The review embargo for Silver Pines lifted on Tuesday morning, two days before Team17 releases Wych Elm’s debut on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch and Switch 2 on October 8. It is a side-scrolling survival horror game built like a Metroidvania, in which private investigator Red Walker searches a half-abandoned American town for a missing musician called Eddie Velvet, and it comes from a five-person Swedish studio whose members previously worked on Helldivers 2, The Darkness and Yoku’s Island Express. We collected 26 numeric scores by late Tuesday morning Pacific time, and they put the NGC Rating at 88, a couple of points above the 86 top-critic average OpenCritic was showing at the same point. Critics are close to unanimous about the art direction, the town and the mystery. The real argument is over combat, and the reviews also leave a gap for anyone planning to buy on a Nintendo console or an Xbox.
That 88 is the plain average of the 26 numeric critic scores listed below, each converted to a 100-point scale, rather than a copy of any aggregator’s number.
| Outlet | Published | Score | Normalized bar |
|---|---|---|---|
| CGMagazine | 10/10 | 100 | |
| Radio Times | 5/5 | 100 | |
| Duuro Magazine | 10/10 | 100 | |
| DualShockers | 9.5/10 | 95 | |
| Pure Dead Gaming | 9.5/10 | 95 | |
| Evilgamerz | 9.5/10 | 95 | |
| República DG | 9.2/10 | 92 | |
| GamesRadar+ | 4.5/5 | 90 | |
| Digital Chumps | 9/10 | 90 | |
| Game8 | 90/100 | 90 | |
| GameSpew | 9/10 | 90 | |
| Gamer Social Club | 9/10 | 90 | |
| Uagna | 9/10 | 90 | |
| SteamDeckHQ | 9/10 | 90 | |
| Gaming Boulevard | 9/10 | 90 | |
| Meristation | 90/100 | 90 | |
| KonsoliFIN | 90/100 | 90 | |
| Pizza Fria | 8.75/10 | 88 | |
| PlayStation Universe | 8.5/10 | 85 | |
| The Games Machine | 8.1/10 | 81 | |
| SECTOR.sk | 8/10 | 80 | |
| VDGMS | 8/10 | 80 | |
| The Guardian | 4/5 | 80 | |
| The Wand Report | 8/10 | 80 | |
| Gamer Guides | 73/100 | 73 | |
| Checkpoint Gaming | 7/10 | 70 |
Excluded: PCMGAMES (a 'Recommended' verdict with no number) and Power Unlimited (Metacritic lists an 80 but gives no link to the review, so we could not check it). Meristation and KonsoliFIN scores are taken from their Metacritic listings. Pizza Fria's page shows 8.75, which OpenCritic rounds to 8.8. Collected October 6, 2026 (PT).
Where critics agree: the town, the art and the detective work
Almost every review starts in the same place. Wych Elm used rotoscoped animation for Red Walker and the creatures, painted over photographs for the backgrounds and layered them so the street ahead is visible behind the room you are standing in. Keith Stuart at The Guardian praised its “brilliant sense of style” and “wonderfully constructed mythology,” and listed the neo-noir references he spotted along the way, from Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks to The X-Files and Angel Heart. Checkpoint Gaming, which gave the lowest score we found, still called the vibe “simply immaculate” and said the game captures a Lynchian small-town mystery without feeling derivative.
The structure gets almost as much credit. Instead of a double jump or an air dash, Walker opens new routes with tools and weapons, so a crowbar pulls the planks off a door and a sledgehammer breaks through a wall you passed hours earlier. Several reviewers single out the camera, which lets you photograph a blocked path or a clue and pin the picture to your map. GamesRadar+ said it builds on a similar feature from Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and Duuro Magazine said it “turns backtracking into recognition rather than guesswork.” The inventory works like a classic Resident Evil grid, with limited slots, storage boxes and weapon kits that shrink a gun’s footprint, and saving happens at payphones that cost a dollar a call.
