#31Days: Silent Hill: Townfall (Game, 2026)

content warning: blood, gore, medical/surgical footage

Silent Hill is one of those tentpole series in the horror genre. While never quite reaching the same height of popularity as contemporary horror series Resident Evil in America, Silent Hill has pretty consistently taken big swings at psychological horror since the original Playstation title in 1999.

The eponymous Silent Hill straddles the line between a normal but empty world and an Otherworld unlike anything imagined before. Originally confined to the town of Silent Hill in the games, this nightmare dimension features creatures seemingly plucked from the protagonist's worst nightmares. The world shifts between navigating the seemingly abandoned town and the Otherworld riddled with monsters until what was lost to memory is found. Newer titles in the series expand Silent Hill beyond just one town to seemingly anywhere in the world.

Enter Silent Hill: Townfall. Simon wakes up in a remote Scottish town. He has no memories of how he got there or why he would be there at all. Strange monsters are the only other beings left in the town. A portable TV allows him to access recordings about what is happening and track the monsters in real time. His only real contact is a man named Richard, who reaches out to him through recordings and phone calls.

In another time, Zoe works as a nurse in a more normal version of the town. She knows who Simon is and tries to help him remember while she witnesses the town and hospital populate with monsters instead of patients. She completes her rounds while trying to help Simon cope with the strange medical procedure that left him with a permanent line attached to his arm.

Silent Hill: Townfall is a narratively complex horror/puzzle/adventure game hellbent on making you question everything you learn or discover. Once you think you know what's happening, a new clue emerges that changes everything you know. What you learn is reliable until it's not. Even completing the game doesn't necessarily answer all the questions when the game has multiple endings dependent on your choices. We are well and truly past the days of "actually this one character was dead the whole time" in early Silent Hill games and films.

Townfall is built on a stealth concept with the portable TV. Learning how it works and how to anticipate enemy paths is genuinely fun. It's probably one of my favorite gameplay conceits in the series in quite a while. The combat system is surprisingly robust, though the limited ammo and wear on found weapons make combat a choice rather than a necessity. You can stealth your way through most of the game, which is how I like it in horror.

Silent Hill: Townfall holds a deeply woven narrative earned through challenging puzzles. You will have to backtrack, reassess, and try again. The puzzles feel earned, not just a tool to slow down the pace, and they force you to confront smaller details of the lore. The world doesn't exactly open up, but you can at least start to piece together what's really going on with Simon, Zoe, and Richard.

Silent Hill: Townfall is available on PC and Playstation 5.

#31Days is an annual tradition around here, even if the results aren't always published. For decades now, I've watched and reviewed a different horror film every day in the month of October. 2026 sees the return of the reviews to Sketching Details in real time.