Review: Silver Pines
Your investigation is about to take a dark turn.
THE GAME
Silver Pines is a metroidvania survival horror game developed by Wych Elm and published by Team17. In his quest to find the missing musician Eddie Velvet, private detective Red Walker travels to Silver Pines, a small town in the United States that is practically deserted due to a severe weather alert that forced everyone to evacuate. Searching for clues to Eddie Velvet's whereabouts, Red Walker scours the town and soon realizes that something dark hangs over it. Strange and aggressive creatures roam the area, making the detective's life difficult. He must investigate the case of the missing musician while trying to unravel the mystery of Silver Pines, all while attempting to survive the town's dangers.
MY IMPRESSIONS
The blend of horror, survival, and Metroidvania couldn't have worked better in Silver Pines. Despite having relatively simple exploration, the typical Metroidvania elements—returning to locations after unlocking tools to advance along previously inaccessible paths—make excellent use of the simple scenarios and map. The scarcity of resources present in horror and survival games works perfectly, forcing the player to know when to use resources and plan their movements carefully. The game has a slower pace, which helps build tension that is very well placed throughout. The side-scrolling perspective could diminish the tension of advancing without knowing what lies ahead, but the opposite happens, as even with this camera perspective, everything remains tense and is built to keep you in suspense, and there are even some jump scares. What also greatly contributes to building tension are the game's sounds, which often guide you to know if there's something strange nearby or an enemy, but also create an ambient sound that often scares you and confuses you with enemy sounds, intentionally keeping the player alert at all times. The art style of Silver Pines is quite beautiful and stylized, all in cooler, grayish tones, combining with all the other factors already mentioned to complete the tense and melancholic atmosphere. The game is in Brazilian Portuguese, helping the player follow the game's story and understand clues to advance.
Regarding gameplay, your character has an inventory, limited to a grid that you must manage to fit all the items. Don't worry about running out of space, as there are storage slots where you can leave items you deem unnecessary at the moment and retrieve them later, and subsequently increase your inventory space as well. Combining items is also possible, allowing you to create useful items, such as healing items, or repair your weapons, which wear down with use and can break. Since we control a normal human being and the game aims to be grounded, even with bizarre creatures, our character's movement and actions may not be as appealing due to their slower, more brutish nature. Regarding movement, don't expect agility from our detective; the game doesn't want you running around, and slower movement is part of building tension. Resources are scarce, so you'll often have to choose to avoid combat with the creatures, using a dodge to pass through enemies. I confess that this dodge takes some getting used to, as it requires precision to avoid being hit mid-action. Attacking also requires attention, because repeatedly attacking isn't enough; the monsters retaliate. With firearms, you need to manually reload, bullet by bullet, which helps build tension and demands planning from the player to avoid running out of ammo. This realism in the game, while quite interesting, may not appeal to all players.
The story of Silver Pines is quite captivating from the start, quickly revealing that something is wrong in that town. The puzzles are very interesting, utilizing Metroidvania elements to enhance the experience. Players can't save the game at any time, relying instead on public telephones. And these aren't free, so always have at least one coin to make a call. Silver Pines manages to create a very interesting game with an unusual combination that works very well and will surely appeal to players who enjoy horror and mystery games.
ACHIEVEMENTS
The separation between the types of achievements in Silver Pines is well balanced. There are achievements that the player simply needs to play normally and complete the game to get, and this already covers almost half of the total. It's good to remember that there are different endings and, consequently, achievements for each ending. Completing the other half of the total achievements, there are specific actions and collectibles that unlock achievements, rewarding those more curious and exploratory players. Overall, these are simple achievements, but they will require the player to go a little beyond the basics to achieve 100% completion.
CONCLUSION
Silver Pines brings a breath of fresh air to survival horror games, with a new visual and perspective approach, while maintaining the standard characteristics of the genre. Its deliberately slow pace is essential for building tension, along with excellent sound and visual appeal. The story is initially intriguing, but loses momentum over time. The controls, while serving their purpose in the narrative, didn't appeal to me as much, being a bit frustrating at times. The exploration and investigation, as well as the puzzles, are the highlight for me. Even though I'm seeing everything in third person and with a side camera that allows me a wide field of view, you really feel scared and apprehensive about moving forward without knowing what's coming. Silver Pines shows that it's possible to be innovative even in genres that seem to need nothing new.
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