by Michael MurphyAfter the incredible success of Silent Hill f and 2 Remake, the Konami horror series has been going quite strong. The next entry in the franchise, Silent Hill: Townfall, looks to continue that streak while reinventing much of the formula. I got a chance to enter a fog-filled theater to watch a 30-minute hands-off demo of the spinoff, and I left quite intrigued by what Screen Burn Interactive has been cooking up.
In Silent Hill Townfall, you play as Simon Ordell, who finds himself in the fog-riddled streets of St. Amelia, Scotland. With only a mysterious CRT at his disposal, he’ll dig deep to find out why he’s here and how it connects to his past. Screen Burn was quite secretive about the game’s story, and for good reason. As is Silent Hill tradition, going in as blind as possible helps with the immersion, and letting things play out makes it so much more impactful.
After a quick presentation, we got to see some of the gameplay for the title. Put in a first-person perspective (unlike past entries, which went for third), you’ll explore St. Amelia and dive into its mysteries. Right off the bat, it hits those unsettling notes you’d hope for in a Silent Hill: the silence, the tension, and the unease. It makes it known that you aren’t welcome there.
One of the most interesting things I noticed was the attention to detail for Scottish architecture and design. The developers put a lot of time and effort into crafting St. Amelia in the 1990s, down to a credit card electricity box in one of the houses you explore. In fact, the first-person perspective was chosen, per the developers, so the architecture would be more realistic, like for doors and houses. You can really tell just how much thought was put into making Townfall the most realistic location in the series.
As described by the team, evasion plays a huge part in Townfall’s gameplay. With your trusty CRT, you can locate exactly where an enemy is relative to you and avoid them in the environment. While weapons will be in the game, it’s best to keep low and stay quiet if you want to survive. In addition to the CRT, the game includes a peeking mechanic, which allows you to dynamically move your character’s vision behind a corner to see any enemies. The mechanic expands beyond evasion, as it’s also used with certain objects, such as dressers or closets, to find potential clues or items.
We did get some combat at the tail end of the demo, though Simon doesn’t make it against his fight with the axe-headed monster. However, it’s not the end for him, as he actually comes back to life (though with low health), thanks to a mysterious liquid-filled IV in his hand. We’ve seen it in the trailers, so it’s sure to play some big role within the narrative.
While brief, seeing what Screen Burn’s been up to with Silent Hill: Townfall is reassuring. Given its radio silence for a while, the gameplay demo I saw made it clear that it was worth waiting for. It takes the Silent Hill formula of psychological horror and turns it up to 11 with its first person perspective and evasion-focused gameplay. It’ll be interesting to see how it shapes up before its September 24th launch, but one thing is for sure: Silent Hill still has some juice left in it.
Silent Hill: Townfall
