A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead has the advantage of having one of the best Astral Horror properties at its back, and in a time when horror is having a moment it couldn’t have better timing.
When I say Astral Horror, I mean that A Quiet Place slots into that beguiling section of horror where the creatures operate on an almost feral level and are not only alien in how they work, but their origin. The Thing’s Thing, Alien’s… Alien and A Quiet Place’s Death Angels. A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, should — especially after the massive success of Alien: Isolation — slot right in as a classic game. Does it though? Very nearly.
When it comes to tension and a palpable feeling of fear there are only a few games out there that are masterclasses. Most of them achieve that through a perfect combination of two things: Pacing and Perspective. In good horror game design there is almost zero point in killing you the moment you make a mistake, because it undermines the feeling of fear and vulnerability that you have as a character in the world; But you also can’t be immortal and immune to the monsters or threat, or you’ll never feel like you’re part of the world. Its why games like Gone Home and Dear Esther almost feel like horror games — because you feel like you’re in those hauntingly empty worlds — and why others feel laughable at times.
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead has three major things at play to make you feel vulnerable: the protagonist’s severe asthma; the fact that humans always ruin everything; and that our world itself is rarely quiet. I should clarify, for those who haven’t seen the movies, its Death Angels are highly sensitive to noise and hate it so much that, well, they try to destroy the source.
The fact that human’s always ruin everything: That’s a classic. It’s the major underlying threat in most zombie situations, and always adds a different, more erratic and unpredictable threat to a situation where the enemies might be cunning, but aren’t actually intelligent on a relatable level — something that runs through all three of the series that I mentioned at the start of the review. Greed, fear, or just selfish self-preservation — that’s here, and even from the first chapter it’s clear that there’s going to be issues with other survivors, even if you are stronger together.
Protagonist Alex’s asthma is the big changer here, and while it feels a little arbitrary and frustrating at times it’s a constant reminder that we’re not all actually Cool Guys landing headshots on deadly, deadly bastards. The asthma needs to be managed through the use of inhalers, an incredibly scarce item that encourages you to take risks and explore thoroughly. It’s a great inclusion, albeit sometimes it encourages a little bit of immersion-breaking in the form of restarts restoring lung conditions and the like. This makes it simultaneously the best and worst thing about the A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead experience.
I think that, while it released as a horror game, a lot of future stealth games or immersive sims might look to this as a turning point or inspiration. We’ve been distracting guards in games for at least two decades now, but I loved the idea of pouring sand on the floor to mute my footsteps — imagine that in a game that had both human (who would follow the trail) and feral enemies? The Road Ahead was full of moments that made me think of other uses for things it does well, and that, for me, is a sign of careful, thoughtful design.
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead isn’t the most ambitious title, but what it does do, it does fantastically.
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is available now for Xbox Series, PS5 & PC
