Silent Hill: Townfall's best-in-class atmosphere makes it an easy GOTY contender

Silent Hill: Townfall is the next entry in Konami’s legendary horror franchise, and by no means of exaggeration it could be the best.

After playing an hour and a half, my expectations for the full release are set absurdly high, propelled into the stratosphere by its expert use of set-dressing.

Simon Ordell, like so many other Silent Hill protagonists, finds himself in a town where all is not as it seems, a town I’m still seeing in my restless dreams…

Silent Hill: Townfall’s shifted perspective and muggy setting click together like a puzzle pieces

During my hands-on session I spent a lot of time wandering the streets of St. Amelia in the wind and rain.

I also got acquainted with some of its citizens, but not by actually meeting them. Instead Simon must follow echoes from the past in order to figure out what happened to the island’s population, and if it can truly be saved.

When I first saw gameplay for Silent Hill: Townfall at Summer Game Fest 2026 I said it looked as if it’ll capitalise on all the lost potential of P.T. I think I was right in that assessment.

While there was no pale lady glued to my back for the duration of the demo (at least not that I knew of) Townfall still had all the makings of a ghost story.

Even going toe-to-toe with some of the game’s grotesque monsters felt inconsequential to the wider mystery. Simon’s armed with a portable television that can home in on supernatural signals, so while there were no phantoms or specters screaming in my face I still felt the fear of wandering into someone’s abandoned home.

The shift to first-person does a lot of the heavy lifting here, as even something as simple as opening a door or rummaging through a cabinet felt more tense than it would from an over-the-shoulder perspective. An Alien Isolation-style peek system adds tension to every corner too.

However, the work that’s gone into St Amelia is where the bulk of Townfall’s horror seems to be radiating from. A note stapled to the front of the police station saying there’s nothing they could do, medical records listing casualties, and placards demanding justice in the town square paint a dark picture of the torment these people endured; torment Simon is currently on the other side of…for now.

I think it’s the level of realism that made the game’s atmosphere strike a chord with me. As a Brit the architecture of the buildings felt like home, and while I chuckled at first upon seeing an electric meter my smile faded when I thought about how long this house had sat in darkness.

After the success of Silent Hill f last year I knew the series was back on form, but based on what I played at Gamescom this year, Silent Hill: Townfall feels like a kick into the next gear.

Fortunately we’ve not got long to wait until the full release. It’s out on September 24 2026 for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.

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