Introduction

Movie/franchise-themed games have always had a bad reputation, for good reason, unfortunately. Most of these titles are obvious cash grabs knowing either kids or super fans will buy the game even if it was made by a team of two people who were rushed to meet deadlines.

That’s why I was a bit hesitant to jump for joy at A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead. I loved the movies (especially the first one) but I never sat down and wished for a game for them. A stealth-themed survival horror game…it’s been done before a million times and for the most part has been done exceedingly well.

Yet, at only half the price of a normal game (less if you’re talking about most triple-A games now), I decided to spend my hard-earned extra cash and download it. Here’s what I’m going to immediately say. A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead isn’t horrible but to say it’s great or even as memorable as the movie…might be pushing it.

Here’s my review of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead for the PS5.

Watch the Official Trailer

Gameplay

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead knows its source material, more or less. In this side story (it does take place in the movie universe) you play as, Alex, a young woman who doesn’t, by any definition, have it easy. After the strange alien invasion (if that is what it is) Alex and her boyfriend Martin are trying to survive and help their community who have sought refuge in a local hospital.

Unfortunately, Alex discovers two things. One, she is pregnant with Martin’s child (in this world that isn’t too much of a celebration-inducing announcement) and two, her asthma still is a problem. Sadly, it doesn’t take long for Alex’s world to go from nightmarish to hell and she soon discovers she needs to survive on her own.

This is where the player begins their long road indeed.

At its core, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a first-person survival horror heavy (and I mean heavy) on stealth elements. Like the movie counterparts, the alien monsters are blind and only go off sound to hear/attack their prey.

This means moving in A Quiet Place The Road Ahead isn’t a run-for-cover-and-attack game…you’ll be crouching and walking lightly, even opening doors slowly…if the sound gets too high, you’re dead.

Here’s where A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead succeeds and fails. On paper, this setup should be perfect and often works for some tense moments. The first few hours I was constantly crawling around praying I didn’t hit a tin can (which makes a ton of noise) or run too fast for the aliens to get me…because this isn’t a health-based affair, you die if these things hear you.

Adding to the initial tension, Alex’s asthma makes it so that if you end up too panicked by the alien’s prescience, you’ll begin to breathe loudly and possibly die. You have an inhaler and meds to calm you but these are scattered and being too quick/or cornered too often will spell doom for poor Alex.

Honestly, I was scared for my life early on as simple mistakes would end my run and I’d be reloaded several minutes back at a checkpoint. You can even have your microphone on to make it extra scary as the monsters will hear your outside noise and attack. I turned this off sadly as I live in NY and playing this in the afternoon (my most free time) was met with sirens and sound effects that usually got me killed.

The problem with A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is that after the initial fear wears off and you learn what you can and can’t do, you won’t be caught often unless you make a mistake and or are just trying to beat a level fast. The addition of an in-game mic that lets you hear your noise and the aliens makes figuring out how quiet you need to be in an area easy and often, I didn’t need to use the inhaler because I wouldn’t stay put long enough for Alex to begin having an attack.

Another issue I had, personally (this could be subjective), was the overall gameplay and it being very tedious as the hours passed. Most areas contained the same formula: sneak around, find some random object to advance the plot, sneak past a monster by using environmental items like bricks/bottles, and then move to the next area.

I won’t deny I fell asleep during one segment just because it wasn’t scary or difficult, just boring. Later, there are more exciting segments like shooting one of the aliens from a moving car and a few others. I won’t spoil but these are few and far between. I think A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead had the potential to be exciting and epic but ended up being a bit too formulaic, despite some clever ideas.

Graphics

Again, I wasn’t expecting much from a $30 game so when I booted up A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, the visuals surprised me quite a bit. The aliens themselves look really good and mirror the designs of the movies. Likewise, the environment designs are often very detailed, and the forest levels (which are a few) look a bit too similar. Overall though, I think for the price of admission, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead looks good.

Sound

If the sound element of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead was bad…I’d say this entire game would be a pass without a thought. I mean come on, a silence-themed would fail if it was all silence with no substance. Luckily, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead sound works pretty well. The tension is amped up when you hear the clicking of the alien enemies and all the minor sounds of sticks/cans moving is great.

The voice acting (when it does happen) is also pretty solid and helps the story. Yet, even with the solid voice acting it’s time to talk about the story and that is probably one of the weakest elements of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead.

Story

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead has a very mediocre story if I’m being honest. Finding all the bits of lore and story segments doesn’t help either as nothing makes this story more engaging. Alex and her plight has been done before in almost every sci-fi/horror movie ever and many themes feel taken from other games like A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead.

Alex herself is relatable but aside from that, nothing else about her story ever captured my attention. Is A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead a bad story? No. I’ve seen worse but I feel they could have blended the franchise together in better ways and they could have explored more of a prequel element of A Quiet Place.

Overall Impression

As a stealth game, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is fine and as a survival horror…it’s passable. In my mind, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is what happens when a developer does a good job with a franchise-based title but doesn’t push the bill far enough to make it stand out. That is ultimately what kind of makes A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead so average.

Nothing about it stands out. I didn’t hate my time playing and like I said, the first few hours were truly pretty scary. Sadly, by the end of the game, I walked away thinking about what could have been done better and that is a problem in and of itself.

Conclusion

Fans of A Quiet Place and the other movies in the series will no doubt want to dive into A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead but I’d like you to consider what you want from this game. As a stealth survival horror, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead works and there’s nothing done to make it unplayable. Plus, the price isn’t bad for a non-triple A game.

However, do not go into A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead expecting an amazing experience that will add to your love of the franchise. There might be some who will defend A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead and say it’s incredible because it’s from the same franchise and is scary, initially, but I bet most who will say that probably didn’t get past the first few chapters.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is an okay game that I don’t regret buying. I see potential for a sequel that can be even better but will I ever touch this game again? No. I’m done with it and will probably go back to Silent Hill 2 to fulfill my scary needs.

—Aaron