If the current haze situation in Southeast Asia makes you feel like you are in a horror game, it might be a good idea to stay indoors and play Silent Hill: Townfall.
The latest release in the renowned survival horror franchise goes back to Silent Hill’s slow-burn horror roots and evasive “hide, don’t fight” gameplay.
Set in the fictional shore town of St Amelia in Scotland in 1996, Silent Hill: Townfall is a survival horror game where you sneak around and avoid faceless monsters while solving puzzles and unravelling the mystery.
Unlike last year’s Silent Hill F which was played in a third-person perspective with actual battles with monsters, Townfall is played in a first-person view with minimal combat.
Foggy prospects
You play the main protagonist, Simon Ordell, who is mysteriously called back to St Amelia “to put things right” with a medical cannula attached to his hand. He finds the town deserted and blanketed by a thick fog, a trademark look for Silent Hill games, and seeks answers to what has happened to the town and himself.
Townfall’s interesting narrative is told by revealing segments of the story through the perspectives of different characters exploring the locations at a different timeline and dimension, building up a story of many facets. Additional aspects of the story come from notes, audio and video recordings, piecing together a harrowing tale.
The game’s limited visibility and interactions makes it a lonely and isolated experience, with scant and impersonal dialogue that takes place over telephones and intercoms, as well as one-sided communication via recorded video and voice messages.
Although there is a lengthy conversation with a condescending person of authority, it is still welcomed since the rest of the game is almost unbearably silent, save for the growling and moaning of horrifying creatures.
St Amelia is filled with faceless monsters that either run around blindly or lurk at strategic spots that force you to duck and scurry about to get past them. In this respect, Townfall is a throwback to the classic Silent Hill games where the avoidance of monsters is the key to survival.
Although the map for St Amelia is small, it takes a long time to traverse. There are patrolling monsters, as well as extended levels inside certain buildings where you have to creep around in claustrophobic and dark spaces while evading the monsters.
Spooky source, eerie medium
Like the radios of classic Silent Hill games, Townfall offers a handheld CRTV or a pager depending on the protagonist, which can detect the presence of monsters.
The CRTV emits static when monsters are near, and also shows a blurry image of which way the monsters are facing. The pager used by another character is a lot more imprecise, as it only shows the general direction where the monsters are at, which is meaningless when there are too many of them.
An additional function for the CRTV is for detecting signals in specific locations, where you need to align analogue signals and reveal a video showing you where to go or what transpired. This serves as a major plot and puzzle-solving device.
Puzzle-solving in Townfall is almost like an extremely sophisticated form of point-and-click puzzle game. Some are as easy as finding a code to unlock a door, while others are as elaborate as operating on a patient or finding multiple scattered items and reading clues to solve.
Clues can come in any source and medium, like videos, scraps of paper, voice messages, pager texts and emails on a computer terminal.
Some puzzles rely on your memory and powers of observation, but I find jotting down some notes can save some time and backtracking especially in the hospital segment.
There are also some puzzles that can be quite obscure, which had me running around in circles for a bit while sneaking around the monsters.
If this gets too frustrating, Townfall is thoughtful enough to an optional setting that highlights pertinent information, making puzzles easier to solve.
Although the game is narrative-driven and linear with limited exploration, there are also a series of strange postcards to be found and collected in elusive spots, which will unlock a secret puzzle in the game.
Run, hide, fight
Evading monsters instead of fighting them is key in Townfall’s gameplay. Much of the time is spent crouching, hiding and waiting for an opportune time to advance.
The game’s sophisticated peeking mechanism lets you peek around corners and from behind cover, and even leaning into the cover to avoid detection.
There are also closets and sheds where you can hide in to avoid patrolling monsters – this is where the CRTV is useful since you can track which way the monsters are facing and where they are headed before sneaking out.
The game is quite forgiving in that you can still run and hide after being spotted by the monsters but fighting them is a lot more difficult.
Melee weapons in Townfall are weak and scarce, like flimsy planks that break upon impact, bottles and bricks that can be thrown at a monster to stun it momentarily, and pipes that degrade after a few hits.
Things get better later in the game when there are firearms like pistols and shotguns, which are super handy in prickly situations although ammo is extremely limited.
With such scarcity, combat is pretty much the last resort since getting wounded is pretty risky. True to its survival horror roots, health resources are scarce in Townfall.
