A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is not the first horror game to feature blind enemies that are hypersensitive to the sounds you make. House of Ashes has its gnarly space-vampires that rely on echolocation to get around, The Last of Us has its iconic Clickers — caked in fungi that obscures all but their ears — and The Callisto Protocol has its (not at all iconic) Clicker knockoffs. Meanwhile, if we were to go back as far as Resident Evil 4, we’d find the hulking Garradors; feral gladiators whose eyes have been sewn shut and who will instinctively charge at the slightest of vibrations.
Anyway, the point is that it’s hardly a revolutionary concept. Should we expand the parameters a little to include creatures that enjoy perfect 20/20 vision — but still boast highly attuned hearing nonetheless — then we’d also have to account for the likes of Amnesia: The Bunker’s beast or the perceptive xenomorph from Alien: Isolation. Both of whom will come running at the faintest pin drop.
Yet while A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead may not have patented the idea of misophonia-afflicted monsters (nor did the 2018 John Krasinski movie upon which it is based) it is arguably the game that squeezes the most mileage from this gimmick. The only other title that really comes close is Wales Interactive’s Maid of Sker, but the mechanics of that indie never evolved much beyond “Press R1 To Hold Your Breath”.
Conversely, volume management is at the very heart of The Road Ahead. Every single action you take here has an associated decibel output that you need to be mindful of, whether it’s the opening of a rusty door, the decision to take a puff of your avatar’s inhaler, or daring to take a shortcut through a path that is lined with crunchy leaves. If you’re feeling especially confident, you can even up the ante by granting the game permission to break the 4th wall and listen in through your microphone feed: forcing you to play just like your character … In petrified silence.
Regardless of how much you’re willing to commit to the role-play, it’s an unbearably intense experience. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I winced so much during a horror title; squirming every time I absent-mindedly stepped on a shard of glass, or whenever I realized that I was gonna have to let a vent grate drop with a harsh, metallic clang. Indeed, for an excruciating five-to-six hours, the developers at Stormind Games had me totally in their thrall and I’m already eager to jump back in for a hard mode playthrough.
What To Expect When You’re Expecting
Like the cinematic outings in the Quiet Place saga, The Road Ahead centers on a compelling dynamic between two principal characters. The franchise’s debut installment was all about the strained relationship between a father and the daughter he couldn’t help but blame for a recent tragedy, its sequel then leaned into the ever-dependable “Badass and Child Duo” trope, and this year’s Day One thrust a pair of strangers together who, despite having very little in common, ultimately bonded over a perilous journey to retrieve the last decent pizza in New York.
Stromind’s adaptation feels particularly indebted to that first film, however, even going so far as to recycle key plot points from it, including: an inopportune pregnancy and a family unit that has been riven by both incredible grief and incredible guilt. Spanning a stressful couple of weeks, it puts you in the shoes of Alex Taylor: a former college student and tech wiz-kid who has resolved to make herself useful in the post-apocalypse.
Together with her childhood sweetheart, Martin, she routinely ventures out into the ruins of civilization to scavenge whatever supplies she thinks will be of greatest benefit to her settlement. Said wishlist usually comprises generic medicines, scrap parts, or food items, but when we join her — on Day 105 of the alien invasion — she’s trying to satisfy a more personal need.
You see, Alex has a suspicion that she may be pregnant with Martin’s child and so, desperate for certainty, decides to raid a nearby pharmacist in the hope that nobody else has gotten themselves knocked up lately and looted all the relevant tests. Suffice it to say, this excursion doesn’t go according to plan and one half of the scouting party ends up sacrificing themselves to protect the other. That’s Martin, by the way, not his pregnant girlfriend. Just in case that wasn’t clear.
Returning back to HQ, a devastated Alex then has the unenviable task of confronting her would-be mother-in-law, Laura. Alas, the unforgiving matriarch does not take the news of her son’s demise well, holding Alex personally accountable for it and locking her in a soundproofed room so that she cannot endanger anybody else.
