With 2025 just around the corner, now is the perfect time to celebrate the true standouts. Of course, it was tough to whittle this list down to a top 10, and some favourites inevitably didn’t make the cut. Still, that’s a nice position for us to be in and is a testament to the incredible quality of those that did end up qualifying.

So, without further ado, here are our top 10 horror games of the year!

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Harrison Abbott and Aaron Boehm.

#10) Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game

It feels like asymmetrical multiplayer titles are a dime a dozen nowadays — especially when it comes to movie spin-offs — and, as such, they’re liable to blur together if you’re not well-versed in all the particulars. Sure, there might be infinitesimal differences in the character builds and strategies but, unless you’re a seasoned pro, those granular details aren’t gonna leap out at you. Instead, you’re far likelier to just settle into the very familiar routine that’s been codified by the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

To be fair, this year’s Killer Klowns From Outer Space adaptation hardly reinvents the wheel here, with all the genre staples being present and accounted for. Among other things, you’ve got the identical survivor objectives that these things are beholden to for some reason (find the fuses, repair the boat, escape by road, etc.) while the opposing team even has an equivalent of Dead by Daylight’s sacrificial hooks at their disposal. Albeit it in the more appealing form of cotton candy generators!

Scratch beneath the surface a little, though, and you’ll realise that Teravision’s offering is tonally unique. As is befitting of its zany source material — which, lest we forget, revolves around alien invaders who just so happen to resemble children’s party entertainers — Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game doesn’t take itself too seriously. Nor does its fun-loving community.

On that note, you’ll find that most matches here are filled with the refreshing sounds of gleeful laughter and people straight up enjoying themselves. Which is a welcome change of pace if you’ve ever been stuck in one of those bizarrely competitive DbD lobbies, where everybody’s prone to the most unhinged displays of emotional volatility.

Indeed, Killer Klowns is a far more relaxed environment; focussed less so on META tactics and complex loadout tinkering, and more on goofy visual comedy and slapstick finisher animations. Even the mechanics are quite forgiving, with survivors being afforded more second & third chances than you’d expect, as well as the opportunity to help out their teammates from beyond the grave (via some arcadey minigames). The jury’s still out on if this one’s got any real legs, but it’s certainly been a hoot while it’s lasted. – Words by Harrison Abbott

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Killer Klowns From Outer Space here.

#9) A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead 

If you play as many horror games as we do, you eventually get desensitized to the various tricks of the trade, and what were once-effective scare tactics start to lose their luster. So, when we willingly admit (as a matter of public record) that A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead made us dread our own farts, you know that’s intended as the highest praise.

The movie tie-in does a lot right — capturing the signature tension of the film franchise upon which it is based, and squeezing as much mileage as possible out of the decibel-dependent stealth — but where it really shines is in its clever use of peripherals.  Stick on a pair of headphones, for instance, and you become hyperaware of every unwanted noise you are producing; whether it’s the faintest door creak or the wince-inducing crunch of a leaf beneath your feet.

Meanwhile, if you want to dial up the anxiety even further, you can also grant the title permission to listen in through your microphone feed; meaning that any sound you transmit in the real world can then be heard by the misophonic Death Angels in-game. It’s a super cool gimmick that immerses you in the Quiet Place universe like never before, and will have you stifling every inopportune cough, sneeze or, yes, bout of gas that you might otherwise have indulged. Acoustic conditions permitting, it’s definitely the optimal way to play and can lead to some memorable (but hopefully flatulence-free) anecdotes to share with your friends. – Words by Harrison Abbott.

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead here. 

#8) Mouthwashing

It’s hard to capture what makes Mouthwashing so special just from a quick description. It’s a first-person narrative horror game that tells the tragic story of the crew of a crashed transport spaceship, depicting the events both before and after that fateful incident.

This setup could describe all sorts of sci-fi horror stories, but the twists and turns it takes towards its nail biting ending consistently surprise, thanks to captivating characters and a thrilling structure that keeps you on your toes. Each of the crew members feels like a fully realized character, and their interactions create a perfect powder keg of tension as things get more and more dire.

You’re often doing simple adventure game-style puzzles, interacting with people and exploring the ship, but the game shines when it starts veering into more surreal P.T.-like dream logic. Its beautiful low poly-art style captures the nightmare perfectly, creating some truly striking images throughout.

Mouthwashing runs about two and a half hours, so you can finish it in a long sitting, giving you one of the most memorable narrative experiences of the year, in any medium. – Words by Aaron Boehm.

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Mouthwashing here.

#7) The Outlast Trials

When it was first announced that Outlast was going to be making the jump to online multiplayer, it raised eyebrows amongst some incredulous fans. After all, it was hard to envision how this series — known for its tightly scripted frights, exhilarating one-on-one stalker chases, and general emphasis on disempowerment — could ever make that transition without also losing a key piece of itself in the process. Yet, low and behold, the unlikely spin-off somehow emerged as the franchise’s finest hour to date.

