[Digital Foundry] Silent Hill f First Look - Three Hours Hands-On Impressions - PC/PlayStation 5



An Unreal Engine 5 game with impressive image quality and no perceivable stuttering issues? That's the impression John received after a mammoth three hours hands-on play session with Silent Hill f at Gamescom 2025. Check out the footage here and see what you think.

Japan Fog GIF by Xbox

Japan Monster GIF by Xbox

Dark Search GIF by Xbox
 
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The image quality is so good for a UE5 game if that footage is on PS5. I wonder how they've pulled it off?
 
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The image quality is so good for a UE5 game if that footage is on PS5. I wonder how they've pulled it off?

Small environments and natural enhancements on UE5 over time.



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- DF saw base PS5 and PC version
- Base PS5 version's game-play was "smooth" 60 and cut-scenes locked to 30.

- DF noted minor issues with PC version but noted in the settings that it was running at native 4K.
- John changed settings to DLSS Quality and said he saw no issues with performance afterward.

- DF noted no stutter, hitching etc during their time
- Noted some Software Lumen for indirect lighting and SSR for reflections (console)
- The wording isn't clear but John sounds like he noted Lumen reflections only on the PC version (he didn't mention it for PS5)

- Seems like they're shipping a very solid UE5 game without any of the usual UE5 caveats

- The rest is their impressions on the game itself.
 
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NeoBards outta no where with good optimization. They'll be on everyone's radar if the game turns out good.
 
NeoBards outta no where with good optimization. They'll be on everyone's radar if the game turns out good.

Yeah, this seems like it'll be Neobard's "Bloober" moment with SH2 remake.

Though, they did the Dead Rising remake/remaster last year and that was pretty solid as a product.
 
So there is no problem with the engine, and Tim sweeney is right, also I can't wait to see those moth..fuck.. Who keep defending shity looking upcoming titles like ghost 2 saying that ps5 can't handle high image quality with ray tracing and 60fps lol
 
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So there is no problem with the engine, and Tim sweeney is right, also I can't wait to see those moth..fuck.. Who keep defending shity looking upcoming titles like ghost 2 saying that ps5 can't handle high image quality with ray tracing and 60fps lol
ghost 2 ain't a UE5 game
 
Yeah, this seems like it'll be Neobard's "Bloober" moment with SH2 remake.

Though, they did the Dead Rising remake/remaster last year and that was pretty solid as a product.
Didn't play it because of the censorship. Not NeoBards fault obviously. Seems like they know what they're doing on the technical side like Coalition.
 
Small environments and natural enhancements on UE5 over time.



-----------



- DF saw base PS5 and PC version
- Base PS5 version's game-play was "smooth" 60 and cut-scenes locked to 30.

- DF noted minor issues with PC version but noted in the settings that it was running at native 4K.
- John changed settings to DLSS Quality and said he saw no issues with performance afterward.

- DF noted no stutter, hitching etc during their time
- Noted some Software Lumen for indirect lighting and SSR for reflections (console)
- The wording isn't clear but John sounds like he noted Lumen reflections only on the PC version (he didn't mention it for PS5)

- Seems like they're shipping a very solid UE5 game without any of the usual UE5 caveats

- The rest is their impressions on the game itself.

Isn't the bolded why this is running great?
 
When it comes out and the final game is reviewed, I'll believe it. I don't trust UE5, too many games with performance issues, but if it's true, then all the better.
 
Isn't the bolded why this is running great?

Lumen is RT, not a cheap effect.

Though the game seems to be very thin and narrow halls, streets and corridors going by the video, so it's probably not a very taxing game in the first place.
 
oh no... right at the start of their video I see a "press X to shimmy through tight spot" moment... for fucks sake... why are game designers so shit these days? there's no defending shit like this, it's just bad game design, full stop.

my expectations just plummeted ngl...
ok... I'll now watch the rest of the video...
 
Lumen is RT, not a cheap effect.

Though the game seems to be very thin and narrow halls, streets and corridors going by the video, so it's probably not a very taxing game in the first place.

