Silent Hill Is Bringing Back One Of The Creepiest Parts Of Its Unreleased Masterpiece For Townfall

Silent Hill: Townfall is already shaping up to be a grim (and great) addition to the larger franchise. Shifting away from the typical third-person perspective of most entries in the series, Townfall follows Simon Ordell when he wakes up on a misty Scottish island and finds himself alone in the small town — outside of the horrifying creatures stumbling and stalking the streets. The atmosphere and storytelling look as creepy as ever, but Silent Hill: Townfall takes on additional unique power through the decision to put everything in first-person perspective.

It’s far from the only game in the series to do that, with P.T. famously doing so a little over a decade ago. However, this approach really helps the new game stand out from other recent entries in the series. It’s something that the franchise has always benefited from, with the stand-alone aspects encouraging fresh approaches with each new entry — even if it’s taking game design lessons from previous ones.

Silent Hill Townfall Is Taking A Crucial Cue From P.T.

Silent Hill: Townfall is a first-person take on the franchise, giving it a key connection to the design and effect of P.T., the famous demo of the unreleased Silent Hills game. Both titles utilize the first-person POV to great effect in their previews of the larger game, painting a grim picture of the kind of experience players could encounter while exploring settings in that style. While most Silent Hill games are third-person experiences that use the approach to create a sense of isolation and overwhelming danger coming from all sides, the first-person POV adds tension by putting the player directly into that space.

While it can make that sense of overwhelming danger harder to truly embody due to the sheer limits of what a player can see in a first-person perspective, it’s a very useful tool for increasing intensity in even the smallest of steps. It makes the player feel like they are the ones trapped in the situation. That’s what makes Silent Hill: Townfall‘s gameplay so creepy. There’s a real sense of terror as the player makes it through the red-lit small town, especially as creatures prove quickly capable of bringing you down if you’re not prepared for them. It’s similar to what P.T. was able to do with just a repeating hallway, turning every turn into either a dread-inducing tease or a heart-stopping jump scare.

Both games find real terror in simple actions in this format. The first-person POV can be effective at making everything around the player scarier, but other Silent Hill games have been much more defined by their atmosphere — which is somewhat lost when players can’t see the full world around them and just what’s in front of them. In terms of raw scares, though, even something as creepy as Silent Hill f has trouble matching the visceral fear players feel when they see one of the creatures rip their chest open and send tentacles flying at their face. That approach is partly what made P.T. so memorable even just as a demo for the aborted Silent Hills project.

Silent Hill Is Best When Each Entry Feels Different From The Last

Silent Hill is one of the most inventive major horror franchises in gaming, in large part thanks to a willingness to experiment with the formula with each entry. While the recent remake of Silent Hill 2 (and the upcoming one for the original game) highlight the potential of updating older titles with modern touches, the most enduring quality of the franchise has always been its ability to feel different while still retaining that emotional core. Something like Silent Hill f is thematically rich and emotionally resonant because it spends so much time flipping between worlds.

It’s a very different expeirence from the claustrophobia of Silent Hill 4: The Room or the more somber tones of Silent Hill 2. Each game feels unique, in part thanks to the way each game incorporates the narrative into the experience. The madness and combat of Silent Hill f play into the game just as much as James’ simmering rage impacts the gameplay of Silent Hill 2. Because the series largely lacks the overarching narrative of something like Resident Evil, it’s more important for each game to work as a stand-alone story and experience. That’s what makes Townfall going the first-person route all the more effective. It ensures the game doesn’t feel like anything the series has done recently while building on the experiments of the past.

If Konami is serious about making new entries for the series at an advanced rate, then it needs to remember that each entry works better because it does its own thing. Townfall isn’t just replicating P.T. or the other first-person moments in the series but using it as a foundation for its own monsters, atmosphere, and scares. Even just from the gameplay we’ve seen so far, it feels deeply connected to Silent Hill on a thematic level but with gameplay that refines what came before and blends it with unique touches to become something fresh. It’s what makes Townfall such an exciting-looking addition to the series.