Following Silent Hill f’s journey through 1960s Japan, Townfall takes the series to the isolated shores of 90s Scotland, bringing a fresh ensemble of characters, nightmarish terrors, and a tragic tale that’s as addictive as it is enthralling.
Just like Silent Hill f, which famously shook up the series with its action-packed combat, Townfall comes armed with some bold changes of its own. Screen Burn Interactive has ditched its predecessors’ signature over-the-shoulder perspective, putting you firmly in the quaking boots of its unlucky protagonist.
It’s a brave move for a series famously known for letting you cower behind survival horror greats like James Sunderland, but Townfall isn’t afraid to shake things up. This shift may come with some trepidation among Silent Hill veterans, and while it’s not without fault, Townfall is a thrilling new chapter in Konami’s iconic horror saga.
Silent Hill: Townfall screenshots
What is Silent Hill: Townfall about?
You play as an amnesiac man named Simon Ordell, who has found himself in the foggy coastal town of St. Amelia. He doesn’t know how he’s washed up on the harbor’s shores, nor does he remember why he has an IV drip hanging from his arm.
All Simon knows is he has to ‘put things right’ in a place where things have tragically gone wrong. It’s only when he delves deeper into the heart of St. Amelia that he uncovers the mysteries hidden beneath the fog, and the role he played in the abandoned town.
Simple story with plenty of trauma
While Townfall’s story isn’t as complex as Silent Hill f’s tale of social conformity and patriarchal oppression, its characters and setting offer plenty of intrigue, which kept me glued to the screen and eager to dive into the alternate endings after my first 15-hour playthrough.
This is largely thanks to the game’s excellent cast, with the story switching between the lenses of amnesiac patient Simon, struggling nurse Zoe, and company Director Richard. I’ll keep details light to avoid spoilers, as every Silent Hill fan owes it to themselves to experience the story firsthand, but discovering how the lives of all three characters are intrinsically connected makes for some easy stay-up-late sessions.
Just like how NeoBards did an excellent job juxtaposing Hinako’s fears of womanhood against otherworldly beings, Screen Burn Interactive uses the series’ iconic fog and humanoid horrors to paint a story that’s gritty, gripping, and most importantly, every bit as suffocating as its predecessors.
Screen Burn InteractiveFirst-person thrills bring the chills
Despite the Silent Hill series touching on first-person camera perspectives in The Short Message and Kojima’s P.T. demo (I’m still not over it), Townfall is the first to fully commit to this divisive feature in both exploration and combat.
While I wish there had been a toggleable option similar to Resident Evil Requiem’s, which allows players to switch between first and third-person perspectives, I found myself really appreciating the more intimate viewpoint, even if my poor heart didn’t.
Some of the most memorable moments involved gingerly peeking around corners, only to find the fleshy abomination I had been desperately trying to avoid was inches from my face. This usually resulted in a mad dash to the nearest closet, or a sweaty session of frantic button mashing to avoid an unwanted smooch with a reanimated corpse.
Screen Burn Interactive Fortunately, Simon’s portable TV (CRTV) has a few helpful features. By holding down the L1 button, you can tune into montage-style broadcasts that show puzzle clues and points of interest, while also revealing flickering silhouettes of nearby and distant foes.
As a result, stealthy sections felt reminiscent of Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation, where I was constantly keeping an eye on the chunky motion tracker to check enemy positions, throwing bottles to distract foes, and hiding whenever things got a bit, well, scary.
The chapters involving the game’s unkillable creature known simply as the Weight made for some particularly nail-biting moments – an experience I hadn’t felt since the Xenomorph sent me nervously creeping through the walkways of Sevastopol Station. However, unlike Isolation, when you do find yourself crossing Townfall’s shambling enemies, you needn’t give up and assume the fetal position.
Screen Burn InteractiveSeries staples like the metal pipe, wooden plank, shotgun, and pistol are here to aid your survival, but in true Silent Hill fashion, melee weapons can break, and ammo is scarce enough that killing everything you see is rarely an option. While combat never reaches the same heights as Silent Hill f, Townfall isn’t afraid to get its hands bloody either.
During one late-game section, I was actively encouraged to unleash my inner Leon S. Kennedy and shoot anything that so much as looked at me funny. Sweeping through a 10-story building, shotgun in hand, and blasting screaming creatures that threatened to pounce on me with wooden stakes was thrilling, if not a little cathartic. In fact, the end-game boss I encountered on my first playthrough looked like something that had escaped Umbrella’s lab.
It’s this mishmash of survival horror inspirations and a first-person perspective that may concern series veterans, especially those hoping for a more traditional experience akin to the Silent Hill 2 remake. However, Townfall delivers fresh thrills that feel more intimate and visceral than ever without losing sight of Silent Hill’s psychological horror identity.
Beautifully bleak environments & bland monsters
Townfall’s meticulously detailed coastal town of St. Amelia is reminiscent of Ebisugaoka in Silent Hill f, another game that wowed with its beautiful, yet grim visuals on base PS5.
St. Amelia’s fog-filled streets are lined with rows of realistic houses, dainty corner shops, and rugged cobblestone pathways, all of which have been painstakingly modeled after the real Scottish village of St Monans in the East Neuk of Fife.
Screen Burn Interactive Because of this attention to detail, ducking into the game’s houses feels like peering into a 90s time capsule that’s filled to the brim with chunky tellies, even chunkier PCs, and decor only your grandmother could love. It’s instantly apparent that Screen Burn Interactive has poured a lot of love into making St. Amelia’s port and the town’s darker, more industrial environments feel both inviting and terrifying.
Being able to freely explore these locations in first person, rifling through cupboards, wardrobes, and powering on flickering computer screens to sift through old emails may not sound like much fun, but it’s the kind of worldbuilding that makes Townfall’s environments so enthralling.
Screen Burn InteractiveIt’s a shame that the same can’t be said for the game’s lackluster roster of generic-looking enemies. When compared to the likes of Silent Hill 2’s iconic Pyramid Head and Silent Hill f’s cast of disturbing Junji Ito-style monstrosities, Townfall’s killer creatures look tame.
The two-legged terrors deliver plenty of adrenaline-fueled moments early on, but Townfall begins to stumble once you’ve encountered the same creature time and again. This lack of variety is even more pronounced during puzzles that require backtracking between floors and buildings, where I often found myself wishing for something new to sink its claws into me.
Verdict
Despite some hit-and-miss puzzles and dull enemy designs that lack the scary sauce its predecessors were cooked in, Townfall is a refreshing trip to new foggy shores. Its first-person experience stands toe to toe with survival horror greats like Alien: Isolation and Resident Evil 7, while further proving Silent Hill has the confidence to switch up the way it tells its traumatic tales.
From the pervading dampness that engulfs St. Amelia’s streets to the tangible feelings of isolation they help conjure, Screen Burn Interactive has created something special. Townfall is terrifying, beautiful, and nightmarishly good fun. This is a Silent Hill game every survival horror enthusiast needs to play.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
