Silent Hill: Townfall İnceleme (PS5 & PC)

Washing up the shore of the seaside town of St. Amelia, not knowing your past or reasons for being here, you start off the Silent Hill: Townfall with more questions than answers. As has been the norm in the franchise, seeking a lost loved one and busting the lid off the mysterious events happening around you. In St. Amelia’s case, you’ve drifted, once again, away from the original Silent Hill setting in America and have landed in Scotland. The time period is 1996, though some of you may recognize the authentic details and locations drawn from the real-life St Monans fishing village. It’s an incredibly beautiful game to explore, sunk into an oppressive air of mystery and depression. Something is definitely not right here, and your presence is the catalyst that gets the ball moving, solving puzzles, mysteries, surviving attacks, and everything in between.

Since Silent Hill 2 Remake (2004) and Silent Hill f (2025), Konami has proved that they still have what it takes to send shivers down your spine with eerie atmosphere and captivating stories. They’ve revived a franchise that is one of the hallmarks of the survival horror genre, closely in the same lane as Resident Evil. Interestingly, this time, Konami has passed the torch to yet another experimental studio.  Scottish Studio, Screen Burn Interactive, is at the helm of the design and creation of the newest entry in the Silent Hill franchise. A relatively up-and-coming studio that is definitely a risk that could go either way. Though by the time I wrapped up my time in St. Amelia, I knew that yes, indeed, Konami is so back. If there was ever any doubt, my review of Silent Hill: Townfall should quickly clear things up.

Lost Identity

I’d be scared out of my mind if I washed up on the shore of another continent. An American is the protagonist of Silent Hill: Townfall, who wakes up amnesiac in St. Amelia. He has nothing to go with to explain what happened to him and why he’s ended up here except for the hospital tag tied to his wrist. On it are his name, Simon Ordell, and blood type, which bears some use onward into the game. But what’s most important is finding out who you are and what your purpose is in St. Amelia. And so, going in blindfolded, ourselves as much as the protagonist, we begin to assess every single detail with a keen eye. An easy thing to do, given how inviting St. Amelia is. 

Or rather, inviting is in the air of mystery it immediately paints across its fog-laden streets, distanced static noises, and a certainty of something dreadful lurking in the shadows. You want to push forward, but are cautious of whatever insanity might reveal itself, whether in the surprising twists of the story or from the environmental storytelling. It’s quite a captivating experience, gradually making sense of things. At first, you keep finding clues and details that inspire more questions than answers. Our protagonist is none the wiser until two more playable characters show up much later. Zoe and Richard have much better depth in their past and role in St. Amelia. Their stories take you on a tumbling set of heavy emotions. 

A Quiet Knowing

You grapple with the overbearing themes of guilt and loss that previous Silent Hill games have mastered so well. This is definitely a Silent Hill story the more you discover, and it’ll definitely hold your attention across its surprising reveals and satisfying conclusion. Perhaps the only gripe I may have is with Simon Ordell, whose blank canvas may work to his detriment as a captivating character. While you do find out his past and reasons for being in St. Amelia, the pace at which you make the connection can be underwhelming, at least compared to Zoe and Richard, whose temperaments already tingle your senses from the get-go.

Another strong aspect of the storytelling is the environment, which has impressive design and detail. It feels like a place that could exist (and does exist in real life), except the developers really put effort into ensuring accuracy and authenticity. It’s the overall depiction of a town that seems isolated, only for it to reveal its hidden hostilities. Everything is suffocated in fog, and soon you discover that the fog is only an instrument that hides the true danger lurking in this terrifying place. You definitely feel that pang of anxiety rise within you as you try to remain hidden from the threats around you. You feel a sense of fear, not from what you see, but what you imagine is capable of hurting and killing you. It’s a detailed, oppressive, and breathing world, even if what breathes isn’t immediately apparent.

False Hope

The gameplay shouldn’t surprise you if you’ve played lots of survival horror games. Particularly, psychological horror games, which rely on stealth more than action. In fact, you’ll discover that you stand a better chance of survival if you were to remain silent, hidden, and out of sight. Sure, there are combat options, but hardly anything as solid as in Resident Evil. You have objects you can pick up in the environment to use as a blunt force weapon. However, they break easily and can leave you stranded against foreboding enemies. And then running becomes the only solution, and staying out of sight. You may fire some guns, but again, these are barely reliable. The ammo runs out so quickly, not to mention that guns are loud as hell. It might be fun emptying bullets into an enemy that deserved it, but at what cost? 

If you find yourself in the claustrophobic areas of the game and make the mistake of alerting enemies to your presence, getting away is almost impossible. Chances are you’ll run in circles, and get trapped in a corner, and the enemies won’t give tearing you apart a second thought. Now, on that front, you can boost your health with healing items and even revive yourself using IV bags. And in the times that I really needed it, the IV bags came through, saving me the hustle of having to restart from my last save. But you still want to be smart about it, using your resources wisely, and ensuring that dying is something you should avoid.  That’s the joy of survival horrors, I think, when you survive the enemies who, by all means, are stronger and deadlier than you. 

Lie in Wait

So, you’re stuck with stealth. And I use the word “stuck” because, well, it’s not always the best system to be restricted to. Silent Hill: Townfall gives you an old relic scanner to identify when enemies are nearby. It can only identify one enemy at a time. So, you still have to constantly scan your way around the levels. The strategy is to pinpoint where an enemy is, and if they are within the vicinity of where you intend to go, then you have to wait for them to move. And that can get a hot minute, leaving you hiding for, at times, frustrating lengths of time. It’s fun, though, to peek around the corners and try spotting an enemy. But otherwise, stealth is hiding and waiting for enemies to vacate their position. 

Throwing objects to distract enemies is possible, or you might turn on a nearby radio. But I wish there were more creative ways to actually sneak around enemies. I enjoy how some survival horror games also add different enemy types. Some have sight impairments, others have hypersensitivity to sound. The variety here is concerning. Otherwise, you have the last major gameplay element, which is solving puzzles. And in that sector, I’ll say that Silent Hill: Townfall nails it. Some puzzles are quite the brain teasers. Others are engaging in the sense of exploring for collectibles needed to solve them. Puzzles are an area where Silent Hill has, more often than not, thrived.

Verdict

With all of the pros and cons taken into consideration, is Silent Hill: Townfall worth playing? Absolutely yes. However, your enthusiasm going all in should also be with the full knowledge that the stealth sections of gameplay can be frustrating. You’ll need to hide and wait for lengthy periods of time for an enemy to vacate their spot. Sure, the options to attack them with blunt weapons and even guns are available. But they are far less reliable. 

Your best bet is to use stealth, which, unfortunately, isn’t as deep or strategic as I’d have loved for it to be. Thankfully, the puzzles and especially the story, including the characters and environments, more than pull their weight. They are engaging, captivating, and will hold your attention while you try to figure out what monstrocities haunt St. Amelia. 

You have so many questions at the introduction of your journey into Silent Hill: Townfall, and figuring them out is the best part of your experience, mostly because it’s unnerving and can lead to unexpected outcomes.