Silent Hill is one of the most... interesting places in gaming, and I don't think I'll ever stop being fascinated by it. This survival-horror franchise is one that has always hovered between the mainstream and cult, existing in an Otherworld of its own. We've seen pretty much all sorts of horror sub-genres tried in gaming, but when it comes to psychological horror, Silent Hill has always been synonymous with it.

Now, Silent Hill F, the first new mainline Silent Hill game in 13 years, is about to come out. Last year's excellent remake of Silent Hill 2 gave this long-stagnant franchise new life, and now, we simply can't wait for Silent Hill F and its story of the quaint (and foggy) town of Ebisugaoka. If this is going to be your first Silent Hill game, however, then it wouldn't hurt to know more about this long-running horror series, and about what makes both the place and franchise of Silent Hill tick.

Every Silent Hill game so far has been a standalone story

You don't need to be doing too much homework

One of the coolest and most accessible things about Silent Hill is how it just isn't chained to a single protagonist or ongoing story arc. Instead, the games are connected through overarching themes of guilt, regret, sorrow, and their manifestations. Each game in the franchise has followed a new character and their baggage. Sure, there are some references and easter eggs here and there, but that's all they are. Not knowing James Sunderland's whole tragic story from Silent Hill 2 won't prevent you from completely investing in and enjoying (so to speak) Heather Mason's journey in Silent Hill 3, and vice versa.

This is the kind of franchise you can jump into at any point, which I particularly have come to appreciate since playing horror games while my partner watches from the couch is perhaps one of our favorite pastimes. Silent Hill F doesn't have any required reading to do, and it's even in the most different era and setting from the rest of the games. Still, it's doing what all the other Silent Hill games have done, which is bringing in a new protagonist and new horrors in a self-contained nightmare. I'm excited to find out how it connects to the Otherworld and the larger series in whatever obscure way the writers must have cooked up, but by all means, even if Silent Hill F is your first game in the franchise, you will be able to enjoy it thoroughly as an individual experience.

Silent Hill's combat has always been clunky

However, Silent Hill F's combat system is the most polished yet

If you've played the older games, or even if you've seen some glimpses of them, you'll realize that the combat was clunky, to say the very least. However, this isn't a technical fault on the part of the devs. Instead, it's a deliberate decision to make you feel vulnerable. Swinging a pipe at a grotesque, non-human monstrosity you can't even begin to describe isn't supposed to feel empowering in the first place, after all.

Silent Hill F, however, seems to be breaking tradition here. Early previews of the game have suggested a far more polished combat system, with timed dodges and counters, along with heavy and light attacks to deal damage to enemies. More intriguing than that, however, is the mental health meter, which affects your performance and perception of the world. This new game mechanic would undoubtedly tie the gameplay and the psychological element of the narrative closer together than ever, and I, for one, can't wait to finally experience a Silent Hill game where I'm not gritting my teeth through each combat encounter.

The iconic Silent Hill 'fog' was born as a hardware limitation

The creepy atmosphere was actually a bonus

If you're wondering why every Silent Hill game or movie has always had that town covered in a thick fog, you wouldn't be alone. Inarguably the most memorable and iconic part of this 26-year-old franchise, the 'fog' is a suffocating wall of white which engulfs every environment in each game, teasing players with terrifying shadows, voices, and silhouettes. Here's the fun part, though — it wasn't a stylistic choice at first. The original Silent Hill on the first PlayStation used this fog as a workaround for the console's inability to render draw distances. This was a clever workaround to mask the console's hardware limitations, but it then became the franchise's most iconic aesthetic. Even the PS1 Spider-Man game did the same, citing Mysterio's yellow gas as an in-game excuse for not being able to render the streets of NYC.

Later games in the Silent Hill franchise ran with this unique visual signature, using fog and darkness to take paranoia and dread to mystical new heights. Silent Hill F will, of course, bring its own twist to this legacy, but the one thing we've already seen clear as day (pun intended) is that the village of Ebisugaoka has the same trademark fog running through its tight streets and claustrophobic alleys.

Silent Hill isn't actually tied to the town itself

It's a place, yes, but it also... isn't?

A common misconception you might have is that Silent Hill is all about the town. Not true at all. The games in the franchise are actually more about the idea of Silent Hill, which always acts as a mirror of the human psyche, and presents an avenue for trauma to manifest itself as horror. Silent Hill 4 barely ever took you into the town, but it was unmistakably a part of the same horror series with the same themes. So, even if Silent Hill F is set in 1960s Japan, which is clearly a drastic departure, it actually fits the series' ethos perfectly.

The geography of Silent Hill does not matter. What matters is the way the world reshapes itself around its protagonist's demons. It's more of a state of mind rather than a zip code, and F's Japanese setting only proves that the series' formula can transcend borders and time periods while delivering the same core experience and revolving around the same themes. That's why Silent Hill F is such an exciting prospect — we'd be revisiting an old, familiar state of mind, while in an unfamiliar town, all while going through an entirely new nightmare.

There is so much more Silent Hill to come

The franchise's future looks brighter than it has in years

For a long while, Silent Hill was... dead. The last proper mainline entry came out more than a decade ago, and the series stumbled through mediocre spin-offs, cancellations, and the utter heartbreak we all had to suffer from seeing what happened to P.T. and Hideo Kojima. Suddenly, though, things are alive again. After the fantastic Silent Hill 2 remake revived the franchise, and Silent Hill F just a few weeks away, there are plenty of other projects this IP has got lined up.

We've got a new Silent Hill movie slated for next year, a full remake of the original Silent Hill in development, and Silent Hill: Townfall in development as well. It feels like Konami finally decided to stop letting this fabled franchise rot, and now, they're giving it the same level of TLC that Resident Evil has been enjoying.

Silent Hill F looks to be a bold new chapter, but it's also part of a bigger revival that could give this series the renaissance it really does deserve.

Silent Hill F is a radical departure in the series

It's the fact that Silent Hill F looks like such a radical departure from the games we know that makes it feel so true to the series. Every game is a new lens with a new character, and with Silent Hill F, Konami seems to be reinventing the series again without compromising its soul.

If you've never touched the franchise before, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. You can dive straight into F. If you're a returning fan, you already know that the scariest part of Silent Hill isn't the monsters waiting in the fog, but rather the truths the fog makes you confront.