Silent Hill: Town Falls – Fake Fog. review

Played on computer

“Town Has Fallen” can be said to be the end of the “first phase” of Konami’s reboot of the “Silent Hill” story announced in 2022. The story turns out to be wildly uneven: from the incoherent Ascension to a brilliant reimagining of the revered Silent Hill 2. On that spectrum, Screen Burn’s creativity lies somewhere in the middle. The game can’t be said to be hopeless, but serious problems plague the gameplay as much as guilt plagues the protagonist.

⇡#familiar themes

Simon Ordell climbed out of the water onto the dock with his life hanging on by a thread. A catheter came out of my arm. The protagonist does not understand what is happening and slowly starts to enter the city. But not the one you might be thinking of. Santa Amelia – that’s what the sign on the pier says. It is both a city and an island off the coast of Scotland. Visually though, Screen Burn tries to stick to a familiar style: a one-story town that was once truly cozy, now abandoned and hidden from the rest of the world by an eternal fog.

Capturing the visual beauty of the Townfall series

Unfortunately, it’s unclear why the author decided not to use Silent Hill itself. Silent Hillf, no matter how you look at it, did try to bring something new to the series. The idea justifies a complete change of environment, while otherworldly elements are based on Japanese folklore. Townfall’s story isn’t particularly unique and could easily take place in a typical city. Maybe she’ll just benefit from it. The style has a distinct medical theme and you will spend hours in the hospital building. We could have fun in Brookhaven or Alchemyra!

The game appears to retell the familiar outlines of Silent Hill 2 in a slightly different way. But it turns out to be even weaker than Downpour (which I personally think is underestimated). For some reason, the writers intentionally kept the player in the dark most of the time. While the characters clearly know more about these events, the information we as viewers are given is fragmentary. The narrative consists almost entirely of omissions.

In the nineties, a disaster occurred. People died, a lot of them. Simon, like several of the characters he meets, has some connection to the tragedy. The dialogue consists entirely of prompts: “They need to hear this from you,” “I have to solve this problem!” The main thing is to sound mysterious. Imagine if the player didn’t know until the very end that Harry was searching for his daughter in Silent Hill. And James – his wife. This is what a small town falling feels like.

A loyal friend for the next ten hours.

You understand the nature of the tragedy halfway through the game, but it’s not until the final hour that Simon’s character and the implications of his guilt are revealed. The same can’t be said for Nurse Zoe, who you’ll often have to deal with as you progress. However, this can be partly attributed to the style of Silent Hill. The mysterious characters from this world are a major feature of the series. The same goes for the city’s “otherworldly” landscape. Santa Amelia periodically fills with red light, and pipes and various engineered structures begin to curl. Why does this happen? That’s the way it is. Yes, and it looks stylish. Or they could move their story to another city…

⇡#Freeze for five minutes

“Town Has Fallen” shows a foggy city through the eyes of the protagonist. Like Short Message, it’s played in first-person, but offers more than just a walking simulator. While I can’t confidently say it’s for the better…what can’t be taken away from the game is the atmosphere. The first half hour is spent peacefully strolling along the quiet streets and admiring the scenery. Houses are submerged in a milky mist, a massive wall rises from them, waves crash onto a dirty shore – everything looks exquisitely detailed and, as expected, evokes melancholy.

Soon, Simon came across a pocket video receiver, around which a significant part of the game was built. By adjusting to a certain frequency, you’ll see the tips move around in the plot. Sometimes she’ll make it clear where she’s going, but other times she’ll give only vague hints. But more importantly, this gadget helps you learn about threats in advance and allows you to monitor them – in fact, it replaces the radio in the classic part of the series.

If you lock the door, enemies can’t get through. Great idea to destroy monsters…it’s a shame the game only allows you to do this once

As expected, Santa Amelia is not a deserted island—dangerous monsters roam the streets, trying to kill the protagonist. Simon’s health is not very good and he could die from a few stabs. There’s nothing to fight back at first, so you have to learn the local rules of hide and seek. They’re very simple: learn the monster’s fixed path, then seize the moment and rush past it. You can throw bottles or rocks to distract. In fact, this is what science is all about.

