Silent Hill: Townfall brings the horror series to Scotland

BBC reporter Laura Cress reviews the game, which moves the series’ setting to a fictional Scottish island.

Silent Hill: Townfall takes the horror franchise, created in Japan and traditionally set in the US, to a fictional Scottish island for the first time. The game was released on Thursday and Cress played it on PlayStation 5. It ran well in her experience, though she notes reports of performance issues from other players.

Set in 1996, the story follows American Simon Ordell, who arrives on the island of St Amelia with no memory of who he is or why he is there. The developers drew on the fishing village of St Monans in Fife. Screen Burn director Jon McKellan said the team wanted the setting to feel “authentic and natural,” with references that might resonate with people who grew up in a working-class town in the 1990s.

Cress found the island’s everyday details—from telephone boxes to electricity meters—helped give it a distinct sense of place. The story explores trauma and guilt, and also considers the effects of big corporations on small communities.

Combat keeps players vulnerable: weapons such as a plank or steel pipe degrade, and ammunition is scarce. A handheld CRT device shows fuzzy images of nearby monsters, helping Simon avoid them. Cress praised the atmosphere and sound design, while noting that some enemy encounters and slower stealth sections were frustrating. The game offers three combat difficulty settings: easy, normal and nightmare.