Not one for solitary confinement — and worried about potential complications arising with the pregnancy — Alex promptly decides to spring herself from this cage and sets out on a treacherous quest. Traversing the city all by her lonesome, her goal is to track down the National Guard: praying that they will be able to give her the medical care she needs in order to successfully carry this baby to term.
Along the way, she’ll have to manage her condition, cross hazardous terrain, sidestep boobytraps that have been rigged by other survivors and, of course, avoid provoking the ire of those terrifying “Death Angels”. Not to mention, Laura is hot on her heels the entire time as well, determined not to lose another family member (in the form of her unborn grandchild) to Alex’s recklessness.
A Monster Movie Story With A Beating Human Heart
True to the spirit of the Quiet Place films, it’s an emotional, character-led narrative. So, if you’re hankering for a wall-to-wall bloodbath — replete with non-stop action and an excessive body count — then let’s just say there are other horror games out there that might better tickle your fancy. Outside of some minor injury detail and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it violence, there’s hardly any explicit content here whatsoever.
To be clear, that doesn’t mean the title is completely bereft of tension or creature-feature thrills, (on the contrary, there are some electrifying set pieces) but it is a slower-paced affair when compared to the likes of, say, Outlast. Indeed, it has more in common with this year’s contemplative Still Wakes the Deep than it does the relentless gorefest that is Dead Space or even the more sober of Resident Evil instalments.
Understatement is the name of the game here and the human drama can be fairly moving as a result. It’s hard not to feel pangs of sympathy, for example, as Alex and Laura try to reconcile their differences for the sake of a baby they both cherish, and the deceased loved one they both mourn.
To give away any of the specific beats would be a huge disservice to Stormind’s compassionate storytelling, but the point is there are a few really affecting scenes here. One particular standout is a brief moment of respite wherein Alex — having sought refuge in a safe house padded with vibration-absorbent materials — gets to unleash all of her pent-up emotions at once, belatedly processing several hours’ worth of misfortunes.
But perhaps even more heart-rending than the main plot are the epistolary notes that you’ll discover strewn around the environments. In-game documents are nothing new to the survival horror genre by any stretch of the imagination, but The Road Ahead’s feel especially well-written and authentic.
From coy, back-and-forth flirtations penned by awkward tweens at a summer camp, to the devastating journal entries of a bereaved parent who’s sheltering an orphan; there are some properly engaging mini-stories here. If you’re anything like me, you’ll actively go out of your way (and even put the expectant mother you’re controlling in jeopardy) just to find the next note in a given series. Clinging to the vain hope that one of these tales might have a happier resolution than your own. Spoiler alert: few of them do.
Despite the lack of upbeat endings, though, there is a prevailing sense of optimism with these logs. Across the board, they depict people coming together and exhibiting remarkable selflessness in the face of dire circumstances. For instance, another text recounts how a pair of blue-collar workers went above and beyond the call of duty to keep a pump station operating post alien arrival, for no other reason than to be Good Samaritans.
Where most media in this subgenre tends to assume that mankind will revert to its basest impulses once the chips are down, the Quiet Place franchise has always maintained a little more faith in humanity. Stormind clearly took that account with this adaptation, understanding that the appeal of their source material runs deeper than just: “What if the Cloverfield monster A) was smaller and B) had super hearing?”
Don’t Make A Peep
But enough of all that touchy-feely crap! You wanna know if this game actually delivers on its promise of making you feel like you’re part of the Quiet Place universe. That’s its unique selling point after all.
Well, thankfully, the developers do this side of things justice as well, incorporating clever mechanics, intricate systems, and smartly designed set pieces that force you to consider the aural implications of every single button that you press. The result is a licensed title that, for once, manages to capture the idiosyncratic vibe of the movies it’s based on, rather than contorting them beyond recognition to fit some pre-existing formula. It just goes to show what can be accomplished if the studios behind these things dare to think outside the box for a change, and don’t simply default to their comfort zone of (often asymmetrical) multiplayer whenever they’re entrusted with IP.
