Silent Hill: Townfall Hands-on Preview – Nightmare Never Ends
It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since Silent Hill f came out. For those who do not remember, it was released in September 2025, and now we have a new game set to release soon: Silent Hill: Townfall, developed by Screen Burn Interactive and published by Konami and Annapurna Interactive.
The game takes place in 1996 on a small island. You play as Simon, who is called back to St. Amelia to fix whatever he was supposed to do. Like in classic Silent Hill, you and the main character will have to uncover the truth, unlock the lore, and do whatever it takes to escape the nightmare.
MP1st was invited to play a hands-on three-hour-long session of the game and meet Jon McKellan (Writer and Director, Screen Burn) and Motoi Okamoto (SILENT HILL Series Producer, KONAMI), who hosted the event. They were excited to share with us a bit of the development, the collaboration, and the features they added to the game to allow players to experience something unique and new to the franchise.
Of course, the bar is set very high, as Silent Hill f was well received, and that’s a lot of pressure to make sure Silent Hill: Townfall meets that goalpost. I can say the game is quite fun, though a bit slow-paced at the beginning; there was a lot to explore and uncover. And frankly, that is okay with me, as I do not like to rush through scary games and miss the important things that make me go back and experience the fear again. So I can say this feels right at home with the ongoing Silent Hill theme. So let’s get into a bit more detail about the game, but first, note that this was only a three-hour demo, and I played on Nightmare difficulty, so my experience may differ from that of those who played on normal mode.
Welcome Back to Silent Hill
Simon is the main character of the game, who gets called back to a little town called St. Amelia. We do not know why he ended up there or how he got there; that is what we need to find out. You will slowly take a small walk along the pier and head into town. The town itself resembles parts of Scottish towns, since this was the main inspiration for the game, and the company, Screen Burn, is located in Glasgow, Scotland. It has a touch of creepiness that makes it feel even creepier, evoking discomfort and dread. In the classic Silent Hill, there is a lot of fog, lots of buildup that almost seems to build toward a possible jump scare, and a creepy, unique monster you will face. Like Silent Hill f, there will be parts of Scotland, a bit of culture, and a bit of legends that we will encounter throughout the game that tie to the specific year 1996, so those who have experience with that specific time or read some history may put pieces together regarding why the developer seemingly chose this particular time.
There are some new, fantastic items and features introduced in the game, such as haptic feedback during stealth and adaptive trigger options for players who want to feel the weight when pressing the L2 and R2 triggers. There is also a CRTV, which you will use to help you along your journey, solve puzzles, and learn bits and pieces of what is going on. This was an incredible feature and unique item that I utilized a lot during my play session, and it gave this horror title a bit of its own individual identity.
There’s also gyro control support for weapon aiming and certain CRTV events, though I have only used it for the CRTV, and it took quite a while to get it right. Most players will probably turn this feature off, as it can be annoying at times. However, it makes some of the in-game experience a bit more realistic. That being said, Silent Hill: Townfall is in first-person mode, so be on your toes, as this makes the experience much more terrifying, especially when you encounter enemies.
There are five different endings to the game, including a secret one. To stay true to the Silent Hill franchise, how you will unlock them is based on how you play and what you do in-game. There’s not much I can say or tell you about it, as with past Silent Hill games, these endings depend on what the player does in certain situations in the game. Hopefully, when the game is out, there will be a lot of players finding out the right combination or methods to unlock the endings (which is something we expect).
Now for the lore, even after playing three hours of the game, the story behind Simon seems to be veiled in a cloud of fog, pun intended for everyone. Though this is common in Silent Hill, as we can only get a few small pieces of what is going on, and further progression is needed to reveal more about Simon.
We can tell that he is sick or looks sickly, and that he has an IV bag attached to him. A person of interest we encounter is Zoe, to whom he may be connected to. He finds him already arriving on the island, with the aforementioned IV bag already attached to him; touching it or trying to remove it causes him an immense headache, or that is what I believe from the visual context, though it can be something else. Simon gets a call from a possible friend; it’s a one-sided conversation hinting at some connection to him and the people of the town, and that he has come back to help and set things right.