After an auspicious debut in Early Access last year, The Outlast Trials has continued to go from strength to strength. Taking inspiration from movies like Saw and Cube, it puts you in the shoes (well, technically, the bare feet) of a hapless vagrant who’s been abducted by the sinister Murkoff corporation, and forced to participate in a gauntlet of inhumane tests.

With the ultimate aim of stripping away your basic decency, these psychological conditioning trials will have you plunging the absolute depths of human depravity. One minute you’ll be wheeling a prison snitch to his execution, the next you’ll be serving bleach to a cafeteria full of starving orphans, organising a blood rave for a bunch of weirdly amorous nuns, or dissolving severed heads in a huge vat of acid.

To return to our earlier point, what’s so impressive is that it still all feels uniquely Outlast, despite that unexpected pivot to co-op. In fact, the addition of other players — who may or may not have your best interests at heart — actually adds an unpredictable spice to proceedings, while the villains remain every bit as colorful as they were over at Mount Massive Asylum and the chases retain their ability to get your pulse racing. More importantly, though, none of the franchise’s signature obscenity has been watered down here to accommodate the multiplayer structure. If anything, those edges are sharper than ever before, and we couldn’t be happier about it. – Words by Harrison Abbott.

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of The Outlast Trials here.

#6) Crow Country

It’s been a good year for old-school survival horror games, and Crow Country stands near the top of the heap.

While it doesn’t have fixed camera angles, instead allowing you to freely rotate your view to better see environments, all the other tropes are deployed successfully, in a way that clearly understands why they work. The game has clever puzzles, combat that focuses on resource management, and wonderful level design that allows you to slowly unlock new areas and shortcuts in its densely packed environments.

Crow Country drops you in the titular amusement park, which was abandoned two years prior for mysterious reasons. This setting perfectly sets the tone, creating a mix of menace and whimsy, twisting a traditionally joyful location into something more horrifying.

The visual variety in the areas prevents you from getting lost, giving you plenty of landmarks to help you familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of the park. This is perfect comfort gaming for me, using all the elements I loved from the PS1 classics I love, but doing so with a clear creative vision that’s wholly its own. –  Words by Aaron Boehm.

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Crow Country here.

#5) Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess 

One of the biggest surprises of the year for me was Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, a brand-new IP from Capcom that feels like a throwback to an older era of game design.

You play as Soh, the protector of the maiden Yoshiro, tasked with helping cleanse Mount Kafuku of a horrifying force known as the Seethe. This narrative isn’t the focus of the game, but it does set up a gorgeous setting steeped in Japanese mythology and a compelling gameplay loop that takes familiar elements from different genres and remixes them in fresh new ways.

Each level plays out with a combination of action and tower defense-like strategy, tasking you with defending Yoshiro as you move her into position to cleanse the Torii Gates that bring forth the horrible monsters. The game alternates between two phases: day and night. In the day phase, you’ll run around and free villagers, assigning them different roles, and setup defenses to prepare for the incoming hordes. When night falls, the Seethe comes through the gates, and you and the villagers — the latter of whom can be repositioned during battle — must keep them from killing Yoshiro.

As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock additional villager classes, allowing for new defense strategies, and new skills for Soh, making your moment-to-moment actions more dynamic and compelling. The strategy and action layers combine together into something more than the sum of its parts, and there’s a neat base building mechanic that gives you a compelling way to advance progression between levels.

Kunitsu-Gami is definitely one of the most unique action games I’ve played in a long time, with great monster design and tight mechanics that evolve in satisfying ways over its 18-hour runtime. – Words by Aaron Boehm.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is available on Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series.

#4) Fear the Spotlight 

By sheer coincidence, October 2024 brought us not one but two horror titles in which we were charged with ensuring the welfare of asthmatic protagonists. The first of these kindred experiences was the aforementioned Road Ahead — propped up by a major Hollywood license and a development team of over 100 people — while the other was far humbler in origins.

A modest passion project for husband-and-wife duo Bryan Singh & Crista Castro, Fear the Spotlight might not have been the year’s flashiest offering. Yet what it lacked in big-budget presentation it more than made up for in smart level design, creepy atmosphere, and a surprisingly heartfelt romance.

Relatively intimate in scope, it follows a pair of adorable high schoolers — Amy & Vivian — who are crushing hard on one another and will go to extraordinary lengths to protect their puppy love. Such devotion proves to be entirely necessary, by the way, when shenanigans involving a spirit board go calamitously wrong for the would-be couple, and they find themselves trapped in a strange elseworld. One that is governed by pure nightmare logic and that pits them against literal ghosts from the past (with some serious unfinished business to attend to).