In fact, when it’s firing on all cylinders, The Road Ahead almost verges on Alien: Isolation levels of brilliance. Much like Creative Assembly’s gem, this is a pure, undiluted stealth experience at its core. Indeed, you have absolutely no means of defending yourself against the homicidal ETs — other than evading detection in the first place — and so must rely on your wits to survive.
As aforementioned, this translates to you being very, very careful about the amount of noise you make, because just barely going over the permitted threshold here could spell instant doom for Alex and her baby. In its simplest form, that’ll mean traversing environments at a glacial pace, softening your footsteps, and being vigilant of any obstacles that you could potentially bump into.
Tentative and gentle pushes of the analog stick are therefore recommended, as is plotting your route through areas well in advance. For example, the most obvious path to a destination might entail wading through puddles — and creating an inevitable splash that’s hard to muffle — when a safer option could be available in the form of a detour through an adjacent building.
That’d be an unusually straightforward scenario, of course, as the typical situations you’re dropped in here are far dicier. Among other things, you’ll have to account for the scrape a metal door produces when you yank it open, jumpy pigeons that are liable to cause a ruckus if you veer too close, and chasms that’ll need bridging with a squeaky plank of wood.
Yet the biggest complication of all is surely Alex’s asthma, which you’ll need to manage cautiously lest an ill-timed attack sends her spiralling into a coughing fit. No matter how wary you are of this danger, there will be instances where aggravating Alex’s condition — either through physical exertion, the kicking up dust, or prolonged exposure to stress— is unavoidable. At which point you’ll have to either nail a QTE to suppress the forthcoming wheezes or otherwise take a puff from an inhaler (which is itself noisy enough to prick up the ears of any lingering Death Angels in the vicinity).
It’s an interesting wrinkle that adds to your mounting pile of nerves. Although granted, it is a little odd that the town you’re exploring seems to have been exclusively populated by fellow asthmatics prior to the doomsday. Many of whom have courteously left their prescription medications lying on the floor or in briefcases; ripe for the taking.
Death By Fart
On that note, the game does provide some resources to help tip the scales in your favor. Again, these range from the basic (throwable distractions) to the more inventive (sandbags that can be emptied in order to pave a cushioned path to your objective).
The tool you’ll be relying on most though is the phonometer: a makeshift contraption that monitors the relative volume of ambiance, thereby enabling you to make informed decisions about how loud you can go without attracting any unwanted attention. Case in point, it might indicate that a howling wind is giving you ample cover to make a racket, or that an electrical hum in the background may drown out any whisper-quiet intrusions you’ve got planned. Alternatively, it could tell you that you’re in deathly silent conditions and therefore need to stay as hushed as possible.
It’s an ingenious way of taking a concept that could be quite difficult to quantify and making it easy for players to wrap their heads around. Displaying a pair of color-coded tracks (one representing the static base noise of your environs and another representing your own contributions to that soundscape), the phonometer is an elegant solution that removes any ambiguity over what exactly constitutes a spike in volume, and which noises you can get away with in your present circumstances. And once you’ve got a firm handle on the rules, it adds to the suspense because you appreciate just how many close calls you’ve had and know when you’re pushing your luck too.
The Road Ahead’s effective use of gadgets is not limited only to those devices that are found in-game either, with a number of peripherals getting a chance to shine as well. Sticking on a good pair of headphones, for instance, will heighten your already crippling paranoia by forcing you to fixate on every creaky floorboard and rustling forest bush. I got so absorbed in this experience that when I accidentally knocked over a paint bucket at one point — and had the ensuing clatter funneled directly into my ear canals — my entire body seized up in fear. It really did a number on me.
