A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is the slowest horror game yet. Review

Played on Xbox Series S

The post-apocalyptic horror film A Quiet Place was so well received by film critics and audiences that it marked the beginning of a whole trilogy of films. And now we also got the game A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead – obviously a horror game. The only thing that connects it with the paintings of John Krasinski is the universe in which, after a meteor shower, creepy arachnid monsters appeared on Earth. There are no more intersections – the characters are completely different, the plot is also different. However, if the films were nominated for both an Oscar and a BAFTA award, then the game is unlikely to be praised as much.

⇡#We walk quietly in a “Quiet Place”

The universe of A Quiet Place seems quite strange, and the premise makes no sense. If the monsters here are completely blind and rely only on hearing, why do they mostly only respond to human sounds? Why aren’t the aliens distracted every second by sounds of nature like falling leaves, because they can even hear characters whispering? And if monsters can’t swim, why don’t people organize shelters near bodies of water? Or won’t they surround everything with speakers that constantly produce piercing sounds that these “spiders” cannot stand?

Monsters are blind, so they won’t see you even at arm’s length

This lack of logic worked to the advantage of the developers of The Road Ahead – aliens with such convenient habits fit perfectly into the game format. Therefore, when controlling a girl named Alex, we must do everything as quietly as possible. Every unnecessary movement can lead to the instant death of the heroine – you don’t even have to try to save yourself if the monster notices you. You won’t be able to run away or sneak somewhere (which is strange, because in one of the episodes we still have to flee).

It’s easy to imagine what a drag it can be to complete the game, where you have to do everything slowly and silently. You open the door (here you tilt the stick in the right direction, as in many horror films) – it will creak, so you can’t rush. As you walk around the room, you need to make sure that no broken glass or cans get in the way under your feet. You walk along the road – there are a lot of puddles there, and the squelching of water will also attract the attention of enemies. You can’t even quickly pull drawers out of chests of drawers; they also make sounds.

The main character doesn’t talk out loud to herself, but her thoughts appear at the top of the screen

At first it seems like a fun mechanic, but with each passing hour you get more and more tired of it. It is clear that a horror game in which you can run from room to room would look strange, but here you are afraid to even stand up and constantly move in a squat. What seems especially absurd is that danger awaits at every turn, regardless of whether you see a monster next to you or not. When the enemy is walking somewhere nearby, it is logical that you should not make noise. But when you are in an isolated room, where there is only sealed ventilation, a closed door and two narrow windows, you start running for the sake of experiment – and you also die. This is already quite strange.

Because of this, some gameplay mechanics seem unnecessary, although in a game with more adequate artificial intelligence they would be useful. For example, at the beginning the heroine makes a phonometer – a device that shows on two scales the level of noise around her and the volume of sounds she makes when moving. But when the monster reacts to every rustle, even without a phonometer you roughly understand in which cases you can invite trouble and in which you cannot. There is also a whole episode where there are sandbags lying around every step, and it seems like you need to grab these bags and sprinkle sand in front of you in order to move along it silently. But why do this when you can just sit down or walk slowly is unclear.

The invention is excellent. Sorry, unnecessary

⇡#Harmful to health

Not only is it impossible to gain speed, but the heroine of The Road Ahead also suffers from asthma. Each of her actions can bring the attack closer, and with it the end of the game. For example, in one of the episodes you need to carry boards to use them as bridges. As soon as you grab the board, a light icon appears in the corner of the screen – the game hints that holding heavy objects in your hands for a long time is undesirable. The same thing happens when trying to speed up or simply move a box from place to place. And of course, excitement and panic at the sight of a monster can also trigger an attack.

Two things help to cope with this. Firstly, in this world people don’t mind parting with their medications, so bottles of pills are scattered at every step – either lying on the floor or lying on shelves. Simply grab the pills, and the heroine will automatically swallow them (even when the monster is wandering nearby). Secondly, in the same way you can find disposable inhalers everywhere, and this is where difficulties arise with them. The pills only partially improve your health, and the inhaler minimizes the possibility of an attack, only when you use it you make sounds. So, if a monster hangs around you, and the lung indicator in the corner turns red and pulsates, you have to quickly look for a way out.