It’s an engaging story with quite a few hidden layers, all of which feel satisfying over the course of a brisk 4-hours. Beyond the compelling mystery and sweet central relationship, there’s also a witty use of the ’90s period setting — most notably in an extended sequence that has you trying to evade detection while a floppy disc takes an inordinate amount of time to load — and some intricate puzzles to solve.

The best bits, however, are reserved for the second B scenario that goes even further down the rabbit hole and significantly ramps up the scare factor. Alas, to reveal any more about that here would be a huge disservice to the unexpected twists & turns that the developers have in store. Suffice it to say, Blumhouse backed a real winner with their first foray into the world of video game publishing. – Words by Harrison Abbott

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Fear the Spotlight here.

#3) Silent Hill 2 

I’m still in shock that they pulled this off. As much as conventional wisdom might encourage remaking the most popular entry in a franchise, Silent Hill 2 is such a beloved game by so many that Bloober Team was playing with fire by touching this one.

It was a massive risk that paid off in spades, creating a thoroughly modern version of the original that’s reverent to what came before while still providing new elements to surprise longtime fans. Classic locations have been lovingly rendered and expanded upon, adding new twists on environments that I’ve explored over and over. What many considered a weak point of the series, the combat, has now been made one of its highlights, with great mechanics that make for tense encounters that always feel fraught with danger.

This game is scary in a different way than the original, creating a terrifying atmosphere that rarely lets up. While the density of combat may get a bit exhausting by the end of the 16-hour story, exploring the town of Silent Hill is more engrossing than it’s been in decades.

With new endings to discover, there’s plenty of reason to return to this game over and over, even if you’ve been experiencing this story for decades. It’s an outstanding remake that will please both old fans and newcomers to the series. If the upcoming Silent Hill: Townfall and Silent Hill f are up to this standard, series fans will finally have something to be excited about again. – Words by Aaron Boehm.

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of the Silent Hill 2 remake here. 

#2) Still Wakes the Deep

Walking simulators often get a bad rap, and not necessarily without justification. After all, the worst examples can be quite tedious; lazily using the genre’s constraints as an excuse to do very little on-screen storytelling and to put minimal effort into thinking of engaging ways for players to interact with their virtual worlds.

In many respects, The Chinese Room is one of our chief culprits here. Their calling card release, Dear Esther, was at the vanguard of the walking sim trend in the early 2010s, and didn’t give you much to do beyond “hold down the thumbstick until you hit the credits.” And then — depending on your tolerance for titles that make you slowly amble around while disembodied voices prattle on incessantly — Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture was either a profound exploration of mortality & faith, or a profound bore.

Regardless of how you felt about their past work, however, The Chinese Room really outdid themselves with Still Wakes the Deep. For starters, the developer affords you far greater agency than they’ve ever done before, incorporating vertiginous platforming sections, simple-but-effective stealth encounters, tense set pieces, and tangible consequences for messing up during any of the above. In short, it’s a proper game.

Yet even if it were more of a traditional walking sim, nestled within the studio’s comfort zone, it’d still be their crowning achievement. That’s because Still Wakes the Deep has a rich world that is captivating to just, well, walk around! Indeed, the Beira D drilling platform is one of the most characterful settings we’ve ever explored in recent memory, authentically capturing a very specific time & place (the Scottish oil industry, circa 1975) with microscopic details that make it feel truly lived in. This commitment to authenticity extends to every other facet of the title as well, whether it’s the thoroughly researched operating procedures of the rig or the believable dialect used by those working-class heroes who keep it running.

Even if you have no frame of reference for that way of life, you quickly become attached to the relatable roughnecks here and are invested in their terrible plight. Speaking of which, the elevator pitch for Still Wakes the Deep was reportedly “Annihilation meets The Poseidon Adventure” and boy does it live up to that tantalizing premise.

When the crew of the Bierra D accidentally disturb something in the abyssal waters that should have been left alone, all hell breaks loose. What follows is a cosmic horror bloodbath that is equal parts haunting and visceral, but it’s actually the disaster movie side of the equation that really wigged us out.

You see, in order to navigate the deteriorating rig, you’ll have to squeeze through tight spaces, crawl along slippery girders, tiptoe across precarious walkways and — in one excruciating sequence — swim through flooding chambers in near-pitch black darkness. It’d be terrifying enough without the added paranormal complications but, with them, it’s easily one of the best horror games of the decade so far – Words by Harrison Abbott

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Still Wakes the Deep here. 

#1) Lorelei and the Laser Eyes 

For the past two years, my GOTY have been ones about art and the creative process. Alan Wake II and Immortality both examined that in completely unique ways, coming up with different things to say about how fiction affects the world and vice versa.

This year Simogo released Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, a surrealist puzzler with a hypnotic art style and a mysterious story that completely captivated me. You’re dropped into a gorgeous European hotel with level design like Resident Evil’s Spencer Manor, forcing you to solve puzzles as you figure out what exactly happened to the seemingly mad artist that owns Hotel Letztes Jahr.

