Video Game Review: Silent Hill: Townfall (PS5)

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In the latest chapter, Silent Hill once again expands from its small resort down setting to something more international. With gameplay that caters to stealth-based mechanics, a story that comes together slowly and focuses less on the supernatural origins of the franchise, and puzzles that feel more like following It instruction manuals then creepy, the game doesn’t do a lot to make itself standout against the other games in the franchise.

The plot and pacing in the game have some issues. While it’s normal for Silent Hill games to have some mystery to them that unfolds as you play, this game just drops you into it and leaves you kind of wondering around. You’re not looking for a lost loved one or being forced a spooky dilemma, you are loosely guided from point A to point be without much more than the vaguest narrative. And when the twists are finally revealed, it’s all kind of mundane, and all the paranormal aspects are glossed over. (Even shifting focus to other characters gives much insight to the events in the game, so you’re really only invested in the characters because you’re forced to see things through their eyes.)

Going in almost the completely opposite of the last Silent Hill game, the combat-focused “Silent Hill f,” “Townfall” prefers that you sneak your way through the game and rarely forces you into fighting. To make this happen, ammo is very scarce and so are melee weapons. And the ones you do get break pretty quickly. Instead, you are given lots of fences to duck behind and closets to hide in. Also helping you out is the radar-like portable TV you’re given and the ability to cause diversions by throwing objects. However, this feels limited fairly quickly. Many other games with stealth elements give you much more variety in how to remain undetected, but here you’re stuck with mostly throwing bricks and bottles and waiting to the monsters run to investigate. The game also ramps up the tension by making you play in a first-person perspective, which means you can only see what’s right in front of you and you’re never sure exactly where danger might be.

As far as puzzles go, they mostly feel original and fresh to the franchise. However, while I originally liked the more realistic puzzles that felt kind of like escape room challenges, repairing floppy disks and organizing slides for a presentation feel more like tedious day-to-day tasks instead of the creepy puzzles that are the norm for this franchise. (Although there are still a few that do feel like the classic Silent Hill disturbing brain teasers.)

“Silent Hill: Townfall” is a decent enough addition, especially for those who love a good stealth-based adventure. While the setting and monsters are sufficiently creepy enough, the slow narrative reveals of a more mundane chain of events that set this game in motion, leaving you feeling like the journey was only interesting to the characters and not the one audience. This is a New Game+ with a couple additions that may make things easier, especially for people who rather take down their enemies instead of sneaking past them. (The bad news is that this makes it harder to get the “good” endings.)

** out of *****

Movie Review: Street Fighter (2026)

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With yet another adaption of the Street Fighter franchise, the latest film leans into the camp and silliness to just enough of a degree that the animated flashback sequences come off less cartoony. I only have a passing knowledge of the Street Fighter lore, and most of that comes from the 1994 film, so I can’t judge this film too much outside of its own entertainment value. Despite the fact that the plot claims to be about a martial arts tournament, that portion of the story gets talked about more than we actually see any of it. The rest of the runtime is spent on an unfocused conflict with the big bad, M. Bison. (And also trying to work in a separate bad guy that gets set up as the real main threat.) Ultimately, Ken and Ryu are the heart of the story, but their dual redemption arcs don’t really land the knockout punch in the end. Outside of the lead characters, the rest of the roster is underused and none of the cast breath any real life into their roles. Unfortunately, the film’s weakest point is the fight scenes. None of them felt consequential and it just feels like colorful characters hitting and kicking each other through brick walls and occasionally a special move from the games, with everyone just brushing themselves off like nothing happened afterwards. (It doesn’t help that the special effects don’t quite sell these impossible moves, especially with one character being full CG. That’s why the animated sequences land so much better, because that type of action doesn’t look out of place in that format.) There’s quite a bit of humor throughout the movie, and a lot of it sucks the drama out of scenes that should be important. They also overdo it with the 90’s needle drops. It seems like every other scene has one. There is a mid-credit scene, but it ties into another major issue: the story ends and it feels like they only told half the story.

