Silent Hill f’s PS5 Pro Issues Explained

Silent Hill f is a welcome return for the franchise, but horror fans looking for the best experience possible have been running into problems with the PS5 Pro version. The latest entry in the iconic series is a fitting addition to the universe, shifting the horror to a former mining village in 1960s Japan. Thanks to current console processing power, the game looks absolutely beautiful, with crisp visuals that highlight the strong art design throughout. It’s one of the most ingrossing elements of Silent Hill f, a game that thrives on sucking the player into a creepy and hauntingly beautiful world.

However, some early reviews have noticed a trend when playing the game with a PlayStation 5 Pro. Due to the specific graphical upscaling of the console that can’t be turned off in Silent Hill f, players are discovering a number of glitches and hiccups that not only impact the visuals but also throw off elements of the gameplay. This was a frustrating problem for previous games that have had similar issues on the PS5 Pro, but it’s a real issue for a game like Silent Hill f that relies so heavily on visuals.

Why Silent Hill f Is Suffering On PS5 Pro

As reported by Digital Foundry, PS5 versions of Silent Hill f have been running into some issues that can impact graphics and gameplay. Regular PS5s give players the choice of exploring the frightening landscapes of Silent Hill f in Quality (30fps) or Performance (60fps) modes. However, the PS5 Pro locks players into an Enhanced mode that is constantly upscaling the game. On paper, this is a great idea, helping make the base game look better than the version available on the standard PS5.

However, this natural upscaling on the PS5 Pro ensures the game graphics remain at 60fps. This also taxes the game’s visuals and can lead to glitches like flickering reflections and shimmering backgrounds. It even messes with the ambient aspects of the visuals, which is a big problem in a game like Silent Hill f where the overall creepy ambiance is key to the effectiveness of the horror.

Part of the issue is that the standard PS5 can drop internal resolution down to 360p while in performance mode, as Silent Hill f was designed with that kind of graphic output as an option. This keeps the game moving, even if the visuals dip in raw quality. The PS5 Pro tries to compensate for this by upscaling the game’s 720p standard to 4K, but this seems to exacerbate problems with the Unreal Engine and the PSSR AI upscaling. The result is that Silent Hill f looks more glitchy on the advanced system.

Silent Hill f’s PS5 Pro Problems Hurt The Game Experience

This isn’t the first time that gamers have experienced these issues with a Konami release on PS5 Pro. The 2024 Silent Hill 2 remake suffered from many of the same problems, and even the recent Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater performed worse on the PS5 Pro when compared to the standard PlayStation 5. However, the issue is especially galling with Silent Hill f, given that so much of the title’s effectiveness is rooted in the worldbuilding and visuals.

The game looks fantastic on the standard PlayStation 5, with the creepy atmosphere and darkly beautiful sights adding to the effect. It sucks the players in with the haunting surroundings and keeps the tension going by painting a vivid world. Even if the quality of the standard PS5’s visuals doesn’t quite match the crispness of the PS5’s upscaled visuals, the graphical hiccups are a more frustrating problem. They snap the players out of the experience, breaking the illusion and ruining some of the tension of the scene.

These hiccups seem to be even impacting gameplay, as combat sections can become more frustrating in PS5 Pro due to the sudden delays that the graphic overload can cause. Similar issues hindered the PS5 Pro versions of other third-party games like Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but they gave players the option to turn off the upscaling for a smoother experience. That’s not the case with Silent Hill f, at least at the time of writing. Hopefully, a fix comes soon. Otherwise, players looking for a fully immersive experience might want to resort to a more standard version of the game.

Source: Digital Foundry

Silent Hill f is scheduled for wide release for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on September 25, 2025, following an early access release on September 23.