I’ve just finished playing Silent Hill: Townfall, and it’s a masterclass on what a modern horror game can be. At least, it is for me. From its perfectly observed setting in Scotland to an all-too-real sense of a community that’s collapsed in the face of a disaster, this game grabbed me on a deeply personal level and pulled me in as no other Silent Hill game has done before.
Set in the fictional Scottish harbor town of St Amelia in 1996, Silent Hill: Townfall follows the journey of Simon Ordell, who, after pulling himself out of the sea at the start of the game, proceeds to unravel the mystery of what’s happened in the town, what role he played and crucially how he can put things right.
Simon washes up in St Amelia with no idea what’s going on.Konami
From the shambling monsters with planks morphing out of their heads to the impenetrable fog obscuring most of your way forward, Townfall is in many ways classic Silent Hill despite being something of a smaller-scoped spinoff, much like last year’s Silent Hill f. Like its predecessors, gameplay relies on puzzle-solving, exploration and using a mixture of stealth and combat (using limited resources) to either avoid or take down enemies.
So, par for the course for Silent Hill then? In many ways, yes; there’s certainly enough hallmarks of the franchise to keep regulars happy and, much like I found in 2017’s Resident Evil 7, a shift from an over-the-shoulder to a first-person perspective only helps to immerse you more in the game.
Simon’s journey is largely one of discovery. With no memories of what’s going on or why he’s in this deserted village, the game instead drip-feeds you nuggets of information — often simply through emails on computers, newspaper clippings or other pieces of environmental storytelling, many of which are easy to miss. But by slowing down and taking the time to explore the game world and pick up clues, you start to feel connected with Simon as he constructs his story.
Simon has no idea what’s going on and, for most of the game, nor will you.Konami
It’s not a unique take on Silent Hill by any means, and I don’t expect Townfall to necessarily pull in a fresh audience that’s never played a title before. But it’s got more than enough meat on its bones to keep existing fans happy and to tempt back those of you who’ve written the series off in recent years.
But there’s much more than a fresh perspective that pulled me into Townfall.
The setting of St Amelia is based on a real seaside town, called St Monan’s — a town that’s only about an hour’s drive from my home in Edinburgh and somewhere I have visited many times. While the layout isn’t a direct replication, there are numerous elements I immediately recognized from the real-life town. Considering the game was developed by the Glasgow-based developer Screen Burn Games, this fidelity to a Scottish setting is unsurprising but welcome.
Not a screenshot from the game, but from a video I shot when I visited the real St Amelia at night.Andrew Lanxon/CNET
The architecture, the scattered fishing nets and lobster pots along the harbor front, the bunting strewn around the streets — all present and accurate to real-life seaside Scotland. I recognize elements of nearby North Berwick too, and there’s even a reference to the “award-winning Amelia Fish Bar” which I can only assume is a direct nod to the actually award-winning Anstruther Fish Bar, which you’ll find about a 10-minute drive from St Monans.
Even the more modern details reminiscent of towns redeveloped in the 1960s are perfectly observed, down to the phones, the office equipment and the Microsoft Word Art used on community noticeboard posters — and will be immediately recognizable to anyone, like me, who grew up in Britain in the 90s. When I visited St Monans earlier in the year to photograph the town, I focused my attention on a 1980s phone box, which struck me at the time as being “very Silent Hill”. Unsurprisingly, I found that identical boxes featured heavily in the game world.
This 1980s phonebox, seen here in real-life St Monans, features heavily in the game.Andrew Lanxon/CNET
The result of all this is that St. Amelia feels like a place I’ve already been to, wandered around and actively enjoyed as I ate fish and chips on the harbor wall with family and friends. I felt a deep sense of familiarity walking around in the game, which made it all the more jarring to see the beautiful, tranquil place I knew transformed into a landscape of horror and terror.
It was an amazing — albeit disturbing — sensation to feel so personally connected with an in-game setting, but it’s not one that everyone will have. I played through most of last year’s Silent Hill f and while I broadly enjoyed the game, its admittedly interesting 1960s rural Japan setting didn’t immerse me in the same way because I’ve never been, so I lack any frame of reference. Ditto for the Silent Hill 2 remake set in the US state of Maine. It’s not that I can’t enjoy any media that I don’t have a personal connection with (I’ve never been to Connecticut but it doesn’t stop me enjoying Gilmore Girls), but having a game based essentially in your own backyard is a great way to feel a much deeper sense of immersion in what’s going on.
But there’s another connection that many more of us can appreciate.
You’ll be using a portable TV — a classic bit of 90s tech — to keep out of the way of enemies.Konami
The COVID factor
The game is set in the 1990s, so COVID-19 isn’t something it references in any way. But something’s happened here. Something that has brought a town to its knees and I’m damn sure that the game’s developer, Screen Burn, kept its memories of the pandemic firmly in mind when it was building its game world.
Shops and pharmacies lay empty, shelves are stripped of all essentials. Emergency aid stations have been set up, while flyers and posters around the village describe overstretched medical staff and a lack of supplies, advising to the population to stay at home. Sound familiar?
Walking around the empty, silent town, I was struck by how similar the game world felt to my own experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the early days. I didn’t know how widespread things were, or if we were safe at all. Silent Hill: Townfall perfectly captures that sense of foreboding and taps into our lingering memories of those difficult days.
Messages like this are common in the game and are very reminiscent of similar signs from the Covid days.Konami
I vividly remember walking down Edinburgh’s famous Royal Mile on a Saturday in March 2020. There happened to be an extremely Silent Hill-like fog draped over the city and the usually bustling street was almost empty, apart from me. It was deeply unsettling to see, and I can still remember that real sense of unease as I walked down the cobblestones, each step echoing out far louder than usual.
At the time, I even texted my brother saying that it feels like “something from Silent Hill” — and having played Townfall, I think I was spot on. Walking around Townfall’s mist-shrouded St Amelia, seeing the empty streets, the closed businesses and the solitary figures in the distance felt like reliving my own memories.
In the daytime, St Monans is an idyllic place to visitAndrew Lanxon/CNET
Sure, most people playing the game probably haven’t been to St Monans in real life, so you may not have that same sense of familiarity. Maybe you’ve not even been to Scotland, or the UK, or even left your hometown. So much of the game’s effect on me may well be lost on you. But for me, that’s always the joy of playing some games or watching certain movies — settings, storylines or characters will resonate with us differently depending on our own backgrounds and experiences.
For me, Silent Hill: Townfall hit hard, not just because of its Scottish setting but because of its ability to conjure up real memories from a dark time that we all lived through. That one-two punch meant I connected with this game on a much deeper level than I anticipated and resulted in my enjoying Townfall more than any other Silent Hill game I’ve played. It’s rare to have horror set in your own backyard — especially when it directly evokes memories of your own home being warped by haunting calamity.
Andrew Lanxon
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