First Impressions of Silver Pines
I played the demo for an upcoming game called Silver Pines on Tuesday and haven't been able to stop thinking about it, so I felt the need to get down some of the thoughts that are kind of bursting out of me at this point.
You can find more information about the game at its official website, and you can access the demo and wishlist it on Steam. The website provides links to console releases as well, but I believe the demo is currently only available on Steam.
The studio behind Silver Pines is called Wych Elm, a team based in Sweden with developers who previously worked on games like Yoku's Island Express, Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, and The Darkness. This is their first title together. They mentioned in their Reddit AMA that they're influenced by small-town episodes of The X-Files, The Thing, 8mm, Secret Window, The Shining, Twin Peaks, and Jacob's Ladder. Elements of all of those absolutely seep through the demo, but I came away from it feeling like I had played a game that was singular despite its obvious influences.
You play as a private investigator named Red Walker, who has just arrived in the titular town after an evacuation order went into effect, rendering the place nearly abandoned. Wych Elm said that they're driven by setting and atmosphere, and this is apparent from the outset. The town's eeriness sets in quickly, as you begin your journey in an empty diner. Outside, the sky rumbles with dark clouds. You pour yourself a cup of coffee and then head out to a pay phone to speak with your client, who's searching for a lost musician called Eddie Velvet. He was last seen at the Crimson Bear Motel, so that's where you'll be heading next.
I truly believe that the town of Silver Pines will come to rival Silent Hill as one of my most beloved game settings. The map is even reminiscent of it, with points of interest circled in red marker. The impending storm is just as ominous as Silent Hill's snow or fog, and when the heavy clouds finally release their rain, it becomes just as misty and dark. Raindrops trail down the screen, a nice added touch reminding you that you're simply a witness to the strange events that unfold, helpless to control them despite your control of Walker. There are touches of Bright Falls and Twin Peaks as well, in all their surreal glory. Silver Pines will be added to my personal pantheon of great spooky towns.
Walker speaks in a soft, slightly strained tone, the voice acting doing good work to bring you into his headspace. He'll encounter other people who remain in the town for their own reasons, such as a mysterious woman who's locked herself in a motel room and seems to know more about what's going on than Walker does. There's also an abrasive sheriff who stayed to make sure everyone is evacuated and who seems to know very little about what's going on. The voices are all incredible and sound like they have David Lynch films on their résumés.
The best way I can describe the gameplay is a metroidvania with classic survival horror elements. You'll backtrack as you find ways of opening up previously locked locations, some of them serving as shortcuts, getting to know the town and all of its hidden corners. You have limited inventory space with universal item boxes for storage and discoverable hip pouches that open up more slots. The pay phones where Walker updates his client on his progress also serve as save points, and you have to find coins to use them. Healing items are scattered around, including medicinal herbs that you can mix in a glass bottle for more potency.
For combat, you'll find both melee and ranged weapons. Melee weapons have durability that you can repair with duct tape, and you'll pick up bullets for your guns. Repairing and reloading weapons both give you skill checks that determine how well you repair and how fast you reload. The enemies can be tricky, especially with unwieldy weapons, but it's all about timing your attacks, and it feels satisfying when you pull them off.
Resources are limited, so you can choose not to engage with some enemies if you want to save your ammo and health items. An aspect of the demo that I found pretty neat was a vending machine in the motel break room, where you could opt to use your save coins to purchase things like first aid kits, duct tape, and bullets.
Safe rooms do exist, by the way, usually offering an item box and phone -- and sometimes coffee. Having a cup of coffee doesn't just add to the atmosphere, it also increases your total stamina, allowing you to dodge and run past enemies more effectively. Don't let the dodging fool you, though! Walker is no Dark Souls protagonist. His movement is a bit clumsy, just as you'd expect from an average guy. I really appreciated that every movement felt deliberate and realistic, whether I was shouldering past an enemy, reloading my shotgun, or carefully dropping down from a ledge. Walker is much closer to a Harry Mason than a Leon Kennedy.
The art style is the highlight of Silver Pines, as you can see in my screenshots here. Most of the animations were rotoscoped, which give them an organic feel. The monsters I encountered in the demo were all shrouded in darkness, which I'm not sure is something that will be carried over to the final game, but I personally found it quite effective. It leaves a lot to the imagination when you're fighting a creature whose features you can't fully make out, and I think that fits the game's mysterious plot and setting. As for the environments, they're gorgeous, evoking the grittiness and mundanity of a small town in Nowhere, USA, with help from the ambient soundtrack by Karl Flodin.
I'll end this with a quote from one of the developers, Mattias Snygg:
We had an idea for creating a game in a very specific setting, with a very specific mood, and pairing that with survival horror in this case was a very natural fit. It allows for action, puzzles, exploration all wrapped in a narrative that never takes you out of the fantasy. We both like playing and making games that try to take that whole "package" idea seriously where we stay true to the world you're in from start to finish.
They've really achieved this, as I was so immersed in the game that I desperately wanted to keep playing, and it's been on my mind ever since the demo's credits rolled. Even in just a two-hour span, I could tell that they've crafted a fully realized setting that pulls the player in, every aspect of the game working in tandem to form a singular experience.
Silver Pines is set to release on October 8, 2026, and I couldn't be more excited to return to it.