Silent Hill: Townfall Review
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During the 90s, Silent Hill emerged as a defining force in the survival horror genre. The series endured by evolving in its own distinct direction, building its identity around psychological horror, setting it apart through atmosphere, symbolism, and the emotional weight of its narratives.
The series took a bold step in 2025 with Silent Hill f, shifting away from its familiar American backdrop and transporting players to 1960s Japan. The move aligned with producer Okamoto Motoi’s vision of expanding Silent Hill’s supernatural mythos beyond the town itself to keep the franchise fresh.
That philosophy continues in the newest spinoff, Silent Hill: Townfall, which explores yet another unfamiliar setting and era. The question now is whether the series’ signature horror experience remains intact despite this dramatic change in time and place.
New Town, New Team, New Perspective
Scotland‑based indie studio Screen Burn Interactive is the latest team entrusted with crafting their own interpretation of Silent Hill. And it’s clear they’ve made their mark. Much like Silent Hill f, Silent Hill: Townfall immediately distinguishes itself by taking players far away from the original town.
St. Amelia, a remote island community in Scotland, carries familiar elements of the series: an abandoned settlement, empty homes, and desolate buildings. Compared to past entries, the town feels more compact and almost claustrophobic. The year is 1996, so you’ll encounter chunky PCs with disk drives and floppy disks that firmly anchor the setting in its era. What truly sets St. Amelia apart, however, is what protagonist Simon witnesses after mysteriously washing ashore. When he reaches the main square, he finds memorials and discarded protest placards, possibly early hints that something terrible has happened here.
As you explore, scattered notes and documents gradually reveal the sinister events behind St. Amelia’s downfall. True to the franchise’s identity, Silent Hill: Townfall soon plunges you into a warped, alternate version of the town. The quiet fog gives way to an oppressive red haze that’s unsettling to look at, signaling that St. Amelia has become hostile.
While Silent Hill has experimented with first‑person segments before, Silent Hill: Townfall is the first game in the series to commit fully to the perspective. Every horror you encounter comes straight at you, and the experience becomes even more intense with earphones, as the PS5’s 3D Audio system delivers sudden noises from unpredictable directions.
Supporting this new perspective is one of the game’s most distinctive mechanics: the CRTV. Traditional Silent Hill titles relied on static‑filled radios to detect nearby enemies, but Silent Hill: Townfall evolves that idea: the CRTV must be raised to track enemy presence and movement, though it can monitor only one creature at a time. This limitation creates a constant sense of dread because focusing on one monster means you have no idea where the other might be lurking, and that uncertainty becomes one of the game’s most effective sources of fear.
Stop. Look. Listen.
When you finally come face‑to‑face with one of the creatures stalking St. Amelia, you’re not entirely helpless. Weapons such as wooden planks and the iconic steel pipe appear throughout the environment, though each has durability limits, and you can carry only one melee option at a time. Firearms are also available, but ammunition is extremely scarce, making resource management essential. Gunfire is also loud enough to attract nearby enemies, adding another layer of risk to every encounter.
Stealth becomes a practical and often necessary approach in Silent Hill: Townfall, especially during a first playthrough. Aside from bottles and bricks that you can throw as a distraction, the CRTV is invaluable for tracking enemy patrol routes, along with peeking and moving through corners to help you progress quietly through hostile areas. Enemies will pursue you once they detect you, so you’ll often find yourself sneaking through environments unless you deliberately choose to confront every monster you can. In Silent Hill: Townfall, your choice between stealth and aggression carries meaningful consequences, and the game delivers the tension and fear the franchise is known for.
That said, the monster roster lacks variety throughout the Silent Hill: Townfall campaign. Most enemies share a humanoid silhouette and don’t leave the same lasting impression as iconic designs like Pyramid Head or even the blade‑wielding schoolgirl scarecrows from Silent Hill f. They remain dangerous, though, and can deal significant damage if you’re not careful. Higher difficulty settings further increase their threat by boosting their numbers and making them sensitive to your flashlight’s brightness, which complicates crouching and hiding.
No Silent Hill entry is complete without puzzles, and Silent Hill: Townfall deserves credit for introducing several clever challenges. Progress often depends on carefully observing your surroundings and considering multiple possibilities, resulting in puzzles that are satisfyingly tricky and occasionally make you facepalm once you uncover the solution.
Some puzzles require tuning the CRTV to specific frequencies, which on PS5 involves physically moving the DualSense controller to calibrate the device. It’s a smart mechanic, though it can be frustrating when you struggle to find the exact calibration point, especially since every instance of this puzzle uses the same method. A bit more variation in how motion controls are applied would have gone a long way with freshening up the experience.
While the puzzles themselves are enjoyable, the overall flow of progression can feel repetitive. Advancing typically requires collecting several key items and bringing them to a designated location, which means traversing the same area repeatedly while avoiding or confronting monsters and solving additional puzzles along the way. The structure stays tense and engaging, but the repeated item-gathering pattern can become noticeable. Late‑game sections, in particular, feel more tedious because of the backtracking required to find the necessary items.
Welcome to St. Amelia
If uncovering the truth behind St. Amelia and understanding how characters like Simon are connected to its tragic past is worth braving the horrors, puzzles, and tense encounters, then Silent Hill: Townfall absolutely delivers. The game hides plenty of secrets, including collectible postcards and phone numbers you can dial using the in‑game phone, which also doubles as your save point. The only drawback is that saving always requires manually entering a number, which becomes tedious over time.
Characters such as Simon, Zoe, and Richard may look plain at first glance, but that’s part of Silent Hill’s enduring charm: ordinary people thrust into extraordinary terror. You’ll witness the events that befell St. Amelia through their different perspectives, though it’s best experienced firsthand, especially since Simon isn’t the only playable character.
True to series tradition, Silent Hill: Townfall features multiple endings, meaning the final resolution of St. Amelia’s mystery depends on your choices. Your approach to stealth or aggression plays a role here, offering natural replayability as you attempt to unlock each conclusion. A first playthrough can take around 17 hours, but subsequent runs will be faster once you’ve mastered the puzzles.
Visually, Silent Hill: Townfall is striking in its own unsettling way. Character models are sharp and expressive, and St. Amelia itself is beautifully eerie, both in its abandoned state and in its twisted otherworld form, where industrial, rust‑covered themes dominate the landscape. Even if the monster designs lack variety, they remain unnerving.
The main cast looks and sounds excellent. The voice acting is consistently strong, and the facial animations convincingly convey confusion, frustration, and despair as characters navigate their grim circumstances. While the music and ambient audio support the atmosphere effectively, no standout tracks linger long after you stop playing.
Verdict: 8.5/10 Buy it!
While Silent Hill: Townfall has its share of drawbacks, including the occasional tedious backtracking, limited enemy variety, and a soundtrack that doesn’t leave a lasting impression, it’s still a worthy addition to the franchise’s growing lineup and a strong showing worthy of its pedigree. The full commitment to a first‑person perspective gives the experience a distinct identity, and the reimagined static‑radio mechanic, now integrated into the CRTV, adds a fresh layer of tension by blending both audio and visual cues into your moment‑to‑moment survival.
The puzzles offer a satisfying challenge, and the atmosphere maintains a constant sense of unease. As with any survival horror title, the balance between fight and flight is always present, and Silent Hill: Townfall provides enough incentive to revisit St. Amelia across multiple playthroughs, especially for completionists eager to uncover every collectible and ending.
*Silent Hill: Townfall was reviewed on a PS5 with a review code provided by the publisher.
