Silent Hill: Townfall's director finds it 'utterly terrifying to be the next one in the series' but is still confident fans will enjoy the experience

We're in the count down phase for Silent Hill: Townfall, and while we don't have a preview yet (you're going to have to wait until Gamescom), Screen Burn's director Jon McKellan and series producer Motoi Okamoto have been discussing that next instalment, what fans can expect from the foggy shores of St. Amelia, and what it's like following on from the incredible Silent Hill f.

"For us as a team, I think the best way to describe it is utterly terrifying to be the next one in the series," McKellan says in an interview with Eurogamer. "But it goes without saying that it's an honour to be part of this.

"This is a franchise I grew up with. Silent Hill 1 and 2 became my favourite games when I was a teenager, and the idea that we are now part of this—adding to this franchise that's so beloved by so many people—is a very strange and awesome feeling. We are understandably nervous about releasing the game, given that Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill f were both incredible experiences… [but] we're excited to see how we stack up."

Silent Hill f is certainly a tough act to follow with its beautiful setting, messed up monsters, and surprisingly moving story, but the more I see of Silent Hill: Townfall, the more I'm reassured that Screen Burn is more than up to the task.

You can't really go wrong with a small foggy Scottish town as the setting here, but I'm more interested in what story Screen Burn will explore for St. Amelia. Given it's set in 1996, there's not a lot of mysterious or ancient terrors around, but it is set around the integration of the internet into homes and everyday life, and that sounds plenty scary to me.

"There are themes that feel very reminiscent of Silent Hill," McKellan says. "We are leaning into those expectations. We will be massively subverting those expectations, too. We want people to feel familiar with it, but leverage that. It's leveraging that familiarity to build something new out of that that surprises players and takes them on a different journey, while somehow still feeling like Silent Hill."

I am loving this new age of experimental Silent Hill games that still take clear inspiration from its iconic roots but seek to go slightly left-field with it. Setting games in different locations and time periods is such a great way to accomplish this as well without it feeling too forced.

"I think the core identity we should cherish for Silent Hill is that we have a strong psychological horror narrative, and as long as that remains intact, we feel that we can be more liberal and experimental with what kind of gameplay we take," Okamoto adds. "So I think that's very evident in how Silent Hill 2, last year's Silent Hill F and, of course, Silent Hill: Townfall, are all very different gameplay experiences. We feel that as long as we keep the narrative core intact, there's very much room to keep the gameplay style changing."

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