We had rather forgotten about it, but Silent Hill Townfall is out in just over a month. Konami and studio Screen Burn have therefore decided it was time to generate a bit of buzz around their game, and have just released a long gameplay sequence of around 18 minutes, enough to understand how the mechanics are going to work.
Welcome to St. Amelia
This time, we head for 1990s Scotland, a long way from the series’ usual setting in the United States and, more recently, Japan. Players take on the role of Simon Ordell, who explores the island town of St. Amelia, shrouded in permanent fog and visibly far from uninhabited. For Silent Hill Townfall, the developers have gone with a first-person view, a first for the series, no doubt taking a cue from what Capcom did with Resident Evil 7 and 8. But its real centrepiece is a small portable analogue television set, dubbed the CRTV. The device isn’t just there to follow the story: its disrupted signals can reveal clues, guide Simon towards certain places and, above all, detect nearby creatures, including through walls. A mechanic that should play an essential role once the first threats appear.
The video also shows exploration, the map filling in as you make discoveries, the inventory, and the system that lets you combine different objects to solve puzzles.
An approach that leans more towards running away
And it is precisely when a first monster shows up that Silent Hill Townfall reveals another side of its gameplay. Simon is no killing machine, and he doesn’t have a weapon to defend himself with straight away. He is much more the take-to-your-heels type. So you have to learn to watch the creatures’ movements with the CRTV, find the right route and slip through without being spotted. Things obviously get a lot more worrying when Simon tips over into the Otherworld, recognisable here by its vast red fog and its distinctly unwelcoming creatures. Enough to clearly reinforce the game’s survival horror side.
Silent Hill Townfall comes out on 24 September 2026 on PC and PS5, priced at €49.99.
