The A Quiet Place films have a special place in my heart, as the second film was shot around where I live, with one of the filming locations I frequently visit. So you can guess that when I got word that a game that takes place in that cinematic universe was coming, I was beyond excited. I want to give a big thank you to Saber Interactive, Paramount Game Studios, and Stormind Games for letting me review this game!
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead puts players in the shoes of Alex, a young woman with asthma as she tries to survive the world around her. While scavenging she learns that there’s a National Guard camp that is taking in survivors and she’s going for broke to get there as quietly as possible as the hearing-sensitive creatures are not the only threat she’s facing.
Now, onto the game itself! The controls for A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead are your standard FPS-style controls but with different functions than what you’re used to. The main thing you’ll have to get used to quickly is having complete and steady control of the stick on your controller to control how fast you walk and open doors.
The look of the game’s world along with the lighting is pretty when it’s supposed to be pretty, and creepy when it’s super creepy. speaking of creepy, yup, the creatures are creepy as you would expect and the idea that you could summon them by simply kicking a tin can by accident adds a whole level of stress.
That leads to gameplay. The game is tense with the concept that making noise can cause your death, and yes there are items added to the game world designed to make a lot of noise if you touch them. Adding to the tension in the game, which I thought was unique, was Alex’s asthma. Alex can have an asthma attack if she becomes too stressed from climbing, carrying, or being too close to the creatures. In some dusty areas, it can aggravate her asthma as well. Once Alex’s lung meter is full, she can go into a full asthma attack and cough uncontrollably.
Before I’m done, I should note that the game now features a mechanic where you can set up your Mic so you can really immerse yourself into the game! Many people have tried it and reported that this feature added a new level of terror while playing!
Overall, I really like A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, the unique gameplay, though done in other games in the past but not to this level of horror, is something fans of the films will enjoy. The blend of post-apocalyptic horror and human drama where the human drama is not the core of it shows the storytellers learned from past mistakes of others (Looking Scornfully at You Walking Dead). the only complaint I have about the game is that the world is too noisy (birds, insects, etc) as in the films the world is more eerily quiet for obvious reasons, but since that’s a minor critique, on my scale of 1-10, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a 10!
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is out now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
