Silent Hill f vs Silent Hill: Townfall: Full Comparison

Silent Hill f and Silent Hill: Townfall are Konami's two most recent entries in the long-running horror series, and they are built almost in opposition to each other. Silent Hill f, released in September 2025, is a third-person survival-horror game set in a fog-choked rural Japanese town in the 1960s. Silent Hill: Townfall, released a year later in September 2026, is the franchise's first full-length first-person game, set on a fictional Scottish island. Reviewers rate Silent Hill f higher overall, but the two games are different enough in feel that "which is better" matters less than "which fits what you want from horror right now." Here's how they actually compare, point by point, using the publishers' own platform listings and the aggregate scores on Metacritic and OpenCritic.

Setting: Rural 1960s Japan vs. a Fogbound Scottish Island

Silent Hill f takes the series out of its usual American small-town setting for the first time and relocates it to the fictional town of Ebisugaoka in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, in the 1960s. Players follow high-school student Hinako Shimizu as the town fills with fog, blood-red spider lilies, and the kind of ritualistic horror Konami and developer NeoBards built around Japanese folklore rather than the franchise's usual Midwestern Americana.

Silent Hill: Townfall moves even further afield, geographically and tonally. It's set on the fictional island of St. Amelia off the coast of Scotland, described by Konami as "a full-length, self-contained psychological horror set against the cold, isolated backdrop of Scotland." Protagonist Simon Ordell returns to the island to find its town blanketed in heavy fog, outwardly abandoned but clearly not at rest. Neither game takes place in the original town of Silent Hill, and Konami's own release announcement pitches both as standalone stories rather than direct sequels to each other.

Perspective: Third-Person Survival vs. First-Person Dread

This is the single biggest mechanical difference between the two. Silent Hill f keeps the over-the-shoulder, third-person camera the series has used since the Silent Hill 2 remake, giving players a full view of Hinako and her surroundings during exploration and combat. Townfall drops that entirely: it's built as a first-person game from the ground up, Screen Burn's first major release and, per Konami's own announcement, the franchise's first full-length entry told entirely from a first-person viewpoint. That choice pulls Townfall closer to first-person horror games built around limited sightlines and hidden threats than to the fixed-camera, stat-driven combat of classic Silent Hill.

The practical effect is that the two games ask different things of you moment to moment. In Silent Hill f, the third-person camera means you're reading Hinako's body language and the space around her at the same time you're managing threats — it's a framing the series has used for most of its history, including the Silent Hill 2 remake, so returning fans know roughly what to expect from encounter pacing and camera-driven scares. Townfall's first-person view removes that peripheral awareness almost entirely: you only see what Simon is looking at, which is exactly the kind of restricted vision first-person horror leans on to make corners, doorways and fog banks feel genuinely dangerous. It's a legitimate way to make an old setting feel new, even if it means relearning how to read danger in the frame.

Combat and Stealth: Where the Two Games Really Diverge

Silent Hill f leans into melee-focused survival combat, giving Hinako improvised weapons and a stamina-based fighting system that multiple reviewers compared favorably to the series' recent remake work, alongside the environmental puzzles the franchise is known for. Townfall instead emphasizes evasion over confrontation: Simon has a limited toolkit, a handheld device called the CRTV that picks up unstable signals to help navigate threats, and is explicitly built around tense stealth sequences rather than sustained fighting.

That stealth-first design is also the most common thread in Townfall's critical reception — reviewers have consistently praised its atmosphere and puzzle design while flagging the stealth and evasion encounters as the game's weakest element. It's a trade-off: Silent Hill f gives you more direct tools to fight back; Townfall more often wants you to run, hide, and hope you weren't seen.

Critical Reception: Metacritic and OpenCritic Scores

Checked directly against the aggregators rather than secondhand roundups, the scores favor Silent Hill f by a meaningful margin:

According to Metacritic's page for Silent Hill f, the game sits at a Metascore of 86 on PlayStation 5 (98 critic reviews, "Generally Favorable"), 85 on PC (41 critic reviews), and 82 on Xbox Series X (11 critic reviews), with a 6.9 user score from over 2,500 ratings. Metacritic's page for Silent Hill: Townfall puts it lower, at 79 on PlayStation 5 (99 critic reviews, "Generally Favorable") and 80 on PC (36 critic reviews), with a 7.2 user score from 823 ratings — notably, Townfall's user score is actually a bit higher than f's despite the lower critic average. OpenCritic's tally for Townfall, pulled from 146 critic reviews, lands at a Top Critic Average of 80 with a 78% recommend rate, broadly consistent with the Metacritic numbers.

In short: both games cleared the "Generally Favorable" bar comfortably, but Silent Hill f is the stronger-reviewed game by five to seven points depending on platform, while Townfall's recurring criticism centers on its stealth and combat systems rather than its writing, performances, or atmosphere.

It's also worth noting the gap between critics and players runs in different directions for each game. Silent Hill f's user score (6.9) trails its critic scores by more than its predecessor's remake did, while Townfall's user score (7.2) is actually close to or slightly above its critic average — an unusual pattern that suggests the parts of Townfall that frustrated reviewers (stealth encounters, combat pacing) may matter less to the players who sought the game out specifically for its atmosphere and Scottish setting. Review counts on both games' Metacritic pages were still climbing at time of writing, so treat exact point totals as a snapshot rather than a final word.

