Silent Hill has been in a renaissance over the past few years thanks to Konami finding some great developers to reinvigorate the franchise with titles like Silent Hill 2 Remake from Blooper Team and Silent Hill f from NeoBards. Now, for the third year in a row, Konami seems to have made the right partnerships for a new title by partnering with Annapurna Interactive and developer Screen Burn Interactive for Silent Hill: Townfall. While we didn’t get to play it ourselves, at Summer Games Fest, we got to see a demo of the game, and what the developers are doing with this game feels like it completes the trinity of bringing the franchise back completely.
The demo we saw was roughly twenty minutes and took place during an early chapter of the game after protagonist Simon Ordell has entered the mysterious town of St. Amelia. Simon investigates a small area of the town searching for clues as to how he wound up here and find a woman named Zoe who calls out to him in the town. We saw a brief glimpse of the map of the town and it looks pretty big and Simon does mark important locations on the map so you know what is important.
Simon is equipped with a CRTV that is used in placed of the franchise’s mainstay of radio static to express danger. The CRTV can be used to detect signals throughout the town that made lead to a collectible log, story progression on where you need to go, as well as detect enemies. The CRTV is so useful that it can even let Simon see enemies within the dense fog and through walls. When it comes to enemies encounters, we saw Simon use the always trustworthy plank in combat, but the main way is to avoid enemies using the Peek mechanic. The developers said this game isn’t about stealth, but about evasion. Simon can use the Peek mechanic to peek around corners and make himself less noticeable to see if it is safe and there aren’t any enemies around before progressing.
The most impressive thing about Silent Hill: Townfall wasn’t the scariness nor the unknown, but the way the developers made the game look. The game looks visually stunning, and the developers said they want to make the game feel more grounded and authentic than anything else. From the first person perspective to keep environments like houses feeling as they should to the weird electric card power boxes that old Scottish homes had back in the day. They even didn’t want a chatty protagonist so Simon’s inner thoughts are displayed on screen instead. Plus, they want to have far more grounded puzzles than the series is known for.
Overall, Silent Hill: Townfall is shaping up to be another home run for the franchise. Eager fans won’t have to wait long as Silent Hill: Townfall is set to release on September 24, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and PC.