I never wanted to like a game more. Unfortunately the act of playing the game parts of Silent Hill: Townfall are just not worth the "coolness" of the games strengths.
Those strengths are shared with the best in the series it: vague storytelling through in the cutscenes and safe parts and then those themes reflected in the gameplay and violent metaphors. That stuff rules and I still liked the story of this game. It is the filler between those highlights where this game fails. You know, the part where I am in control the most and need to be engaged the most.
At this point I should be clear that I can be ok with great stealth but it has to be really good or really optional. This game is a full on sit and wait stealth game. The way the scene looks while you are hiding in a closet is stylized in an amazing way to capture the feel of found footage horror and put in the headspace of the same mid-90s the game takes place in. Unfortunately that coolness wears thin after the 10th minute of waiting for some random jack-ass that you can't outrun and don't have a useful distraction for to wander away. It is cool and effective setting to look at the CRTV (sic) as well as the pager and see the positions and the silhouettes of the monsters. That taps into my memories of watching shitty ghost hunter shows and the obsession with electronic interference in everything. I get nostalgic for that intentional fear that feels good in a game, then it doesn't really matter because I am sitting around waiting for a monster to walk his path. This happens over and over where the setting is so effectively 90s and spooky in a "Silent Hill" way, and then I get annoyed at having to sit around and wait.
The games solution to my issues would be the scattered bottles and various environmental options, like making sounds and hiding. In the first two chapters those things worked well. There were enough options, mazes, and monster placements to make it stealthy but tactical and engaging. Then the game constricts. Constriction is a good way to ask the player if they were paying attention earlier in these linear explorer games. It is particularly fun in horror games where it forces you closer to the monster. The Silent Hill series does this to great effect in the series highs like 1, 2, and 3. When Silent Hill: Townfall constricts it gets rid of all of the interesting parts of the stealth. In their place is a bunch of sitting behind cover or in a closet or in a locked room waiting.
And that it. That's the game. You sit around and wait. It makes me sad that a cool story is marred by such unfun gameplay.