The Halloween period is always conducive to the arrival of numerous horror games on the market, forcing fans of the genre to sort through the breadth of the offer. Titles whose quality is often very uncertain, even if a few manage to stand out from the crowd and manage to pique the interest of players looking for thrills. This is the case of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, a production imagined by the Italian developers Stormind Games, and taken from the Sans Un Bruit franchise.
With three films to its credit, the Without a Sound franchise has managed to make a name for itself since the release of the first part directed by John Krasinski in 2018. As proof, the publisher Saber Interactive and the Italian developers Stormind Games, to whom we owe the Remothered horror game serieswere quick to offer us an adaptation which has its own scenario. No Abbott family like in the first two films, nor large-scale carnage like in the spin-off Jour 1The Quiet Place: The Road Ahead prend le parti de give us a completely new story, in the company of Alex and Martintwo close friends who try to survive the invasion of big animals with keen hearing. Because if you are not an expert on the universe, know that Without a Sound tells the story of the eradication of humanity by creatures from space, totally blind, but ready to pounce on you at least sound perceived.
In this free adaptation, we find ourselves a little more than a hundred days after the start of hostilities, at a moment where humanity has already adopted some behaviors essential to its survival. Alex and his friend thus understood that it was better to go out on rainy days, and above all to walk quietly to avoid being spotted. A concept that goes together perfectly in the genre of the horrific walking-simulatorand even more since the term “walk” takes on absolutely its full meaning here. Because you will have understood, the slightest running step can attract attention, and the game does not allow you to indulge in this little suicidal fantasy. In A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, everything is done by walking, slowly at that, which can take some time to adapt to players who don’t like dragging their feet. The pace is, in fact, particularly slow, compensated by an omnipresent tensionand this from the prologue. The developers also take advantage of this to titillate the player, and put his nerves to the test, the better to pick him up with a few jump-scares placed where we perhaps least expect them.
Moments of calm are rare, and generally short, and it’s an understatement to say that the title from Stormind Games manages to grip the guts during almost the entire adventure. The experience is intenseand therefore not intended for just anyone, with survival horror components which bring another dimension to the whole. Because as if that wasn’t enough, Alex is prone to asthma attacks, and I might as well tell you that anxiety situations are numerous enough to make him want to take a good puff of Ventolin. Designed in a straight line, with a division into chapters, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead thus places several bronchodilator refills on the player’s route. Same thing with the batteries in his flashlight, which tend to discharge in record time. The omnipresence of these objects breaks the immersion a little, but has the merit of reinforcing gameplay mechanics useful to the genre. Note that the game offers three difficulty modeswith differences in the number of elements available along the way and the auditory sensitivity of enemies, much more punishing in difficult mode.
As we said, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead adopts a linear structurewhich nevertheless allows him to completely control the unfolding of his scenario, and therefore to maintain a certain rhythm. Overall, we alternate between a trio of sequences, with flashbacks on the one hand, which allow us to learn more about Alex, Martin and the members of their family, while experiencing the arrival of the invaders with them. Back in the present, you must move forward, taking care not to step on branches, broken glass or in puddles. As in the films, sand paths are used to indicate the route, while attenuating the sound of footsteps. After an introductory chapter, Alex then has a sound level meter to measure the noise it emitsespecially when she has to open a door that tends to squeak, or when she has to put down a plank to cross a precipice. The young woman’s other tool is obviously her flashlight. Even if the majority of chapters take place at night or in dark places, we still appreciate that the developers thought of including daytime sequences, which also allows us to better enjoy rather pretty graphics, and environments reminiscent of the universes of The Walking Dead or War of the Worlds. We also spotted a little wink with the cap of Clementine (the heroine of the Telltale games) which was lying around in a shelter.
Coming back to the gameplay, we regularly face phases reminiscent of Alien: Isolation, where it is necessary to cross an area discreetly, in the presence of one or more enemies. Here again, you can imagine that the tension is at its height, especially since the sound design constantly reminds us that the threat is omnipresent, and that a a single mistake can prove fatal. It’s obviously impossible to fight against the enemy’s speed, while their slamming adds stress to the action. The most courageous can choose to deactivate certain aids, with the possibility of removing the now famous yellow paint which indicates a passage to take, or the quest marker (already optional as standard). To add some immersion, the developers included a microphone modeand thus adds a way to alert your tormentors if you are too noisy. With or without this mode, it seems obvious that playing with headphones greatly improves the gaming experience, and immerses you even more in the atmosphere. The only small annoyance is the presence of a blocking bug, which should nevertheless be corrected during a patch.
To force exploration, the developers thought of including collectibles and documents to collect. It’s not much, but it still allows us to break the impression of linearity a little. Certain passages attempt to bring a little variety in gameplaywith the need to avoid wolf traps, throw glass bottles to attract attention elsewhere, or empty sandbags yourself to move forward without making noise. We feel that the Italian studio was keen to offer a complete experiencealthough a little short since it takes around six hours to see the end. There artistic direction is consistent with the universe of the filmsand even if the animations of the secondary characters seem a little rigid, that doesn’t really prevent you from being carried away by this particularly atypical concept.
