Silent Hill: Townfall is one of my most anticipated games of 2026. I came upon the series for the first time having loved the Silent Hill 2 remake and really enjoying what I played of Silent Hill F. However, Townfall was of particular interest to me because of its setting.
Heading off to the misty seaside town of St. Amelia, Townfall is set in Scotland in the mid-90s. As a Scotsman born in the mid-90s, sure, there may be a bit of bias towards this setting – it’s certainly what amped up my enjoyment of Scottish horror Still Wakes the Deep.
However, it’s not just the Scottish connection that excited me when I was invited to play around 90 minutes of the game on PS5 at Gamescom. It’s what Glasgow-based developer Screen Burn is doing with that setting.
Unlike previous Silent Hill entries, Townfall has gone to great lengths to capture the essence and iconography of late 90s Scotland; St. Amelia feels like a place ripped straight from my memory. In fact, unbeknownst to me at the time, I was actually on holiday last year just one town over from the real-life inspiration of St. Amelia — a fishing village called St. Monan in East Fife.
I was hit with a shockwave of nostalgia as I explored this version of these streets, encountering things like the plastic dogs that act as charity collection points stationed outside of corner shops, or the obvious reference to the BT phone boxes that were scattered all around Britain just two decades ago. Screen Burn has managed to craft up a horror time capsule that I can't wait to rifle through.
And it’s not just superficial either. There’s a section of the game where I need to turn on the power to access a code on someone’s personal computer. But to do that, I need to put credit on the electric card, or "leccy" card as we call it here in Scotland.
I was struck with a memory of staying at my uncle’s as a kid, watching a horror movie with my cousins when the leccy card ran out, and we were plunged into darkness. We even headed over to a shop similar to the one in Townfall to top up our credit the next morning.
Those niche references to Scottish culture that I’m sure I couldn’t even specifically refer to without reminders are what help create this really authentic vibe to Townfall’s setting. It felt so tangibly real, like a little seaside town that I’ve passed through a million times.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pushsquare.com/previews/silent-hill-townfall-is-a-ps5-horror-time-capsule-i-cant-wait-to-play-more-of