Simple mechanics aren’t a bad thing in and of themselves. You can build interesting scenarios around it. But it doesn’t feel like Screen Burn wants it to be fun. Some of the restrictions may seem strange. For example, you can carry a bottle and a brick at a time. Throw the bottle? Looking for a new one. You can’t take the second brick – there’s no room.

The monsters move very slowly on purpose, so sometimes you have to sit around a corner for a minute and wait for the right moment. All that’s left is to watch on the receiver’s small screen as a humanoid robot holding an ax instead of a face walks step by step to the other end of the road. You can only tune the mini-TV to one enemy at a time: This is fun at first, but the device loses its point when there’s already five enemies wandering around you – it’s easier to rely on your eyes and ears. As the game progresses and threats to the field become more numerous, this is the only change to stealth.

Sometimes you regret not stabbing your enemy in the back

Over time, Simon will figure out that he can arm himself with planks of wood or pipes, but the combat system isn’t very creative either. In fact, you can only hit and block – that’s where the possibilities in combat end. Well, at least the hits themselves feel heavy, but, alas, after two skirmishes the weapon becomes effectively unusable. Fighting here is a last resort if discovered.

Eventually, guns will fall into our hands. Of course, ammunition was in short supply. So more often than not you’ll fire off a shot or two and then kill a stunned enemy with a few hits. Unless you’re locked up by an immortal stalker. I don’t understand why many indie developers use this solution and find the instant death mechanic interesting. Yes, there are only two such episodes in Down Town, but each one will make you spit.

First of all, local Pyramid Head doesn’t follow the usual rules. He had no set routes and he could always feel Simon when he was wandering around. Without a way to distract yourself, seizing the moment and slipping away is nearly impossible. I waited five minutes for him to finally leave, but that didn’t happen. And you can’t beat him – the protagonist is a so-so runner.

At times, Town Falls produces very cinematic shots

What ultimately completes this situation is the level design, where it’s easy to hit a dead end and face instant death…or not! After all, if you had a drip of stock solution, Simon would still be on his feet after being mortally wounded. But there is a nuance: the enemy will most likely not have time to leave the room, so he will immediately turn around and completely slam the hero. Alessa, take me away from this nightmare…

⇡#a little joy

There’s a difference between a slow pace and being drawn out – unfortunately, Screen Burn doesn’t feel that. If Townfall were a shorter, more focused experience, the crude and superficial mechanics wouldn’t be as noticeable. The game definitely has an atmosphere: both in terms of visuals and overall oppressive mood.

But you’ll get stuck in the game. You are often asked to run back and forth to the same location. You might say, “It’s always been like this!” Agreed. The only difference is that in the classic version you can usually get rid of most of the monsters and then get deeper into the story and think about the puzzles. Town Fall, on the other hand, has you going around the same locations looking for keys and doors, with new keys for new doors at the back. And you have to move slowly and wait a few minutes to find the perfect moment.

There are some questions that you have to rack your brains for.

I just want to praise these riddles, there are no “buts”. There’s been a heavy focus on puzzles in the studio’s past works, and the writers have succeeded. Solving code, connecting pipes, switching sequences – you’re going to have to scratch your head, but in moderation. It’s complex enough that you can enjoy the solution after just a few minutes of thought and experimentation. It’s just that the mystery room at the end might seem too complicated.

** **

Silent Hill: Town Falls doesn’t claim to be the new “big” game in the series. Unfortunately, regardless of the title, it ends up being just a beautifully packaged horror movie. I believe Bloober Team can repeat its success with the upcoming remake of the first part. Otherwise, Silent Hill risks sinking back into obscurity for the next decade.

advantage:

• The atmospheric and recognizable “Fog Town” visual style;
• interesting riddles;
• Nice shot.

defect:

• “Hide and seek” was so tired that he yawned;
• You often need to go back and wander far, far away.

Rating: 6.5/10

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