Silver Pines is a survival-horror Metroidvania which sees PI Red Walker investigating the disappearance of musician Eddie Velvet. Check out our article to see what it does well, what it doesn't, and our overall impressions of the game.
Everything We Know About Silver Pines
Silver Pines Plot
Silver Pines follows PI Red Walker, who is investigating the disappearance of musician Eddie Velvet in a small midwestern American town. Following a mass evacuation warning that’s left Silver Pines mostly abandoned, players must explore its remnants and search for clues, solve puzzles, and discover the horrific truths underneath the small town.
Silver Pines Release Date
Silver Pines is slated for release sometime in 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and Steam.
Silver Pines Review (Demo) | It Lives Inside a Dream
The Metroidvania is Not What it Seems
For all of the Metroidvania genre’s sprawling, intricate mazes and emphasis on foreboding, isolating atmospheres, it’s frankly surprising that horror hasn’t been a major focus for the genre yet. Some of the most popular Metroidvanias use these suspenseful elements to great, but not scary, effect, and even the genre’s most foundational works, Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, draw directly from some of the most influential horror works of the 20th century (Ridley Scott’s Alien and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, respectively).
Silver Pines, being directly advertised as a survival horror Metroidvania, already seemed destined to pique my interest. Taking quite a clear inspiration from Twin Peaks, one of my favorite TV shows of all time, elevated the game into being something I could’ve only conjured up in my wildest dreams. Much like this noir’s missing person Eddie Velvet, it seemed like forces beyond my understanding fated me to get lost in the world of Silver Pines.
Thankfully, it’s a fantastic world to be lost in. Silver Pines is an ethereal, expansive labyrinth set in midwestern America that uses its haunting atmosphere and strong environmental storytelling to push the game forward. Every corner of the world yields new clues about the town and its many mysteries and idiosyncrasies, inching you forward to answers that only lead to more questions.
Metroidvania purists might be a little put off by its classification, though. The gameplay does feature the sprawling, interconnected map design of the genre, and backtracking does play a large part of the overall gameplay and narrative progression. However, this part of the game is a little more Resident Evil and Deadly Premonition than Hollow Knight.
Progression is mostly mediated through the items and weapons you procure, as well as the puzzles you solve to unlock new areas. It’s a form of progression that makes the game stray ever so slightly away from its Metroidvania roots, but in my opinion it ultimately doesn’t matter. As a genre fusion between survival horror and Metroidvania, stretching the genre’s core tenets only serves to make the game a much more memorable and haunting experience.
PI Red, Walk With Me
Silver Pines’ story so far has been a fascinatingly told Lynchian narrative which mixes the surreal with the visceral. PI Red Walker, through investigating the disappearance of local musician Eddie Velvet, somehow manages to dive further into the dreamlike, spiritual secrets of Silver Pines only to be ripped back into its dreadful, monster-infested present.
It's a mix of classic, supernatural mystery-noir’s surreal dreamscapes and cryptic dialogue and the guttural, adrenaline-pumping action of zombie and monster flicks, and Silver Pines executes upon this fusion really well. The game uses the strengths of both of these styles of horror to great effect, creating this unique push-and-pull tension that never really lets up on the fear, just presenting it in different ways.
As Walker wakes up in Silver Pines from a surreal, disembodied dream sequence, his mysterious client urges him over the phone to continue his search for Eddie Velvet. It becomes increasingly clear, though, through Walker’s exploration of the abandoned town, that certain otherworldly forces played a bigger role in his disappearance than we realize.
Silver Pines mostly uses environmental storytelling, namely through the procurement of notes and the town’s subtle shifts and changes as Walker continues to explore it, to great effect. I never once felt like the game was holding my hand or telling me things outright, and I was able to figure out story details just by looking through everything I’ve collected and seeing where that led me. It’s a wonderful storytelling method that works especially well in a survival horror game, where critical thinking is key in mystery-solving.
That’s not to say, however, that the game’s written and spoken dialogue don’t add anything to its narrative. On the contrary, the voice acting for Walker and certain other characters are masterfully performed, bringing the protagonist’s exasperation and confusion to life while giving certain characters an air of mystery to them. Walker’s client, for instance, is a lot shadier and more questionable when accompanied by his gruff, desperate, but closed off voice.
Dialogue, while sparse, is also written in a way that adds to the game’s overall mystery. Much like the supernatural horror stories that inspired it, some characters speak in vague, cryptic terms that only hint at meaning.
There was a strange man in the middle of a lake, simply named the "Burned Man," that rambled on about burning smoke and spoke very cryptically about a "little man" who would inevitably "find" me. It was a strange encounter that I kept thinking about throughout my playthrough, and it made the payoff for that story moment even more haunting.
