Let me start out by saying I’m a fan of all three films from the A Quiet Place franchise. Every horror franchise has a hook, well, every good one that is. The Quiet Place’s hook of having alien creatures that can hear you exhale brings a whole new level of terror that most movies use as a short intense moment of hiding in a locker, holding your breathe because the killer might hear you. In this franchise, there is no maybe, just death.

In A Quiet Place Day One, a character dies because his shirt got caught in a machine and stretched out. The noise of the fabric got him killed. This is all great for horror movie fans, but if you are like me, you are probably wondering, how well does this translate in to a video game? Well, let’s explore the reasons as to why it does and doesn’t translate in A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead.

Attention to Detail

In A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead you play as protagonist Alex. While surviving an apocalypse is one thing, surviving it as someone who struggles with asthma is another thing. Not to mention you will find out early in the game there are… other complications that make things difficult for you. Sorry, trying to stay spoiler free.

The story telling in this game is very solid. Its story beats are very similar to the movies and really feels like a true spin-off from the films. The game takes place after the Day 1 movie and before the original Quiet Place movie. Alex is not from any of the movies and her story is completely her own. You do not need to see the movies to play this game.

My second favorite thing about The Road Ahead, (next to the microphone noise detection)is its environmental story telling. The environmental story telling is S tier. Some games exclusively go off of environmental story telling, and this game does it better than most.

I walked in to a home and pieced together a story of a family who lost a daughter before Day 1 and gained a daughter during the apocalypse. You explore the room of the daughter who passed, and can see where the adopted daughter stayed and drew pictures while she hid.

Another thing that impressed me about its environmental story telling was finding some D&D character creation sheets surrounded by guides laying around. If you pay close attention, some of the people who made those character sheets will pop up in other people’s stories.

Don’t Move, Don’t Whisper, Don’t Even Breathe

The Asthma system in The Road Ahead is a great compliment to already difficult terrain. Watching your every step, trying to make sure you don’t walk to fast, or on a noisy surface, all while trying not to have an asthma attack, is intense.

The way the Asthma system works, is you are given a stress meter that indicates how close you are to an asthma attack. Being in a dusty environment, heavy lifting or being in close proximity to a creature can cause your stress meter to go up.

You can find pills that instantly lower your stress level and also inhalers. Inhalers can be caried with you to lower your stress levels when needed. But use wisely, because your inhaler will make a small noise when you use it. It can alert aliens to your location or get you killed if you are close enough to one of those things.

You will be armed with a flash light and a device called a phonometer. The phonometer will indicate to you the sounds the environment makes versus the sounds you are making. For example, that blue bar will fill up when you are near a water fall, so walking noise will be more than covered by that noise.

You can go in to accessibilities and change your phonometer to show the level of awareness the aliens have towards you as well. This doesn’t affect your difficulty level.

The thing that stands out most about The Road Ahead is its microphone noise detection feature. This will be turned off by default. You will be able to go in to settings and turn it on and off at any time. I highly recommend this feature.

I went in to this game wanting the most immersive experience I can get. I am happy to report the noise detection is not a gimmick nor disappointment. You fully provides what you should expect from it.

You might be thinking, I’ll turn it on but I don’t talk while playing video games, so what is the big deal? You start to realize just how much noise you make once you turn it on. I played this game at night when my family was asleep and I still died to noise. Noise such as, I scratched my face, I resituated myself on the couch to get more comfortable, my dog got up off the couch, and I gulped water too loud. I can’t tell you how I know this… but rumor has it… if you fart… you will die…

This game strives in creating a tense environment that has you gasping for breathe to stay quiet even when you forgot your mic is turned off.

Noise Cancelling… Loading Screens?

We can all relate to getting a snack in the middle of the night and staying as quiet as possible as to not disturb your family members. Close your cabinets as slow as possible, place items down slowly, and remembering which step on the staircase not to step on because it creaks so loudly. A Quiet Place The Road Ahead taps into that quite well.

You will need to slowly open doors and monitor the amount of noise you are making as you do so. Disabling alarms can feel really awkward which is awesome, because in reality, it would be incredibly awkward to cut down a bunch of cans while making sure they don’t make a noise. You will need to carry planks of wood to cross yourself over gaps. This will cause stress to your asthma meter, even more so as you manually have to lower the board down on to the ground as to not make noise.

This is where I get in to some of my biggest disappointments of the game. They did such a great job of making you worry about the smallest noises, that when you do make other small noises, it sticks out to you when those noises suddenly don’t cause a problem. Let me explain…

I can walk on concrete outside and it somehow makes more noise than walking on concrete… on the other side of the parking lot? It can be inconsistent, therefore hard to manage the sounds you will produce by going from point A to B. This gets very noticeable the further in to the game you get.

But my pet peeve on this noise design is the loading screens. By loading screens I am referring to squeezing in between object, climbing over a railing, climbing a ladder, or climbing on top of a structure. All of the things I just listed are automatic interactions. Meaning, all I do is press A and its done. I don’t need to worry about the noise I am making as I hoist myself on to a crate. Which if you ask me, is a huge missed opportunity. I would be FAR more stressed in real life about climbing than I would be opening a door, or unscrewing a vent with a screw driver. Both of which require you doing them manually in the game.

The last complaint I have on noise mechanics is the radio. At one point in The Road Ahead you will be given a radio to hear someone give you instructions. Ignoring the fact that a radio makes noise, he instructs you to tap the mic once for yes and twice for no. For a game where you can use your microphone, seems like some low hanging fruit that was missed out on for me to physically tap the microphone to further immerse myself.

The game is beautiful with great atmosphere and sound quality to back it up. It has a lot of accessibility options that don’t impact your trophies/achievements. However, for a game that’s main focus is its sound, there are very little sound options.

While the graphics are amazing and character models look good, their facial expressions sure could use some polish. At multiple points Alex looks in to a small mirror (which feels un-needed) and will audibly cry while not showing any expression. Even during dramatic moments in the story, other characters facial expressions going from mad to happy looks rough. Almost like you can see a light switch flipping to change their expression.

Final Thoughts

I know it sounds like I’ve complained a lot. I’ve been back and forth on what I would rate A Quiet Place The Road Ahead. At the end of the day, its issues stick out to me so much because this game flirts so much with perfection. They aim to immerse you in to an experience that will make your heart stop. It successfully does so until you hit a minor flaw that can break your immersion.

This game costs $29.99USD and takes 8-10 hours to beat. The game doesn’t overstay its welcome, if it was longer I think I would have gotten burnt out much like Alien: Isolation. The price tag is perfect. Much of my complaints would hold more weight in a $69.99 game. The game looks, sounds and plays so great I often forgot it was just a thirty dollar game.

I went into this game playing it on hard mode with noise detection mode on. I had high hopes for an immersive Quiet Place experience, this game did not disappoint. If you liked Alien Isolation you will love this game.

A Quiet Place The Road Ahead was reviewed on Xbox Series X and is also available on Xbox Series S, PS5 and PC, releasing on October 17th. We want to thank Stormind Games and Saber for the review code.