating does, however, offer a glimpse into what players can expect, with details about the game’s mature content now available. Read on to check out the latest details from the game rating and catch up on last week’s reveal.
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Silent Hill: F is rated M by ESRB and no one’s surprised
For all the talk the creators had to say about the experience of Silent Hill: F, one would expect that talk to be backed up by an appropriately mature rating.
The title’s rating page on the ESRB site shares additional details about what people playing the game encounter. To say we’re excited about the specific content detailed below would be weird, but the game seems to have fans hungry for more information.
Here’s ESRB’s description of what you’ll encounter in Silent Hill: F.
“This is a survival-horror action game in which players assume the role of a student confronting supernatural entities in a 1960s Japanese mountain town. From a third-person perspective, players explore the town, solve puzzles, interact with characters, and battle enemy creatures (e.g., humanoid monsters, mutants, mythical creatures). Players use axes, crowbars, knives, and spears to defend against and kill enemy creatures in melee-style combat. Blood-splatter effects occur frequently as characters are attacked; several areas depict large bloodstains in the environment and near corpses. Some enemy attacks can result in players’ character getting impaled in the neck and/or getting their faces ripped apart. Cutscenes sometimes depict gore and more intense acts of violence: a character burned alive inside a cage; a woman branded by a hot iron; entrails and sinew displayed on serving platters in fantastical celebration/ceremony; a character sawing off her own arm; a character slicing off portions of a character’s face during a ritual. Concept art depicts a nude mannequin-like character, with exposed buttocks and partially exposed breasts; the character appears in a creature-like form throughout the game.”
Yep, that sounds like a Silent Hill game. The rating and description can help you know what you’re getting into before you play it and allow parents or guardians to make an informed decision about whether or not they’ll allow their kids to play it. The M rating indicates it’s only suitable for those age 17 and older.
What’s Silent Hill: F about?
We first saw a teaser trailer for Silent Hill: F in 2022, and Konami shared more details about the upcoming title in its Transmission stream last week.
Set in 1960s Japan, Silent Hill: F breaks from the small resort town in Maine, but other elements that fans should expect from the series are all here. Here’s the official description:
“When Hinako Shimizu’s secluded town of Ebisugaoka is consumed by a sudden fog, her once-familiar home becomes a haunting nightmare,” Konami says. “As the town falls silent and the fog thickens, Hinako must navigate the twisted paths of Ebisugaoka, solving complex puzzles and confronting grotesque monsters to survive.”
The title has a notable color palette change, with brighter visuals and contrasts that lean into the beauty-in-terror vibe it’s going for. This will also be the first time since Silent Hill 3 that the series will have a female protagonist.
Konami’s decision to move the title to Japan seems to be part of returning to its roots, despite the series previously centering around an American town. The developer said that the “Japanese soul [of Silent Hill] became more faint with each new release.”
Plus, it seems to be time for a fresh change for the series if it’s to succeed. While the Silent Hill fan in me wouldn’t mind if Konami just put the effort into remaking all of the core four games, I also want to see it progress and evolve as a series. If Silent Hill continues to expand into different locations (and in turn, cultures and protagonists), the potential stories the series could tell could be endless.
While no release date was given, you can now wishlist Silent Hill: F on Steam and the PlayStation Store. It’ll also be available for the Xbox Series X and S when it’s released.
You can watch the full stream to get all the details for Silent Hill: F below.
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