Silent Hill: Townfall Gameplay Explained — Stealth, Combat and the CRTV

Silent Hill: Townfall gameplay is first-person psychological horror. You play as Simon Ordell, returning to the Scottish island town of St. Amelia in 1996. Play is split between exploration, stealth, combat and narrative puzzles, all tied together by a single device: the CRTV.

First-person exploration

Townfall is the first full-length Silent Hill game presented entirely in first person. Visibility is limited by fog and darkness, and the camera never pulls out — you see St. Amelia only through Simon's eyes.

The CRTV

The series' iconic radio returns as the CRTV, a portable television. By tuning it to unstable analog signals you can:

• Detect nearby threats, the same way the radio's static warned of enemies in older games.
• Pick up story fragments — glimpses of past events and everyday life in St. Amelia.
• Find puzzle clues. Townfall's puzzles are built around what you hear and see on the CRTV. Solutions are in our puzzle guide.

Stealth: the core of Silent Hill Townfall gameplay

Evasion is a core part of Townfall. You can track enemy positions from cover and lure enemies away with distractions to sneak past them. How quickly you get past monsters is the biggest factor in how long the game takes.

Combat

When stealth fails, you can:

• Swing and block with melee weapons in close-range fights.
• Use firearms to keep your distance.
• Use the environment to your advantage.

Some critics found combat the weakest part of the game — see the review roundup.

Multiple endings

Your actions across the game — not a single A/B choice — decide which of the five endings you get. The main three depend on how many Discoveries (clues and documents) you collect compared with how many enemies you kill. Two joke endings require New Game Plus. See the endings guide.