Silent Hill Townfall brings atmospheric horror to '90s Scotland with incredible attention to detail

When you’re running footage through a CRTV for authentic static, that's attention to detail.

Continuing a strong resurgence for the Silent Hill series, Konami and Screen Burn Interactive are bringing another different take on the dark horror series. The latter is best known for their narrative-led titles Stories Untold and Observation and they decided to set their horror scenario in the early '90s, on a remote isle off the coast of northern Scotland. Anyone who's been to the rugged beauty of Scotland can attest: it's an area that can make its own thick, mysterious fog. Ideal, then, for a Silent Hill chapter.

Silent Hill Townfall is set in St. Amelia, a fictional town made from photos, sketches and maps of actual Scottish villages. The level of detail is meticulous, with '90s-era phone boxes (not the cliched red ones you might think of), cars I haven't seen since my childhood and even kitchen interiors that scream nostalgia to me.

During a hands-off demo at Summer Game Fest 2026, we were told that being careful and cautious "is paramount to survival". The demo starts with protagonist Simon Ordell sitting in the middle of the fog with a intravenous cannula and hospital wrist ID band still attached. In a new take on the radios of the first few Silent Hill games, he's equipped with a portable TV and not much else.

Screen Burn Interactive has gone to great pains to replicate a true CRT display. While everything in-game is running on Unreal Engine 5, the team ran the visuals of the feed and integrated actual signal static for the TV's readout. According to director Jon Mckellan, what you're seeing on the CRTV is analog. The team ran footage and stills through an old broadcast monitor and older broadcast tech, and are even able to amp up the static at particularly dramatic moments.

As the game continues, a mysterious woman calls out ot Simon on the TV, asking him to "come back". You'll be able to pull out the handheld CRTV at any time; tuning into signals will 'lock' them into the device, making them easier to flit between. Signals will deliver narrative beats or teasers, while at other times, they can offer clues to the puzzles spread across the island. We saw the same repeated video clips that helped Simon navigate to what he thinks the woman on TV is hiding.

The CRTV is useful against the contorted monstrosities roaming the island, too. You can tune the TV to give an X-ray outline of threats, through walls and objects. The developers have also obsessed over the peeking mechanic. Despite it being a major departure for the Silent Hill game series, it's t