What’s stunning about the game is how little it holds your hand. With very little guidance, you poke and prod at the puzzles presented to you, not necessarily knowing if you even have the information to solve them. While this may be frustrating to some, I found it absolutely exhilarating. I filled up about 20 pages of a notebook with scribbles of clues that I needed to follow up on or ciphers that I was attempting to decode. There’s even little sketches of symbols or scenes that will make no sense to anyone but me, but flipping through it takes me right back.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is like a 20-hour video game escape room, with a narrative that needs as much decoding as any of the puzzles. The black-and-white (with splashes of pink) art style sets a creepy tone, and many of the turns taken by the story go to some chilling directions, without ever losing a magician-like sense of wonder.

Figuring out a puzzle or discovering a story beat feels just as thrilling as beating an Elden Ring boss, making for one of the most cerebrally satisfying games I’ve ever played. It’s a deeply strange and challenging experience, but it’s one that will stick with me forever. – Words by Aaron Boehm.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and the Nintendo Switch.

Honorable Mentions: The flawed-but-interesting Alone in the Dark, Dredge’s excellent Iron Rig expansion, the joyous retro throwback that is Sorry We’re Closed, Helldivers 2, Hollowbody, and that one mission in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 where it inexplicably turns into a level from Control.

The post Bloody Disgusting’s 10 Best Horror Video Games of 2024 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Anyway, the point is that it’s hardly a revolutionary concept. Should we expand the parameters a little to include creatures that enjoy perfect 20/20 vision —  but still boast highly attuned hearing nonetheless — then we’d also have to account for the likes of Amnesia: The Bunker’s beast or the perceptive xenomorph from Alien: Isolation. Both of whom will come running at the faintest pin drop.

Yet while A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead may not have patented the idea of misophonia-afflicted monsters (nor did the 2018 John Krasinski movie upon which it is based) it is arguably the game that squeezes the most mileage from this gimmick. The only other title that really comes close is Wales Interactive’s Maid of Sker, but the mechanics of that indie never evolved much beyond “Press R1 To Hold Your Breath”.

Conversely, volume management is at the very heart of The Road Ahead. Every single action you take here has an associated decibel output that you need to be mindful of, whether it’s the opening of a rusty door, the decision to take a puff of your avatar’s inhaler, or daring to take a shortcut through a path that is lined with crunchy leaves. If you’re feeling especially confident, you can even up the ante by granting the game permission to break the 4th wall and listen in through your microphone feed: forcing you to play just like your character … In petrified silence.

Regardless of how much you’re willing to commit to the role-play, it’s an unbearably intense experience. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I winced so much during a horror title; squirming every time I absent-mindedly stepped on a shard of glass, or whenever I realized that I was gonna have to let a vent grate drop with a harsh, metallic clang. Indeed, for an excruciating five-to-six hours, the developers at Stormind Games had me totally in their thrall and I’m already eager to jump back in for a hard mode playthrough.

What To Expect When You’re Expecting

Like the cinematic outings in the Quiet Place saga, The Road Ahead centers on a compelling dynamic between two principal characters. The franchise’s debut installment was all about the strained relationship between a father and the daughter he couldn’t help but blame for a recent tragedy, its sequel then leaned into the ever-dependable “Badass and Child Duo” trope, and this year’s Day One thrust a pair of strangers together who, despite having very little in common, ultimately bonded over a perilous journey to retrieve the last decent pizza in New York.

Stromind’s adaptation feels particularly indebted to that first film, however, even going so far as to recycle key plot points from it, including: an inopportune pregnancy and a family unit that has been riven by both incredible grief and incredible guilt. Spanning a stressful couple of weeks, it puts you in the shoes of Alex Taylor: a former college student and tech wiz-kid who has resolved to make herself useful in the post-apocalypse.

Together with her childhood sweetheart, Martin, she routinely ventures out into the ruins of civilization to scavenge whatever supplies she thinks will be of greatest benefit to her settlement. Said wishlist usually comprises generic medicines, scrap parts, or food items, but when we join her — on Day 105 of the alien invasion — she’s trying to satisfy a more personal need.

You see, Alex has a suspicion that she may be pregnant with Martin’s child and so, desperate for certainty, decides to raid a nearby pharmacist in the hope that nobody else has gotten themselves knocked up lately and looted all the relevant tests. Suffice it to say, this excursion doesn’t go according to plan and one half of the scouting party ends up sacrificing themselves to protect the other. That’s Martin, by the way, not his pregnant girlfriend. Just in case that wasn’t clear.

Returning back to HQ, a devastated Alex then has the unenviable task of confronting her would-be mother-in-law, Laura. Alas, the unforgiving matriarch does not take the news of her son’s demise well, holding Alex personally accountable for it and locking her in a soundproofed room so that she cannot endanger anybody else.

