Simon Ordell washes ashore in a fog-bound Scottish fishing town with an IV line in his arm and no memory of how he arrived, setting up Konami and Screen Burn Interactive’s first-person survival horror release, Silent Hill: Townfall.
Resident Evil and Silent Hill, two foundational series in video game horror that continue to release new games today, both emerged in the late 1990s on the first Sony PlayStation. But Silent Hill’s psychological take on the genre has found a relatively niche audience compared to the crowd-pleasing Resident Evil. Instead of police officers and secret agents cracking wise in the face of a zombie outbreak, Silent Hill threw civilians into oppressive settings, dripping with unreliable narrators and metaphors for facing past trauma or sins. Silent Hill: Townfall, published by Konami and developed by Glasgow-based Screen Burn Interactive, has moments that reach the pinnacle of horror in gaming today. But with a grab bag of mechanics that at times seem at odds with one another, it’s likely you’ll love one part of the experience, but loathe the next.
Screen Burn Interactive and Konami
Silent Hill has always traded in psychological claustrophobia rather than zombie outbreaks, tossing civilian protagonists into heavy metaphors for past trauma. With Silent Hill: Townfall, developer Screen Burn Interactive and publisher Konami are pushing that lineage into entirely new territory. The game shifts the series into a full first-person perspective for the first time in a full-length release, trading American streets for the abandoned Scottish fishing village of St. Amelia in the year 1996.
Townfall’s first note is an odd one. The year is 1996, and we see American Simon Ordell (voiced by The Leftovers’ Jovan Adepo) wash up ashore in St. Amelia, an abandoned Scottish fishing village, with no idea of how he got there. He’s got an IV bag strapped to his arm. Playing entirely through Simon’s eyes intensifies the dread. Movement requires careful navigation through foggy streets populated by fleshy, faceless humanoid monsters that moan and growl.
Silent Hill: Townfall brings back the series’ staple radio, but because the game takes place in 1996, it’s not exactly a radio but rather one of those neat handheld CRTVs. Simon has to tune the TV until he gets a solid signal, then look for the building the TV displays, which is a neat way for the game to nudge you from objective to objective. The TV also has a station that acts like monster radar.
Simon Ordell
Instead of relying on heavy firepower, survival depends on cunning and scarce resources. Simon’s primary tool is a handheld portable television resembling a Sony Sport Watchman, known as the CRTV. Tuning the device transforms the display into a scratchy red screen that picks up enemy silhouettes as static, acting as a functional monster radar.
Combat is deliberately desperate and meager. Players can toss bottles to distract enemies or use a rotting wooden plank that cracks apart after a single melee use. While a handgun serves as a final resort, ammunition is scarce enough that fighting is rarely a viable strategy. Stealth and hiding in front doors left ajar or convenient cupboards are essential for survival.
That heavy reliance on hiding and gadget management has drawn mixed reactions from early players.
Unreal Engine 5 with DirectX 12
Under the hood, Screen Burn Interactive built the title, with Annapurna also publishing.
Townfall’s Scottish setting continues a broader shift for the franchise away from its traditional American backdrop. Following 2025’s Japan-set entry Silent Hill f, Konami’s lead producer Motoi Okamoto indicated that the development team examined various global regions for future games, ranging from other parts of Europe to Latin America, as part of an effort by Okamoto to express his desire to release a Silent Hill game every year.