Where they split: combat, and how much horror is left
Much of the spread between 70 and 100 comes down to one system. Walker plants his feet to aim, reloading is a timed button prompt that some guns repeat for every round (Checkpoint notes it can be switched off in the main menu), melee weapons break, and both dodging and swinging draw on a small stamina bar. Reviewers who scored the game in the 90s tend to treat that stiffness as part of the genre. The Guardian said the panicked boss fights are “very true to the earliest survival horror titles, where the inability to actually move, shoot and/or avoid incoming blows was part of the drama,” and pointed out that the difficulty can be turned down for players who mainly want the story. CGMagazine, which gave it a 10, described scraping together supplies and enough coins for one more save as the kind of decision “classic survival horror was built on.”
The lower scores see the same mechanics differently. Gamer Guides scored it 73 and wrote that “if there’s one aspect of the game that fails considerably, it’s combat,” adding that you cannot move while aiming and that melee puts you at a real disadvantage early on. The Wand Report still gave it an 8 but called the combat “clumsy, unfair, and often unnecessary,” with dark enemies that are hard to read in shadowed interiors. Even some of the warmest reviews hedge here. GameSpew called the combat “rather clunky” in an otherwise glowing 9, and Duuro’s 10 came with a warning that some bosses attack so relentlessly that dodges need near-perfect timing.
A smaller group questions how well the two genres sit together. PlayStation Universe gave it an 8.5 but argued that the Metroidvania side dampens the horror, writing that “you just lose the horror element of a horror game,” and that resource management gets lost along the way. Checkpoint’s 7, the lowest score we found, is the interesting exception to the combat argument. Its reviewer called the fighting “tight” and “tense” and liked the reload minigame, but said the game felt like “a hodgepodge of warring ideas,” with clunky movement and platforming, ammo spent on opening vents and locks for small rewards, and puzzles it found bland and easy. The story draws some criticism too. GamesRadar+ uncovered all three endings and felt each one stops just short of a satisfying answer, while Gamer Guides found the plot too hard to follow at times.
Here is how those positions line up against the scores:
| Outlet | Score | On combat | On the genre blend |
|---|---|---|---|
| CGMagazine | 10/10 | Scarcity and save costs create the tension | Exploration “hits that perfect Metroidvania sweet spot” |
| Duuro Magazine | 10/10 | Strong guns and upgrades, but bosses are harsh | Story, combat and exploration fit together |
| The Guardian | 4/5 | Tense and panicked, true to early survival horror | Familiar formula lifted by style |
| GameSpew | 9/10 | “Rather clunky”, especially in boss fights | Combines the two “to great effect” |
| PlayStation Universe | 8.5/10 | Bosses are simple once you learn it | Exploration wins, horror fades |
| The Wand Report | 8/10 | “Clumsy, unfair, and often unnecessary” | Atmosphere and puzzles carry it |
| Gamer Guides | 73/100 | “Fails considerably” | Good survival horror, decent Metroidvania |
| Checkpoint Gaming | 7/10 | “Tight” and “tense” | “A hodgepodge of warring ideas”, with clunky movement |
Which versions critics actually played
The five-platform launch is wider than the review coverage. Of the 26 scores, 12 come from PC and six from PS5, while Switch 2 has two and Xbox Series X|S has one. We could not find a single scored review of the original Switch version, and Metacritic’s Switch page had no critic reviews when we checked. The small console samples look high, but two or three reviews are not enough to say one version is better than another, and the slightly lower PC average comes from which outlets reviewed there rather than anything critics said about the PC build itself.
