Released: September 24, 2026
Developer: Screen Burn
Publisher: KONAMI, Annapurna Interactive
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5
Genre: First-Person Psychological / Survival Horror
Playtime: ~10–12 hours for a first playthrough, with multiple endings and New Game+
I did actually finish Silent Hill: Townfall. I did not abandon it out of spite.
And honestly, there are some parts of this game that I genuinely enjoyed. But it also drove me absolutely insane.
Silent Hill: Townfall is a first-person survival horror game developed by Screen Burn, a studio already familiar with horror after creating Stories Untold and Observation.
Townfall is Silent Hill in name… and vibes.
You aren’t actually IN Silent Hill, though you do spend a lot of time wandering around in thick fog, so that’s basically the same thing… right?
The problem is that while Townfall had a couple of tricks up its sleeve, and absolutely managed to scare me more than once, the things that frustrated me just kept piling up.
And some of them made it incredibly difficult to stay immersed in what is otherwise a gorgeous and atmospheric horror game.
Story
You play as Simon Ordell.
You wash up in St. Amelia, unsure why you’re there, why you have an IV in your hand, or really what is happening at all.
You vaguely remember being asked to come here by a man named Richard.
But you don’t know why.
As you wander through the town, you quickly realize it has been abandoned and that something much bigger is happening here.
More importantly, YOU seem to be at the center of it.
And that’s about as specific as I can get without spoiling anything.
The story is actually pretty good for most of the game. As the final reveals started coming together, Townfall felt like it was firing on all cylinders.
Then the finish line came into sight and I was left thinking:
Wait…… That’s it?
Silent Hill games are known for their metaphorical storytelling. Often, the insanity you're witnessing is some physical manifestation of a person's guilt, trauma, fears, or inner demons. Warping the world around them into some nightmarish landscape.
Townfall does that well. But when the final curtain drops, I just wanted there to be a little more.
Something less cut and dry.
Something else beneath the surface that I could chew on afterward.
There are multiple endings here, but none of the ones I experienced really gave me what I was looking for.
Gameplay
If you’ve played a few horror games, there’s not much mechanically new here. Exploration. Puzzles. Limited resources. Stealth. Combat. Running away when things go horribly wrong.
Townfall also runs embracesone of the most frustrating tropes these games suffer from:
Your main character has absolutely ZERO survival sense. Or common sense, for that matter.
Let me introduce you to one of the game's most dangerous enemies:
The couch boss.
At one point, the stairs you need to use are blocked by a couch and two chairs. Something a CHILD could climb around. But we can’t.
Instead, Simon has to find another route through the neighboring room before eventually falling roughly eight feet onto the floor below.
Congratulations.
We have now successfully defeated the couch.
I completely understand that developers need to block paths for story reasons, gameplay reasons, pacing reasons, or just because they don't want you going somewhere yet. I’m just asking that the reasons be GOOD reasons.
Fill the stairwell with couches, chairs and boxes.
Collapse the ceiling.
Put four monsters down there.
Cover the floor in broken glass so getting through would alert everything nearby.
Just give me SOMETHING more believable than one couch and two chairs.
And Townfall proves it knows how to do this.
There are fences covered in barbed wire that immediately communicate, “You aren't going this way.”
There are alleys with barriers you could probably climb if you really tried, but there’s absolutely nothing suggesting you SHOULD go that direction, so you don't even think twice about them.
The problem happens when my actual objective is on the other side of something that a child could solve.
That’s when the illusion falls apart.
Combat
The combat system is probably my next biggest frustration.
For the most part, it’s… okay.
I don’t expect Simon to be some master pipe swinger. He's not Leon Kennedy….
The bigger problem is that Townfall introduces a combat system and then throws certain enemies at you that seemingly bypass its rules.
Some enemies can’t properly be blocked. You can land a nice combo on them, try to squeeze past and run, and they'll immediately grab you anyway.
It starts feeling less like you're struggling against a dangerous enemy and more like the game has simply decided - “No. You're getting hit now.” And that's not particularly satisfying.
Distractions
Then we have the distraction system. You can throw glass bottles and bricks to distract enemies. And mechanically, it works. Honestly, maybe a little TOO well. But my problem is that those are apparently the only two objects in this entire world capable of making noise.
There are ashtrays.
Coffee cups.
Cans.
Tools.
Boxes.
And about a BILLION other things sitting around that Simon could theoretically chuck across a room. But nope. Need a distraction? Better find yourself a brick.
I’m not asking Screen Burn to create some fully interactive immersive sim where I can pick up every individual object. I actually think the better solution would have been to give us some reason why we CAN'T interact with them. Have Simon reach for something once and his hand passes through it. Have certain objects strangely stuck to the table. Do SOMETHING subtle that reinforces the idea that this world might not be as real as it appears. Then establish some reason why the bottles and bricks are different.
Instead, I'm wandering through an office filled with cups, ashtrays and random junk while desperately searching for a BRICK because apparently that's the only throwable object Simon understands.
It’s stupid.
Inventory
My honorable mention goes to the inventory system. At the start of the game, you can carry one stick.