The painting on the wall doesn’t make this place any less creepy.

At first, such moments seem very tense – this is literally a survival horror, where you are trying to survive in difficult conditions. But over time, you begin to suspect that you find yourself in such situations for a reason. The artificial intelligence of the monsters is “twisted” in such a way that the enemy almost always wanders next to you, even if you don’t make a sound and are far away from the starting point. The most striking example of this was in the middle of the game, when I squatted for half an hour to reach a small building, carefully opened the door and grabbed a part of the ladder needed to advance through the plot. For some reason, the monster immediately approached the building and crawled through the door, stood there for a couple of seconds and crawled back out. He definitely didn’t hear the creak – the music in the game tells you when this happens.

The same goes for trying to confuse enemies – after a couple of hours of starting the game, you will learn to throw bricks and bottles to distract the monsters. No matter how far you throw objects, the aliens will first run in that direction and inspect everything there, and then they will come exactly to where you are. This really enlivens some episodes, but as soon as you realize that the behavior of the enemies is not written entirely honestly, their actions become predictable and no longer cause fear.

Facial animations are quite good, the characters’ emotions are easy to read

It seems that a lot of negative things have already been said about the game, but I still can’t call it bad. The graphics are good, some moments are genuinely creepy, and at times The Road Ahead gets a little less linear than most episodes and allows you to get to your goal in different ways. Take the path with bear traps and traps – or take a different path, with a creaky door and puddles. Throw a brick at the window of the house, which will attract a monster, and then take inhalers and other valuables from there, or pass by and move along the plot. The story, by the way, is intriguing, although the behavior of the characters is sometimes so inappropriate that it becomes difficult to believe in what is happening. But you don’t want to skip the dialogues, and the episodes in which we are returned to the very beginning of the disaster (the main story takes place more than a hundred days after the meteor shower) turned out to be very interesting.

***

It feels like the developers of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead focused too much on the idea of ​​perfectly hearing monsters and failed to build a compelling gameplay around it. They try to introduce new mechanics, put the player in different situations, force him to use the environment and consumables wisely (especially on a high difficulty level, where there are few of them) and sometimes provide sufficient freedom of action. But many mechanics turn out to be unnecessary – it’s enough to move in a crouch and slowly open everything. And when you move in a squat and slowly open everything, it becomes boring. Perhaps someone will like this kind of gameplay – if you like the universe of A Quiet Place, and you adore leisurely horror and thrillers. But even in this case, it is better not to take risks and wait for discounts.

Advantages:

• New game mechanics are introduced quite often, even if they do not always seem useful;
• Basically everything is linear, but some locations can be completed in different ways;
• An intriguing story with interesting episodes from the beginning of the disaster;
• Beautiful detailed graphics.

Disadvantages:

• Too often you have to walk oh-so-slowly and take ten seconds to open each door;
• Some of the mechanics (like a phonometer and even a flashlight) are simply unnecessary;
• The artificial intelligence of the monsters is “tweaked” so that they always end up next to the player, which is why over time it becomes less scary;
• Some situations that the heroes find themselves in seem to have been made up from thin air.

Graphic arts

It’s hard to find a modern 3D horror game that doesn’t look beautiful, and the graphics are as realistic as anywhere else. The design of the monsters is cool, but this is not the merit of the game developers.

Sound

Classic “cinema” music from horror films, with sharp sounds informing you that a monster is hunting you. The actors did a good job with the voice acting.

Single player game

A linear horror game with a normal plot, in which the player is sometimes released into non-linear locations. But you can get tired of the extremely leisurely process very quickly.

Estimated time of completion

From 8 to 10 hours – depends on how often you die, tired of doing everything slowly.

Collective game

Not foreseen.

General impression

A very slow horror game, tiring with extremely leisurely gameplay and the need to constantly slow down – even when you open the doors. Some people may like this, but even this year there have been quite a few more noteworthy projects released in the horror genre.

Rating: 6.0 / 10

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