Silent Road is a newly announced Steam horror game centered on a taxi driver operating in Japan’s remote forest region infamous for suicides. The setting of the upcoming title, which is currently targeting a 2026 Steam release, shares some similarities with one of the more polarizing Fatal Frame games in recent years.
Silent Road is the latest title from Endflame, an indie studio based out of Catalonia, Spain. Founded in 2019, the company is best known for its debut title, Ikai, a 2022 psychological horror experience set in feudal Japan, starring a priestess struggling with ghosts of her past. While its critical reception was mixed, Ikai has developed a reputation as one of the scariest modern horror games inspired by Japanese folklore, not least because of its focus on vulnerability and varied monster designs.
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Silent Road Turns Night-Shift Taxi Driving Into Nightmare Fuel
Endflame is now taking another stab at a Japanese-style horror game, but this time, it opted for a modern setting. The studio’s newly announced Silent Road casts players as a taxi driver operating in a haunted forest region seemingly inspired by Aokigahara, known in the West as the “Suicide Forest.” As such, Silent Road shares its setting with Koei Tecmo’s polarizing 2014 survival horror title Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. While driving is the primary mode of transportation, players can exit the vehicle to assist passengers entering or leaving. According to the developer, stepping outside the car will never feel entirely safe.
The core gameplay loop of Silent Road involves ferrying strangers through deserted villages and fog-covered mountain roads, with each ride acting as a unique psychological test. Through brief conversations, optional stops outside the vehicle, and environmental cues, Endflame says the forest’s underlying mystery will slowly emerge. The structure is simple but potentially well-suited to iteration, giving the developer room to experiment with content like recurring passengers whose behavior becomes increasingly unnerving, eventually spiraling into full-blown horror. That kind of gradual buildup turning a seemingly mundane setting into something deeply unsettling is a big part of what made Ikai memorable as well.
The 34-second video teaser Endflame released alongside its latest announcement primarily features gameplay footage, using rapid, intermittent cuts to connect scenes that range from eerie to overtly frightening, including a single jump scare featuring what appears to be a ghost that’s also present in the game’s key art. If the promo is representative of the final product, Silent Road may adopt a restrained tone that prioritizes atmosphere over spectacle, relying on suggestion rather than graphic imagery to unsettle players as their minds fill in the blanks purposefully created by the game.
“We’ve always loved Japanese horror; the quiet tension, the atmosphere, the way it stays with you long after it ends,” Endflame co-founders Laura Ripoll and Guillem Travila said in a prepared statement. “Silent Road grew from that love.” The co-founders are describing the upcoming title as a frightening experience rooted in J-horror sensibilities that “carries something deeper beneath the surface.”
We’ve always loved Japanese horror; the quiet tension, the atmosphere, the way it stays with you long after it ends. Silent Road grew from that love.
Silent Road is currently targeting a 2026 launch, with Endflame being yet to provide a more narrow release window. A demo is currently in the works, planned to debut on the Silent Road Steam page, which just went live, making the game available for wishlisting. The psychological horror title has so far only been confirmed for PC. Based on the Spanish developer’s track record, no additional ports may be planned at this time. Silent Road will mark Endflame’s third title to date. Apart from Ikai, the developer previously also made Instants, a cozy puzzler released on Steam in June 2025.
