I won’t pretend to be a die-hard Silent Hill fan. I played some of the originals like 2 and 3 (which are two of the greatest horror games ever made), plus the Silent Hill 2 remake, which was surprisingly fantastic considering Bloober Team’s track record. I never got around to Silent Hill f, but Townfall caught my attention the moment it was revealed.

I’m a big fan of No Code, having played Observation and Stories Untold. Now rebranded as Screen Burn, they’ve made their highest-budget game yet, set in a fictional Scottish coastal town rather than the American suburb the franchise is known for. 

After my first playthrough, I’m pleased to say Townfall delivers an incredible horror experience that feels just like an old-school PS2 horror game with a modern coat of paint. 

However, I’ve also replayed it since the first (controversial) patch, so I’ll aim to cover my thoughts on both versions within this review.

Step into the Fog

Townfall takes place in Saint Amelia, a Scottish coastal town. Simon mysteriously turns up on the coast and wants to know why he’s there, what’s wrong with the town and how to fix it. As is typical for Silent Hill, this unfolds as part of his past trauma, which I won’t go hugely into because of spoilers.

The story is great, but Simon is my biggest gripe. Compared to the brilliantly written protagonists of Silent Hill 2 and 3, he’s bland and wooden. He mostly exists to look at things happening around him and rarely says anything important.

That carries over into the cutscenes, which I found were often unnecessary and took away from the experience, especially in the first half. Many are just Simon looking around at the world, and I think they’d have been far more effective as direct gameplay or first-person scenes without dialogue. The issue improves in the second half, when the cutscenes gain more depth and a bit more meat on the bones, but early on there are quite a few that just don’t need to be there or could be revamped to be more effective.

The second protagonist makes up for it in droves. You only occasionally play as her, much like the odd character switch in games like God of War Ragnarök, but those sections are fantastic. She’s genuinely exciting to watch, and the gameplay in her sections gets some really interesting twists.

The story will resonate with a lot of people and leave others cold. It draws heavily on Scottish and UK politics of the period, including the miners’ strike and Thatcher’s impact on Scotland. Players unfamiliar with that history may miss some of it, but with a little extra knowledge it’s a really rewarding experience. It isn’t on the level of Silent Hill 2 or 3, but it’s one of my favourite horror narratives this year, and it’s held up high by gameplay that may prove contentious.

Combat you’re not supposed to like

Silent Hill games don’t need deep gameplay. Unlike Resident Evil, you’re not meant to kill everything that moves, and the game often punishes you for trying. Townfall strikes a great balance. Many people will dislike it; I think it’s great.

It’s a first-person game in the vein of Resident Evil 7, Village or Outlast. Combat is mostly melee, though you eventually get ranged weapons, and ammo is scarce. You hit, dodge, back off and hit again until the enemy drops. It isn’t the most mechanically deep, but the game doesn’t want you fighting at all, and it offers plenty of stealth options to skip encounters. Despite that, I found melee satisfying. Taking out enemies with a plank of wood or a metal pipe is as fun as it was in the original games.

Shooting is deliberately weak, with plenty of bloom and wobble. You’ll get a pistol, shotgun and rifle, but with ammo so rare I avoided them until the last few encounters, when the game was starting to wrap up; it’s easy to go full Rambo. Like the melee, the guns push you towards a more passive, less combative role, which works well within the context of the game.

Stealth is the area I’ve seen draw the most dislike, but it’s a big focus, as in Alien: Isolation or Outlast. Fighting often just brings more enemies down on you. You can throw bottles or bricks, or switch on radios to pull enemies away from where you need to go. There are classic hiding spots too. It’s simple, but slipping past a group without taking anyone down is satisfying.

Where it really shines is The Weight, the game’s stalker enemy, in the vein of Alien Isolation’s xenomorph or Resident Evil’s Mr X. He only appears in specific segments, and when he does, you know stealth is everything. 

Firing a gun or throwing a bottle gives away your position; he kills you in one hit, and your weapons do nothing against him. I’ve heard plenty of people complain that he’s too strong and finds you too easily, and Screen Burn have said they’re working on tuning his behaviour. I didn’t have that problem, although he did take me out a few times. Overall it’s incredibly tense and a great experience and one that easily adds to the overall vibe of Townfall.

How did the Patch ruin this?

I played again after the patch that toned him down, and I think the developers have seriously overcorrected here. The Weight is now fairly laughable and barely a threat. I went back through the section most people had trouble with, and when he catches you, he still plays the same grab animation, but you can now break free like you would from a normal enemy. 

The damage is about the same as a normal enemy grab too, so you can take three, four, maybe even five hits before dying, which leaves plenty of time to heal. He now feels like a bigger version of a regular enemy.

He still has a presence, and he’s a terrifying creature to see in a dark corridor, but once you realise he poses no real threat, you stop caring about his sections. I was originally stressed about going back into those bits, because they were challenging and genuinely scary. Now you can sprint through the level, grab what you need and carry on, and as long as you have a couple of healing items you’ll be fine. 

That drastically undercuts what made him so engaging. I understand dialling back his aggression, and I’d have been happy with something like a hit taking out half your health or a bit more, so two hits would kill you, but this swings too far the other way.

I’d love to see these changes made retroactively into sliders or accessibility options, so you’re free to play the game as it originally was. It feels like the friction has been sanded off the game everywhere, and I don’t think it needed that. It’s a horror game, so you’re meant to be stressed, maybe, but not frustrated. The Weight could have been patched in some way, but I think it has gone too far in the other direction.

As scary as a trip to Birmingham

I rarely get scared by games these days, but Townfall made me jump a ridiculous number of times.

The atmosphere is where the Silent Hill Franchise excels, and Townfall is no different. Just walking around Saint Amelia in the first few hours is intense, even before enemies appear, because you never know what’s about to emerge from the fog.

The game also leans into its setting, making you feel like you’re in a British seaside town, and the save system is genuinely fantastic. You find phone boxes and phones, then dial 100 to save. Silent Hill games traditionally use red squares to save, and there are nods to those on the phones, but having to find a phone and call the helpline is far more interesting. It makes the world feel lived in, and it really does feel like Saint Amelia is a real town on the Scottish seaside. I think that adds to the horror just knowing this could be a real place you can visit; I must have been to so many towns like this where it does end up hitting close to home. 

It also brings back the nightmare locations. At certain story points, the environment shifts into a grimmer version of the same place, packed with enemies you can’t avoid. They work wonders, adding to the horror of the experience; with it being a nastier and more vile area, you’re even more on the edge of your seat, knowing anything could be waiting for you around that corner. 

Overall

If you want a traditional Silent Hill experience, this delivers in ways many recent horror games haven’t. It may not be the most polished game ever made, but it captures the vibe the franchise should have. Some die-hard fans will object that it doesn’t take place in Silent Hill itself, but it’s reminiscent of that American town without being it.

Cal recommends it

  • 35 hours in
  • PS5
  • Bought it