“Silent Hill: Townfall” Gameplay Reveal Trailer is Disappointing

As the release of the Silent Hill: Townfall video game draws near, a gameplay reveal trailer debuted online to entice fans to place their pre-orders. Having watched the around 18-minute-long promotional video, I have to say that I was left a bit disappointed.

Keeping a long-running franchise, especially a horror-genre one, isn’t easy. The first Silent Hill video game debuted all the way back in 1999 and gave horror video game fans something different to experience compared to the Resident Evil franchise by delving deeper into the human psyche. It took a long break after the polarizing Silent Hill: Book of Memories in 2012, with the following decade being filled with numerous rumors about the franchise’s return. Fans were anxiously awaiting a new offering, but apparantly developing another game for the IP was proving to be easier said than done.

Fortunately, fans got a well-received Silent Hill 2 remake in 2024, followed by another well-received Silent Hill: f in 2025, which added quite a lot to the Silent Hill lore. And now, we have Silent Hill: Townfall looking at a September 24, 2026, release. However, in contrast to the mainline Silent Hill games, SH: Townfall will be a first-person survival horror installment. I mean, the news about the upcoming title featuring a first-person POV already put a damper on my excitement. But I decided to keep an open mind and watch the gameplay footage.

Having watched it, well, I have thoughts.

But first, go ahead and view the trailer for yourself (if you haven’t already). So you can have context behind my opinions.

Set back in 1996 in the fictional Scottish town of St. Amelia, our protagonist is a man named Simon Ordell. The gameplay trailer opened with Simon swimming to the docks of St. Amelia. A voiceover of a man talked about how he wanted Simon to return to town to “put some things to rest.” From there, we got to see Simon making his way to Zoe’s house.

The environment encompassing St. Amelia, understandably, harkened back to how towns usually were in the Silent Hill IP. From the visuals, you can tell something was up and that a weird-looking monster would make an appearance soon. A major part of the gameplay mechanic was Simon using a CRTV handheld device to receive messages, directions, and even keep an eye on potential threats. I really liked how the device’s screen showed nearby creatures moving around or even standing still while you had Simon stealthily make his way through town. The handheld device was very useful when trying to figure out what’s behind a closed door and recognizing what might be lurking behind a corner as you traversed through the thick red fog.

The weapons, according to the gameplay trailer, included a wooden plank and a gun. Simon could also use glass bottles to seemingly stagger enemies or produce some noise to distract the creatures away from him.

It’s got the ingredients to be an interesting entry in the Silent Hill IP. However, something felt off as I watched the gameplay trailer. One of the major gripes for me was the combat. We got a scene where Simon attacked and defended against a creature with a wooden plank. However, the impact of the hits and the creature’s movement came across as quite janky and not really up to the mark for a Silent Hill game in 2026.

Also, while intriguing, I found myself getting tired of the CRTV handheld device gameplay mechanic from the trailer alone. And that only lasted for around 18 minutes. I can’t imagine how I would feel playing an entire game where Simon using such a device was crucial to advancing through the game. That’s why I hope there’s more to the handheld device than what’s been shown in the trailer.

At this point, I’m not sure if I’ll be checking out Silent Hill: Townfall. It just felt unfinished to me, especially the janky combat mechanic. However, developer Screen Burn Interactive might polish it up before release. Let’s see.

Silent Hill: Townfall will be released on the PlayStation 5 and Windows/PC on September 24, 2026. And of course, I can’t talk about a Sony PlayStation video game without mentioning the continuing movement from numerous gamers concerning Sony’s decision to stop physical disk releases for new PlayStation games in January 2028.

The comment section for the Silent Hill: Townfall gameplay trailer is full of people mentioning their annoyance at Sony’s decision against physical media, which is quite important for not only “ownership” but also media preservation, compared to digital-only video games.

But yeah, that’s a whole other conversation.

Anyway, what did you think of the Silent Hill: Townfall gameplay trailer? Are you excited to play the game?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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