Simon Ordell comes to in a Scottish coastal town that ought to look like a postcard, and then the fog arrives. You’ve seen that fog before. Yet Silent Hill: Townfall is not the game that fog has conditioned you to expect, and a portion of the series’ longtime faithful will be unsettled by how far it wanders from the formula.
The franchise has never been bound to a single location, and its two most recent entries drive that home. Silent Hill f headed to rural Japan in the 1960s. Townfall settles into St. Amelia, Scotland, in 1996, handing its team a fresh era and a different pool of stories to draw on.
Across the game, Simon works to unravel the secret of a quiet seaside town while steering clear of the horrors that arrive alongside it. The design involves some compromises, but it’s the atmosphere that ultimately carries Townfall through.
First person, a plank and a CRT handheld
The whole thing plays out through Simon’s eyes. His inventory is mostly scavenged junk, along with a lo-fi CRT handheld that ends up pulling more weight than any firearm could.
He is lightly armed. His starting gear is a large plank that serves both as a shield and as something to swing, and it’s hardly the tool for a direct scrap with a group of enemies. That’s acceptable, because Townfall is a more relaxed affair and seldom demands that kind of fight. Exploring, puzzle-solving, wayfinding, and light stealth and combat take precedence.
That tone separates it even from the quieter Silent Hill entries, so calibrate your expectations before diving in. I thoroughly enjoyed charting St. Amelia, learning its corners while assembling Simon’s history and that of the few other people still present once the fog consumed the town.
Puzzles that refuse to hold your hand
The tighter, more intimate setting leaves room for a handful of clever puzzles, most of which revolve around locating keys for assorted locks. A few are fairly unconventional and require genuine critical thinking. One early puzzle offers almost no guidance and expects you to use the CRTV to extract a lock combination from several vague photographs.
After a run of games that spell out every step, this felt like a welcome shift in pace, particularly when the moment came to solve that specific puzzle. Old-school adventure game fans will find a lot to love here, even if classic Silent Hill devotees grumble about it.
A small town that behaves like a maze
St. Amelia is on the smaller side, yet it’s a labyrinth. Many routes are sealed at the outset and open later through story progression or optional means, such as smashing or unlatching locks. You navigate using a lifelike map brochure that springs up at the press of a button.
Simon scribbles assorted markings on it to suggest where he ought to head next, though they frequently provide no further direction. That loose format lets you explore at your own tempo, uncovering healing items and keys that might prove useful down the line. Running and hiding is a genuine option as well, and because enemy encounters are usually sparse, the ones that do occur carry real tension.
One sequence has stayed with me. I sprinted flat out down a market street into a family clinic with an abomination close behind, slammed the door and locked it as they pounded on the window. Then I dialled a phone number I’d picked up in another puzzle, spoke to someone and got a lead on my next destination.
Built on a real place, and it shows
Progression in Townfall feels natural even though a strict chapter-based structure runs beneath it. The town itself is lovely and a refreshing departure from the bloated open-world template so many other AAA productions fall back on. It’s modelled on a real Scottish town, St Monans, and that grounding shines through. It has earned its spot in the Silent Hill canon.
The format brings trade-offs, though. The pacing sags in places, and certain revelations following a long puzzle stretch aren’t as illuminating as they ought to be. The 1996 setting carries a lot of weight, and it’s obvious the team cares about it and wove it directly into the narrative.
On the scorecard, it’s sevens all the way down. Story takes a 7: a more intimate and fresh setting compensates for a few other weaknesses. Gameplay lands a 7, with simple mechanics bolstered by enjoyable exploration and easy-going puzzles. Visuals sit at 7, falling short in some areas while the central town is beautifully realised. Audio completes the set at 7, as the dialogue isn’t remarkable but the sound design excels.
The slower presentation may put off plenty of fans, and it doesn’t always succeed. But it succeeded enough that I went straight back through the game the moment I finished it. If you’re after a new survival horror game and first-person scares don’t bother you, Silent Hill: Townfall is a conditional recommendation waiting in the wings. Just don’t go in expecting a classic Silent Hill experience, at least as far as mainline entries go.