| Platform reviewed | Scores | Average | What the reviews tell you |
|---|---|---|---|
| PC | 12 | 86 | Four were played on handhelds (three on Steam Deck, one on ROG Xbox Ally X). The only detailed performance notes are here. |
| PS5 | 6 | 91 | The PS5 reviews we read do not raise performance problems. Metacritic’s PS5 page showed 91 from five reviews. |
| Switch 2 | 2 | 95 | Radio Times gave it 5/5 on Switch 2, and KonsoliFIN preferred it to Silent Hill: Townfall. Neither gives frame rate figures. |
| Xbox Series X|S | 1 | 90 | Gamer Social Club’s 9 is the only Xbox review we found. |
| Switch | 0 | n/a | No scored reviews found. |
| Not stated | 5 | 88 | These outlets did not name a platform on the review page or listing we used. |
Handheld PC players get the most specific guidance. SteamDeckHQ gave the game 9/10 for content and 4/5 as a Steam Deck experience, with performance rated 3/5, because the full game regularly fell below 60fps even though the demo had held it. Its recommendation is to lock to 30fps on the High preset, which it said looks good and stays stable with more than four hours of battery on an OLED Deck, or to drop to the Low preset if 60fps matters more, at the cost of some effects and less even frame pacing. Duuro reported good handheld performance on the ROG Xbox Ally X with occasional dips that were rarely noticeable at the game’s deliberate pace. On desktop, Steam lists modest requirements, with a GeForce GTX 660 Ti, 8GB of RAM and 5GB of storage as the minimum.
Price, length and what else lands this month
Silver Pines is not priced like the other horror games critics keep comparing it to. Steam lists it at $24.99, with a $31.99 Deluxe Edition, and both are 10% off ($22.49 and $28.79) in a launch offer that runs until October 22. Two reviewers gave a running time: Duuro finished in 14 hours, and Evilgamerz said it took at least fifteen. KonsoliFIN’s comparison with Townfall is also useful, because that game is the obvious alternative for the same audience this autumn.
| Game | Release | Price (US) | NGC Rating | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silver Pines | October 8, 2026 | $24.99 (Steam) | 88 (26 reviews) | 10% Steam launch discount until October 22. Reviewers report 14 to 15+ hours. |
| Silent Hill: Townfall | September 2026 | $49.99 | 84 (12 reviews) | PS5 and PC only. See our Townfall roundup. |
| Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse | October 15, 2026 | Not compared | No reviews yet | PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC first, Switch later. See our demo guide. |
The timing matters because Konami’s Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse arrives a week later as the other big 2D exploration game of October, and Gamer Guides mentioned it directly while placing Silver Pines in a busy Metroidvania year. They are very different games, one a slow detective story and the other a whip-based action game, so the question is less which one is better than which one you want to start first. If you want a single 2D game for Halloween, the critics’ case for Silver Pines is stronger right now, simply because it has 26 reviews and we could not find any for Belmont’s Curse yet.
Who should buy now, and who should wait
| If you are… | Our read of the reviews |
|---|---|
| A survival horror fan who liked the old Resident Evil and Silent Hill games | Buy it. Almost every review says the atmosphere, puzzles and inventory design deliver, and the combat stiffness is the kind those games had. |
| A Metroidvania player who wants fluid action | Try the free Steam demo first. The combat and movement complaints in the lower reviews are about exactly the things action-focused players care about. |
| Mainly interested in the story and mystery | Buy, with the expectation that the endings may leave questions. You can lower the difficulty if fights get in the way. |
| Playing on PS5 or PC | These are the best-covered versions, and on PC the Steam discount runs until October 22. |
| Playing on Steam Deck | It works well, but plan to play at 30fps on High, as SteamDeckHQ recommends, rather than expecting a steady 60. |
| Playing on Switch 2 or Xbox | The two Switch 2 reviews and the single Xbox review are very positive, but there is not much coverage yet. Waiting a few days for more console impressions costs little. |
| Playing on the original Switch | Wait. We found no scored reviews of that version, so nobody has reported how it runs. |
Taken together, the reviews describe a debut that does something different with two well-worn genres and does most of it very well. The 88 reflects real enthusiasm for the setting and the detective work, and the score range tells you who might not enjoy it. If you can live with a survival horror game that deliberately makes fights awkward, the reviews give you little reason to hesitate at $24.99. If clunky combat or fiddly movement usually ruins a game for you, the demo is the cheapest way to find out which group you are in. And if you play on the original Switch, it makes sense to wait until someone has actually reviewed that version.
Sources: the outlet reviews linked in the scores table; OpenCritic and Metacritic listings; the Silver Pines Steam page (price, launch discount and PC requirements); Team17’s release date announcement; VGChartz (platform list); and Konami (Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse release date).