Lynchian noir mystery Silver Pines takes the best bits from horror, the middling bits from Metroidvanias, and the worst bits from adventure games

I want, and not even especially deep down, to like Silver Pines more than I do. Wych Elm’s debut game – a Twin Peaks-inspired, neo-noir detective mystery that quickly repaints itself in survival horror red – is endearingly unusual, an angular mishmash of different genre staples that, nonetheless, stays coherently glued together by its expressively moody visual style and an intriguing missing-person tale. It’s just... well, put it this way. I’m only about three hours in, and if I have to backtrack my slouching private dick through one more thicket of locked doors and collection puzzles, the next crime he’ll be investigating will be the aggravated assault of a desktop monitor. Read more

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