Quiet Place: Road Aheads Inhaler Needs to Evoke Survival Horror

by

Quiet Place: Road Aheads Inhaler Needs to Evoke Survival Horror

Key Takeaways

  • A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead adapts survival systems with asthma management and sensory horror.
  • Despite the potential for player-triggered sound alerts, using the inhaler feet away from an alien in the game doesn’t lead to instant death as expected.
  • The Road Ahead may need to make inhaler usage more consequential to maintain suspense and capture the essence of the Quiet Place franchise.

As a long-time fan of the Quiet Place franchise and someone who has personally dealt with asthma for most of my life, I must say that A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead has piqued my interest. The integration of survival systems, particularly asthma management, into a sensory horror game is an exciting prospect. However, after watching the recent gameplay footage, I find myself a bit disappointed with how the inhaler mechanic seems to be implemented.

The upcoming game titled “A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead” offers an intriguing direction for the traditionally cinema-bound, live-action-exclusive franchise to delve into. Given the horror genre’s sensory nature that “A Quiet Place” embodies, it seems logical for such a concept to translate effectively into gaming experiences, as demonstrated by numerous similar titles. However, unlike other games, “A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead” won’t incorporate real-time player sounds through microphone accessories. Yet, this could be a potential feature in future game iterations. What sets this game apart is its focus on a series of UI icons related to managing survival systems and maintaining silence as Alex Taylor. These elements contribute significantly to creating an atmosphere of tension and anxiety.

In this scenario, there’s a miniature image of lungs displayed during the game, reflecting Alex’s asthma condition throughout the storyline. Since the main character suffers from a persistent inflammatory disease, the player will often need to administer the character’s inhaler. This detail is an innovative aspect of the game because players making noise cannot be completely avoided, and the noise created by using the inhaler might alert certain creatures, although not necessarily the players themselves. Regrettably, a prolonged gameplay clip for A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead has revealed that using the inhaler at a distance from a creature does trigger an alarm, but not directly affecting the players.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’s Inhaler May Not Be as Paramount as Presumed

In the movie “A Quiet Place”, it’s already difficult for characters to stay silent when necessary, but add a deaf character like Regan Abbott and navigating around blind aliens becomes even more complex. Similarly, Alex also faces challenges due to her deafness, yet her asthma isn’t posing the same level of challenge to players in a game set after an alien invasion, when it comes to their survival.

In the game “A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead”, it’s not typical for the alien to immediately transport the player to an immediate death within a 10-minute span, which goes against what we’ve learned about aliens in the “Quiet Place” movies so far.

In a seemingly responsive manner, noises apparently stimulate the highly sensitive hearing of aliens, causing them to rapidly approach whatever produced the sound, even if they’re distant. The initial movie titled A Quiet Place vividly illustrates this phenomenon through the heart-wrenching demise of Lee and Evelyn Abbott’s deceased son. Despite his father’s attempts to dash swiftly across a sandy path, Lee fell just short of reaching him before an alien appeared on the scene.

In the story “The Road Ahead”, it’s unclear how far away the alien was from the boy when it heard the noise and started rushing towards him. However, it’s hard to believe that Alex, who was in close proximity to an alien and used an inhaler, didn’t get killed instantly. This is especially surprising given that the alien seems unable to determine where a nearby sound originated. Instead, the alien reacts like an alerted enemy in most first-person stealth-horror games, moving to investigate the source of the noise.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead Can’t Let Its Most Unique Feature Be Underwhelming

As a gamer, if the simple act of using my inhalter attracted swarms of aliens instantly, it would completely ruin the experience since I’d have no chance to react or strategize. However, if I knew that I had to sprint away every time I used it, knowing an alien would attack where I was just moments ago, that could add a thrilling layer of tension to the game. I’d never feel truly safe and always be on edge, ready to move at a moment’s notice.

If players believe they can frequently use the inhaler without consequence, and manipulate this freedom for their advantage, The Road Ahead may overlook a crucial aspect that could maintain constant tension. Even if the inhaler is skillfully incorporated to solely enhance The Road Ahead, the game must function optimally to encapsulate what makes many first-person horror games terrifying, and this includes minimizing the loudness of the protagonist’s footsteps throughout the experience as well.

Read More

2024-09-01 01:35