Silver Pines Gameplay Preview
“A ride to the stars. What’s up there…?”
You step onto rain slicked streets, handgun at the ready and in desperate need of a way to heal. Health tonic or food, it doesn’t matter. Ahead of you, a pile of garbage stirs. But it’s not garbage. It’s a person, a thing, humanoid in shape, stumbling to its feet and groaning something awful. It shambles toward you, its intent wild and malicious. You take aim and fire, emptying a clip into the monstrosity. It goes down for the count but now you’re out of ammo. Behind you, a similar creature appears, making its way towards you. Turning to face it, but you must now wrestle with a series of decisions on what to do next: Do you run away? You’ll live a little while longer yet and maybe find that much needed healing you’re looking for. Or do you kill the thing here and now? You’ve got a shotgun, but you’re saving it for something bigger and meaner. What about your box cutter? Sure, you save on ammo, but are your reflexes fast enough to evade a fatal swipe? What do you do?
Scenarios like this abound in Silver Pines, a new video game by indie developer Wych Elm. Founded in 2022, the five-man team is based in Sweden and Norway, working remotely to bring about their debut game. But although the company is young, these are hardened veterans of the gaming industry. With experience on titles like Helldivers 1 and 2, Haste, and Starbreeze Studio classics such as The Darkness, The Chronicles of Riddick, and Syndicate; the developers are well-versed in making niche but memorable games.
Silver Pines is a side-scrolling survival horror Metroidvania that follows private investigator Red Walker, who wakes up in an abandoned diner in the middle of the titular half-forgotten town. Guided by a mysterious party over payphone, he soon finds himself searching for missing musician Eddie Velvet. His investigation will have him uncover the town’s dark past as he descends into a nightmare filled with shadowy creatures and intrigue. In June, a demo was released that saw players begin their search for Eddie Velvet in the opening level of the game. It was a good tease, featuring an introduction to a dark world drenched in rain and mystery, off-kilter characters, a variety of combat and exploration, and some additional gameplay elements like some light puzzle solving and payphone save mechanic. But last week I had the privilege of attending a small gameplay event to preview an early build of the game’s second level.
Following Walker’s ferry ride that concluded the initial demo, this second level takes place in the never-before-seen Downtown area of Silver Pines. In it, Walker steps into Church Hill, meeting a mysterious preacher who is seemingly not living up to his job title. The man is openly hostile towards Walker, with the latter believing that the preacher has his own mysterious reasons for wanting Walker to find Eddie Velvet. The rest of the level plays out with Walker looking for something as he goes though the town’s streets, Union Apartments, and a morgue, battling with or running away from the town’s shadowy monsters and solving puzzles. As Walker returns to the church, the entirety of the level begins brimming crimson red, a sign of something ominous to come. Teasingly, the gameplay ended before we could get a look at the level’s final boss.
Just one look and it’s apparent where Silver Pines’ cinematic influences lie. From the late David Lynch and the haunted Pacific Northwest trappings of Twin Peaks, to JACOB’S LADDER and more, Wych Elm is far from shy about taking inspiration from the 1990s and early 2000s neo-noir genre. To further this comparison is the game’s unique art style. According to the team, the game’s initial conception was more of a “mood and vibe” and, in order to achieve that neo-noir atmosphere they were chasing, they opted to rotoscope its visuals. Rotoscoping is an animation technique that involves drawing over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to create authentic action. It’s labor intensive and not helped by the fact that, alongside their small resources, the footage they are drawing upon as visual reference is usually through filming themselves. And yet, the creative constraints that come with this painstaking process does give the game a unique visual identity that stands out amongst the many games releasing this fall.
However, cinematic homages aren’t the only reference point for Silver Pines. Equally important to the team is the impact of original Playstation survival horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. From surreal enemies of unknown origin, to a save mechanic that costs resources, to even an everyday object used to keep track of puzzles and locations for return visits to a level; Silver Pines uses the bones of foundational gameplay elements of the past and filters them into its own stew of hard-boiled detective horror. Take for instance its payphone. On its face, it’s a game save mechanic that costs resources that Walker can find throughout a level, but it equally functions as a narrative device as Walker fills in his unknown benefactor of the ongoing investigation into the missing Eddie Velvet.
Perhaps the most important element that the team is taking away from these older games is their devotion to the survival aspect of the survival horror genre. In short, resource management matters when controlling Walker in the moment-to-moment gameplay. “Each encounter should cost you,” one of the developers explains. It’s an approach that lives in every aspect of the gameplay seen, played, and described at the start of this article. Every bullet fired, every fight you flee; every choice has both short and long-term effects. Leave an enemy alive to conserve resources, and later when returning to an area, Walker may find said foe joined by other, more vicious foes alongside it. The choice — and its consequences — are yours.
Heightening these moments of flight or fight for players is the time it takes for Walker to complete an action. For the team, Walker’s actions — whether he is reloading a gun or drinking coffee — is meant to add a sense of tactility and immersion to the character, as he isn’t the Leon S. Kennedy type. No snappy quips or lightning fast reloads for Walker here, the private investigator is as vulnerable as they come, only able to withstand a few blows before players are hit with the ‘GAME OVER’ screen. When taken in context of the team filming themselves as visual reference points for the game’s rotoscoped animation style, it’s evident that Walker is meant to be an everyman: capable, but always on the back-foot.
Speaking of difficulty, the developers are aiming for the “Normal” mode to be on par with those classic survival horror games of yore. To Wych Elm, that level of challenge will ask a lot of the players but, given they’re in the ballpark for a completion time of about 12-16 hours of gameplay (with the upper echelon of hours meant to be for the absolute completionists out there), this seems about in line with even modern-day Resident Evil entries. Additionally, puzzles will act as a brief break from the more combat heavy sections of the game, with the developers not wanting them to be heavy brainteasers.
And as to any form of New Game Plus for those itching for immediate replay? While Wych Elm has teased efficient routing for speed runners and puzzle solutions being randomized for subsequent playthroughs to increase replay value, for now the developers are looking into "something” to do with the game after completion. They have hinted at it being a patch, one that will arrive on day one of release or post-launch, but this is yet to be determined.
For now, players are going to have to wait until October to find Eddie Velvet and uncover the dark secrets of Silver Pines.
Silver Pines releases for all platforms on October 8th, 2026.
