Silent Hill Townfall Tips — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] At first glance, Silent Hill Townfall may look like your average Silent Hill game, just with an FPS makeover. Upon experiencing the island of St. Amelia for yourself, however, you'll find that Townfall has a lot of unique elements that sets it apart from the previous entries, while still feeling true to the franchise as a whole.

[00:17] Having said that, there are some elements to the game that would have been helpful to know going in, so here are 8 things we wish we knew before playing. In this video, I won't be discussing the story, as most Silent Hill fans would agree that

[00:30] the story is the true reward for persevering through the nightmarish Otherworld. With that being said, I will be showing locations and gameplay mechanics from the first three chapters, so if you're sensitive to that sort of knowledge, here is your spoiler warning.

[00:44] Now it's time to grab your portable TV and take comfort in your therapy dog, because it's about to get a little spooky. In true Silent Hill fashion, you have separate difficulty options for both gameplay and for puzzles.

[01:00] Unlike other Silent Hill games, the difference in puzzle difficulty is whether or not you'd want any hints, as opposed to completely different solutions. You might be wondering, how far does this hint system go? Well, if you have this option enabled, important documents may highlight information with red text

[01:15] that will be relevant to some sort of puzzle near you. In a game where documents have a lot of variables inside them, this can be very useful. For people who worry that this is a bit too intrusive, don't worry. Even as a veteran to the franchise, some puzzles had me scratching my head for longer than I'd like to admit.

[01:31] If you want a completely unguided experience, you can toggle it at any time in the settings menu. Regardless of how you decide to tackle the puzzle, I'd recommend jotting down some quick notes while playing. Trust me, it will save you some time when handling some of the more difficult ones.

[01:48] One of the more impressive features in Townfall is its intricate leaning system. First games that allow you to lean often walk you into set angles as you peer around corners While a setting exists to give you that more standardized fixed angle experience I personally wouldn recommend it The default setting in Town Hall gives you a lot of flexibility on where and how much you like to lean

[02:10] This is incredibly useful for a multitude of reasons. If you're trying to stay out of a monster's sight as much as possible, you can crouch and then lean even further down into the ground. If you want to peek over a large fence or gate,

[02:23] you can lean upwards to basically stand on your tippy toes. Be careful, if you lean too far out of view, an enemy will spot you. Similar to stealth games like Konami's own Metal Gear Solid franchise,

[02:35] if an enemy barely spots you, it will stare at you for a moment before going into a full alert. If you are quick on your feet, and you are able to get into a safer position, you can avoid full detection. If you aren't quick enough, the music will change, and you better be ready for fight or flight.

[02:51] Speaking of which... Each melee weapon in Townfall has a durability meter. What I didn't expect is just how incredibly harsh that durability meter is. The standard wooden plank will only allow you to take out at most two enemies before it breaks.

[03:07] And you can only have one melee weapon on you. A far cry from the arsenal wielded by Hineko in Silent Hill F. While certain enemies, like the very first type you encounter, may overwhelm you with quick attacks, they can be dealt with by alternating between blocks and counterattacks, like so.

[03:23] No, walking does take a small bit of your durability meter. It's worth it though, because Simon will die from only a few hits, it's a bit difficult to dodge attacks in head to head fights, and enemies can still damage you while you're

[03:37] in the middle of your attack animation. While you do eventually get firearms, notably much later than you would expect, ammunition is also quite limited. This is all to say, Simon isn't exactly equipped to fight everything he encounters.

[03:52] your limited combat options, when confronted with an enemy, it's often best to hide. You find many hiding spots throughout the town and I recommend making a mental note on where a close one is when exploring Finding a hiding spot is especially important before picking up a key item since this game loves to spawn in enemies the moment that item is in your inventory It doesn have to be a dedicated

[04:12] hiding spot, you can just run into a room that has a lock on its floor. Enemies are fast in this game, but they don't take corners well, and it takes time for them to open unlocked doors. Make sure you use those weaknesses to your advantage. If they see you go into

[04:26] your hiding spot, they will attack you, but their range of vision to the hiding spot seems much more generous than other stealth games. One thing to note, it's hard to plan your next approach while in a designated hiding spot.

[04:38] While you can pull out your portable TV, you cannot pull out your map inside that hiding spot. If you want to look at your map in an area where you are constantly being stalked by enemies, it's best to do it behind a closed door.

[04:50] Also, you cannot open a door while your portable TV is out. you're running from an enemy, make sure you put that away. Every second counts with a monster tailing you after all. If you need a route around some monsters,

[05:04] you can unleash your inner Joel and Ellie by throwing bricks or glass bottles to make noise. Unlike The Last of Us, you can actually carry one of each with you as opposed to deciding whether to use one over the other. That's not the only way

[05:17] to make noise to alert enemies however, as you can melee the cars around town to set off their alarms. You can also combine the two methods by throwing a bottle or brick at a car to set its alarm off from a distance. Throughout some of the more enclosed spaces, you'll find radios

[05:33] that will make noise too. You can use those to your advantage, but be careful you aren't by the radio once the enemy investigates. Unless you're doing some sort of challenge run, at some point you will

[05:46] be firing a gun. If you do, a tooltip message makes you very aware that the sound of gunfire can alert nearby enemies to your position. Surprisingly, the range of gunfire alerting enemies was much smaller than I expected, at least on normal mode. Essentially, don't

[06:01] automatically assume every enemy will know your position after you fire your gun If you are planning to take out an enemy knowing that there are even more around and you have time to think about your approach you should check your portable TV before firing your weapon.

[06:13] That TV gives you a pretty decent gauge at how far an enemy is from you after all. If you recently heard that distinctive chirp noise coming from your TV, that's your sign

[06:26] that you have a new signal to display, and that new signal is often an enemy. Don't get too comfortable though, because you won't have that portable TV for the entire length of your playthrough. Enemies are alerted by more than the sound of

[06:39] gunfire. Doors make noise too when you open them, so make sure you don't open them super close to enemies. If you need to tail an enemy briefly to get around them, make sure you crouch walk in an effort to muffle your footsteps. At the

[06:53] start a Silent Hill Townfall, it appears that their healing resources are incredibly scarce, just like how weapons and ammo are. It's easy to feel bad using your limited resources, especially the IV bags that act as a free revive. I'm sure using them may convince

[07:07] some to reload a save unnecessarily. Let me tell you that by the end of the game, I was swimming in healing items, so I wouldn't stress being overly conservative with healing on a first-placer. If you've been following the news around Silent Hill Townfall since its announcement,

[07:23] you'd notice that a letterbox masking the aspect ratio has been present in all its promotional material. It might give you some memories of skulking around in the evil within. While this letterbox presents a more cinematic experience,

[07:36] potentially enhancing the feeling of claustrophobia for some players, it's not for everyone. Thankfully, there is a toggle option in the menu if you're the type that wants to see every pixel in your display working in its full glory.

[07:49] I hope you enjoyed this guide as much as I enjoyed all the 90s-style tech and word art scattered throughout St. Amelia. Make sure you check out our wiki for help with puzzles and achieving alternate endings,

[08:02] and for everything else gaming, keep it here on IGN.