Silent Hill: Townfall (PS5) Review: Not Your Father’s Silent Hill

Silent Hill f proved to the fanbase that the franchise doesn’t want to stay too intently to its roots with a view to thrive, and Konami clearly has no intention of letting that ahead momentum fizzle out. With Silent Hill: Townfall, they’ve handed over the reins to developer Screen Burn Interactive, giving the Scottish-based studio an opportunity to flex its muscle tissues and craft an expertise that concurrently feels extremely genuine to the model, but additionally wholly distinctive.

Townfall kicks off with American Simon Ordell arriving on the docks of St. Amelia, a seaside Scottish city that’s seemingly been deserted, with a heavy layer of fog taking the place of its previous inhabitants. As is typical for a Silent Hill sport, there’s a number of thriller baked into Townfall’s intro. It’s not fairly clear why (or how) Ordell has made his method to Scotland, apart from him being summoned with a view to “put things right.”

Aside from the noticeable lack of townfolk, it doesn’t take lengthy to determine that one thing has gone horribly fallacious in St. Amelia. Posters and indicators strewn across the city sq. trace at protests and backlash towards the Chapman Energy Group, which appears to have a considerable foothold within the area, and there are hints that the town’s healthcare employees have been pushed to their absolute restrict by a latest tragedy.

Initially, there’s not quite a bit to go off of, however Townfall does a stellar job at drip-feeding gamers simply sufficient hints as to how St. Amelia took a flip for the more serious. Rather than counting on an abundance of cutscenes and exposition dumps, the sport encourages exploration proper from the get-go. In reality, through the opening hours, it’s laborious to take a number of steps with out stumbling throughout a handwritten word, an e mail, regulatory notices, or info shows that assist to color an image of the occasions that unfolded earlier than Simon’s arrival.

I can’t overstate simply how a lot love and a spotlight have been poured into St. Amelia’s design and format. Traditionally, video video games have all the time been hit-or-miss on the subject of how they mannequin and mirror the streets and buildings from our on a regular basis life, however within the case of Townfall, the neat rows of compact flats, abundance of alleys and aspect streets, and mixed-use zoning completely seize the appear and feel of a seaside Scottish city.

Making your method via St. Amelia is an intimate expertise, and a part of that comes all the way down to Townfall’s use of a first-person perspective. Sure, some older Silent Hill video games have dipped their toes within the water on the subject of making use of first-person cameras, however Townfall dives in headfirst, and its mechanics are intently entwined with this newfound path.

Like different Silent Hill protagonists, Simon is in no way a killing machine, and should depend on one thing apart from brute power and uncooked power. This is the place the CRTV, a handheld TV that additionally doubles as a radio, comes into play. By tuning into totally different frequencies, the CRTV will show fuzzy, albeit completely serviceable, video that can be utilized to make progress and keep away from hazard.

When it involves threats, the CRTV will play a small audio cue when an enemy is within the space, and by tuning into the proper frequency, Simon will be capable to get a way of the place an enemy is, even when he doesn’t have it squarely in his line of sight. Each enemy has its personal matching frequency, which means you’ll must tune into every one and ping-pong backwards and forwards between frequencies if you wish to keep away from hazard.

It makes for an extremely tense expertise, and Screen Burn manages to extract a ton of gameplay out of this one easy mechanic. Aside from getting the lay of the land and determining (roughly) the place enemies are patrolling, you need to use the CRTV to trace particular person foes for prolonged durations of time, getting a way of their actions so you’ll be able to extra simply keep away from them. In a number of situations, I used to be even in a position to decide if there have been small paths or unlocked doorways within the distance, solely primarily based on monitoring an enemy’s actions. Outside of fight, additionally, you will be prompted to tune into particular frequencies to make clear the place you must head subsequent, and a few video indicators will really present clues on the best way to clear up environmental puzzles.

