SILENT HILL: TOWNFALL | REVIEW | PC/STEAM

''NOT VERY SILENT ON THESE HILLS''

---

Developed: Screen Burn

Published: Konami

Genre: Horror

Release Date: Sept 24th, 2026

Platforms: PC/PS5

*GAME PROVIDED TO ME BY KONAMI

Silent Hill Townfall is the latest entry into the highly acclaimed Silent Hill franchise and it is developed by Screen Burn and published by Konami. With Silent Hill 2 remake and Silent Hill f being complete successes in the eyes of gamers, Konami now attempts to go 3 for 3 with Townfall. But does it keep the streak alive or is it back to the drawing board? Only one way to find out, so lets go!

''IM SEEING RED''

---

GAMEPLAY:

Its crazy to think about that just a short ten years ago, the horror genre was basically on its death bed, with only a few standouts here and there like Alien Isolation and the like. However, something shifted and I'm not exactly sure just what caused the change. We started getting some Triple A banger horror games, Indie games like Greyhill Incident, Phasmofobia, Amnesia The Bunker, Signalis, etc. But bigger industry wasn't sitting around sleeping either with multiple entries into the spooky Fatal Frame series, Resident Evil remakes and new entries, Dead Space remake, Callisto Protocol, etc. Like I said, horror has made a huge comeback and it's also in part due to Konami as well, a company who until recently was being mocked and made fun of for basically ditching the gaming market to focus more on Pachinko machines. Oh man, who got the last laugh NOW, you jerks!?. That's right, Konami did. In a similar manner as we saw Capcom make a comeback in recent years after a long struggle of mediocrity and bad business decisions, but now flourishing and thriving with banger after banger, so to is Konami using that same exactly formula and in doing so, has also revitalized the Silent Hill franchise too, wiping away the ugly stain on our brains and eyes that was the Silent Hill HD Collection. Oh god, please dont ever remind me of its existence EVER again, I beg you. With releasing like Silent Hill 2's remake that brought a classic back into the spotlight and done right to preserve its intense atmosphere and then Silent Hill f taking the scares even further and making its experience both new in itself but at the same time, completely honoring the legacy of the franchise too. Needless to say Silent Hill is back on track and just as good as ever, but, does this winning streak continue with Silent Hill Townfall? Well yes, yes it does, and to me it might be one best new entry we've gotten in the series since the original games.. high praise I know but its definitely earned. For people on the fence, at first glance the game from watching the trailers for it just made it seem like Amnesia or any other cookie cutter ''hide and run'' horror games on the market, ala Outlast. Don't get me wrong, those games are fun in their own right and definitely need to be played if you're a horror fan, but they just don't match the style of Silent Hill, and I feel that misconception early on after the games announcement caused a tiny bit of confusion and even some backlash. This could be in part due to way the trailers were edited or just the marketing in general, take your pick and you'll probably be right, however, after spending my time with the game and playing it from start to finish, yes it does share similarities to the games I mentioned, but it also feels completely fresh, stands on its own and remains true to what Silent Hill is all about... even if someone of the puzzles were a little annoying. WHERES MY YELLOW PAINT GUYS!? or my blue scented fart trail. Jokes aside, the game does live up to its name, but also does falter a bit too in other aspects. In Townfall you play as a man named Simon who shows up in a town in scotland, but with a strange sense of him needing to fix things or put everything back into place to make everything right, but the only way to do that? well...you guessed it, walk right into the spooky as all hell fog that has plagued many characters throughout this franchises 30 years of existence. Man... these people never learn do they?. Then again, who am I to talk, I'm thinking about buying the new Galactic Racer Star Wars game even though I can't drive worth a crap in any game whatsoever, so I'm a bit hypocritical.

Roaming through the streets of St. Amelia, you start getting a bit of deja vu from previous Silent Hill games, like the feeling of something isn't quite right, but you can't guess what it is yet, but through the atmosphere and environment, you just know there's something horrific around the corner that you most likely wont be prepared for and that is.... corporate greed. Wait what? corporate greed? what does that have to do with a Silent Hill game? well nothing actually, I just felt like making that joke since there's a company in this game called Chapman Energy Group who looms and overlooks the entire town in a very ominous way. So lets break it down a little bit, unnerving horrors, town kept in the dark about what they do or how they even relate to the issues at hand, looming over the entire town in absolute mystery...hmm... yeah, welcome back Shinra, we missed you. If St. Amelia want's saved, they should probably call Cloud Strife for this mess, he has some experience in that department. The more you explore and investigate, the more obvious the horrors of the town make themselves known and you start to unravel the connections everything has to each other, such as the link between Chapman, the town, Zoe and Simon himself and begin putting the pieces together in what is to become an emotional rollercoaster ride that will boggle your mind due to some of the revelations that game ends up throwing at you with its twist and turns. As I explored the streets of Amelia, listening to the monsters making noises and screams off in the distance but not being able to see them, gave me a feeling of dread because i knew I was about to get jump scared at any point in time and then pee my pants doing so because I'm a wuss like that. Sneaking through the streets, through darkened buildings trying not to make a sound to draw attention to yourself, but completely forgot you had a Taco Bell Party Pack earlier so you are desperately clenching your cheeks to hold in a fart, cause soon as you let out a poot, your life is moot, thats what I always say. If you've been around and have read my previous reviews, you know there is ONE thing in horror games I absolutely hate, and that's being CHASED. No not because its bad or a terrible mechanic or anything like that, I just get freaked the eff out when it happens, same thing in real life, if I get chased, I crumble and fall and curl into a ball on the floor, so when it happens in horror games, much like this one when I failed to run from an enemy and then they scream bloody murder and begin rushing you...yeah I become a bumbling mess and go into panic mode. Dont make fun of me. But all is not lost if you're terrible at stealthing like I am because there is a way to track your enemies in order to give you the advantage should you be having trouble, and that's by using the in-game CRTV. Normally my first instinct would be to just pick up a CRTV and just smash a monsters head with it because, come on, have you seen CRTVs? I grew up with them and as a kid those damn things felt like they weighed 100lbs when trying to move one from room to room. But no, you dont bash in heads with them here and instead you use it to track your enemies due to the frequency each monster gives off from their bodies and when you tune that frequency to coincide with your CRTV, you're able to track them from long distance or even around corners and hallways, mazes and other condensed areas where sometimes its MANDATORY to use it because theres no other way to survive without. So, use it wisely and use it to your advantage, otherwise, you're going to have a VERY VERY bad time, just like when you bring a vegan to a BBQ, its just not right.

