A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead review – a forgettable waste of a license

We’re enjoying something of a golden age when it comes to quality video game adaptations. You’d think the acclaim of shows like The Last of Us and Fallout would be ushering in a new dawn of franchises that successfully straddle TV, cinema, and gaming, and yet here I am, slogging my way through yet another sterile, slow, and offensively forgettable licensed offering that fails not only seasoned players but also any newbies unfortunate enough to have chosen franchise jump into gaming for the first time, too. It’s astonishing, really, given the A Quiet Place movies are, on paper, perfect fodder for a terrifying video game adaptation.

A Quite Place: The Road Ahead reviewDeveloper: Stormind GamesPublisher: Sabre InteractivePlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X/S

For starters, much of the heavy lifting is already done. Lore, creature design, stealth mechanics – it’s all there, and focusing on stealth rather than combat was the right call, too, given this is likely to attract many inexperienced players. Yet with so many impressive raw ingredients, it’s kind of staggering how a game of such promise has managed to squander almost every good thing going for it, and then some.

The conceit of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead should feel familiar if you’ve watched either movie. You play as Alex, a young woman trying to survive in a world where an invasion of deadly creatures with acute hearing could wipe you out for something as simple as an ill-timed cough or a poorly concealed sneeze.

The opening couple of hours are great, too. You’ll learn how to stealthily open doors, hunt for resources, using the organic sounds of the world around you as a shield. You’ll understand the importance of sticking to the sandy paths and avoiding broken glass and stepping carefully through puddles, all the while getting accustomed to managing her asthma. There are plentiful notes and letters to read, too – interestingly, the same survivors will pop up in many of the notes you find throughout your adventure – and the environments, whilst not super memorable, are at least atmospheric.

So far, so good, especially as Alex’s story is further complicated by interpersonal drama, an unplanned pregnancy, a love of music and singing – a pastime that’s essentially a death sentence here, of course – and her chronic health condition that’s exacerbated by dust, exertion, and stress.