Yeah, but SSR for reflections. Which is okay in my book. I'd rather play games that look and run great, instead of devs checking boxes.
 
ghost 2 ain't a UE5 game
I know that i talking about it looks like shit and silent hill f alongside other titles looks really good and have 60fps, rt alongside high quality picture while games like ghost 2 have lazy ass developer's didn't bother themselves to upgrade their engine and some people's defend them saying that ps5 can't handle good graphics with 60 fps
 
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oh no... right at the start of their video I see a "press X to shimmy through tight spot" moment... for fucks sake... why are game designers so shit these days? there's no defending shit like this, it's just bad game design, full stop.

my expectations just plummeted ngl...
ok... I'll now watch the rest of the video...
woke game design
 
So there is no problem with the engine, and Tim sweeney is right, also I can't wait to see those moth..fuck.. Who keep defending shity looking upcoming titles like ghost 2 saying that ps5 can't handle high image quality with ray tracing and 60fps lol
Not necessarily true. It depends on what build it's running on. If it's something like 5.5, then that's because a lot of issues have been ironed out and the engine received significant optimizations from the earlier iterations.
 
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woke game design

worse... pretentious game design...

"ohh we make you shimmy down a spooooooky narrow path! SPOOOOOKY..."
...
"just ignore the fact that us putting the player in such a limited situation also means we can't actually have any danger here as the player can't react to that and it would be unfair, so the player now knows that nothing bad can happen, completely negating how spooky it is supposed to be and breaking immersion for no good reason..."
 
So there is no problem with the engine, and Tim sweeney is right, also I can't wait to see those moth..fuck.. Who keep defending shity looking upcoming titles like ghost 2 saying that ps5 can't handle high image quality with ray tracing and 60fps lol

Not every game is the same and engines aren't equally good at all things.
What we've seen of this game are small, static and mostly linear environments where the girl is mostly fighting 1 enemy at a time (or a bunch of scarecrows that barely move). Assuming you could just take visuals like these and apply them to a big open world with no impact to image quality or performmance is silly.

Look at Capcom's RE engine. When making a linear game it's actually pretty nice, offering good visuals and performance.
When you try to make an open world game with it though we get dated visuals with dogshit performance like MH World and DD2.
 
oh no... right at the start of their video I see a "press X to shimmy through tight spot" moment... for fucks sake... why are game designers so shit these days? there's no defending shit like this, it's just bad game design, full stop.

my expectations just plummeted ngl...
ok... I'll now watch the rest of the video...
Ummmm... all that... for seeing an X prompt? :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
"just ignore the fact that us putting the player in such a limited situation also means we can't actually have any danger here as the player can't react to that and it would be unfair, so the player now knows that nothing bad can happen, completely negating how spooky it is supposed to be and breaking immersion for no good reason..."
They've got you right where they want you. Now when she is attacked in between levels, you're going to be surprised and scared.
 
Ummmm... all that... for seeing an X prompt? :messenger_grinning_sweat:

no, for seeing a pretentious game mechanic that was shit 10 years ago, and is only getting worse now. 10 years ago the Devs often used the excuse that this is masking loading times (which was mostly made up bullshit btw) but that excuse doesn't work anymore.

there's not nany things that I'd call objectively bad design elements... but this is one.
 
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They've got you right where they want you. Now when she is attacked in between levels, you're going to be surprised and scared.

no I won't. because my movement is so limited that there can never be anything that truly puts you in danger. at most you can have a cheap jumpscare. that's the whole issue.
 
no, for seeing a pretentious game mechanic that was shit 10 years ago, and is only getting worse now. 10 years ago the Devs often used the excuse that this is masking loading times (which was mostly made up bullshit btw) but that excuse doesn't work anymore.

there's not nany things that I'd call objectively bad design elements... but this is one.

If they overuse it in the game, i'll have an issue with it. If it's a once in a while thing, it's really not a big deal.
 
Not every game is the same and engines aren't equally good at all things.
What we've seen of this game are small, static and mostly linear environments where the girl is mostly fighting 1 enemy at a time (or a bunch of scarecrows that barely move). Assuming you could just take visuals like these and apply them to a big open world with no impact to image quality or performmance is silly.

