REVIEW: ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ Is Scary AA Fun (PC)

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is the first video game spin-off for the horror film franchise that follows humans struggling to survive the invasion of hyper-strong aliens that rely completely on their hearing. A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, developed by Stormind Games and published by Saber Interactive, introduces players to a new set of characters, so players do not need to see the movies before playing the game. Fans of the franchise, though, will find a lot of the franchise’s DNA preserved here, regardless. Regardless of familiarity with A Quiet Place, players will find a compelling AA horror title that plays with very interesting ideas and provides plenty of scares along the way.

Throughout A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, players control Alex, an asthmatic pregnant woman who recently lost her group of survivors and has to figure out how to survive and provide for herself and her coming child. Alex’s situation is very carefully established throughout the beginning of the game. Like most game elements, its storytelling is slow and methodical.

For starters, the introduction is slow enough to potentially lose some players hungry for scares, but it is well worth it for those who make it through. Once it gets going, however, it quickly treads familiar and predictable ground. Regardless, it is entertaining enough, and its melodrama and familial theme make it feel right at home in the franchise.

The glacial pacing of the game’s introduction also introduces players to how carefully they must play. Gameplay in A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead relies intentionally on players quietly navigating locations without making enough noise to attract the attention of one of the series’ monsters. Surviving encounters requires a lot of planning, patient movement, and, eventually, coordinated distractions.

Any sound can be loud enough to spell death for the player, and everything in the world can make a sound. This forces the player to be acutely aware of their surroundings at all times. Walking on certain surfaces is louder than others. Hazards like broken glass or tin cans on the floor can spell doom. Even opening doors or grates can be enough to call a monster on the player’s head.

So, everything must be done methodically, and A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead makes the player actively participate in carrying out actions with care. Doors are slowly opened by creeping the mouse toward oneself. Rolling the mouse wheel backward changes Alex’s pace so she can walk more quietly on loud surfaces. Even making noise outside the game with a microphone attached translates to certain death.

The game’s pacing does an excellent job of slowly introducing players to more elements to be concerned with so that it is never overwhelming. Later on in the campaign, these elements coalesce to allow very interesting interactions between the player and the monsters they are avoiding. Eventually, having some agency over the monsters after spending hours avoiding them in tense moments feels great and serves as a reward for The Road Ahead‘s experimentation with fun and interesting mechanics.

The pervasive presence of different ways to make noise also injects a lot of frightening tension into every moment. A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead does not have many set pieces or big frights but is instead a slow burn that keeps the player tense for long stretches, only releasing that tension when they are either killed or earn a brief respite by reaching a safe zone. This approach to scares is very effective, even if it isn’t as outrageous or exciting as some other horror titles.

The tension while playing is ratcheted up even more by Alex’s asthma. Physical exertion or too much stress at any particular moment can cause Alex to have an asthma attack. Players can push it off slightly via a quick time event, but controlling it long-term requires careful resource management.

Along with the usual batteries for a flashlight, players have to manage pills that are used instantly to slightly reduce Alex’s nerves and inhalers that can be carried and used to completely reset her nerves and even grant a momentary immunity to her panic attacks. This mechanic adds some great tension and moments for player choice throughout the game, especially on hard difficulty where resources are more difficult to come by.

What stands out in A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is how willing it is to experiment and build entire mechanics around its central conceit of managing sound. Doing so allows it to take interesting risks that have paid off well. Its lower price point situates it perfectly for its shorter runtime and experimental elements, making it well worth checking out for any fan of horror games.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.