Not one for solitary confinement — and worried about potential complications arising with the pregnancy — Alex promptly decides to spring herself from this cage and sets out on a treacherous quest. Traversing the city all by her lonesome, her goal is to track down the National Guard: praying that they will be able to give her the medical care she needs in order to successfully carry this baby to term.

Along the way, she’ll have to manage her condition, cross hazardous terrain, sidestep boobytraps that have been rigged by other survivors and, of course, avoid provoking the ire of those terrifying “Death Angels”. Not to mention, Laura is hot on her heels the entire time as well, determined not to lose another family member (in the form of her unborn grandchild) to Alex’s recklessness.

A Monster Movie Story With A Beating Human Heart

True to the spirit of the Quiet Place films, it’s an emotional, character-led narrative. So, if you’re hankering for a wall-to-wall bloodbath — replete with non-stop action and an excessive body count — then let’s just say there are other horror games out there that might better tickle your fancy. Outside of some minor injury detail and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it violence, there’s hardly any explicit content here whatsoever.

To be clear, that doesn’t mean the title is completely bereft of tension or creature-feature thrills, (on the contrary, there are some electrifying set pieces) but it is a slower-paced affair when compared to the likes of, say, Outlast. Indeed, it has more in common with this year’s contemplative Still Wakes the Deep than it does the relentless gorefest that is Dead Space or even the more sober of Resident Evil instalments.

Understatement is the name of the game here and the human drama can be fairly moving as a result. It’s hard not to feel pangs of sympathy, for example, as Alex and Laura try to reconcile their differences for the sake of a baby they both cherish, and the deceased loved one they both mourn.

To give away any of the specific beats would be a huge disservice to Stormind’s compassionate storytelling, but the point is there are a few really affecting scenes here. One particular standout is a brief moment of respite wherein Alex — having sought refuge in a safe house padded with vibration-absorbent materials — gets to unleash all of her pent-up emotions at once, belatedly processing several hours’ worth of misfortunes.

But perhaps even more heart-rending than the main plot are the epistolary notes that you’ll discover strewn around the environments. In-game documents are nothing new to the survival horror genre by any stretch of the imagination, but The Road Ahead’s feel especially well-written and authentic.

From coy, back-and-forth flirtations penned by awkward tweens at a summer camp, to the devastating journal entries of a bereaved parent who’s sheltering an orphan; there are some properly engaging mini-stories here. If you’re anything like me, you’ll actively go out of your way (and even put the expectant mother you’re controlling in jeopardy) just to find the next note in a given series. Clinging to the vain hope that one of these tales might have a happier resolution than your own. Spoiler alert: few of them do.

Despite the lack of upbeat endings, though, there is a prevailing sense of optimism with these logs. Across the board, they depict people coming together and exhibiting remarkable selflessness in the face of dire circumstances. For instance, another text recounts how a pair of blue-collar workers went above and beyond the call of duty to keep a pump station operating post alien arrival, for no other reason than to be Good Samaritans.

Where most media in this subgenre tends to assume that mankind will revert to its basest impulses once the chips are down, the Quiet Place franchise has always maintained a little more faith in humanity. Stormind clearly took that account with this adaptation, understanding that the appeal of their source material runs deeper than just: “What if the Cloverfield monster A) was smaller and B) had super hearing?”

Don’t Make A Peep

But enough of all that touchy-feely crap! You wanna know if this game actually delivers on its promise of making you feel like you’re part of the Quiet Place universe. That’s its unique selling point after all.

Well, thankfully, the developers do this side of things justice as well, incorporating clever mechanics, intricate systems, and smartly designed set pieces that force you to consider the aural implications of every single button that you press. The result is a licensed title that, for once, manages to capture the idiosyncratic vibe of the movies it’s based on, rather than contorting them beyond recognition to fit some pre-existing formula. It just goes to show what can be accomplished if the studios behind these things dare to think outside the box for a change, and don’t simply default to their comfort zone of (often asymmetrical) multiplayer whenever they’re entrusted with IP.

In fact, when it’s firing on all cylinders, The Road Ahead almost verges on Alien: Isolation levels of brilliance. Much like Creative Assembly’s gem, this is a pure, undiluted stealth experience at its core. Indeed, you have absolutely no means of defending yourself against the homicidal ETs — other than evading detection in the first place — and so must rely on your wits to survive.

As aforementioned, this translates to you being very, very careful about the amount of noise you make, because just barely going over the permitted threshold here could spell instant doom for Alex and her baby. In its simplest form, that’ll mean traversing environments at a glacial pace, softening your footsteps, and being vigilant of any obstacles that you could potentially bump into.

Tentative and gentle pushes of the analog stick are therefore recommended, as is plotting your route through areas well in advance. For example, the most obvious path to a destination might entail wading through puddles — and creating an inevitable splash that’s hard to muffle — when a safer option could be available in the form of a detour through an adjacent building.