Look at Capcom's RE engine. When making a linear game it's actually pretty nice, offering good visuals and performance.
When you try to make an open world game with it though we get dated visuals with dogshit performance like MH World and DD2.
No, sorry avater,, Hfw, DS2 and others have open world and looks far better than this shit, there is no excuses for those lazy ass developer's
 
no, for seeing a pretentious game mechanic that was shit 10 years ago, and is only getting worse now. 10 years ago the Devs often used the excuse that this is masking loading times (which was mostly made up bullshit btw) but that excuse doesn't work anymore.

there's not nany things that I'd call objectively bad design elements... but this is one.
In all seriousness though, it legitimately was one of the ways devs slowed you down so they could load the next thing. Same with long hallways, elevators, etc.

That is likely primarily the case here as well. But there's nothing saying they can't use it as a gameplay element as well. Pretty sure both TLoU and the newer God of War games all had shit happen while squeezing through tight spaces.
 
oh no... right at the start of their video I see a "press X to shimmy through tight spot" moment... for fucks sake... why are game designers so shit these days? there's no defending shit like this, it's just bad game design, full stop.

my expectations just plummeted ngl...
ok... I'll now watch the rest of the video...
Calm Down Al Pacino GIF
 
In all seriousness though, it legitimately was one of the ways devs slowed you down so they could load the next thing. Same with long hallways, elevators, etc.

That is likely primarily the case here as well. But there's nothing saying they can't use it as a gameplay element as well. Pretty sure both TLoU and the newer God of War games all had shit happen while squeezing through tight spaces.
UE5 doesn't need any of that as world streaming works out of the box. So if they did it, it is for artistic reasons. Pissing off kevboard kevboard is kind of an art too.
 
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No, sorry avater,, Hfw, DS2 and others have open world and looks far better than this shit, there is no excuses for those lazy ass developer's

HFW and Death Stranding 2 use the Decima engine, not UE5, and as far as I'm aware neither of them use Ray Tracing. But yeah, they both look way better than Yotei.
To be clear I'm not necessarily defending Yotei. I do think it looks a bit dated and I'm not very excited about the game in general (just looks like more of the same, and I didn't love the first one). If you want my "hot" take, I think Sucker Punch has been a mid developer for a long time.

Regardless though, my point is that seeing a slow, fairly linear and cinematic game performing well on UE5 and then extrapolating that into "that means every dev should get the same results regardless of the type of game they are making" is silly.
 
Yeah, this seems like it'll be Neobard's "Bloober" moment with SH2 remake.

Though, they did the Dead Rising remake/remaster last year and that was pretty solid as a product.

Good to know. They did a decent Pro patch adding in raytraced reflections for Dead Rising so hopefully they add in hardware lumen or lumen reflections at least for this
 
In all seriousness though, it legitimately was one of the ways devs slowed you down so they could load the next thing. Same with long hallways, elevators, etc.

yes...


That is likely primarily the case here as well

it absolutely isn't.


But there's nothing saying they can't use it as a gameplay element as well.

they won't. no game ever does, because they can't.
you lose all your abilities except for pressing forward. you can't use this as an interesting gameplay element in any way.
all it does is break immersion for pretentious nonsense like building fake tension.


Pretty sure both TLoU and the newer God of War games all had shit happen while squeezing through tight spaces.

God of War also just used it for loading (still on PS4 after all), and as a replacement for doors. that last part isn't even that bad, the other uses are.

and here's the thing, stuff happening isn't the same as having meaningful gameplay elements.
in the start of REmake 3 (or was it 2???...) there's also "shit happening" while you are forced to crawl through a tight space. but what happens is just a "scary" zombie trying to get you... which of course he can't and won't, because your controls are completely stripped away from you, meaning the devs can not actually put you in danger, so you automatically know nothing can happen and therefore it loses all the tension and scare factor.
in that moment you aren't actually playing anymore, you're watching a cutscene that forces you to hold the stick forward.
 
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