Silent Hill: Townfall Reviews Are In, and the CRTV Static Device Is Stealing the Show

September 21, 2026 Noah

With Silent Hill: Townfall’s launch just three days away on September 24, reviews have started landing, and the picture on OpenCritic is a genuinely strong one: an 82 average from 31 critics, a “Strong” rating, and 90 percent of reviewers recommending it, putting it in the top 14 percent of everything the aggregator tracks. Metacritic’s own critic page, by contrast, still shows no score at all as of this writing, a reminder that its review counts can lag noticeably behind sites like OpenCritic in the first days after embargo.

The CRTV Is Winning Critics Over

Much of the praise centers on the CRTV, the handheld static device that replaces the pocket radio players have carried through every mainline Silent Hill game since the original. PC Gamer’s review, the highest score we’ve seen so far at 89/100, called the device “the most creative, fun, and useful puzzle solving tool” its reviewer has used in years, praising how it doubles as both an enemy-detection tool and the game’s main method for untangling Zoe’s disappearance. Similar notes show up across the board, with reviewers repeatedly pointing to Simon Ordell’s static-hunting through the fog-choked streets of St. Amelia as Townfall’s most memorable new idea.

Simon uses the handheld CRTV device to track a signal in Silent Hill: Townfall

Silent Hill: Townfall’s CRTV device in action

Combat and Pacing Draw Some Pushback

Not every outlet is as enthusiastic. Push Square landed on the more modest end of the scale at 7/10, and while it praised the atmosphere and the Scottish setting, the review found the combat design a weak point over time. “Once you’ve learnt how the combat system works, all its stakes very quickly vanish,” the review reads, adding that the CRTV’s usefulness drops off in the back half even as the story and puzzles hold up. Push Square also clocked the campaign at roughly 10 hours and confirmed the PS5 Pro version runs smoothly at 30fps in Quality Mode.

How the Rest of the Reviews Are Shaping Up

OpenCritic average: 82/100 (“Strong”), 31 critics, 90% recommend
PC Gamer: 89/100
COGconnected: 91/100
DualShockers: 9/10
PlayStation LifeStyle: 9/10
GameRant: 9/10
PlayStation Universe: 8/10
TechRaptor: 8/10
Push Square: 7/10

Taken together, it looks like one of Konami’s stronger reviewed Silent Hill releases in years, with the CRTV device doing a lot of the heavy lifting even where other elements land more mixed. We already covered the game’s full cast, setting and editions in our original rundown of everything to know before the embargo lifted.

Release Details

Release date: September 24, 2026
Platforms: PS5, Steam and Epic Games Store
Developer: Screen Burn Interactive (formerly No Code)
Publishers: Konami Digital Entertainment and Annapurna Interactive
Early access: Deluxe Edition owners can start September 22

Whether Townfall ends up remembered as the series’ strongest showing since the original trilogy, or as the game where a handheld static device stole the spotlight from Silent Hill itself, players get to judge for themselves in just a few days.

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Picture Source: PlayStation Blog