That’d be an unusually straightforward scenario, of course, as the typical situations you’re dropped in here are far dicier. Among other things, you’ll have to account for the scrape a metal door produces when you yank it open, jumpy pigeons that are liable to cause a ruckus if you veer too close, and chasms that’ll need bridging with a squeaky plank of wood.

Yet the biggest complication of all is surely Alex’s asthma, which you’ll need to manage cautiously lest an ill-timed attack sends her spiralling into a coughing fit. No matter how wary you are of this danger, there will be instances where aggravating Alex’s condition — either through physical exertion, the kicking up dust, or prolonged exposure to stress—   is unavoidable. At which point you’ll have to either nail a QTE to suppress the forthcoming wheezes or otherwise take a puff from an inhaler (which is itself noisy enough to prick up the ears of any lingering Death Angels in the vicinity).

It’s an interesting wrinkle that adds to your mounting pile of nerves. Although granted, it is a little odd that the town you’re exploring seems to have been exclusively populated by fellow asthmatics prior to the doomsday. Many of whom have courteously left their prescription medications lying on the floor or in briefcases; ripe for the taking.

Death By Fart

On that note, the game does provide some resources to help tip the scales in your favor. Again, these range from the basic (throwable distractions) to the more inventive (sandbags that can be emptied in order to pave a cushioned path to your objective).

The tool you’ll be relying on most though is the phonometer: a makeshift contraption that monitors the relative volume of ambiance, thereby enabling you to make informed decisions about how loud you can go without attracting any unwanted attention. Case in point, it might indicate that a howling wind is giving you ample cover to make a racket, or that an electrical hum in the background may drown out any whisper-quiet intrusions you’ve got planned. Alternatively, it could tell you that you’re in deathly silent conditions and therefore need to stay as hushed as possible.

It’s an ingenious way of taking a concept that could be quite difficult to quantify and making it easy for players to wrap their heads around. Displaying a pair of color-coded tracks (one representing the static base noise of your environs and another representing your own contributions to that soundscape), the phonometer is an elegant solution that removes any ambiguity over what exactly constitutes a spike in volume, and which noises you can get away with in your present circumstances. And once you’ve got a firm handle on the rules, it adds to the suspense because you appreciate just how many close calls you’ve had and know when you’re pushing your luck too.

The Road Ahead’s effective use of gadgets is not limited only to those devices that are found in-game either, with a number of peripherals getting a chance to shine as well. Sticking on a good pair of headphones, for instance, will heighten your already crippling paranoia by forcing you to fixate on every creaky floorboard and rustling forest bush. I got so absorbed in this experience that when I accidentally knocked over a paint bucket at one point — and had the ensuing clatter funneled directly into my ear canals —   my entire body seized up in fear. It really did a number on me.

Braver souls can choose to immerse themselves even further in the horror by activating their own microphone, in turn allowing the game’s virtual enemies to react to real-world sounds. Obviously, there are practical factors to take into consideration with this (are your neighbors currently in the middle of an incessant DIY project? Are you coming down with a sinus-bungling cold?) but it’s a ton of fun if the stars do align.

After all, it cranks the anxiety up to a whole other level when you’re desperately trying to stifle a cough or refraining from leaning back in your gaming chair, just in case it needs oiling. There’s also something quite liberating about putting a finger to your lips when another member of the household waltzes into the room, and you’ve got a perfectly valid excuse for shushing them in this way. I mean, there’s lives at stake here damn it!

Speaking from first-hand experience, nothing compares to the catharsis that you feel upon arriving at a deafening waterfall or babbling stream when you’ve got the mic turned on here. It’s a welcome release of tension, providing an opportunity for you to finally clear your throat or perform some other bodily function that you’ve been holding in for the past hour (true story, I had at least one occurrence of flatulence upending my playthrough).

In short, the microphone feature is more than just a showy gimmick and legitimately helps you connect with The Road Ahead on a deeper level. I’d go so far as to describe it as the optimal way of engaging with the title.

Bumps In The Road (Ahead)

With all of that gushing out of the way, I have to admit there are faults that prohibit me from giving this a glowing, 5-star endorsement.

For a start, certain elements of design are outright clunky and unintuitive: such as how objects can only be interacted with from very precise angles. You get the sense that the developers realized it was a bit rough around the edges in this respect, because they’ve stuffed the game with intrusive tutorial screens to make sure you understand how it’s all supposed to work.

This compulsion to over-explain and handhold is especially frustrating, given that almost every mechanic in The Road Ahead is communicated to you organically anyway. If I were a betting man, I’d put money on these pop-ups being an eleventh-hour addition, because they do feel utterly redundant. Whether it’s through enlightening documents, sly lines of dialogue, or subtle visual cues, the game does a fantastic job of introducing its various systems to you and so pausing the action to shove an instructional diagram in your face does nothing but take you out of it.

