Silver Pines is a gorgeous 2D Resident Evil-inspired metroidvania

Welcome to Silver Pines. You might recognise it, if you've visited Twin Peaks or Alan Wake's Bright Falls. It's wet, it's weird, it's a bit unsettling. It's also the last-known location of Eddie Velvet, a musician being tracked by private investigator Red Walker—that's you.

But who cares about runaway musicians when there are monsters trying to eat your face? Ol' Silver Pines has gone a bit Resident Evil: a storm's coming, nearly everyone has evacuated the town, and now it's infested by grisly creatures with breathing problems. With limited resources, a tiny inventory, lots of locked doors and a fair share of light puzzles, the game channels classic survival-horror tropes—you can even find healing herbs and combine objects.

Developer Wych Elm describes Silver Pines as a "love letter to classic survival horror." I'm only able to discuss the first hour, and it left me reconsidering combat. My first weapon was a puny boxcutter, which proved ineffective and slow; injuries make Walker, already sluggish, even slower.

silver pines, resident evil, metroidvania, twin peaks, alan wake, bright falls, eddie velvet, red walker, survival horror, wych elm