After successfully completing Silent Hill f‘s “scarecrow puzzle” — a very creepy endeavor in which players must select the lone benign scarecrow in a field full of horrifying ones — my initial reaction was, “Yeah, this is my game of the year.” But now that the nominees have been announced, it’s clear that not everyone agrees with that assessment.
In both film and gaming, horror is often overlooked during awards season, despite its widespread popularity. But we’re not talking about a horror game. We’re talking about the horror game. The first mainline Silent Hill game in 13 years, and the first genuinely good one (in my opinion) since 2004’s Silent Hill 4: The Room. Silent Hill f is visually stunning, has a unique setting, and features an updated yet divisive combat system that I personally love. It feels like a Silent Hill game, but it also has its own identity — no recycled monster designs, no predictable story beats, no boring, derivative environments.
So when I saw that Silent Hill f hadn’t been nominated for Game of the Year at the 2025 Game Awards, I was a little disappointed… but not surprised. The game’s controversial combat mechanics combined with the way Konami structured its various endings meant Silent Hill f faced an uphill climb for top honors. As much as I love Silent Hill f, I can understand why members of The Game Awards’ nominating body (of which Polygon is a part) collectively declined to recognize a game that presents its finale in such an abrupt, unsatisfying manner.
Upon finishing the game for the first time, all players get the same ending cutscene. The scene itself is surprisingly short, and features a shocking plot twist that raises far more questions than it answers. To unlock the other four endings, players must replay the game four more times, while also meeting other specific conditions, like obtaining a sacred weapon and avoiding use of a specific healing item.
As much as I enjoyed my first playthrough, Silent Hill f’s default ending fell pretty darn flat, and after 10 hours of slicing, smashing, and clawing my way through the game, I wasn’t eager to spend another 32 to potentially 40 hours doing it all again just to unlock some more endings. Konami has since released an update that reduces the number of unskippable enemy encounters in an effort to make New Game Plus a bit easier, but the bottom line is that you still have to slog through at least one more playthrough if you want to experience anything that feels like a real ending to Hinako’s story, rather than a short, underwhelming cliffhanger that relies on shock value instead of providing any actual answers.
Currently, on PlayStation 5 at least, roughly 59% of players have finished the game at all, and only 30% of them located the sacred weapon required for two of the game’s alternate endings. It seems like quite a good portion of the playerbase did not replay the game multiple times, which is understandable. New Game Plus features some new cutscenes and collectible codex entries not featured in a first-time playthrough, but it’s still a repetitive task, especially if you’re planning to try and unlock all five endings.
Silent Hill f’s default ending lacks enough context — and content — to feel satisfying. It doesn’t feel like the end of Hinako’s story; it feels like the post-credits scene of a movie, like an intentionally MCU-ified setup that forces continued engagement to figure out what the hell is going on with the story.
To be fair, games that must be replayed to get additional endings are nothing new. Baldur’s Gate 3 featured numerous endings and won Game of the Year in 2023, likely in part because all of its endings — good, bad, or ugly — were still endings that provided closure on the first playthrough. Silent Hill titles have always featured multiple endings that can only be attained by replaying the game and completing certain tasks. The main difference between older Silent Hill games and Silent Hill f is that previous entries in the franchise still offered players a complete ending on their first playthrough. Depending on your actions in Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake, for example, endings range from James leaving Silent Hill with Maria in tow, to driving his car (and its grisly contents) into Toluca Lake. But regardless of which final cutscene you unlock, it’s still a satisfying ending to James’ story. Conversely, Silent Hill f’s first ending is the one you get no matter what you do on your first playthrough, and leaves you hanging, wondering what the hell just happened.
…which makes it even more bizarre that Silent Hill f still managed to snag a nomination for Best Narrative.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