It goes with out saying that the CRTV finally ends up being a useful software in Simon’s arsenal, however Townfall additionally expertly paces its 15-hour marketing campaign, slowly doling out new mechanics and challenges to maintain that ever-present feeling of rigidity from fading away. For occasion, as soon as Simon will get ahold of the CRTV, enemies grow to be way more widespread in quantity, requiring you to rigorously maintain observe of areas and patrol paths on the fly. To steadiness this out, you’re given entry to melee weapons, although these aren’t the silver bullet you could be hoping for. A wood plank and metallic pipe work properly as a melee weapon given the circumstances, however they’re vulnerable to breaking after touchdown (or blocking) too many hits, so that you’ll want to choose and select when to combat, and when to run and conceal.

In the sport’s second chapter, you’ll briefly go away behind Simon and as a substitute play as Zoe, one of many overburdened and overworked healthcare employees employed by St. Amelia’s native clinic and hospital. Zoe, not like Simon, can’t use melee weapons, not to mention the CRTV, however her playable part additionally introduces throwable bottles and rocks, which can be utilized to distract and lure enemies away out of your place. While her trusty pager does function a stripped-down method of monitoring close by enemies, she (and later, Simon) can even must deal with monstrous enemies that may assault from afar.

Once you turn again to Simon, your arsenal of weapons will broaden to incorporate a revolver, however with that comes restricted ammo, the chance that you simply’ll alert close by enemies to your location, and later down the road, an invincible monstrosity with a one-hit-kill assault that must be prevented.

Townfall is constructed round this tug-of-war of pairing new mechanics and weapons with limitations and stronger enemies, and this sample continues all the best way as much as the sport’s ultimate chapters. It makes for a pleasant back-and-forth on an emotional stage. You may revel within the second the place you acquire entry to a robust, double-barreled shotgun, solely to understand that you simply’ve additionally stumbled throughout a wholly new sort of otherworldly monster who can flank and ambush you in a second’s discover.

If there’s one space the place Townfall struggles, it’s with a few of its stage layouts and puzzles. To be clear, most of its mind teasers are gratifying sufficient on their very own, and by default, the sport will spotlight key phrases, numbers, and different vital tidbits of information that you must take note of as you come throughout new paperwork and clues within the surroundings. That being mentioned, there are a few puzzles in the direction of the finale which might be a bit too ambiguous for consolation, and I wouldn’t be shocked if various gamers find yourself consulting a information to work via these moments.

Similarly, whereas a lot of the sport’s locales do a terrific job of doling out shortcuts and interconnected routes to make backtracking much less of a trouble, a number of sections (particularly within the Alternate world, Townfall’s tackle the franchise’s recurring “Otherworld”) are purposefully labyrinthine of their format. Coupled with the extremely dim (and nearly pitch-black) lighting and lack of visible landmarks, I think about some gamers will get misplaced a number of too many occasions in the direction of the tip.

Silent Hill: Townfall (PS5) Review: Final Verdict

The different day, a buddy requested me how Townfall stacks up towards a few of his favourite Silent Hill video games from the PS2-era. Admittedly, I wasn’t actually certain the best way to reply. To be truthful, a part of that comes all the way down to the easy proven fact that I’ve solely performed a few Silent Hill video games up to now. But I feel the precise cause I had a tricky time answering that query is that, in some ways, Townfall doesn’t adhere too intently to the muse that Konami solid over twenty years in the past.

Sure, Screen Burn Interactive has nailed the appear and feel, the ambiance, the fixed dread and rigidity — the Silent Hill “vibes,” if you’ll. But on the subject of the moment-to-moment gameplay, Townfall confidently forges its personal path and has extra in frequent with the likes of Alien: Isolation or Resident Evil Requiem’s Grace Ashcroft sections than it does with Silent Hill 2 or 3. Silent Hill: Townfall provides up some of the tense and compelling survival horror experiences lately, so long as you’re prepared to fulfill it by itself phrases.