A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead Review: A Whisper of What Could Be

With Silent Hill's recent revival thanks to Bloober Team and fresh survival horror titles like Crow Country making waves, it feels like the genre is enjoying a full-on renaissance. And while I haven't seen A Quiet Place: Day One, I loved the original movie and its sequel for their suspenseful moments and intriguing themes. The idea that the slightest noise could tip off a creature to one's location is utterly terrifying.

While many survival horror franchises lean on the fear of lurking, unseen monsters in the dark, A Quiet Place flips the script, making the player's safety entirely their own responsibility. So when I heard that A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead was coming to consoles and PC, I was instantly intrigued.

Fortunately, the game does an excellent job of capturing the eerie atmosphere and tension from the movies, letting you live out the horror in a way that feels both immersive and nerve-wracking. However, while it nails the survival mechanics, it does fall short when it comes to offering an original narrative or fresh ideas of its own. 

The game attempts to capitalize on the franchise's trademark fear of being heard with its microphone detection, which allows monsters to hear you not just in the game, but in real life, too. In-game, you'll need to sneak by monsters, adjusting your speed and pathing to remain stealthy. But all the while, you'll also have to keep yourself from gasping or uttering a thought aloud. For me, this added another distinctive layer of immersion and was one of the game's highlights. I found myself hyper-aware of every movement and every breath, dreading the monsters around Alex, the game's protagonist, as if they were in my own living room.  If you've ever wondered what it would be like to find yourself right in the middle of A Quiet Place movie, the game does a pretty great job of allowing you to experience that.

Of course, you can play without the microphone feature if you prefer. It’s a solid option, especially if you’re playing in a public place or your cat decides this is the perfect time to start knocking things off the counter. But the microphone detection is so pivotal to the experience that I'd highly recommend turning it on if at all possible.

Beyond the fear of your own voice betraying you, there’s also the challenge of managing Alex’s asthma. Staying quieter becomes even more difficult when you factor in the fact that Alex has asthma attacks, managed by finding inhalers and pills scattered around the world. As an asthmatic myself, I appreciated the representation and how the game's writers carefully wove Alex's disability into her experiences in this strange, unfamiliar world. It never feels like an afterthought; instead, it’s a key part of Alex's experiences, shaping her journey and survival in this dangerous, unfamiliar world. 

Keeping your voice masked and managing asthma aren't Alex's only approaches to avoiding creatures in the game. The environment, and how you use it, plays a huge role in staying off the radar. You'll need to spread out sand from bags to create paths to walk on silently, and can even distract your alien pursuers by throwing items. If you're out of other options, you might also try masking your footsteps or other sounds you're making by standing in a noisy area, hoping that the sounds you make aren't loud enough to stand out.

Unfortunately, while this myriad of stealth approaches does add some variety to the game, it's not enough to stop things from getting monotonous quite quickly. The levels and graphics themselves are gorgeous and diverse; you'll explore dark ducts, a forest, mountains, and gorgeous waterfalls. Subtle environmental details like the rustling of leaves, or the distant trickle of water both add to the atmosphere and the gameplay, serving as ways to mask your sound. However, while the visuals shine, the mechanics often feel too static. Each encounter feels a bit like the last, with little room for strategic depth or variation. You’re tasked with sneaking, hiding, and avoiding detection and, at one point, you get to briefly use a gun despite the game's overall hesitance to offer you a weapon.

The gameplay loop quickly falls into a rhythm that, despite its tense premise, doesn't evolve much. The focus on stealth is strong, but the lack of deeper gameplay progression leaves the experience feeling more like a series of beautifully designed but repetitive moments, rather than a truly dynamic survival horror journey.

The occasionally monotonous gameplay might have been easier to overlook if the story had been stronger. While the game effectively captures the suspense and atmosphere of the A Quiet Place movies, it misses an opportunity to build its own narrative. Developing Alex's backstory and motivations more deeply could have given the game much-needed emotional weight and depth, allowing players to become more invested in her survival. As it stands, Alex feels like a vessel for the game’s mechanics rather than a fully realized character. 

I have mixed feelings about A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead. On one hand, the game definitely succeeds in capturing the tense, nerve-wracking atmosphere of the films, and I think A Quiet Place fans will absolutely love it. The innovative use of microphone detection and the challenge of managing Alex’s asthma offer moments of true immersion and suspense.

However, the game ultimately falls short in its narrative and gameplay depth, making it a solid but somewhat repetitive experience. With more character development and a more varied gameplay loop, it could have been a truly unforgettable survival horror classic. As it stands, it remains a great, immersive experience, not one that leaves a lasting impact or stands out in the crowded survival horror genre.