You need to explore the map thoroughly and scrounge around for health items to survive. Gauze, alcohol and medkits can help restore some health, but the most valuable lifesaver comes in the form of an IV bag with fluid that can bring Simon back to life after being mauled to death without losing progress or reloading an earlier saved game.
Some areas with a lot of enemies around can take a while to traverse safely. I found myself getting stuck for a long time because I was too scared to move when there were many monsters nearby.
Thankfully, there were some places I managed to take a chance and ran for it despite on some damage. I had to calm my nerves in the aftermath.
Alternatively, the game offers a Story mode difficulty setting that makes enemies less numerous and nerfs their damage to some degree.
Fear factor
One thing Townfall does really well is piling on the scares and suspense, building it up gradually while making each realisation more dreadful as you play through.
The story itself is told cleverly through the perspectives of different characters, but has less punch than the psychological horror from the classic Silent Hill games. Townfall also has multiple endings that encourage you to replay and for different choices to be made to unlock more story possibilities.
The game uses the franchise’s trademark fog to limit visibility which adds uncertainty to the fear, as well as claustrophobic environments that make one feel trapped especially with monsters nearby.
Townfall detracts from typical Silent Hill games in that it is played in a first-person perspective. It takes some getting used to, as it brings the horror closer to you and is more in your face. The whole peeking mechanism is much more critical here.
Townfall’s horrors are mostly nightmarish faceless monsters, which do not offer as much variety nor evoke as much terror as Silent Hill 2’s iconic Pyramid Head and Bubblehead nurses, which still trigger PTSD for me today.
Some of the faceless horrors are slow moving and shuffle around predictably, but there are others that can gambol about quickly as well as those who are huge, making it difficult to slip past them.
Although the monsters in Townfall don’t have eyes, they can somehow see you and are acutely sensitive to noise and movement and can even detect you in the thick fog.
What makes things worse is that their paths change when you return to the same spot after progressing in the game. What feels like a known safe route can be completely unsafe again.
The game also has tense moments that force you to fumble around in pitch darkness while being wary about turning on the torch because of nearby monsters. This can cause critical clues to be missed and make seemingly straightforward missions tediously terrifying.
I was genuinely scared when spotted by a monster or when the monster opened a door when I was trying to hide in a room. Even tactics like throwing things and creating noises to distract the monsters could sometimes fail, which made for some real scream-worthy moments.
Townfall’s graphics are detailed, with suitably eerie level designs. Picture the bowels of a hospital filled with filth and blood, dilapidated apartments that are messy and dark, as well as narrow alleyways clogged up by junk. Beware if you are squeamish, as there is plenty of body horror and visceral gore that makes one squirm when playing.
Some chapters of the game are displayed in a dark crimson palette with parts of the map closed off, forcing the horrors to be even closer to you with fewer escape routes. This adds variety to pathfinding and makes one feel more desperate and fearful.
Townfall’s masterfully scripted scares include sudden movements, jump scares and superb audio engineering. I was tempted to turn down the volume to make things less scary but being able to hear the direction of growls helps in timing precisely when to dash out. The game is best enjoyed on surround speakers or headphones although the scary noises will make you jump and look behind in panic.
I played Townfall on the PlayStation 5, and the experience was enhanced with the clever use of the DualSense controller. The buzz of static plus the vibrations triggered by monster proximity coming through the controller made the horror feel closer and more tactile.
Townfall is not a game you will want to play late into the night or too near bedtime as it will likely cause pounding hearts, trembling hands and fitful sleep.
TL;DR
Silent Hill: Townfall harks back to the franchise’s slow burn, survival horror roots, with evading and hiding from faceless monsters being crucial to surviving rather than actual combat. Unlike other Silent Hill titles, Townfall is played in a first-person perspective which brings the horror even closer.
Townfall’s interesting narrative is told by playing different characters, revealing the mystery from different perspectives. However, the story itself lacks the psychological horror aspect of classic Silent Hill games. Although the monsters also lack variety and are not as iconic as other games in the franchise, the game’s masterfully scripted scares do create genuine physiological fear.
If you are looking for an old-school horror game in time for Halloween, Townfall offers genuine creepy fun, with guaranteed heart palpitations. Oh, and sweaty palms, if you are playing with surround speakers on the PlayStation 5 with the DualSense controller.
With plenty of visceral gore, body horror and intense scares, Townfall is suitable for mature audiences, specifically people with a strong stomach and steady hands.
Silent Hill: Townfall is available for the PlayStation 5 at the PlayStation Store and for PC on Steam for S$63.