Video: SILENT HILL (Official) · SILENT HILL: Townfall | Release Date Trailer

Story and Protagonists

Silent Hill f is written by Ryukishi07 (of Higurashi fame), with creature and character design from the artist Kera and production from Motoi Okamoto. Its story follows Hinako as the sudden transformation of her hometown forces her to confront both the monsters outside and a darker personal history. Townfall's narrative is built around Simon Ordell's return to St. Amelia, framed by Konami as a psychological horror story rather than a monster-of-the-week structure, with no stated narrative connection to Silent Hill f, the Silent Hill 2 remake, or the original games beyond sharing the broader franchise's fog-and-fear sensibility.

Development Pedigree: NeoBards and Screen Burn

Part of why these two games feel so different comes down to who made them. Silent Hill f was developed by NeoBards Entertainment, a Taiwan-based studio with a track record on action and remake work, operating under direct Konami production. Silent Hill: Townfall comes from Screen Burn, a newer, independent studio based in Glasgow, Scotland, co-published by Konami alongside Annapurna Interactive — a publisher better known for narrative-driven, atmosphere-first titles than for traditional survival-horror combat design. That pairing lines up with what reviewers have actually found: a game that leans harder into mood, sound design and restrained mechanics than into the systems-heavy combat Silent Hill f offers. Setting Townfall in Screen Burn's home country is also consistent with the studio's choice to move the franchise's geography outside Japan and the United States for the first time in the same two-year stretch.

Platforms, Price and Release Dates

Silent Hill f released September 24–25, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and lists for $69.99 on its Steam store page. Konami reported the game sold a million copies within a day of launch. Silent Hill: Townfall released September 24, 2026 (its Steam listing shows September 23 due to time-zone rollout), and is notably more limited in where you can play it: PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store only — there is no Xbox version at launch. It's also cheaper at the register, listing for $49.99 standard on its Steam store page, with a $59.99 Digital Deluxe edition that adds an alternate CRTV device skin, an alternate outfit for Simon, soundtrack samples and an artbook; physical pre-orders at select EMEA retailers also came with an exclusive SteelBook case while stocks lasted.

Both games' Deluxe tiers follow the same general pattern Konami has used across its recent Silent Hill releases — cosmetic extras and early access rather than additional story content — so the standard edition gets you the complete game either way. If platform access is your deciding factor, it's the simplest one here: Xbox owners currently have no way to play Townfall without switching platforms, while Silent Hill f remains available everywhere.

Which Silent Hill Should a Horror Fan Play First?

If you want the game closer to what Silent Hill has traditionally been — third-person exploration, melee combat you can actually lean on, and the series' recent track record of strong critical scores — start with Silent Hill f. It's the better-reviewed game across every platform it's on, it's been out longer so bugs and balance have had more time to settle, and it doesn't require you to adapt to a first-person stealth loop some reviewers found frustrating.

If what draws you to horror games is atmosphere and dread rather than combat, and you're specifically curious about where the series goes next, Townfall is worth playing on its own terms — just go in knowing its evasion-heavy design is the part critics liked least, and that it's currently PS5/PC only if you were hoping to play on Xbox. Neither game requires playing the other first; Konami has positioned both as standalone stories, so platform access and which playstyle appeals to you matter more than release order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Silent Hill: Townfall connected to Silent Hill f's story? No. Konami has described Townfall as a full-length, self-contained story, and there's no stated narrative link between Simon Ordell's Scotland and Hinako Shimizu's Japan beyond both being Silent Hill games.

Is Silent Hill: Townfall coming to Xbox? Not at launch. It released on PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam and Epic Games Store) only; Silent Hill f, by contrast, is on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Which game scored higher with critics? Silent Hill f, on every platform it shares with Townfall. On Metacritic, f sits at 86 (PS5) and 85 (PC), while Townfall sits at 79 (PS5) and 80 (PC).

Is Silent Hill f third-person or first-person? Third-person. Silent Hill: Townfall is the one built around a first-person camera — Konami has called it the franchise's first full-length first-person entry.

How much do the two games cost? Silent Hill f lists for $69.99 on Steam; Silent Hill: Townfall lists for $49.99 standard ($59.99 Digital Deluxe), both prices per their official Steam store pages.

Do I need to play Silent Hill f before Silent Hill: Townfall? No. Both are standalone stories with different protagonists and settings, so you can start with whichever platform or perspective appeals to you more.

What to Play Next

If side-by-side comparisons like this one are useful to you, we've run a similar head-to-head on whether Ghost of Yotei's Complete Edition is worth the upgrade, and a breakdown of what Bungie's Marathon extraction shooter actually is if you're looking for where else the genre map is moving this year. For deal-hunters, our rundown of Nintendo Switch 2 Online's price tiers and game list covers a very different kind of "which tier should I buy" question. As for Silent Hill itself: both f and Townfall are out now, Konami hasn't announced a third mainline entry, and the honest advice remains to pick based on perspective and platform access rather than waiting for one to be definitively "better" — on the numbers, Silent Hill f already is, but Townfall is the one pushing the series into new territory.

Written byJonah Reyes

Jonah Reyes leads Pandromeda's gaming coverage: console and handheld hardware, release dates, pricing changes, patch notes and the business moves behind the biggest franchises. He sources every date and price from the platform holders and publishers themselves, and says plainly when something is still only a rumour.

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