** out of *****

TV Review: Lanterns (Season 1)

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*This review contains some minor SPOILERS*

Despite mostly grounding the space-faring Green Lantern characters in a small Midwest town on Earth, great writing, some intriguing mysteries, and strong character work brought to life by great acting allow “Lanterns” to be a first-rate show.

The overall plot sees multiple mysteries woven throughout the season. The main story is tied to aliens and classic Green Lantern lore, and despite it seemingly getting wrapped up mid-season, there turns out to be more story to tell. A second major mystery is dropped at the end of the pilot episode, and thanks to smart use of jumping around different time frames, the show keeps its premise while slowly working towards the reveal. While the basic story features significant material from the Green Lantern comics, the setting often makes it feel like this is a job beneath the Green Lantern Corp. It also doesn’t help that, presumably because of budgetary reasons, pretty much all the aliens we do see are disguised as humans. This really makes the cosmic nature of the story fizzle out.

The characters are what allow the show to really shine. Even though he keeps a lot of what he’s thinking and feeling close to the vest, John Stewart is still an easy character to root for. The same is true of Hal Jordan, except in his case, he’s brash and cocky but damn good at what he does. Both Aaron Pierre as Stewart and Kyle Chandler as Jordan crush their roles. Particularity Chandler, who ends up playing Jordan as various points in his life that give us the same character, but he’s clearly a different man. Sheriff Kane and Zoe Macon bring some important shades of Grey to the story, while the remaining characters are fine. They do exactly what they need to do to tell this story.

When the show does spend some money on the superhero moments that one would expect from a Green Lantern show, it typically looks pretty good. The actual ring effects looks great, but the flying sequences can look a bit stiff at times. The few moments we get to see alien words, it’s clearly just some place on Earth like a desert, but some cool filters and sound effects do just enough to make things feel alien.

Overall, “Lanterns” doesn’t quite live up to the space adventures associated with Green Lantern, but a few solid mysteries and interesting character brought to life by great acting keep almost every moment of screen time interesting.

**** out of *****

TV Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Season 4)

This review may contain some SPOILERS

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In what has become the penultimate season of “Strange New World,” the series suffers from the bulk of the episodes featuring some kind of gimmick that isn’t necessarily bad, but it makes the entire season seem a bit frivolous.

Unlike previous season, there isn’t any particular narrative running throughout the season. Even the character arcs are limited. Add to this all the episodes that are some kind of gimmick, and it makes it all feel kind of disjointed. On their own, most of the gimmick episodes aren’t bad, even if most of them lean too much towards comedy, but there are really only three episodes that feel like “typical” Star Trek, so it seems like every week something wacky is going on. Unsurprisingly, the three “normal” episodes are the best. The others are hit or miss, but even the sillier episodes are worth a laugh or two. But the notorious puppet episode was a complete waste of time. It’s clear a lot of time and effort was put into making it, but it was an ill-conceived idea that been done better on other shows. And the ending was a slap in the face.

One of the series’ strengths has been its focus on the characters. And even though a little too much attention has been spent on their love lives, it helped ground the show somewhat. This season, it feels like only La”An has a consistent arc running throughout the season. Outside of that, there’s not a lot going on and even if there is something, they only scratch the surface on it. (In fact, apparently multiple episodes had their releases switched around and it really didn’t make a big difference.)

The show looks fantastic, While CG is obviously used for the most part, the ships and all the space phenomena look really cool. There are some really nice callbacks to previous Trek shows this season, but there’s also some more major disregard to established Trek canon.

Overall, with the majority of episodes featuring some kind of gimmick and a surprising lack of character arcs, season 4 of “Strange New Worlds” becomes an inconsistent string of episodes attempting to recreate something that’s been done before without really improving it.

** out of *****