Thankfully, you can toggle these condescending messages off in the menu, alongside a few other accessibility preferences that can be tweaked. What you’re sadly unable to switch off, however, are the myriad technical issues that plague the campaign and sometimes verge on game-breaking.

Contextual button prompts, in particular, have a nasty habit of disappearing when you’re in a tight spot, and I can attribute around a dozen of my deaths to Alex’s stubborn refusal to clamber over a knee-high windowsill. When so much TLC has clearly been poured into this product from a creative standpoint, it’s a shame that infuriating glitches like this can undermine that goodwill. Hopefully, the kinks will be ironed out in a patch soon.

Lastly, I have to admit that the game’s spell was kind of shattered for me once I began to cotton on to its behind-the-scenes rules, particularly those that govern the behavior of Death Angels. Just like when you discover that Resident Evil 7’s Jack cannot pursue you into certain wings of the Baker Plantation—  or that the once-intimidating Chris Walker can be comically looped around tables in Outlast — so too are these creatures robbed of their menace, when you eventually learn they’re not the ever-present threat the developers would like you to believe.

Unless one is actively patrolling the area you’re in, there’s not much they can do until you pierce the sound threshold. And even that’s just an instant fail state, not an invitation for them to start hunting you more aggressively. Towards the end, Stormind also introduce too many easily exploited tactics that have the unintended effects of trivializing your stalkers. By that point, you become emboldened and less trepidations about the amount of noise you’re making; sapping half the fun from the stealth sections.

Jank and an underwhelming climax aside, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with A Quite Place: The Road Ahead. It’s got a compelling story, an inexhaustible supply of tension, and a keen grasp of what makes its source material so popular. Most impressive of all, however, it literally made me scared of my own farts.

Developed by Stormind Games and published by Saber Interactive, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is out now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam.

Review code provided by publisher. 

The post ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ Screams Tension While Offering an Emotional Narrative [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Inspired by Paramount Pictures’ critically-acclaimed A Quiet Place franchise, players must use their wits, along with whatever tools they can find, to stay silent and survive the deadly creatures stalking their every move.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead launches today accompanied by a free day-one update introducing the “Microphone Noise Detection” feature. When enabled, this mode utilizes a connected microphone to capture any real-life noise, transforming it into in-game sound that the creatures can detect. Experience tension and suspense on an entirely new level as you strive to remain silent in the face of fear.

The story for The Road Ahead centres around Alex, a young college student suffering from asthma and struggling to survive the end of the world alongside her boyfriend, Martin. But the nightmarish extraterrestrial creatures stalking her aren’t the only threat she’ll have to contend with, as she must through the ruins of civilization in search of a safe haven for herself and her family.

Be on the lookout for our review of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead soon!

The post ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ Is Out Now on PC and Consoles [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

As shown in the trailer, by activating your microphone, this feature lets the game’s creatures detect every sound you make in real life, adding a new layer of immersion to gameplay, and bringing the horror right into your room. And just to be clear, this microphone feature is completely optional when playing The Road Ahead.

But come on, it’s still a cool feature that not many games take advantage of from a gameplay standpoint.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead centres around Alex, a young college student suffering from asthma and struggling to survive the end of the world alongside her boyfriend, Martin. But the nightmarish extraterrestrial creatures stalking her aren’t the only threat she’ll have to contend with, as she must through the ruins of civilization in search of a safe haven for herself and her family.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead arrives October 17 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam.

The post New Trailer for ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ Reveals Microphone Noise Detection Feature [Watch] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Hosted by Luca Esposito, senior narrative designer at Stormind, the new video shines a light on The Road Ahead‘s protagonist, Alex Taylor, and some of the obstacles she’ll face throughout the game Apart from the obvious with the alien creatures that have invaded Earth, Alex will need to deal with her own personal complications.

“Our story expands on the personal circumstances and family ties of Alex, a young college student, in the same way that the A Quiet Place movies do – through a series of flashbacks that are interspersed throughout the present day post-apocalypse.”

Skilled in engineering and part of her local music college, Alex will face “ups and downs” with her relationships with her boyfriend, Martin, her father, Robert, as well as dealing with her asthma, which presents complications when navigating the world where sound (or the lack of it) means the difference between life and death. Complicating matters is the fact that early on, Alex discovers that she is pregnant.

“Whether through flashbacks, notes, or quiet interactions, our aim is to tell a robust and unique story that dives into the thoughts, emotions, and relationships of an individual and her family as they face the same challenges of those in the A Quiet Place movie franchise.”

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead will launch on October 17 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam.

The post New ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ Developer Diary Focuses on Alex, the Game’s Protagonist [Watch] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“In the A Quiet Place movie franchise, we’ve seen how the creatures invaded Earth. In The Road Ahead, you’ll experience navigating a silent world, quietly sneaking by and outsmarting these apex predators using whatever you can find in your environment for your advantage,” explains Moavero.

