Hide-and-Seek: A ‘Silent Hill: Townfall’ Review (Spoiler Free)

Skinfolk? In Silent Hill? I went into Silent Hill: Townfall apprehensive for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with monsters, fog, psychological trauma, or whatever fresh hell the game planned on dropping me into. I saw skinfolk in Silent Hill and immediately…I had questions. Because why are we here? Seeing Black people willingly participate in obvious caucasian hijinks has never sat right with my spirit. Silent Hill is exactly the type of place where somebody should hear a mysterious voice calling them to an isolated island and decide that whatever is happening over there is none of our business. Just because someone is calling you to a creepy-ass place does not mean you have to go. My brother in Christ, have you considered simply not answering? Then Simon, our protagonist, runs into an older man covered in blood with a tube coming out of the damn sky and going directly into his mouth. That was the moment I realized Townfall had absolutely no intention of letting the skinfolk mind our business. I won’t explain what any of that means because discovering exactly how all the pieces fit together is one of the best parts of Townfall. What I will say is that the imagery throughout this game is doing some serious leg work. There are things you encounter that initially register as deeply unsettling Silent Hill nonsense, only for their meaning to become clearer as the story unfolds as it usually does in these games. That grotesque imagery isn’t just there to make you uncomf…