Silent Hill Townfall is a Captivating and Unsettling Look at Capitalism and the Rural Towns it Infests

Screen Burn has always made incredible adventure games with aspects of survival horror. They understand suspense, tension, and the building blocks of the genre so well that when I heard they were making a Silent Hill game, I was thrilled. It felt like a marriage made in heaven, and after playing through Silent Hill Townfall, that marriage was indeed perfect.

Screen Burn’s latest is a captivating and invigorating shot in the arm for survival horror and adventure games. But, most importantly, it tells a meaningful and timely story about capitalism’s relationship with small rural areas and secluded towns, particularly in the UK.

A Town, Made Silent

I came into Silent Hill Townfall as a fan of Screen Burn’s games, but having never played anything from the series previously. However, Townfall sticks closely to the core themes of the series, despite radical shifts in setting and genre. You play as Simon Ordell, a man who washes up on the shore of the fictional Scottish port town of St. Amelia. With an IV drip in your hand and no memories, you explore the town, try to figure out why you came back here, and discover just what led St. Amelia to the state it is in today.

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The world-building and atmosphere in Silent Hill Townfall are top-tier.

That state is a town stopped in time, silent, if you will. Banners hang from balconies, stalls from a market are still up, and signs suggest that everyone has had to cancel plans, close stores, and drop plans suddenly. The atmosphere built here is impeccable. St. Amelia is deeply haunting and mysterious, and as someone who lives in the UK, it is incredible to see just how accurately St. Amelia portrays rural towns in the country.

The cobblestone roads, the variety of house shapes, sizes, and wall colors, even small things like speed limit signs and grit boxes on the corners of the road. The level of detail and world-building here is some of the best I have seen this decade from the adventure genre, and St. Amelia felt like a real Scottish town.

Even more impressive, Silent Hill Townfall tells a decisively Scottish story. It’s a story about the relationship between capitalism, large mega corporations, and the leaders of those businesses and the small rural towns and communities they develop on or near across Scotland and the UK.

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Alongside the Scottish town of St. Amelia, there are some surprises.

It’s a narrative that feels ripped right out of the headlines in newspapers today and truthfully reflects many ongoing controversies and developments in the UK and Scotland currently. I adored the storytelling here and the focus on the capability humans have for cruelty. Screen Burn constantly drops breadcrumbs that hooked me and made me want to keep playing to discover more about the town, just what happened, and the role Simon played in all of it.

All three lead performances from Jovan Odepo (Simon), Kezia Burrows (Zoe), and Terry O’Quinn (Richard) are incredible and should be considered some of the best performances of the year. They all sell the desperation, terror, heart, and humanity that is woven throughout Townfall’s dozen-or-so-hour story.

Discovery Tour

Less focused on action than ever, Silent Hill is a survival, psychological experience at heart, focused on exploration and discovery. The entire game is built around finding clues, codes, and solutions to puzzles you come across as you explore. These might be simple things like turning the power on, or more complex puzzles, such as one that involves filtering blood from several people into one person on a giant wheel, then combining them where they can be used for each individual person. Puzzles are consistently delightful, constantly surprising and engaging, while rarely ever getting frustrating, annoying, or obtuse. There is one moment in the late game where a puzzle becomes a tad unintuitive, but it isn’t too egregious.

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Puzzles are at the heart of Silent Hill Townfall and are consistently engaging.

At the same time as you complete these puzzles, environmental tasks, and find clues, you are learning more about the town, the mystery of it, and the core main characters at the heart of the story. With a 12-13 hour runtime, the mystery never overstayed its welcome, and new challenges, new discoveries, and new revelations were handed out at a consistent enough pace that Silent Hill Townfall constantly felt fascinating.

Much of this is done through the CRTV, a small portable television that Simon receives signals from, showing key locations, hints towards puzzles, or messages from other people. It’s a novel way to deliver Townfall’s story in the moment and one that allows the narrative core of the game to meld with gameplay.

Combat works much the same way as the rest of the game. Fighting is rarely ever the best idea, and you are much better off sneaking around enemies, avoiding them, or distracting them. In fact, the game actively encourages this, as resources are scarce and you can hide, lean, crouch, and view enemies from behind cover. You can also view them through the CRTV, flicking between signals and messages with clues to track their location and learn their positioning.

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Combat is less about action, and more about strategically choosing when and where to engage and when to slip by unnoticed.

Much like the story delivery, the use of the CRTV here allows stealth and sneaking around to feel fresh and exciting for the genre. But if combat ever breaks out, both weapons in the game, as well as melee combat, feel great and punchy. Things are changed enough that I never got bored, and there is even an entire section of the game that is initially terrifying but becomes more like a modern Resident Evil game, with a focus on combat once you become familiar with your environment.

Off The Charts

All of this is propped up by spotless presentation. The level of fidelity, atmosphere, environmental storytelling, and sound design baked into Townfall is incredible. Entire areas of the game are made by just the visual effects and sound design. There don’t have to be enemies on screen or near you for the game to feel deeply haunting. St. Amelia, the ominous messages through the CRTV, and the sounds you hear in the distance do a lot of the heavy lifting.

Similarly, the score is incredible, particularly the main theme, which sets the tone from the very opening cutscene of the game. It is always unsettling to hear the clash of piano notes and the haunting ambient music that plays as you enter a new area.

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Environmental design, lighting, environmental storytelling, and sound design all combine excellently.

Every part of Silent Hill Townfall feels cohesive and meshes together unbelievably well to create a mesmerizing journey through St. Amelia.

On top of the base game, there is an entire New Game Plus experience built into Townfall that is significant. It expands the story, offers new secrets to find, unlocks new weapons, and offers entirely new endings. You can easily get a couple of playthroughs out of Silent Hill Townfall before you have seen everything it has to offer.

In the end, Silent Hill Townfall is an incredible psychological horror adventure game. It’s the best this genre gets without completely reinventing it. Its gameplay consistently remains fresh, and the focus on puzzles, discovery, and creative stealth through the CRTV make for a constantly exciting and engaging experience.

Silent Hill Townfall is not only Screen Burn’s best game, but one of the best games of 2026.