Early access Silent Hill: Townfall reviews warn poor performance may sour release date

Early access for Konami’s new survival horror adventure began on September 22nd. While many Steam users are enjoying the game, lackluster performance dominates negative Silent Hill: Townfall reviews. PS5 owners also report frame rate drops, prompting calls for a release date patch.

Unreal Engine 5 strikes again?

Both console and PC gamers are having flashbacks of the Silent Hill f launch in September 2025. The previous entry also relied on Unreal Engine 5, which is notorious for stuttering. Even with a mostly positive rating on Valve’s marketplace, less enthusiastic players blame the technology for the problems.

A common shortcoming of UE5 titles, negative Silent Hill: Townfall reviews note shader-compilation stuttering. When exploring new parts of St. Amelia, shaders tell GPUs how to render textures, lighting, and other effects. Builds with higher-end graphics cards may still see frame rates dip as they compile.

To mitigate issues, the Konami game generates shaders after an initial bootup. Unfortunately, the process hasn’t eliminated the graphical hitches. The situation is worse on Valve’s handheld, where Steam Deck HQ posted a concerning evaluation. On low settings, readings can fall well below 30 fps when entering unfamiliar buildings.

Multi-platform concerns

With the Silent Hill: Townfall PS5 version a console exclusive on its release date, Xbox fans are envious. However, they may hope for smoother visuals if it eventually arrives on Microsoft’s hardware. On the base PlayStation system, quality mode targets 30 fps, while the performance preset aims for 60 fps.

Sadly, in a Twisted Voxel comparison, the game often falls short of those goals. Despite PSSR boosting image quality, the more powerful PS5 Pro also stutters occasionally.

If Konami can address the inconsistent performance, Silent Hill: Townfall reviews among PS5 and Steam players will likely improve. Early access testers have few complaints about the title's narrative or gloomy aesthetic. The fog and mist add to the tense atmosphere of the latest Silent Hill game.