Silver Pines

Story and setting

You play as Red Walker, a private investigator who arrives in Silver Pines to find Eddie Velvet, a musician who has vanished. The town is described as half-abandoned and half-forgotten, isolated in the middle of nowhere. What begins as a conventional missing-person case gradually exposes a darker past and pushes Walker into a strange, nightmarish descent beyond his control.

The setting is small-town America filtered through a 1990s-inspired horror style. The town’s locations include an abandoned motel, a cable car and the Rabbit Hole Bar, while the story is built around clues, suspicious surroundings and the gap between the ordinary and the unreal. Wych Elm’s presentation uses rotoscoped character animation, photographed and painted-over environmental textures, and 2D sprites placed in a 3D simulation to give the side-on world depth.

How it plays

Silver Pines is structured as a survival-horror metroidvania. You explore an interconnected town filled with locked doors, hidden paths, clues and resources, then return to previously inaccessible areas as you find better tools and weapons. Puzzles block progress, while the layout is intended to reward careful searching rather than simply moving from one fight to the next.

Combat is designed around pressure and limited supplies. The official description confirms that you can fight or avoid the horrors of the town, with restricted inventory space making every bullet, bottle of medicine and upgrade important. The game includes a variety of monsters and larger bosses, but the scarcity of ammunition and healing items means confrontation is not always the sensible choice. The Steam version has full controller support, Steam Cloud, achievements and Steam Deck Verified status.

The game is single-player only. There is no confirmed co-operative, competitive or other online mode, and the confirmed design is built around one player investigating the town and managing Walker’s resources.

Trailers and what they showed

The announce trailer, released on 23 October 2025, introduced Red Walker, the search for Eddie Velvet and the isolated town of Silver Pines. It also established the core survival-horror ideas: puzzles, scarce resources, horrors that could be fought or avoided, and a town that opens up through locked routes and hidden paths.

A new gameplay trailer shown during the Future Games Show Spring Showcase on 12 March 2026 provided the clearest early look at exploration and combat. It showed side-scrolling movement through the town, weapon-based encounters, monsters, bosses, limited inventory space and tools that gradually make more of the map accessible. A 12-minute IGN gameplay preview published on 26 May offered a longer look at the opening section and Walker’s first steps into the town.

The release-date and demo trailer arrived on 1 June 2026, confirming the 8 October launch date and accompanying the release of a free Steam demo. On 16 July, a Convergence Showcase developer video had Wych Elm co-founder and designer Linus Larsson explain the game’s set-up and opening journey, including how the traditional detective story becomes increasingly dreamlike as Walker uncovers Silver Pines’ secrets.

Platforms, editions and UK price

Team17’s current platform listing confirms PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. The Xbox version is listed as optimised for Xbox Series X|S and supports Xbox Play Anywhere. The Steam version is also Steam Deck Verified. There is no confirmed PlayStation 4, Xbox One or separate Nintendo Switch 2 version.

The standard edition is priced at £21.99 in the UK on Steam and consoles. A Deluxe Edition costs £27.99 and includes the game, a digital artbook and the official soundtrack. Team17 has announced an additional 10 per cent launch discount on Steam. Steam pre-orders are scheduled to begin on Thursday, 1 October 2026, while a free demo is available on Steam before launch and is due to remain available until 8 October.

No physical UK edition or retailer pre-order listing has been confirmed. The publisher has not announced a specific UK launch time for the console versions.

What remains unconfirmed

There is no confirmed launch inclusion for Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus. Team17 has also not announced a physical release, post-launch expansions, New Game Plus, extra difficulty modes or other post-game features. The confirmed information covers the main single-player game, the standard digital release and the Deluxe digital edition.

For anyone unsure about committing before launch, the Steam demo is the most useful option. It should give you a feel for the side-view exploration, combat, inventory pressure and atmosphere without requiring a pre-order. The game’s central appeal is clear, but its final length, the full range of its puzzles and the balance of its combat will only be known once the complete release is available.