There is something deeply unsettling about a quiet Scottish town when the weather turns against you. The roads become empty, the sea disappears behind sheets of mist, and every building starts to look as though it has been abandoned for far longer than anyone is willing to admit. SILENT HILL: Townfall understands that particular kind of isolation beautifully, taking the psychological horror of the series and transplanting it to the cold, fog-soaked Scottish coastline in 1996. It is a bold change of scenery, yet somehow it feels completely at home within the world of Silent Hill.
This time, we follow Simon Ordell, a man who has been called back to the island of St. Amelia with the ominous instruction to “put things right”. Naturally, nothing about that invitation suggests a pleasant reunion. The town appears deserted, yet it is clearly not empty. As Simon ventures further into its streets and forgotten buildings, fragments of his past begin to rise to the surface. What follows is a deeply atmospheric first-person horror experience about guilt, loss, consequence, and the uncomfortable things we sometimes bury rather than confront.
Welcome To St. Amelia
From the moment Simon arrives, SILENT HILL: Townfall creates an atmosphere that feels almost oppressively real. This is not a fantastical version of Scotland filled with postcard scenery and tourist attractions. Instead, St. Amelia feels like a forgotten coastal community where ordinary lives once unfolded, leaving behind homes, shops, roads and personal possessions that tell stories without anyone needing to explain them.
That attention to detail is one of the game’s greatest strengths. The 1990s setting is not simply there for nostalgia but forms an important part of the experience. Old technology, outdated electrical systems, floppy disks, electricity cards and analogue equipment all feel like genuine parts of the world rather than decorations placed there to remind us what decade it is. There is a wonderful authenticity to it, which makes exploring St. Amelia considerably more compelling.
Seeing Silent Hill Differently
The decision to present the entire game from a first-person perspective is perhaps the series’ biggest departure. Silent Hill has traditionally allowed us to watch its protagonists stumble through nightmares from a third-person viewpoint, giving us a sense of their physical presence within the environment. Here, however, we look directly through Simon’s eyes, which changes the relationship between player and world in fascinating ways.
First-person horror can be particularly effective because it removes a degree of emotional distance. You cannot look over Simon’s shoulder to see what might be standing behind him. You cannot rely on a character model to tell you exactly where you are in relation to a threat. When something moves in the corner of your vision, it feels considerably more personal, and Townfall makes excellent use of that intimacy.
Fear In The Fog
The fog is, naturally, one of the game’s most important tools. Yet Townfall understands that the fog itself is not necessarily frightening. What makes it terrifying is what might be hiding within it.
Walking down a deserted street when you cannot see more than a few metres ahead creates a constant sense of uncertainty. You hear something before you see it, catch movement in the distance, and wonder whether the shape ahead is another abandoned object or something that has been waiting for you to arrive. The game is particularly good at letting silence do much of the heavy lifting, because some of its most effective moments occur when absolutely nothing appears to be happening.
The CRTV
One of the most inspired additions to the formula is Simon’s portable CRTV. Rather than simply reviving the traditional radio in another form, the developers have made the idea a much more interactive part of the experience.
The CRTV can pick up unstable analogue signals carrying threats, clues and fragments of the story. Tuning into the right frequency can reveal things that cannot otherwise be seen, making the device both a narrative tool and a means of understanding the environment around you. It is a brilliantly appropriate mechanic for a game set in 1996 because it makes old technology feel mysterious again.
There is something wonderfully tactile about the whole idea. In an age when technology generally gives us instant answers, the CRTV forces you to fiddle with signals and interpret fragments of information. It feels imperfect and unreliable, which is precisely what makes it so effective. The device becomes an extension of the game’s broader philosophy that nothing should ever be completely clear.
Explore, Evade, Survive
Combat is deliberately not the star of the show, and that is probably for the best. Simon has access to melee weapons and firearms, but neither makes him feel like an unstoppable action hero. Encounters can be frantic and uncomfortable, with blocking, swinging and shooting requiring careful thought about whether fighting is worth the risk.
Evasion is often the more attractive option, and the game does a good job of making running away feel like a legitimate survival strategy rather than an admission of defeat. Knowing that something is nearby but choosing to slip past it creates a different kind of tension from simply killing everything in sight. There is a vulnerability to Simon that helps preserve the survival horror atmosphere, even when the combat itself occasionally feels clunky from the first-person perspective.
Puzzles From Another Era
The puzzles are another area where Townfall really shines. Rather than relying entirely on abstract symbols and elaborate contraptions, the game makes its 1990s setting an integral part of its puzzle design.
