Silver Pines : when Twin Peaks meets the survival horror

Silver Pines constantly asks to explore, go back on track and use new information or capabilities to access previously inaccessible areas.

To this structure of Metroidvania add the limited resources of survival horror: ammunition, care and objects must be managed with caution.

The puzzles reward observation and the investigation works particularly well when the game lets the player himself understand how to progress.

Fighting is less convincing, but sometimes they lack flexibility, especially in the face of some more resistant enemies.

Silver Pines has immediately a recognizable identity.

Its 2D aesthetics and animations give the city a strange, almost unreal appearance.

The deserted streets, abandoned buildings and deliberately special colours create a permanent feeling of unease.

It is not a game that seeks photorealism: it prefers to build an atmosphere, and it succeeds remarkably well.

The music with jazz influences and the many sound ambiences give a great deal of character to the inquiry.

Silence is regularly used to create tension before a noise or encounter breaks the calm.

The set perfectly strengthens the mix of black polar and survival horror.

Red Walker arrives at Silver Pines To find Eddie Velvet, a missing musician.

What begins as a relatively classic investigation quickly becomes much more strange.

The characters, clues and secrets of the city make you want to understand what really happened.

The game assumes its influences without simply copying them and gradually manages to develop its own mythology.

The adventure favours methodical exploration rather than the amount of artificial content.

The structure naturally encourages you to return to several areas and look for the secrets left behind.

Some puzzles can become quite cryptic and some clashes are less successful than exploration, but the whole remains coherent and controlled.