Shacknews Best Horror Game of 2025 - Silent Hill f

Between a change in setting, an interesting new character, and masterful writing, Silent Hill f gave us fear that stayed with us well into the holidays.

Konami and NeoBards Entertainment took a wild swing for the fences in 2025 with Silent Hill f. The series has been quite active in its revival on the back of Bloober Team’s remake of Silent Hill 2, but NeoBards had the challenge of trying something entirely new. With the help of popular games writer Ryukishi07 (Umineko When They Cry), the team arguably hit all of the right notes, making Silent Hill f another chilling and vibrant title in the series, and Shacknews’ Best Horror Game of 2025.

Silent Hill f is powerful in that it explores deeply disturbing topics based in reality. It comes right out with a note at the beginning warning the player of its depiction of 1960s Japan and the misogyny and social issues that came with that time period. That realism gives emotional depth to the unsettling events of the game, supernatural or not.

Of course, Silent Hill wouldn’t be Silent Hill without supernatural phenomena at play, and it most certainly comes correct with the creepy. The jerking and jostling dolls, the threat of blooming flowers that would kill all that they touch, and the twisting of friends into venomous foes… Silent Hill f features escalation after escalation of unsettling and gruesome horror for the characters to contend with.

Hinako is also a fantastic protagonist. Suzie Yeung and Konatsu Kato (who also did the face capture for Hinako) deliver an incredible character in English and Japanese, respectively. Their range in portraying the difficult emotions of a teen facing her own trauma and the fear of the supernatural is palpable throughout the game in a way that many of the more emotionally detached characters of the series don’t quite reach.

All of these elements together made Silent Hill f a harrowing experience and another worthy title in the legendary series. And that’s why it’s the Shacknews Best Horror Game of 2025.