Silent Hill Townfall Review, Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Top Features

Silent Hill: Townfall from developer Screen Burn Interactive is a bold direction for the beloved survival horror series.

A spin-off that delves into some familiar trappings and some important new elements, Townfall tackles a first-person perspective as players attempt to navigate its engrossing setting and narrative.

Another possible smash hit as Silent Hill makes an epic modern comeback, Townfall has all the trappings of a skin-crawlingly good experience that nears the very top of its niche.

The Scottish town of St. Amelia just screams Silent Hill.

All the expected visual flair, effects and creepy sound design are here. It looks great, feels better and is super immersive as players cautiously tiptoe through a foggy portside town littered with intrigue, detail and horrors.

It's fittingly survival horror from a first-person perspective: The player can wield melee weapons, of course, but there's a big stealth component and a handled device that lets them scan the area for enemies.

The CRT machine is where presentation and gameplay marry into something truly compelling. Were this a third-person game, the CRT would be related to a rudimentary video game thing on a HUD.

Here, players see through the eyes of the character and look at the CRT itself, using it to sketch outlines of enemies to keep track of them, peep snapshots of the environment for clues and even use it, in tandem with other things, to solve puzzles.

Similarly, there's a hide-and-peek thing going on to help players avoid vicious enemies who, once they spot the player, won't stop giving chase until they cannot any longer.

Combat is hefty, in a word. Fights feel like a scrap, not a timing-based dance to hit the parry. Weapons degrade and the middling firearm players do get access to is, well, middling, and ammo is scarce, anyway.

In standard Silent Hill fashion, there are trips to narrow, scary Otherworld segments and environmental puzzles, too. Nice pace-breakers, those, but it's hard to not simply love the vibe of the town most.

The perspective brings it all together. It's an intimate horror experience. There's no cheesing in the third-person and looking around corners to see what enemies might be doing. There's no major HUD elements to help. Players are in the thick of it with limited tools and ways to survive and it's one of the best horror gameplay systems in years.

It's 1996 and protagonist Simon Ordell has a convenient case of amnesia as he awakes in a predictably foggy town where something has very obviously gone awry.

Silent Hill, indeed, the blueprint is all there.

Townfall is happy to lure players into this creepy sense of familiarity before toying with them. Without going into spoilers, it's a blast to explore as the narrative onion unveils its layers around the mysteries of the setting and characters.

Video games analysis sometimes stresses environmental storytelling way too much. But it's a chef's kiss moment here that must get a nod: One stroll outside shows doors locked, windows shuttered, boats all named after children, protest signage and aftermath, it goes on and on in harrowing fashion.

As an aside, Hideo Kojima fans might recall the super-anticipated, but-canceled mainline Silent Hill game P.T. and see the comparisons. This feels like a spiritual successor almost, or at least a nod to what could have been, in the best possible way.

Townfall runs well despite the high fidelity and story-needed details like fog and boasts a strong set of options in the menus, including three difficulty settings.

Townfall is refreshing in more ways than one. Where Silent Hill f went to 1960s Japan to get the series out of its stale-feeling settings roots, this game's Scottish town is just as compelling, if not more so.

This experience is also, simply put, relatably terrifying. Most know the tension of stumbling through foggy or dark, quiet areas. So, too, do most know medical-aligned anxiety, if not fear. Townfall is more than happy to blend both into a Silent Hill mixer that is harrowing, if that word even does it justice.

The result is a near-classic experience and one of those games players will wish they could experience for the first time again. It won't be for everyone, but games as immersive and memorable as Townfall don't come around all that often.