As Konami and developer Screen Burn get ready for the September 24th release of Silent Hill: Townfall, series producer Motoi Okamoto is quite confident in the survival horror title. In an interview with Famitsu (via machine translation), Okamoto even expressed the belief that Silent Hill: Townfall could end up doing better than Silent Hill 2 Remake and Silent Hill f when it comes to critical response.
“Both Silent Hill 2 and f received very high praise, and their Metacritic scores were great. I have confidence that Townfall will achieve similarly high acclaim […] I have enough confidence to feel that it might end up being the masterpiece [of the revival], so I have extremely high expectations.”
Okamoto went on to talk about how, while there has been plenty of positive buzz surrounding Silent Hill: Townfall, audience excitement is quite subdued when compared to that of Silent Hill 2 Remake and Silent Hill f. This likely stems from the fact that very little of the upcoming title’s gameplay has actually been shown. However, taking into account the positive reactions of those who have actually played the game, Okamoto believes that Silent Hill: Townfall will end up doing quite well.
“Right now, it might feel a bit subdued to some people, but hearing the reactions of those who played the hands-on demo, we feel it will be evaluated very highly.”
He also discussed other aspects of Silent Hill: Townfall, calling it “socially conscious” when compared to the rest of the franchise thanks to its themes of “individuals vs. corporations” throughout its core narrative.
Silent Hill: Townfall takes place in the year 1996, in the small Scottish town of St. Amelia. Screen Burn has spoken about why it went with the mid-90s setting, and how the time period is the perfect setting for a horror story, since the protagonist wouldn’t have access to things like smartphones that could get them out of trouble.
“It’s almost like the perfect time for horror where you don’t quite have enough technology to help you. You don’t have a smartphone. You don’t have maps on your device to help you get around, but it’s also not so far back that you don’t have anything at all.”
The fact that Screen Burn also has a history of incorporating old, analog technology in its games also plays a role. “Especially, like, Screen Burn’s history, our games are quite, you know, dealing with archaic technology and old computers, and we were able to bring some of that into Townfall by setting it in a period where that kind of tech is new for Silent Hill, but not too modern.”
“It feels like the right time period for that. A couple of different factors all made the ’90s feel like the right time for horror.”
Silent Hill: Townfall is coming to PC and PS5. For more details about how the title will make use of some of the console’s capabilities, check out the recently revealed details about features like ray tracing, adaptive triggers, and haptic feedback.
