Silent Hill: Townfall is the most Scottish game I've ever played and the most effective horror game I've seen in ages: 'It made sense for us to dig deep into our upbringings, into our past, and try and build a place that felt believable'

Silent Hill has gone international. Last year we went to Japan in Silent Hill f, and now the series is off to Scotland in Silent Hill: Townfall. As a middle-aged Scot who still remembers the '90s, when Townfall takes place, I was simultaneously nervous and excited about the rare opportunity to play a game that's so close to home.

What a relief, then, that Townfall not only feels incredibly Scottish, its Scottishness also perfectly matches Silent Hill's brand of unsettling psychological horror. And it's not such an unlikely pairing. Scotland is perfect for this kind of horror game—and I'm going to spend the next 2,000 or so words convincing you.

It helps, of course, that the studio is local. Glaswegian developer Screen Burn has been making horror games and mysteries, like Stories Untold and Observation, since 2015. You might know it better by its former name, No Code. Co...