Silent Hill: Townfall Review — Metacritic 81 and the Series' Move to Scotland

The Short Version

Konami's survival-horror franchise has a new entry: SILENT HILL: Townfall launched September 24, 2026 on PS5 and PC (Steam). The developer is Scottish studio Screen Burn Interactive — the new name for No Code, the team behind Stories Untold and Observation. Konami Digital Entertainment and Annapurna Interactive co-publish.

The setting leaves America behind. A fictional Scottish coastal town called St. Amelia in 1996, the series' first fully first-person perspective, and a handheld CRT device that pings nearby enemies define the whole experience.

The aggregate landed at 81 on Metacritic for both PS5 and PC, with an OpenCritic Top Critic Average of 81 and an 86% recommendation rate. Steam user reviews, however, sit at just 71% positive — the widest critic-to-user gap of the current Silent Hill revival.

Sources: Metacritic · OpenCritic · Steam store

At a Glance

The Studio — From No Code to Screen Burn

Townfall's roots reach back to 2022. Series producer Motoi Okamoto played No Code's earlier titles Stories Untold and Observation, and that confidence led him to hand the roughly 30-person independent studio a Silent Hill project.

In July 2025, No Code rebranded as Screen Burn Interactive — a nod to "the ghost of an image burned into an old CRT screen," tying directly into Townfall's central gadget. Jon McKellan directs and writes; Pilotpriest composes.

Setting: 1996, St. Amelia, Scotland

Protagonist Simon Ordell keeps waking up in the water by the docks of St. Amelia, a fictional Scottish coastal town, in 1996. Unable to explain why he's there, he pieces together the town's past to understand his connection to it.

St. Amelia is modeled on the real village of St Monans in Fife. Director Jon McKellan picked 1996 because it sat "on the cusp of when technology started to explode in the home." After Silent Hill f's 1960s Japan, this is the second Silent Hill set outside the United States, and the damp, cramped British seaside becomes the bedrock of its dread.

Gameplay — First Person and a CRT Detector

Townfall is the first game in the series to commit fully to a first-person perspective. It follows naturally from Screen Burn's earlier first-person work, and it is demanded by the game's signature tool: a handheld CRT device that detects nearby enemies. Rendering that in third person, the team argued, would break the series' intimate sense of horror.

Combat runs on two rails — swing melee weapons like planks and pipes, or slip past enemies with stealth. The narrative is a five-ending, "wide linear" structure: rather than stark binary choices, subtle actions accumulate toward an outcome, and two endings unlock only in New Game Plus.

Review Scores

Across roughly 70 critic reviews, zero were negative — 79% positive and 21% mixed. Critics consistently praised the dank Scottish atmosphere, the puzzles, and the storytelling. Combat and stealth were the common weak points.

Critics Warmed Up, Steam Users Cooled Off

The loudest debate around Townfall is the critic-versus-user split. Against a Metacritic 81, Steam user reviews land at 71% positive. Players return to three complaints:

• ▶Repetitive stealth: The stealth sections read as "repetitive and underdeveloped." One heavily upvoted review argued that "Konami is selling another indie horror under a famous brand."
• ▶Price: The $49.99 standard edition is a recurring sticking point, with users calling it steep next to the far larger Silent Hill 2 Remake.
• ▶Optimization: Performance complaints compound the frustration.

Even so, critics called it "the first Silent Hill where the UK genuinely feels like home," celebrating the atmosphere. Both camps flag combat and stealth as weak — they just weigh those flaws differently.

For Korean Players

Townfall supports Korean subtitles. As is tradition for the series there's no dub, but Korean is on the Steam language list, so text and UI access is covered.

Checkpoints for players in Korea:

• ▶Price: $49.99 standard in North America; the Korean Steam price shows in won automatically on visit. Given the value debate, weigh it against expected playtime.
• ▶Optimization: Early PC performance has drawn criticism — if you're not in a hurry, waiting for the first patches is reasonable.
• ▶Entry point: It's a standalone story; no knowledge of Silent Hill f or older entries is required. Fans of Stories Untold and Observation will recognize Screen Burn's psychological-horror fingerprints.

Official Trailer

SILENT HILL: Townfall — Launch Trailer (official, Konami)

The GamePeak Verdict

Townfall is less a flagship built on the Silent Hill name than a mid-size psychological horror focused on mood and story. Screen Burn's intimate first-person craft and its Scottish setting land cleanly, but the density of the combat and stealth — and that $49.99 tag — are what divided the reception. Lower the brand expectations, approach it as "the new game from No Code," and the satisfaction climbs.

Sources: Metacritic · OpenCritic · Steam store · Wikipedia