The life of a Silent Hill player can be a tough one. While our cousins in the Resident Evil camp get a slew of hugely successful games, spin-off titles, dedicated merch, and an upcoming soon-to-be hit movie from Weapons director Zach Cregger, the Silent Hill fanbase has had to contend with the post-Team Silent lull of derivative Silent Hill 2 clones, the Funko Pop-ification of the series’ most iconic monster – and the less said about the movie adaptations the better.
Thankfully, the recent revival of the series has blessed us with the critically acclaimed Silent Hill 2 remake from Bloober Team (also helming the upcoming Silent Hill 1 remake) as well as the stellar Silent Hill f from NeoBards, and if what I’ve played of Silent Hill: Townfall at a recent press event is anything to go by, the legendary saga is finally set to reclaim its crown as survival horror’s most disturbing series (and we’ll just all agree to collectively forget Return to Silent Hill ever happened, right?)
Developed by Glaswegian company ScreenBurn (Stories Untold, Observation), Silent Hill: Townfall makes good on Silent Hill producer Motoi Okamoto’s goal of moving the horror of the series outside of the United States, this time being set in the fictional Scottish seaside town of St. Amelia in 1996.
As is tradition with Silent Hill, players take on the role of an everyman thrust into a nightmare with little understanding of why or how they are there, with Simon Ordell joining the canon of confused protagonists. As Simon navigates the abandoned, foggy town of St. Amelia, terrifying monsters and bizarre rifts in reality start to unveil the real reason why he keeps washing up on the shore.
As the first full length Silent Hill game in first person, Townfall hasn’t skimped at all on making Simon’s POV as immersive as possible. St. Amelia looks absolutely incredible, with remarkable attention paid to even the most minute of details, none of which are just happenstance – in traditional Silent Hill fashion, everything means something, and all will play a pivotal role in understanding Simon’s ordeal. The creepy coastal ambience, inspired by the real village of St Monans in Fife, takes the horror in a refreshing new direction for the series, and for someone from a shoreside county like myself, felt scarily realistic.
There will always be those detractors who, just like they did with the Japanese Silent Hill f, discredit and debate Townfall’s authenticity as a Silent Hill game due to it being set outside of the titular town, despite the fact that many of the OG games took place outside of the town for a large portion of the runtime.
But just as Silent Hill f had direct narrative connections to the original series, it’s safe to say that Townfall will too. In my first three hours of play, I spotted a number of Silent Hill 2 easter eggs that had me doing the Leonardo DiCaprio point at my screen, and I would be very surprised if Simon’s story doesn’t end up linking back to the original lore in some way.
And, hey, even if it doesn't – Homecoming, Origins and Downpour all desperately tried to mimic the original games, and look how they turned out. Don't be scared of a fresh coat of paint, folks – innovation keeps the world turning, after all.
Of course, no Silent Hill game would be complete without fleshy abominations roaming the foggy streets, and while I only came face-to-face with one of Townfall‘s grotesque monsters, rest assured that Townfall is going to provide plenty of nightmare fuel. As seen in the earlier reveal trailers, Simon must avoid the bipedal abominations Axe Heads (official name TBA), whose tied-up torso calls to mind the Lying Figures of Silent Hill 2. But unlike the shuffling Lying Figures, these Axe Heads are fast, and there is no outrunning them.
If they spot you, you better hope and pray the gaming gods are on your side, because without divine intervention, on any other mode aside from Easy, you ain’t getting out of an encounter without taking a serious beating – or worse. Silent Hill: Townfall is survival horror at its very purest, a game of stealth in which patience is paramount to making it through each moment alive. As Silent Hill: Townfall director Jon McKellan warned us before we picked up our controllers and entered the fog: “If you go in swinging, you’re gonna have a bad time”.
Embarrassingly, I’m ashamed to admit I had to switch down the difficulty after having my ass handed to me 3 or 4 times by these humanoid hatchets. In my defense, I only had 3 hours, and I wanted to get as far as I could in the game as possible as I could in that time. The game rarely autosaves, which did make for a frustrating experience when I had to replay the same section over and over again, but yeah, McKellan wasn't kidding.
When I eventually finally managed to complete the current objective (a classic survival horror mission: turn the power back on, but with a delightfully '90s twist – get the prepaid electric card from the local corner shop) with Simon fully intact, I literally punched the air, buzzing with the kind of rush only horror gamers will be able to understand.
One mechanic that quickly became my anchor in this world of madness was Simon's CRTV, a new addition to Townfall that acts similarly to the traditional radio of other Silent Hill games. When enemies are close by, the CRTV will buzz to indicate their direction, while Simon can watch them through static from his hiding place and assess the best way to avoid their erratic patrolling of the town.
The CRTV also helps with puzzles, giving Simon story-related hints to guide him on his quest, becoming an invaluable tool in both story and gameplay. It's not just, in McKellan's words, ‘a gimmick' either. The team ran the footage through an old broadcast monitor, and then distorted the signal with magnets to achieve a practical authenticity that feels weighted in Simon's grasp, and rooted in reality.
Another essential element in any Silent Hill game is an incredible score. Taking over the reigns from series musical maestro Akira Yamaoka for Townfall is composer and director Pilotpriest, aka Anthony Scott Burns, and one has to look no further than the dreamy 2020 sci-fi horror Come True to see that Silent Hill has always been embedded within Burns’ creative DNA. Listen for yourself:
Inspired by Yamaoka’s iconic scores but with a distinctive twist, Townfall’s soundscape reacts in real-time to gameplay decisions, making for a truly immersive horror experience. Needless to say, when Townfall hits your console of choice, headphones are an absolute must, especially as the game also features sound design from Arrival, the team behind Alien: Isolation – one of the scariest aural experiences in all of gaming history.
Where Silent Hill: Townfall‘s sound really got to me was in this game's version of the Otherworld. As with every Silent Hill protagonist, Simon is periodically thrust into a different, darker reality that exists in parallel to the ‘real' world. Be it Angela's torturous, burning hellscape or Heather's bloodied, rusted hospital ward, the Otherworld manifests differently as a reflection of the inner trauma and strife the characters are going through in the game.
So while I obviously won't spoil much of Simon's Otherworld, I will say that it feels far more labyrinthine than other examples of the classic device. There is no map here, no hints to guide your way, just an ominous red glow, industrial detritus, and the aforementioned nightmarish aural design, which sounds like it's being beamed straight from the torture chambers of hell itself.
I’ll admit, as a Silent Hill veteran (ask me nicely and I'll show you the poorly photoshopped fan art I used to make as a teenager of me and James Sunderland), I was a little nervous when the first trailer for Townfall was revealed earlier this year. An amnesiac protagonist being called back to a foggy town to “fix” something by a mysterious woman who hints at themes of guilt and repression? My Silent Hill 2 senses were certainly tingling.
However, as Simon's story began to unravel through my playthrough, I realized Townfall is something far different. In a post-gameplay Q&A, McKellan (who admitted to having a Geocities fanpage for Silent Hill 2 back in the day, incase you're still doubting Screen Burn's chops) hinted that one of the dynamics that Townfall will explore is the individual vs. the corporation – a topic that the Silent Hill series hasn't really ever delved into before. Given the current corporate hellscape we're all living in, Townfall could well end up being the scariest Silent Hill yet, and I have firm faith that the series is in very good, bloodstained hands.
Silent Hill: Townfall is now available to wishlist for PlayStation 5, Steam and Epic Games Store, and hits consoles on September 24.
