What a fantastic time to be a horror fan. We’ve got the most amazing films coming every which-way, countless new indie games to enjoy, and the revitalisation of some of the best horror series gaming has, one of which being Silent Hill with its upcoming game Silent Hill: Townfall.
Part of Silent Hill’s revitalisation is a trend of mainline games which take the Silent Hill story and explore it in new locations. Last year we got Silent Hill f which took fans to 1960s rural Japan—exploring the purgatory between tradition and modernity—and this year we have Silent Hill: Townfall set in 1996 St. Amelia, Scotland. What will this game explore? Well, director Jon McKellan gives us some hints.
There are some “very specific reasons why the game is set in this era”, McKellan explains in an interview with Eurogamer. “One, that it is on the cusp of when technology started to explode in the home. We started to get the internet. But also who Simon is, the time it’s taking place in, the type of town that it’s in—all these things are kind of deeply relevant. And by the end of the game, I think people will start to piece together why this is almost like the perfect storm for something to happen in St. Amelia”.
Watching the internet seep into communities and homes is terrifying enough, especially as we now know where it’ll land us, but I think a more eerie aspect of Townfall could be the death of small towns and communities as people leave the promises of better lives found in major cities.