A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead

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If you enjoyed A Quiet Place movie. Then, if you enjoyed the movie like me, the news of a game being made for it might have surprised you. However, the team at Stormind Games is giving us an original story set in the world. A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is out already on PS5, Steam, and Xbox as of the 17th.

“A Quiet Place”, But my heart is screaming.

In A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, we step into the shoes of Alex. An outgoing girl who loves the outdoors and singing. Well, that was until the invasion. Now hunted by beings that strike at the sound of a pin drops, she must find a place where she can be safe.

A short gif of a man hinting at checking the back of the area. it is night-time and raining. — Never to late to learn Sign Language.

Gameplay

Now, if you’re jumping into A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, thinking being silent is going to be easy. Oh boy, are you wrong! The slightest sound catches the attention of the creature, and I mean the slightest. Besides having to open doors and draw at a snail’s pace. You’ll also have to tackle being asthmatic (oh yeah, you’re pregnant too, not the best combo for this world). I’ll go into more depth on how asthma affects gameplay, but right now the environment you have to avoid.

Puddles, glass, and even tall grass will all cause noise when walking through them. Walking through them will lower the amount of noise produced, although if it’s raining or you are close to a river, then you can be much louder. Early in the game, you obtain a device that helps you see just how much noise you’re allowed to make.

Asthma as a gameplay mechanic.

Let’s talk about the biggest hurdle you’ll have to manage, Alex’s Asthma. if you do nearly any action which isn’t walking/crouching she begins to get stressed, which leads to an asthma attack. When I mean any action, I mean anything! Running, climbing, opening anything, and picking up items. She can manage her stress and lower her chance of having an asthma attack by taking two things. One is typically an inhaler. They are one-time use and will attract the creature. The other are pills, although they are less effective.

I am in a dark corridor watching the creature walk past. In my hand is a device that displays how much noise I am making. — Good thing for the Phonometer to track my noise.

In A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, stress builds up fairly quickly and even more so when actually near the monster. If you are unfortunate to suffer an asthma attack, a mini-game will appear for Alex so she can calm herself down.

Graphics & Audio

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is great at building atmosphere. Audio is vital to this game, and it executes it well. Sounds are clear without being too loud, and there are helpful audio cues when avoiding noise and the creature. The lighting and textures are pretty good, and the voice acting is well done. My only gripe is the excessive use of the yellow paint guides. When you can vault over a wall or through the window, it’s marked with a lot of yellow paint.

I'm placing a box full of beer on a picnic table. A yellow highlight and paint shows where it's to be placed. — The paint could look more natural, like Silent Hill’s cloth.

While a small streak/splash is fine, it feels too glaringly obvious and takes away from the environment somewhat. The most excessive instance of the yellow paint was when I had to place a case of beer down on a picnic table, and there were two huge streaks of yellow on the table. Yellow paint guides are perfectly fine, but they felt obnoxious and overused in this game.

Longevity

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead took me just a little over eight hours to finish. I thought the game was going to be longer. If you’re one for 100% of your games, then you have 52 achievements to get. A good few rely on speed, so good luck to you. There are collectables which will give you credits. You can then use these in the extras section.

Final Thoughts

I have to admit; that I was sceptical about how they would achieve making A Quiet Place a game without being too dull. The gameplay is engaging and having you open everything manually adds a certain depth to the horror elements. The story is okay and provides a nice setup, however, I lost interest rather quickly and the plot feels too predictable. I felt the notes didn’t add much, maybe they talked more about the early days of the Invasion. From the ones I found it felt like just ranting. Pacing was also an issue for me as well. I understand you aren’t able to run, but walking does become gruelling after a while, especially after dying from minor mistakes.

I didn’t use A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’s microphone feature, as I have dogs and I would have been dying a lot more. Overall, I’d say the game provides a great experience and catches the atmosphere and tone of the movies but makes it better with you being at the wheel. I would definitively say it’s worth playing at least once, even more so if you enjoy the films.

This is why I’m awarding it the Thumb Culture Gold Award.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

About Author

Kyle McGrath

I’ve enjoyed video games for as long as I remember and I don’t think there isn’t a game I wouldn’t play. For reviews, I try my best to make them simple and easy to understand. With so many games released daily, I attempt to play them all.

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A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead – PC Review