- Tested on PC using a copy purchased on Steam.
- Test configuration: RTX 4090 + AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D + 64 GB RAM = 60 FPS constant in 4K with DLSS Quality and all in Ultra including scratch tracing.
- Game finished in 15h50 min (17h according to Steam). There are 5 different purposes including the traditional end Dog and UFO.
- Spending 12 long years without Silent Hill one episode a year: I would like to know how Konami ended up realizing that they were sitting on a gold mine.
After Silent Hill F In spite of the unspeakable fighting, Konami's franchise is already making its return with Silent Hill: Townfall. When I didn't expect anything, I finally came out of the last British work by Screen Burn, a studio behind the excellent Stories Untold and Observation.
Siffler on the hill
If there is one thing I will remember from this game, it is its analog interfaces, the creative talents of Screen Burn have always been masters in this field. In Silent Hill: TownfallFear spreads almost as much through machines as through fog. Whether it's Simon's radio, a real nod to the motion detector Alien: Isolation in addition to being emblematic of the series, or PCs yellowed by the time that fall to the ignition in the silent houses of St. Amelia, all of these computer equipment (and now!) help to create discomfort. We viscerally feel the influence of Jon McKellan on these original and sometimes absconsic user interfaces. He was also already responsible for the IU on Alien: Isolation, and that is no doubt in hand.
The deaf anxiety of the title, however, cannot be limited to these deliciously obtuse interfaces, sources of variablely arduous puzzles and all more enjoyable one than the other. The story also captivated from end to end, with cleverly distilled symbols and clues to maintain doubt about the cause of trauma of each of the characters, until the last few minutes of the plot.
Oil blue
Transposition to the first person means reinforced immersion. Special mention to the malady care that has been brought to the environments. There is always an element of the decor to observe or a poster to read in Silent: Hill Townfall. Even the documents collected were carefully considered in their presentation, to the point that I did not at any time activate the transcript to consult them.
Let it be in the dimension « clear » or elsewhere, you never feel like you're going back to the same place. As frozen in perpetuum in the blue hour, the depopulated working quarters of the island were cold in the back and recalled the passage of Exorcist who sees Father Merrin arrive at MacNeil's house in fog tablecloths where some shy streetlights pierce. As for the rusty and bloody corridors of the Elsewhere, their reddish illuminations sometimes evoked a theatrical setting on the background of volcanic eruption, sometimes Suspiria Dario Argento.
Beautiful on the graphic plane in addition to arborating a high-flying artistic direction, the game pays the luxury of offering a level design excellent invoice for a survival horror. We get lost regularly in St. Amelia and often wander around like a soul in pain. The atmosphere and the sound design are to be cut with a knife, so that these peregrinations never prove frustrating and that we take a fun to study his card, just clear enough not to make us run in circles unnecessarily for too long, and just blurred enough to sow doubt and harm our sense of orientation. A success.
Get out of the darkness
As for the extremely classic but effective gameplay, he often evoked to a lesser extent the brutality of worship Condemned. That's what I said to myself after smashing a putrid creature with pipes in the toilet of an old building. I repeated it to myself during an absolutely terrifying long scene that sees one of the protagonists surveying empty offices (they really are?), in the most complete darkness and double gun hunting rifle in play. Probably the most stressful chapter of the whole game, with two fingers to inspire opening spaces. Don't worry, we obviously spend the clearest of his time hiding behind walls in Silent Hill: Townfall.
Certainly the original trilogy and possibly Silent Hill 4: The Room still stand in the firmament of the best episodes of the series, but Silent Hill: Townfall, by its methodically cryptic unfolding, its implacable outcome and its conjugation from personal shock to collective trauma, rises in my eyes high in the genre of the survival horror.
It makes you want to do it!
I really loved this episode.
On Steam the evaluations are more mixed (68% positive opinions at the time of writing these lines), the fault mainly to worries of stuttering at launch. Personally I did not encounter any problems and the game was patched yesterday to better compile the shaders. So it should be solved for the smaller configs.
Also some have been traumatized by an enemy who can you one shot a few times during infiltration sequences. The devs planned better to balance it even though, again, on my side, he did not pose any worries or frustrated. You just have to be patient and his rounds are pretty obvious. In addition, a care object offers a second chance. Just save them for this enemy. Moreover, even if it is necessary to save manually, the game regularly offers checkpoints. Anyway, I was surprised to see people drop the game just for that. Tastes and colors!
Between the very good remake of Silent Hill 2 (even if I prefer the original), the upsetting Silent Hill F (despite his invading and repetitive fighting) and this one (the best of the three in my mind), I feel spoiled.
Another nightmare I'm about to sink into. Over the past few months, the fog of Silent Hill Don't cease to thicken... For my pleasure.
I hope you like it. 🙂
There's no reason. 😉