A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead Review &#8211; Immersive Horror at it&#8217;s best

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is set in the same universe as the films, taking place after Day One and a few months before the first A Quiet Place movie. While it shares the atmosphere, tension, and sound design that define the films, it tells a parallel story with new characters and locations. The game does not feature any people or places from the films, focusing instead on a unique narrative that complements the broader A Quiet Place universe.

In the same vein as the films, we start with a brief glimpse of our protagonist Alex, and her boyfriend Martin before disaster strikes. Fast forward 44 days, and we find them anxiously exploring an abandoned building, searching for food and supplies. This gentle setup for the perilous world quickly takes a tragic turn, leading us to another time skip, where the main storyline unfolds 119 days after Death Angels claimed the first victim we see in the game.

Post-Apocalyptic Silence

In a world where silence is a must, Alex the main protagonist has Asthma and throughout the game, you will need to be strategic about the pump and medication use. Note there will be a lot of slow walking through environments littered with broken glass, twigs, and rubble. Patience is key in this game, as your control over Alex’s pace directly depends on how much pressure you apply to the controller. There’s no harming the Death Angels, so a single misstep can lead to an abrupt end. The ever-present threat of danger creates a tense and thrilling atmosphere, one that even the helpful auto-save feature can’t diminish.

Phonometer To The Rescue

The phonometer displays the loudness of ambient sounds on the left and the volume of your own noises on the right. Its sound detection system evaluates factors like loudness, duration, and frequency of sounds. Depending on the difficulty level you choose, making a loud noise might not instantly lead to your demise, but repeatedly generating excessive noise over time will.

If you are looking to get an even more immersive experience, the game includes an optional feature for detecting microphone noise, which is disabled by default. You can easily enable it from the menu. A microphone icon in the bottom right corner of the screen will let you know if your input is being recognized and let me tell you if you get the audio range set correctly, you will be holding in your breath longer than you would want to, I love horror games and this has to be one of the best with the gameplay features it manages to cram into it.

As stated previously, Alex’s asthma is a critical challenge and poses a great threat to survival, not only are inhalers scattered across the game, particularly in shelters, but locating them isn’t always straightforward. As the game progresses, having a sufficient supply of inhalers becomes vital, especially during the more frequent attacks.

When under threat, Alex has the option to try a skill check to evade a potential crisis, but getting the timing right is essential. Ultimately, managing asthma plays a key role in the survival mechanics, demanding that players balance movement and environmental awareness to keep Alex safe and undetected.

Overall this game has the best audio gameplay features you would expect in A Quiet Place, and making the protagonist Asthmatic makes this an amazing survival horror game that will have you wanting any type of water to just get your breath back.

‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ is out now for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC

Fans of the franchise will enjoy the story and the pacing. Just breathe quietly.