You will encounter old computers, floppy disks, electrical systems and other pieces of technology that prompt you to consider how people actually used them. This gives the puzzles a wonderfully grounded quality, while the CRTV adds another layer by providing information that may not make sense at first. The best puzzles are those in which you suddenly realise that a seemingly insignificant piece of technology you encountered earlier is part of a much larger solution.
A Story That Wants To Be Understood
Beneath all the horror lies a story about Simon himself, and this is where Townfall feels most closely connected to the series’ psychological tradition. The town is not simply a haunted location that Simon happens to visit. It is tied to him, and the further he ventures into St. Amelia, the more the boundaries between external reality and personal memory blur.
The game does not spoon-feed every answer, which I appreciated. There is an expectation that you will pay attention, interpret what you see, and connect pieces of information yourself. That approach can occasionally leave the narrative deliberately opaque, but it also gives the mystery a lingering quality. Even after completing a particular section, you may find yourself thinking about what actually happened and what certain moments were trying to tell you.
A World That Feels Lived In
The Scottish setting is more than a novelty. It gives Townfall a distinctive identity, particularly because the developers have clearly taken care over the details of this fictional community.
There is a sense that people once lived normal lives here. Homes contain remnants of those lives, buildings have their own histories, and the environment often communicates more effectively than direct exposition. That makes the abandoned town feel both tragic and frightening. You are not simply exploring a horror level. You are walking through somewhere that once mattered to people.
Sound That Gets Under Your Skin
Audio plays a crucial role in sustaining tension. Creaking buildings, distant cries, electrical interference and unexplained noises constantly make you question what is happening around you. With limited visibility, sound becomes essential to understanding your surroundings, so you start listening almost as carefully as you look.
The dynamic soundtrack from Pilotpriest is particularly effective because it responds to what is happening around you rather than simply playing as a conventional background score. Music can swell with the presence of enemies and shift as the situation changes, creating an unsettling sense that the game itself is reacting to your behaviour. Combined with the analogue sounds of the CRTV and the oppressive silence of St. Amelia, it produces a remarkably rich soundscape.
Not Quite Perfect
For all its strengths, SILENT HILL: Townfall has a few rough edges. First-person combat can feel awkward at times, particularly when encounters become frantic and the controls do not always feel as precise as you would like. There is also an argument that the CRTV can slightly undermine the effectiveness of some early scares, because a tool that warns you about nearby threats can reduce some of the uncertainty that makes horror so powerful.
Navigation can occasionally be confusing too. St. Amelia is designed as a place you are expected to investigate rather than simply follow from objective marker to objective marker, but there are moments when the lack of obvious direction becomes frustrating rather than intriguing. These issues are relatively minor compared with the overall quality of the experience, but they are noticeable.
A Different Kind Of Silent Hill
What impressed me most about SILENT HILL: Townfall is that it does not simply attempt to recreate what came before. It takes the series’ core ideas and filters them through a completely different setting, perspective and technological era.
The result is a game that feels recognisably Silent Hill without simply repeating the same formula. The fog is here, the psychological horror is here, and the sense that the protagonist’s own past is somehow infecting the world around him is very much intact. Yet St. Amelia, Simon’s story and the CRTV give the experience its own identity, and that is exactly what a spin-off like this should be aiming for.
Final Verdict
SILENT HILL: Townfall is a confident and atmospheric addition to the series that understands something fundamental about psychological horror: sometimes the things you cannot see are far more frightening than the things you can.
The Scottish setting works brilliantly, providing a cold, isolated backdrop that feels both unfamiliar and strangely believable. The first-person perspective brings a new intimacy to exploration, while the CRTV is an inspired piece of retro technology that doubles as a clever puzzle and storytelling mechanic. Add in excellent sound design, a dynamic soundtrack, thoughtful environmental storytelling and a mystery that rewards close attention, and there is plenty here for horror fans to sink their teeth into.
It is not without shortcomings. Combat can feel clumsy, navigation occasionally lacks clarity, and some of the CRTV mechanics can take a little of the surprise out of encounters. Yet these problems never overwhelm what is otherwise a remarkably atmospheric adventure.
Most importantly, Townfall feels like it has something to say. Beneath the fog, monsters and unsettling imagery lies a story about facing the things we would rather leave buried. That makes the journey through St. Amelia feel considerably more meaningful than simply surviving one frightening encounter after another.
