Today's other big release is here, too, 48-hour head start for deluxe edition pre-order folks aside. Silent Hill: Townfall is the latest game to come from Konami's plan to revitalize the Silent Hill name by giving the license to as many oddball studios as possible, and having them re-interpret the setting through their own lenses. Silent Hill f took the series to '60s Japan, but today's entry–coming from Stories Untold and Observation studio Screen Burn–doubles down on the anxiety by plunging us into the deep, dark, foggy recesses of '90s Scotland. A rough place to be even when the fog isn't full of living embodiments of your sins and fears.

Set in the fictional Scottish island town of St. Amelia, clearly things are a bit amiss. As with all good Silent Hill stories, the town itself is a deeply sick place, even before the supernatural fog rolls in and the monsters start nibbling on the inhabitants. It seems that a lot of bad stuff has kinda sunk into the psychic groundwater of the town, and returning local Simon Ordell is here to puzzle out what's going on, with the help of a spooky mini TV that can tune into the weird signals the town is pumping out. Interesting how that dates the game so specifically, as we just don't have analogue TV signals on the airwaves anymore.

Interestingly, Townfall trades the familiar third-person action of the series for a mostly first-person experience, perhaps echoing Resident Evil 7's reimagining of its own series. Mostly, it reminds me of Total Chaos, another excellent psychological first-person horror game set on an incredibly haunted island and with a main theme song from Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka. Plus, the croaky voices on the radio (as you can hear in the trailers for both games) are more than a little similar, too.

While it hasn't done quite as well with critics as Silent Hill f, reviews for this new one are generally very positive. Rather than follow in any of its predecessors' footsteps, Townfall puts the focus on stealth and evasion of the monsters, with occasional opportunities to take them down with (very limited) gunfire or just beating them with a large piece of wood. Given that many complained that Silent Hill f was too combat-heavy, it's also amusing to see just as many complaints about this one being combat-light.

Still, I hope to dig into this one as soon as I've gotten CONTROL Resonant out of my system, and give it a fair shake on its own terms. Silent Hill: Townfall is out now for £45/$50, with a deluxe version that includes a soundtrack, art book, and one additional outfit.