A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead Review (Xbox Series X)

STAFF REVIEW of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead (Xbox Series X)

Wednesday, November 27, 2024.
by Chad Goodmurphy

When A Quiet Place released into theatres, it introduced us to monsters that cannot see, but hear very well. It did this with quite a bit of buzz, and an early death scene that will be tough to ever forget. Since then, it has spawned both a solid sequel and a prequel that I have yet to see, and has become one of modern horror’s bigger franchises.

The John Krasinski and Emily Blunt led horror picture has now also spawned a video game tie-in, which came to consoles and PC a little while ago. A standalone story, it goes by the title of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead.

Released for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series, The Road Ahead is something we were given access to upon release. However, our review was delayed due to a myriad of things, including some health issues and a bug. A glitch that made it seem like I could not progress past a certain area. More about that later, though.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is the story of a young woman named Alex, who’s part of a group of survivors and just so happens to be expecting one more. It begins as she and her boyfriend are out scavenging, and it isn’t long before something happens to him. Then, when our heroine returns to the abandoned hospital that her group calls home, she must deal with not only her grief but also that of the young man’s mother, who happens to be the leader of this group. She doesn’t take the news well, either, which forces us to have to escape.

The rest of the game sees a pregnant Alex on the run, as she tries to deal with what happened and stay alive, all while attempting to navigate a dangerous world in search of somewhere safe. Unsurprisingly, she settles on a boat, which seems like the safest possible bet, but getting to the coast will not be a short jaunt.

Throughout this 8-10 hour long game, you’ll slowly and methodically make your way through a number of locations, all while in a first-person viewpoint. These areas include a motel, a house with a massive workshop (and animal statues) out back, woods, a firehouse, a water treatment plant, caves and a construction yard. As you traverse through them, you’ll need to make use of planks to get over gaps, and watch out for other hazards.

Of course, the idea is to make as little sound as possible. As such, there is a great onus on the player to keep cognizant of the different types of terrain nearby. If you walk on dry land it isn’t so bad, but if you walk over broken glass, leaves or water, that’s much more noisy and could alert a monster. Sand bags can be used to dampen sound while walking over something noisy, but they are limited and don’t come into play until about the halfway point.

From around the third stage on, though, bricks and bottles will be your good friends. These are obviously helpful in leading the monsters away from you, as they make a loud noise when they land and break apart. They won’t always react to these noisy assists, but generally do. Meanwhile, you must also be on the lookout for the best terrain, and any possible traps that other survivors have put up.

If you haven’t guessed it, or didn’t already know, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is an Alien: Isolation style game wherein the player is essentially stalked by a monster while in first-person view. However, this time around, I would say that it’s more like these visually impaired, but incredible hearing alien monsters are omnipresent. You may not see them, but they’re almost always there, and will swoop in for a quick kill if you make too much noise. Sometimes, though, you will see them stalking around an environment, like the hospital and its parking garage, and will have to creep by them at the most opportune moment. It’s also sometimes possible to hide from them after they’ve heard you, but there’s one noise that indicates you’re pretty much screwed regardless of what you do, because they’ve heard you and have become heat-seeking missiles.

The monster detection system is inconsistent, but I do imagine that it’s hard to program something like this perfectly. There were times where it seemed like any little sound I made was worrisome, whereas there were other times where I made a surprising amount and nothing happened. I also once snuck by a monster in a fashion that surprised me, leaving me wondering how I didn’t get killed. That said, I do give the developers a bit of a break here, because I’m sure it’s hard to design A.I. like this flawlessly.

Just be careful to open every door, cupboard or drawer slowly!

It’s also important to note that our protagonist has asthma, which adds another wrinkle to this fold.

When the monster is nearby, Alex’s heart rate will increase and her airways will slowly constrict. You’ll see this occur via an indicator, some on screen shaking and audible cues. If you don’t move away, you’ll trigger an asthma attack, which can be thwarted by a properly timed button press. However, missing the mark will be deadly due to the resulting coughing fit. Thankfully, Alex can find inhalers throughout the game world, and can store five at a time. Sometimes it seemed like the monsters heard me using them, whereas it didn’t seem like they heard me using them at other times. It was hard to really tell.

Those who play using a headset can also choose to toggle the microphone on. Doing so will alert the monster to any noises you make, so be warned.

As with Alien: Isolation, there isn’t much combat to be found in The Road Ahead. However, if someone were to say that it’s devoid of any combat, they’d be wrong. There is one stage where you’re in the back of an ambulance, and must shoot shotgun shells at any creature that clamps on to the vehicle or runs near it. The shotgun also appears at one other time.

The first appearance of the gun is a flashback scene, though, and there are a couple of those. One involves a happy birthday barbecue out by the lake, whereas the other takes place when all hell has broken loose and you’re trying to get to safety. It’s the one with the gun.

For the most part, the shooting is fine. It’s not perfect, and the detection isn’t either, but I had no problems my first time through the level. I had some the second and third times through, but that was mostly due to me rushing.

As mentioned earlier, I got to a point in the water treatment facility where I needed to go through a broken window (which caused noise while breaking), unlock a door’s bolt lock and then bring a plank through. There was another gated door, but after opening it the first time I didn’t bother with it, and would just drop the plank beside the room’s exit vent and pick it up while on the other side. I would then use it to get to another vent, where I’d need to unscrew the vent cover and go through, eventually making it to a control room with an exit door.

I kept getting to the control room and not being able to progress. I would press down on the D-pad, and would see that my objectives still showed the plank and the vent. I kept trying and trying, and even reloaded old saves, but nothing worked. That’s also true of going back and completing the level before it (the one with the ambulance and shotgun), so that the water treatment facility stage would start anew. None of that helped. Then, I submitted a gameplay video to the developers, and was told that I needed to go through that gated door.

Since I’d gone through it before, I didn’t think that would fix anything. However, when I finally got to play this game again, I found that they were right. By picking the board up from the other side of the first vent hole, and bypassing that gate, I was missing a checkpoint. When I carried the plank through that gated door, after opening it, I got a checkpoint alert and was able to progress properly thereafter.

I wish I’d known that before, as it would’ve saved a lot of time, trial and error.

Speaking of time: those who take their time as they play through this game – which is kind of hard not to do since you’re often crouch walking and sneaking through areas – will find collectibles. These come in the form of notes, drawings and the like, all of which tell a story about survivors you’ve either met or haven’t. Oftentimes, you’ll find them in workplaces or safe houses that others used. Then, there are hidden mixtapes (why tapes, I don’t know) and unlockable briefcases. You’ll need to figure out the combination of these by searching the nearby area.

The briefcases often include mixtapes, inhalers, letters and even flares. You’ll find quite a few flares, and can use them to light up darkened areas.

On the presentation side of things, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is pretty solid, especially for a budget priced release. It isn’t spectacular looking, but it does look pretty good and offers a good amount of detail. The voice acting is also solid, especially for a movie tie-in game and one that isn’t full priced. The same is true of the writing. All around, it’s a pretty good audio/visual affair, especially when you consider what it is.

At the end of the day, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead was a better game than I’d ever expected it to be. I’d wanted to play it, but didn’t have high hopes. However, now that I’ve completed it, I can say that it’s a solid release and one that fans of Alien: Isolation style horror games should check out. It’s definitely not as good as that game, but it also doesn’t overstay its welcome as much as that classic did.

**A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 6.2 / 10
Gameplay: 6.2 / 10
Visuals: 7.1 / 10
Sound: 7.4 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead (Xbox Series X)

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