Silent Hill: Townfall adds new Hard difficulty in latest update

Silent Hill: Townfall has added a new Hard difficulty mode and rebalanced every existing setting to make room for it.

The update, patch 1.6.0, went live on PS5, Steam, and the Epic Games Store earlier this week, according to patch notes published by Konami. Konami said the rebalance is designed to create "a smoother difficulty curve for players to choose from".

As part of that rebalance, resources have been adjusted in some sections of the game, and enemies' hearing now gets sharper as the difficulty level goes up. Your position is now visible on the map in whichever mode you pick, while the reduction to the main enemy's attack severity now applies only in Story Mode.

Anyone who picks Nightmare for their first playthrough will now see a warning screen. The difficulty selection menu also gives a clearer summary of how the options differ.

The update also improves the valve status lighting for colourblind players, adds more hints and tutorials, and tweaks the wording of some puzzle hints and items. The options menu has been reorganised into clearer categories, and the controls remapping option has been renamed to make it clear that keyboard and mouse commands can be remapped there too, not just controllers.

PC players also get a new DLSS Ray Reconstruction option, alongside the usual general improvements and bug fixes.

To check you're on the latest version, look for v1.6.155963 in the lower right corner of the main menu on PC, or v1.6.156035 on PS5.

Below are the full patch notes:

PlayStation 5 / Steam / Epic Games Store

Gameplay

• Addition of a new Hard difficulty mode
• Rebalance of gameplay elements across all difficulty modes to accommodate the introduction of the new Hard mode, creating a smoother difficulty curve for players to choose from.

• Resource adjustment in some sections of the game as part of difficulty balancing.
• Player position now visible on the map in all difficulty modes.
• Enemy hearing sensitivity now varies by difficulty, increasing with the difficulty level.
• The Weight’s attack severity reduction is limited to Story Mode only.

UX / UI

• Nightmare difficulty warning screen now shown if first playthrough is set to Nightmare difficulty.
• Difficulty selection description now shows a clearer summary of differences between the options.
• Improvements to valve status lighting for colourblind players.
• Additional player hints / tutorials added.
• Improvements to some puzzle hints and item wording.
• Restructuring of the Options Menu to better separate options into categories.
• Renamed the controls remapping menu option so that it does not explicitly mention only control pads, as keyboard and mouse commands can be remapped there too.

Other

• DLSS Ray Reconstruction option added (PC only).
• General improvements and bug fixes.

Developed by Screen Burn and published by Konami, Silent Hill: Townfall launched on PS5 and PC on 24th September. Matt said Townfall showed Silent Hill's "stellar revival continues as new developer Screen Burn melds stealth, meticulous world design, and a dash of social realism for a different sort of survival horror", and awarded it four out of five stars in Eurogamer's Silent Hill: Townfall review.