A Sprawling Small Town
Silver Pines’ gameplay avoids the trap that most survival horror games have, namely the lack of substance to the game’s style, by feeling weighty, consequential, and expressive. While it doesn’t have the same speed or force that other Metroidvanias have, the survival horror elements lend it a level of inherent tension that keeps the game fun and exciting.
Silver Pines’ loop sees players exploring the town’s interconnected map to find clues, solve puzzles, and advance to the next area. It’s surprisingly vast for a small town, but the maps, which mark your last known location as well as locked areas and clues around the area, keep the town from being too confusing to navigate. Along the way, certain shadowy monsters appear to try and attack Walker, and players must fight them off with anything they have.
Shooting for a Ride to the Stars
Key to Silver Pines’ combat and overall gameplay loop is resource management, with bullets, currency, and recovery herbs being crucial to survival, exploration, and even saving the game. These resources are sparse and usually require optional puzzle-solving to obtain, and while its possible to stock up on resources and repair weapons, the tension created by your limited resources makes every decision feel deliberate.
Exploring Silver Pines with very few tools for survival at my disposal made every new screen and room something to dread, as I was never quite sure when the next monster would strike. I remember running from the lake area to try and go back to a safe room with no bullets, a broken knife, and very low health, and upon encountering a monster I had to dodge and run for my life just to make it back safely. It really emphasizes the danger Walker is in and rewards sharp planning and management skills, with every encounter being an intentional engagement rather than an arcade-y challenge to conquer.
Combat is, however, quite fun if you choose to fight the monsters in your path. The dodge button reminds me a lot of Dark Souls rolling in how you can maneuver around your enemies to attack them from different angles, and it makes for surprisingly expressive combat scenarios. Boss fights, meanwhile, can be simple and straightforward, but contain a surprising amount of spectacle and flashiness that keeps them entertaining yet tense.
There is, ultimately, no other reward to killing off the regular cannon fodder than the satisfaction of defeating an enemy and your inevitable safety upon returning to a room (which, I’d argue, is a great reward if you have the resources to spare). The point of the game is survival and discovery rather than outright mowing your enemies down, and I found that avoiding monsters was just as effective at maintaining progression as fighting them. Both of these playstyles have a place in Silver Pines’ gameplay loop, and the most efficient players will know when to switch between them depending on the situation.
Strong as Coffee, Red as Cherry Pie
Another thing that struck me about Silver Pines is its dark, ethereal atmosphere and art style. The town itself is a gorgeous 2.5D landscape that makes smart use of foreground and background perspectives to convey depth and new areas, while its appropriately muted colors make the bright lights of signs, lightbulbs and other eldritch horrors shine quite vibrantly. It's a town that changes and becomes more hazy and otherworldly as Walker continues to explore its supernatural underbelly, and watching it become more discordant as you progress is endlessly tantalizing.
Interestingly, the game uses color and light to convey important story moments, such as critical discoveries and upcoming boss fights. The color red is an interesting recurring motif, from the lighting to the locales to even the name of the protagonist, that gives the otherwise grey and foggy environments a contrasted sense of urgency and gravity. It’s an idea that’s executed particularly well and lends to the game’s overall strong art direction.
My favorite visual aspect of the game, however, are the still shots used for cutscenes and the way character portraits are drawn. They are beautiful, vibrant, and have this uniquely smudged, painterly quality to them that adds to the game’s sense of surreality and dreaminess. There was a moment in the beginning of the game when the cutscenes conveyed a crucial story moment, and its use of lighting and color made my jaw drop with excitement for more.
It’s a strong and distinct visual style that, at first glance, can even make it feel more grounded than its genre peers. Silver Pines’ initial mundanity gives the town a liminal quality, and it is by progressing through the game that its true, crimson colors reveal itself. It's another way Silver Pines rewards players for persisting through the town’s Lynchian horrors, and it's a thrilling progression that never ceases to terrify.
As a game that I could’ve only imagined in my dreams, Silver Pines has delivered on its interesting genre fusions and arrived upon a compelling, fully awakened experience even at its earliest stages. I am very excited to see how Silver Pines dives deeper into its visions of a Lynchian Metroidvania, since what’s emerged so far is already excellent.
Game8 Reviews
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Silver Pines Product Information
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| Title | SILVER PINES |
|---|---|
| Release Date | 2026 |
| Developer | Wych Elm |
| Publisher | Team17 |
| Supported Platforms | PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Steam |
| Genre | Metroidvania, Survival, Horror, Action |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Silver Pines Official Website |
