A good horror game is always hard to say no to, and based on what we’ve seen of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead so far, that’s certainly what it’s looking like it’s going to deliver. Based on the Quiet Place movies, developer Stormind Games and publisher Saber Interactive’s upcoming first person horror title has made quite a compelling case for itself with each of its showings, and has actually managed to generate a fair bit of buzz in the lead-up to its release. As such, as we count the days down to its launch on October 17, here, we’re going to go over a few key tidbits that you should know before you dive into A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead.
STORY
As we touched on earlier, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is set in the Quiet Place universe, which means it’s set in a post-apocalyptic version of Earth that has been invaded by extraterrestrial monsters that may be blind, but are deadly hunters who use their keen hearing to stalk and kill prey. That said, though the game exists in that same continuity, it tells a standalone story. You play as Alex Taylor (voiced by Anairis Quiñones), a former college student who, in the company of her boyfriend Martin, needs to navigate the dangerous world she now finds herself in and find a way to survive. Alex also happens to be asthmatic, which should be an interesting thing for her to deal with, given the situation she finds herself in.
STEALTH
As you may have guessed based on the core premise of the Quiet Place universe, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is going to be a largely stealth-driven experience, which means there’s little to no combat to speak of. Your primary way of dealing with the terrifying aliens that you cross paths will be trying to avoid their attention and slip past them without them noticing. Basic stealth mechanics will involve being able to take cover behind objects or hide inside cardboard boxes, but given the fact that your main concern is to avoid making too much sound, that’s what most of the stealth will be focused on, rather than anything visual.
FLASHLIGHT
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead will give players a number of unique tools that will be useful in stealth in several ways, and one of the ones that you’re going to be relying on quite a bit will be the flashlight. Scattered throughout the game’s world will be objects and elements in the environment that you’re going to want to keep a watchful eye on, from traps that you can get caught in to things that you could step on or into, creating a ruckus and attracting the attention of the deadly alien creatures. As such, using your flashlight to properly and carefully scan environments and watch where you’re walking will often be a crucial part of the gameplay loop.
PHONOMETER
Another tool that players will be making use of a great deal in the game will be the phonometer, which, in a nutshell, is a tool that measures noise. The phonometer will tell you not only how much sound you are making with your footsteps and actions, but also how much ambient sound is being made in your surroundings. Keeping an eye on both will be important- if, for instance, you find yourself in an area where, say, some faulty equipment or a puddle of water are producing a lot of ambient sound, that will effectively serve as camouflage and allow you to safely make noises that are at least as loud as the ambient sounds around you. So if you really need to get into a room and the only way to go inside is throwing a brick through a window, you’re going to want to pay close attention to your phonometer and make sure there’s enough ambient noise around you before you do that.
ENVIRONMENTAL STEALTH
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead will let you utilize other methods for your stealthy antics as well- like using your environment, or things that you find in the environment, to suit your needs. You can expect the basics, of course, like throwing glass bottles to distract or catch the attention of enemies. Other methods are more creative. You can, for instance, find sandbags scattered throughout, and by spreading sand out in front of you as you walk forward and then stepping only on the sand, you’re able to muffle the sound of your footsteps, making it safer to walk even when one of the alien creatures is close by. Meanwhile, in some specific situations, you’ll also be able to create loud enough environmental sounds that can temporarily stun enemies.
PUZZLES
Other than stealth (which will clearly be the meat and potatoes of the experience), The Road Ahead will also place a fair bit of emphasis on puzzles. Stormind Games and Saber Interactive haven’t said too much about what we can expect from the game’s puzzle design, but finding your way through environments by following clues left behind by other survivors, or by having to solve environmental puzzles, is going to be an important part of the core loop.
SOUND DESIGN
Sound design is always a crucial part of any horror game, but that’s clearly going to be doubly true in A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, with sound being such a vital part of the gameplay experience itself. Stormind Games is, sure enough, promising a great level of fidelity on that front, with different kinds of surfaces producing different types of noises, and also producing different levels of loudness. That means players will always have to pay close attention to what would otherwise be even the most mundane details and actions- like what sort of surface you’re walking on.
MORE SOUND DESIGN DETAILS
We’ve touched on how walking on sand will make your footsteps quieter, but what about some other kinds of surfaces? When walking on compacted dirt, you can expect your footsteps to be louder, while if the surface that you’re walking on happens to be rusted metal, that, as you might imagine, is going to be exceptionally risky, demanding extreme focus and care. On top of that, you’ll also find things such as leaves, pieces of glass, water, and what have you also throwing in their own wrinkles, with each different element producing different kinds of sounds.
SOUND DETECTION SYSTEM
A great deal of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead will revolve around the game’s sound detection system. As Stormind Games describes it, the game will always be keeping track of not only the loudness of every single one of your actions, but also the duration of each sound that you’re producing. At the same time, it will also have a specific threshold for both of those things in place, and as soon as that threshold is crossed, the terrifying monstrosities that are hunting you are going to become alerted to your location (even if they’re not necessarily in close vicinity)- which is far from ideal, to say the very least.
DIFFICULTY OPTIONS
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is also going to have some difficulty options available for players to choose between. Specific details are unavailable on this front so far, but as per Stormind Games, the different settings will determine how punishing the game will be with its sound detection system. So if you want the game to be a bit less (or more) intense, you will have the option to play it that way.
PC REQUIREMENTS
Unsurprisingly, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’s system requirements on PC aren’t terribly demanding. On minimum settings, the game will need either a Ryzen 3 1200 or an i5-4690, along with either a GeForce GTX 1660 or a Radeon RX Vega 64, and 8 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, on recommended settings, you’ll need either a Ryzen 5 1500X or an i5-6600, along with either a GeForce RTX 3070 or a Radeon RX 6700 XT, and 16 GB of RAM. The game will also require about 50 GB of free storage space.