Find another stick? You don't take both. Simon swaps them. Because apparently carrying TWO STICKS would be unreasonable.
Later, though, you can be wandering around with multiple weapons, a bottle, a brick, a pipe, around 30 shotgun shells, 20 bullets and nine flares. At that point I'm actually asking the opposite question - Where is he putting all of this….?
That inconsistency is easier for me to overlook, but I genuinely think some sort of inventory system would have helped the immersion.
Puzzles
One thing I surprisingly DIDN'T have an issue with was the puzzles.
Normally, games like Resident Evil will have me asking why some lunatic designed a door that requires three coins and two raven heads just to get into the kitchen.
Like… really? The bad guys sat down and designed this?
Townfall mostly avoids that. Its puzzles feel grounded within the world itself and rarely felt completely out of place. And outside of my complaints above, the general traversal and gameplay are fine.
Graphics and Sound
This game looks incredible. The texture work and tiny environmental details can look almost photorealistic at times. Even something as simple as Simon's hand has an absurd amount of detail.
Finger smudges appear on the recording device.
Surfaces look worn and lived in.
Tiny environmental details are everywhere.
That level of detail does a LOT to pull you into this world.
Which makes it all the more frustrating when you're completely immersed and then suddenly encounter…… The couch boss.
Townfall also does a fantastic job when you end up in what I’ll simply call “the other place.” The stark changes in scenery, layout and color completely shift the atmosphere and help sell that feeling that something has gone VERY wrong.
The sound design leans heavily into ambient noise rather than constantly blasting you with music.
Although occasionally…… It was just TOO LOUD.
There are more traditional musical tracks as well, but they're generally exactly what you'd expect from Silent Hill: uncomfortable, off-key horror music designed to make everything feel slightly wrong.
Final Review - Is Silent Hill: Townfall Worth Your Time?
Your first playthrough of Silent Hill: Townfall will probably take somewhere around 10–12 hours. After that, you'll have to decide whether you want to jump into New Game+ and chase the other endings… Or drop it and never touch it again.
I'm in that latter category.
There's a LOT of good potential here. The story and graphics did an incredible job pulling me into Townfall's world. Unfortunately, the constant interruptions from couch bosses, frustrating combat and some pacing issues kept pulling me right back out. I think if the ending had landed better, I might have been willing to give some of those problems a pass.
But as it stands? At $50……
No. I don't think Silent Hill: Townfall is worth your time.
Wait for a sale. Or go watch a Let's Play.
Maybe I should've done a Let's Play……
Released: September 24, 2026
Developer: Screen Burn
Publisher: KONAMI, Annapurna Interactive
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5
Genre: First-Person Psychological / Survival Horror
Playtime: ~10–12 hours for a first playthrough, with multiple endings and New Game+
I did actually finish Silent Hill: Townfall. I did not abandon it out of spite.
And honestly, there are some parts of this game that I genuinely enjoyed. But it also drove me absolutely insane.
Silent Hill: Townfall is a first-person survival horror game developed by Screen Burn, a studio already familiar with horror after creating Stories Untold and Observation.
Townfall is Silent Hill in name… and vibes.
You aren’t actually IN Silent Hill, though you do spend a lot of time wandering around in thick fog, so that’s basically the same thing… right?
The problem is that while Townfall had a couple of tricks up its sleeve, and absolutely managed to scare me more than once, the things that frustrated me just kept piling up.
And some of them made it incredibly difficult to stay immersed in what is otherwise a gorgeous and atmospheric horror game.
Story
You play as Simon Ordell.
You wash up in St. Amelia, unsure why you’re there, why you have an IV in your hand, or really what is happening at all.
You vaguely remember being asked to come here by a man named Richard.
But you don’t know why.
As you wander through the town, you quickly realize it has been abandoned and that something much bigger is happening here.
More importantly, YOU seem to be at the center of it.
And that’s about as specific as I can get without spoiling anything.
The story is actually pretty good for most of the game. As the final reveals started coming together, Townfall felt like it was firing on all cylinders.
Then the finish line came into sight and I was left thinking:
Wait…… That’s it?
Silent Hill games are known for their metaphorical storytelling. Often, the insanity you're witnessing is some physical manifestation of a person's guilt, trauma, fears, or inner demons. Warping the world around them into some nightmarish landscape.
Townfall does that well. But when the final curtain drops, I just wanted there to be a little more.
Something less cut and dry.
Something else beneath the surface that I could chew on afterward.
There are multiple endings here, but none of the ones I experienced really gave me what I was looking for.
Gameplay
If you’ve played a few horror games, there’s not much mechanically new here. Exploration. Puzzles. Limited resources. Stealth. Combat. Running away when things go horribly wrong.
Townfall also runs embracesone of the most frustrating tropes these games suffer from:
Your main character has absolutely ZERO survival sense. Or common sense, for that matter.
Let me introduce you to one of the game's most dangerous enemies:
The couch boss.
At one point, the stairs you need to use are blocked by a couch and two chairs. Something a CHILD could climb around. But we can’t.