Throughout the game, you will encounter snippets of messages, notes, and more that get left behind that you can pick up and read to know what is happening in the town. The CRTV, which you will get early in the game, will also provide some clues about things that are happening as well. Of course, the more you explore, find clues and notes, the more you can probably puzzle everything together. The lore seems interesting and reminds me of Silent Hill 2.
Combat, Puzzle, and Exploration
For those familiar with the combat systems in Silent Hill, this game is not much different, especially depending on the difficulty. During the hands-on, I played on the highest setting, ‘Nightmare,’ that was offered at the event. I can tell you that it was pretty hard fighting the enemy without having a good weapon. You will probably encounter one or two large wooden boards that you can often miss if you do not pay attention, and they only last so long. Each time you hit or use it to block successfully, it will decrease the durability of the weapon (this is only true for the wooden board that I encountered as a weapon so far). In Nightmare mode, it took several hits to kill the enemy at the cost of the entire weapon, from hitting and blocking. There is not much wiggle room to dodge or maneuver in a particular way, as when you try to, you get hit pretty hard. So if you can get them into a good corner, you may be able to swing twice before you have to block, if you’re lucky and fast enough.
While you can choose to kill the creature, players need to pick their battles wisely, as there can be multiple enemies you will have to face. You can always avoid combat by stealthily moving around in the game to avoid detection. You can peek around corners to check or make yourself smaller to hide your presence. If they see you, which you will know by the audio cue, they will chase you for a good distance. Making more noise will alert them to your presence, so you’d better get ready to book it or hide somewhere nearby until they leave.
Going into a building is great until you realize they can open doors as well. If you don’t see a door that you can lock, know they will be able to get inside and attack you. If you’re fast enough, or can do some good looping, you can throw them off your trail, which I had to do numerous times when I screw up trying to avoid getting caught, or I was trying to outrun them. There is also a mention of guns in the game, but those weren’t available in my playthrough.
CRTV is a new item you will encounter early to help you detect enemies, which is done by the arrows indicating the general direction from which the enemy is coming, and you can monitor where they move and patrol to give you the best timing to make your move. There are other features as well, but I don’t want to spoil too much, so just know this is one of your lifelines.
Puzzles are pretty straightforward for the most part; there are tons of clues around for you to be able to solve and figure out. Some will require you to use your CRTV to determine the solution; others will direct you to a different location that you must reach and return to safely. The puzzles are not too hard and will require you to pay attention and look at your map, CRTV, and/or your surroundings. I do enjoy a bit of the puzzle, and I am sure there will be more challenging ones further into the game.
Exploration is pretty straightforward; you will unlock most of the areas as you advance. The town area of St. Amelia is not that large, and you can pretty much know where to go, mainly after looking at the map a few times. Some areas are blocked or require shortcuts you will need to unlock. More areas will open up as you progress, of course, but take your time to explore. Even though it is a small area, there is a lot to see of the Scottish setting of this game.
The Experience
So if you played Resident Evil games before, then you know what resource management is like. No, you don’t have to organize how things fit in a bag. Though you have to be aware that healing items, bullets, and other expendable items you encounter are few and in between. So if you want to go guns-blazing, know that when you need those resources the most, you’ve blown them all away. Certain items are valuable, so don’t use them just because you need to; only use them when you have no other choice. Beyond that, I really enjoy everything from the storyline to gameplay, which was pretty much great.
Silent Hill: Townfall has a bit of a slow start, and I notice a few minor things that could use some ironing out, but they do not have a huge impact on the game. I’ve enjoyed my three-hour session with this new Silent Hill game, and it made me look forward to its release. The graphics are definitely stunning on the monitor the game was on, and I am assuming playing it on a 4K TV would be even more amazing. The game presents itself in a first-person CinemaScope format to make it more impactful and give the player something to connect with and feel like they are Simon themselves, or to see it through Simon’s eyes.
The audio ambiance and sound are top-notch, so if you have a good sound system or setup, you can probably enjoy the tension in certain scenes. There are a lot more details I purposely not including, since I do not want to spoil any more details regarding the game. So far, Townfall seems to be another fantastic entry in the Silent Hill franchise, and I hope they will explore other countries, their cultures, and myths in the next Silent Hill games.
Silent Hill: Townfall releases September 24 on PS5 and PC.
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