Silent Hill: Townfall brings the horror series to a fictional Scottish island

Silent Hill: Townfall launched on 24 September, taking Konami’s horror series to a fictional island off Scotland. Developed by Glasgow-based Screen Burn Interactive, it is the series’ first full-length game played entirely from a first-person perspective, according to Konami. The change puts players directly behind the eyes of an outsider exploring an unfamiliar community, with the island’s streets and technology central to how they navigate its threats.

Konami said the game is available on PlayStation 5, Steam and the Epic Games Store. Annapurna Interactive and Konami co-published it. The release brings a Scottish studio’s interpretation to a series that Konami says has sold more than 17.8 million units worldwide as of June 2026. That company figure combines shipments, store downloads and subscription services; it is not a sales figure for Townfall.

A Scottish place, built from familiar details

Players take the role of Simon Ordell, an American who washes ashore on St Amelia, a remote fictional island. The BBC reports that Screen Burn drew on St Monans, a fishing village in Fife, for the setting. The Guardian’s review describes broader inspiration from fishing communities in the East Neuk of Fife. Those real places inform the game’s design; St Amelia and its events belong to the game’s story.

Director Jon McKellan told the BBC he wanted the place to feel ‘authentic and natural’ instead of leaning on tartan stereotypes. He said people who grew up in working-class towns in the 1990s would recognise many of its references. In the BBC reporter’s playthrough, those details included red pillar boxes, 20 mph signs, charity collection boxes and ‘coins and card’ phone boxes. A council estate adds concrete buildings to the game’s coastal streets.

Fear through a small screen

Townfall’s first-person view works alongside a handheld CRT device that helps Simon detect nearby monsters. The BBC reporter describes a fuzzy image of their positions appearing on its screen, giving players clues about when to hide or move. McKellan told PlayStation that the device developed from the series’ familiar radio concept into a visual tool for storytelling and stealth. He said designing around it made the first-person viewpoint essential.

The older technology is part of the unease McKellan wanted to create. ‘You don’t feel safe when those kinds of things are fragile,’ he told the BBC. The reporter found the screen useful but sometimes fiddly when several enemies were nearby. Saving progress also involves finding and using a telephone, according to both the BBC and Guardian accounts, placing another everyday object from the period inside the game’s mechanics.

The Scottish setting affects more than the scenery. The BBC’s account says Townfall explores trauma and guilt while touching on the effect of large corporations on small communities. Guardian reviewer Lewis Gordon describes the island’s horror as bound up with poverty, absent lairds and an energy corporation. These are elements of the fictional story, not claims about St Monans or another real community.

What reviewers found

The Guardian praised the game’s coastal atmosphere, fog and recognisable British details. Gordon wrote that its sympathies ultimately lie with St Amelia’s residents, while noting that the precise events behind the town’s tragedy are left unexplained. His review found the game absorbing but described a late puzzle as frustratingly obscure. That response reflects one critic’s experience, not a settled view of the game.

The BBC reporter likewise found the atmosphere and sound design effective, while describing some later encounters with a particularly strong enemy as aggravating. The report quoted Video Games Chronicle deputy editor Chris Scullion calling those sections ‘deeply frustrating’. Together, the reviews suggest that the setting and tension are among Townfall’s strengths, even where particular challenges interrupted the experience for those critics.

Townfall’s release also offers a concrete example of Konami’s approach to taking the series beyond its traditional American setting. The BBC reports that Okamoto is considering locations for future games ranging from other parts of Europe to Latin America, and has expressed a wish for a Silent Hill release each year in some form. Those are ambitions, not announced release plans. For now, Townfall is the released test of how a different place and viewpoint can carry the series’ horror.