Instead, Simon has to find another route through the neighboring room before eventually falling roughly eight feet onto the floor below.
Congratulations.
We have now successfully defeated the couch.
I completely understand that developers need to block paths for story reasons, gameplay reasons, pacing reasons, or just because they don't want you going somewhere yet. I’m just asking that the reasons be GOOD reasons.
Fill the stairwell with couches, chairs and boxes.
Collapse the ceiling.
Put four monsters down there.
Cover the floor in broken glass so getting through would alert everything nearby.
Just give me SOMETHING more believable than one couch and two chairs.
And Townfall proves it knows how to do this.
There are fences covered in barbed wire that immediately communicate, “You aren't going this way.”
There are alleys with barriers you could probably climb if you really tried, but there’s absolutely nothing suggesting you SHOULD go that direction, so you don't even think twice about them.
The problem happens when my actual objective is on the other side of something that a child could solve.
That’s when the illusion falls apart.
Combat
The combat system is probably my next biggest frustration.
For the most part, it’s… okay.
I don’t expect Simon to be some master pipe swinger. He's not Leon Kennedy….
The bigger problem is that Townfall introduces a combat system and then throws certain enemies at you that seemingly bypass its rules.
Some enemies can’t properly be blocked. You can land a nice combo on them, try to squeeze past and run, and they'll immediately grab you anyway.
It starts feeling less like you're struggling against a dangerous enemy and more like the game has simply decided - “No. You're getting hit now.” And that's not particularly satisfying.
Distractions
Then we have the distraction system. You can throw glass bottles and bricks to distract enemies. And mechanically, it works. Honestly, maybe a little TOO well. But my problem is that those are apparently the only two objects in this entire world capable of making noise.
There are ashtrays.
Coffee cups.
Cans.
Tools.
Boxes.
And about a BILLION other things sitting around that Simon could theoretically chuck across a room. But nope. Need a distraction? Better find yourself a brick.
I’m not asking Screen Burn to create some fully interactive immersive sim where I can pick up every individual object. I actually think the better solution would have been to give us some reason why we CAN'T interact with them. Have Simon reach for something once and his hand passes through it. Have certain objects strangely stuck to the table. Do SOMETHING subtle that reinforces the idea that this world might not be as real as it appears. Then establish some reason why the bottles and bricks are different.
Instead, I'm wandering through an office filled with cups, ashtrays and random junk while desperately searching for a BRICK because apparently that's the only throwable object Simon understands.
It’s stupid.
Inventory
My honorable mention goes to the inventory system. At the start of the game, you can carry one stick.
Find another stick? You don't take both. Simon swaps them. Because apparently carrying TWO STICKS would be unreasonable.
Later, though, you can be wandering around with multiple weapons, a bottle, a brick, a pipe, around 30 shotgun shells, 20 bullets and nine flares. At that point I'm actually asking the opposite question - Where is he putting all of this….?
That inconsistency is easier for me to overlook, but I genuinely think some sort of inventory system would have helped the immersion.
Puzzles
One thing I surprisingly DIDN'T have an issue with was the puzzles.
Normally, games like Resident Evil will have me asking why some lunatic designed a door that requires three coins and two raven heads just to get into the kitchen.
Like… really? The bad guys sat down and designed this?
Townfall mostly avoids that. Its puzzles feel grounded within the world itself and rarely felt completely out of place. And outside of my complaints above, the general traversal and gameplay are fine.
Graphics and Sound
This game looks incredible. The texture work and tiny environmental details can look almost photorealistic at times. Even something as simple as Simon's hand has an absurd amount of detail.
Finger smudges appear on the recording device.
Surfaces look worn and lived in.
Tiny environmental details are everywhere.
That level of detail does a LOT to pull you into this world.
Which makes it all the more frustrating when you're completely immersed and then suddenly encounter…… The couch boss.
Townfall also does a fantastic job when you end up in what I’ll simply call “the other place.” The stark changes in scenery, layout and color completely shift the atmosphere and help sell that feeling that something has gone VERY wrong.
The sound design leans heavily into ambient noise rather than constantly blasting you with music.
Although occasionally…… It was just TOO LOUD.
There are more traditional musical tracks as well, but they're generally exactly what you'd expect from Silent Hill: uncomfortable, off-key horror music designed to make everything feel slightly wrong.
Final Review - Is Silent Hill: Townfall Worth Your Time?
Your first playthrough of Silent Hill: Townfall will probably take somewhere around 10–12 hours. After that, you'll have to decide whether you want to jump into New Game+ and chase the other endings… Or drop it and never touch it again.
I'm in that latter category.
There's a LOT of good potential here. The story and graphics did an incredible job pulling me into Townfall's world. Unfortunately, the constant interruptions from couch bosses, frustrating combat and some pacing issues kept pulling me right back out. I think if the ending had landed better, I might have been willing to give some of those problems a pass.
But as it stands? At $50……
No. I don't think Silent Hill: Townfall is worth your time.
Wait for a sale. Or go watch a Let's Play.
Maybe I should've done a Let's Play……
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