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Silver Pines Review Roundup: Strong Scores, Open Questions on Replay

Silver Pines, a survival horror Metroidvania released October 8, 2026, has an 86 on Metacritic and 94% positive on Steam. Whether it holds up to repeat play is still unanswered.

Marguerite OseiOct 15, 20264 min read

Illustration of an old arcade cabinet in a dark room, lit by moonlight, with a pine forest reflected in its screen and a glowing coin hovering over the slot.
An illustrated arcade cabinet stands in for the question this roundup asks of Silver Pines: will it be worth a second credit?

I have not played Silver Pines. I want that on the record first. What I have is a stack of sources: one GamesRadar+ review headline, a Metacritic page, a Steam listing and a Wikipedia entry. That is enough to say what the game is and how critics and players have received it. It is not enough to say whether it holds up over many repeat plays. This piece keeps those two things apart.

What the game is

Silver Pines is a single-player survival horror Metroidvania from Wych Elm Games, published by Team17. It was released on October 8, 2026. It is on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 and Windows.

You play Red Walker, a private investigator looking for a missing musician named Eddie Velvet. The search takes place in the half-abandoned town of Silver Pines. It is a side-scrolling game. You explore, solve puzzles, fight or avoid monsters, and ration your supplies. Wikipedia and critics lean on the same comparisons: David Lynch and Twin Peaks for mood, Resident Evil and Silent Hill for the survival side.

What critics and players say

GamesRadar+ headlines its review by calling the game a horror Metroidvania that is "a mystery that's hard to put down." That is the only part of the GamesRadar+ piece I can vouch for. I did not see its body text or score.

Metacritic is more useful. It lists a Metascore of 86 from 21 critic reviews, labeled Generally Favorable. Twenty are positive and one is mixed. Its user score is also 86, from 72 ratings. Another critic calls the game a sharp, moody debut with gorgeous hand-drawn art and a thick, unsettling atmosphere.

Steam shows Very Positive, with 94% of 1,816 user reviews positive. Some Steam reviewers describe the difficulty as neither too easy nor too punishing. Treat that as taste, not measurement. Many of those reviewers compare the game to other titles instead of judging it alone.

Why the design suits repeat play

Metroidvanias reward return trips. You find a locked door, leave, and come back with the right tool. Survival horror does something similar with fear and scarce ammo. Silver Pines combines locked doors, hidden paths and areas that open with new gear, along with limited inventory, healing items and ammunition.

That mix wants to be revisited. A cabinet earns its floor space by being worth the second quarter and the tenth. A game built on backtracking at least has a shot at that. A shot is all I will claim. Nothing in my sources shows how the game plays on a second run or a third.

Those are the questions I would want answered before calling it a keeper:

  • Does the map stay interesting on a second trip, or does it turn into chores?
  • Do the scares survive once you know where they sit?
  • Does the save system respect your time when you die?

The sources do not say how long the game is or how saving works in detail. They also skip hardware requirements and performance differences between platforms.

Price and buying notes

The Steam page listed $24.99, with a 10% discount to $22.49 that ended October 22. A Steam bundle with Alan Wake was listed at $22.26, down from $35.98. Metacritic showed a Fanatical listing at $18.74, down 25%. Sale timing differs by store, so the lowest price may be temporary. It is also unclear which edition the $24.99 price covers, and the Deluxe Edition is not fully described.

Steam lists achievements, Steam Cloud support, Family Sharing and subtitles in ten or more languages. Check your platform first, since versions differ by store and hardware. The sources also do not describe content warnings beyond general horror framing, and they do not cover refund terms or post-launch support.

The fair reading

Metacritic's sample is small at 21 reviews, so the score could move. Still, the early signals agree: strong atmosphere, a story that pulls, and a design built for exploration. My verdict is on the reception, not the game. It is promising and well liked. Whether it survives a long run of repeat plays is still open.

If you try it, count how often you go back after quitting. That number will tell you more than any score, mine included.

Recap

Close-up of a worn arcade control panel with a joystick and round buttons, their paint rubbed away where players' thumbs most often press, lit in moody amber and blue.
A worn arcade cabinet control panel, buttons faded where thumbs land most often. Stock-style illustration, not a screenshot of Silver Pines.
An open arcade coin door with a tray of quarters on a dim repair bench, lit by warm light.
An open coin door with a tray of quarters. Illustrative image, not from the game.

Sources

Marguerite Osei

Marguerite Osei is a house writer for GamesUnlimited covering classic arcade cabinets, pinball, and the hardware that keeps them running. She spent two decades repairing machines in family arcades before she started writing about them. Her reviews weigh how a game plays against how well it holds up to a thousand quarters.

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Silver Pines Review Roundup: Strong Scores, Open Questions on Replay | GamesUnlimited