Braver souls can choose to immerse themselves even further in the horror by activating their own microphone, in turn allowing the game’s virtual enemies to react to real-world sounds. Obviously, there are practical factors to take into consideration with this (are your neighbors currently in the middle of an incessant DIY project? Are you coming down with a sinus-bungling cold?) but it’s a ton of fun if the stars do align.
After all, it cranks the anxiety up to a whole other level when you’re desperately trying to stifle a cough or refraining from leaning back in your gaming chair, just in case it needs oiling. There’s also something quite liberating about putting a finger to your lips when another member of the household waltzes into the room, and you’ve got a perfectly valid excuse for shushing them in this way. I mean, there’s lives at stake here damn it!
Speaking from first-hand experience, nothing compares to the catharsis that you feel upon arriving at a deafening waterfall or babbling stream when you’ve got the mic turned on here. It’s a welcome release of tension, providing an opportunity for you to finally clear your throat or perform some other bodily function that you’ve been holding in for the past hour (true story, I had at least one occurrence of flatulence upending my playthrough).
In short, the microphone feature is more than just a showy gimmick and legitimately helps you connect with The Road Ahead on a deeper level. I’d go so far as to describe it as the optimal way of engaging with the title.
Bumps In The Road (Ahead)
With all of that gushing out of the way, I have to admit there are faults that prohibit me from giving this a glowing, 5-star endorsement.
For a start, certain elements of design are outright clunky and unintuitive: such as how objects can only be interacted with from very precise angles. You get the sense that the developers realized it was a bit rough around the edges in this respect, because they’ve stuffed the game with intrusive tutorial screens to make sure you understand how it’s all supposed to work.
This compulsion to over-explain and handhold is especially frustrating, given that almost every mechanic in The Road Ahead is communicated to you organically anyway. If I were a betting man, I’d put money on these pop-ups being an eleventh-hour addition, because they do feel utterly redundant. Whether it’s through enlightening documents, sly lines of dialogue, or subtle visual cues, the game does a fantastic job of introducing its various systems to you and so pausing the action to shove an instructional diagram in your face does nothing but take you out of it.
Thankfully, you can toggle these condescending messages off in the menu, alongside a few other accessibility preferences that can be tweaked. What you’re sadly unable to switch off, however, are the myriad technical issues that plague the campaign and sometimes verge on game-breaking.
Contextual button prompts, in particular, have a nasty habit of disappearing when you’re in a tight spot, and I can attribute around a dozen of my deaths to Alex’s stubborn refusal to clamber over a knee-high windowsill. When so much TLC has clearly been poured into this product from a creative standpoint, it’s a shame that infuriating glitches like this can undermine that goodwill. Hopefully, the kinks will be ironed out in a patch soon.
Lastly, I have to admit that the game’s spell was kind of shattered for me once I began to cotton on to its behind-the-scenes rules, particularly those that govern the behavior of Death Angels. Just like when you discover that Resident Evil 7’s Jack cannot pursue you into certain wings of the Baker Plantation— or that the once-intimidating Chris Walker can be comically looped around tables in Outlast — so too are these creatures robbed of their menace, when you eventually learn they’re not the ever-present threat the developers would like you to believe.
Unless one is actively patrolling the area you’re in, there’s not much they can do until you pierce the sound threshold. And even that’s just an instant fail state, not an invitation for them to start hunting you more aggressively. Towards the end, Stormind also introduce too many easily exploited tactics that have the unintended effects of trivializing your stalkers. By that point, you become emboldened and less trepidations about the amount of noise you’re making; sapping half the fun from the stealth sections.
Jank and an underwhelming climax aside, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with A Quite Place: The Road Ahead. It’s got a compelling story, an inexhaustible supply of tension, and a keen grasp of what makes its source material so popular. Most impressive of all, however, it literally made me scared of my own farts.
Developed by Stormind Games and published by Saber Interactive, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is out now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam.
Review code provided by publisher.
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