One of my favorite parts about Townfall is the reasoning behind actual exploration. Most horror games I'm usually a wuss to explore because I know specific set pieces await me because when you've played horror games like myself for 30 years, at this point, you can pretty much guess what was going to happen. But in Townfall, the moment I'd expect a big scare or a scary monster to pop out, nothing happens and instead I'm given breathing room to find items, look around at my own leisure, find resources and attempt to solve some of the many puzzles in the game. Which I'll be honest, some of them are pretty expansive and it got to the point where it would frustrate me because my brain just wasnt braining at times, which would get me stuck for awhile, but then ultimately end up figuring it out and advancing the story. But the problem with this is the fact that one my brain got used to multiple elaborate puzzles, that soon as I came across a straight forward or extremely easy puzzle to solve, I star overthinking my next move because I had been so accustomed to the harder puzzles. So these stupid puzzles that should take less than two minutes to complete, took me 30 minutes, ALL BECAUSE I KEPT OVERTHINKING. I HATE YOU BRAIN. Like I mean some are just STUPIDLY easy like fetch quest like, go get this item, bring it here, collect this resource, figuring out number patterns and codes, using blood as part of puzzle to unlock new doors... I dont know, they started to feel almost SAW like the further you advanced into the game and I was waiting for a little puppet to come riding out on his little bicycle asking if I wanted to play a game. NO JIGSAW, I will NOT cut out my eyeball to get the key behind my eye to unlock a chest that contains Final Fantasy Spirits Within to watch in order to save my life. I'm going out proud, not even your scary Silent Hill monster friends will get me to watch that abomination ever again. Honestly, I did enjoy the puzzles and exploring to unravel mysteries more so than I did the actual combat itself in this game. I'm not saying the combat is BAD, but definitely not the games strong suit, even though it is pretty fun. Depending on the type of player you are, you can choose to square up take the fight to monsters or sneak around like a freaking baby, its entirely up to you, just know that whether you're play as Simon or even Zoe, they suck, like they're dog poo when it comes to combat, mainly because they're weak and not just a instant kill machine like most games out there nowadays, so when you actually DO partake in combat, it becomes much more strategic in how you do so because of it. Guns are obviously the best way to go about combat, but if you have room, strafe around them like in the Shaun Of The Dead bar scene because due to the enemy AI, it makes it easier to take them down and gives you even more prep time to set up a block with your weapon, should you need to do so as well. Should you screw up and start taking damage, use your resources to craft items with antibiotics and other materials and create your own medkits. Which this is just Silent Hill's version of collecting herbs like Resident Evil to be fair. If you decide to use a gun like shotgun or revolver, dont get trigger happy because this is very more in tune with the theme ''survival horror'' and bullets are LIMITED. On its surface that may sound annoying, having limited weapons and resources to use for combat, but honestly, the health system in the game makes up for it due to how generous that is for you, so even if you struggle and take too many hits, you probably won't die too much or at all with the amount you can craft. Like at times you'll be confused why you have SO many resources and feel like me whenever I see a new plushie popup, I HAVE TO HAVE ONE, but... not enough room. That's Townfall in a nutshell in regards to that mechanic, with Richard's playable section actually being the worst of them all in that aspect because its a little TOO MUCH and ruins the survival immersion just a tad bit and can make it feel like a Kirby game because its nearly impossible to die. Yup, that's right, sorry Magneto, no WELCOME TO DIE for this girl.

---

''CRAWLING IN MY SKINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!''

---

OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Silent Hill Townfall ends up keeping Konami's win streak alive, but with some minor issues. For one thing, the main characters feel a tad bit weak compared to other games in the series, which makes it feel like the game stacks the odds against you artificially rather than a feeling of being organic. Another issue is too much resources are given to you to counteract the lack of ammo in the game, which can make the game seem less scary in Richard's sections because who cares if you keep getting hit? you can just keep crafting health items and just keep yourself healed, regardless of damage taken. But even with those negatives, the positives outweigh them with foreboding music, a scary atmosphere that's up there in the spooky department of the original games, fun puzzles, engaging exploration and a story that has several twists and turns that I definitely did not see coming, but was pleasantly surprised with. If you are in need of a good horror fix, or maybe you just love Silent Hill in general, then I implore you to give this one a shot, I don't think you'll be disappointed. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW.

---