Is Silent Hill: Townfall in first person?
Yes, the whole game. Steam says it is experienced entirely in first person, and Steam and the PlayStation Store both call it the first full-length Silent Hill game shown that way.
The official wording
“Experienced entirely in first person”
“first time a full-length SILENT HILL game is presented in a first-person perspective”
Full-length is the qualifier. Motoi Okamoto, the Konami producer, notes that The Short Message also used first person but was a smaller standalone experience. Said in PlayStation.Blog: the developers on the Scottish setting How that sits with the series is on the mainline page.
What first person changes on screen
The game uses a 2.35:1 aspect ratio: wider at the sides, shorter vertically, a cinematic look that also makes your vision feel restricted. Said in PlayStation.Blog: 9 ways first person changes the formula
You see only what Simon sees, so threats can come from the side or behind. McKellan says the narrow field of view makes audio more important, and that some moments are built so you must rely on subtle sounds to sense what you cannot see. Said in PlayStation.Blog: 9 ways first person changes the formula · Said in PlayStation.Blog: the developers on the Scottish setting
Simon’s inner thoughts sometimes appear as text over the screen instead of being spoken aloud. Said in PlayStation.Blog: 9 ways first person changes the formula
McKellan calls first person an indispensable foundation for the CRTV mechanics and says the device could not work from any other perspective. How it plays is on the CRTV page. Said in PlayStation.Blog: the developers on the Scottish setting
The schematic puts steps 2 to 4 on one frame: the text layer, the raised device and the parts of the world you cannot see. It is deliberately not a screenshot, since the sources describe these things but never say where on screen they sit.
Comfort options
The PlayStation Store lists a Visual Comfort tag, described as playing without camera movements and effects that might cause visual discomfort. Steam lists a Camera Comfort category. Listed on PlayStation Store (US) · Listed on Steam store page
Not found: what either option switches off, or whether the first-person view can be changed. No source describes another perspective. What would change this: a settings walkthrough from the studio or the platform holders.
Where to see it, and where it fits
PlayStation.Blog’s February post announced first-person gameplay in a new trailer, and the official videos are gathered on the trailer page. Announced in PlayStation.Blog: first-person gameplay in a new trailer The place the game is set, Scotland in 1996, is covered on the setting page. PlayStation.Blog’s hands-on report calls it the first Silent Hill game in which you fight creatures in first person; what that fighting looks like is on the combat page. Said in PlayStation.Blog: hands-on report