Silent Hill: Townfall launches just over two weeks ago, and since the game’s launch there has been some debate regarding the game’s approach to first-person horror. While some fans love developer Screen Burn’s approach to slow-paced, stealthy enemy encounters, others have criticized areas of the game’s design, specifically regarding a one-hit kill enemy known as ‘The Weight’. It appears the studio has now addressed the criticisms with a new update for the game.
Silent Hill: Townfall follows a man named Simon, who is mysteriously pulled back to the Scottish coastal island of St. Amelia following a tragedy he was involved in years prior. Players control Simon as he navigates the fog drenched town and attempts to discover the mystery of his return while fighting and avoiding horrifying enemies. This entry emphasizes stealth over combat for its encounters more comparatively to entries like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories than last year’s Silent Hill f.
I was among the critics of Screen Burn’s approach to enemy encounters in my review for Silent Hill: Townfall, as I felt the NPC behaviour was not robust enough to facilitate the game’s structure and skirmishes often resulted in frustration rather than tension. Screen Burn has addressed these criticisms in the game’s latest update, with many of the patch notes focused directly on enemy behaviour and AI improvements, with specific focus on ‘The Weight’, which will no longer instantly kill the player upon detection on ‘Story’ and ‘Normal’ difficulties, now instead inflicting a major amount of damage.
Furthermore, Screen Burn has also improved the design for some of the game’s final puzzles, which lacked clarity and contributed to an admittedly messy final act, as I referenced in our review. Adjustments have also been made to general combat, making recovering from enemy detection more viable.
It’s great to see Screen Burn address the criticism of Silent Hill: Townfall’s shortcomings so quickly after the game’s launch. It remains to be seen whether these changes will result in a more positive effect on players, but they do represent the team quickly understanding and addressing feedback.
Silent Hill: Townfall is available now for PC and PlayStation 5.