As was touched on in the sound design dev diary, players will be able to use various objects throughout your journey that can generate sounds in order to distract the creatures to keep them off your trail. However, in order to do so, you’ll need to utilize stealth to keep out of harm’s way.

“You might hide yourself behind objects, in bushes, or even in cardboard boxes. However, traditional hiding tactics are ineffective against the creatures, as they respond to auditory cues rather than visual ones.”

To aid you in your journey, you’ll be equipped with a flashlight to navigate darker areas, and more importantly, to avoid hazards that would generate noise that would attract unwanted attention. You’re also equipped with a phonometer that measures sound in order for you to help gauge just how much noise you’re making versus the ambient sounds.

With the phonometer, you’ll be able to potentially create enough ambient noise to mask your own movement sounds in order to navigate safely. “Throughout this whole game of hide and seek, your main goal is always finding your way to safety.”

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead will launch on October 17 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam. Pre-orders are now available.

The post New ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ Dev Diary Peeks in on the Gameplay [Watch] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Hosted by Stormind Games’ sound designer Diego Sambataro, the video covers how player movement, no matter how slow, creates sounds that could potentially attract the aliens that have invaded our world.  “In a world where any sound that you make could be your last, the design around how sound creates gameplay is critical to what makes A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead fun.”

Every surface that the player walks on will generate some kind of sound, which depending on the material, will have a different loudness. As Sambataro explains, if the player was walking on sand, the sound of their footsteps would be diffused and quiet, whereas walking on dirt would produce a slightly louder sound. Even player actions, such as opening a door or drawer, require you to be careful to open them slowly, as to avoid creating sound.

Luckily, you’ll come across various objects throughout your journey that you can use to generate sounds in order to distract the creatures to keep them off your trail. “The sound detection system that we’ve built takes into account he loudness of any noise that the player makes, as well as the duration of the noise. If you build up a combination of loud or lengthy noises that exceed a defined threshold, the creatures will have heard enough to find your location, even from far away.”

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead will launch on October 17 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam.

The post New Dev Diary Focuses on Sound Mechanics for ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ [Video] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

As revealed in the story trailer last month, the story for The Road Ahead centres around Alex, a young college student suffering from asthma and struggling to survive the end of the world alongside her boyfriend, Martin. But the nightmarish extraterrestrial creatures stalking her aren’t the only threat she’ll have to contend with, as she must through the ruins of civilization in search of a safe haven for herself and her family.

Designed for fans of the films, horror games, and story-driven adventures alike, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead aims to capture the frantic terror, unnerving atmosphere and gripping human drama that made the franchise famous. With nothing more than your wits and the simple tools you can scavenge, you’ll have to overcome the many treacherous challenges and obstacles that lay ahead, all while trying to survive the ever-present dangers that lurk all around you.

Pre-order bonuses for The Road Ahead are also available, including the “Hospital Care Package”, exclusive concept art, and a creature animation showcase.

The post ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ Launches October 17 [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

As revealed in the trailer, the story for The Road Ahead centres around Alex, a young college student suffering from asthma and struggling to survive the end of the world alongside her boyfriend, Martin. But the nightmarish extraterrestrial creatures stalking her aren’t the only threat she’ll have to contend with, as she must through the ruins of civilization in search of a safe haven for herself and her family.

Designed for fans of the films, horror games, and story-driven adventures alike, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead aims to capture the frantic terror, unnerving atmosphere and gripping human drama that made the franchise famous. With nothing more than your wits and the simple tools you can scavenge, you’ll have to overcome the many treacherous challenges and obstacles that lay ahead, all while trying to survive the ever-present dangers that lurk all around you.

And if you need proof of the franchise’s popularity, last week’s A Quiet Place: Day One didn’t do too shabby at the box office, scoring $53 million domestically and $98 worldwide, making it the best opening weekend of the franchise so far.

The post Delve Into Story Details With the New ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ Trailer [Watch] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a new story in the A Quiet Place universe, and is designed “for fans of the films, horror games, and story-driven adventures alike.”

The story centers on a young woman struggling to endure not only the nightmarish alien creatures that have invaded earth, but also the anguish of interpersonal family conflicts and her own inner fears. With nothing more than your wits and the simple tools you can scavenge, you’ll have to overcome the many treacherous challenges and obstacles that lay ahead, all while trying to survive an ever-present threat of the unknown enemies.

As one might expect, sound plays an important part in the gameplay. You’ll need to hide, distract, and sneak past the creatures, all the while exercising caution to not make any noise. Players will need to use their wits and ingenuity to observe each environment, leverage whatever tools they can find, and overcome danger.

More info regarding A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, including its release date, is expected soon. In the meantime, players can check out the game’s official site for more info.

Meanwhile, the third entry in the film series, a prequel spinoff movie titled A Quiet Place: Day One and directed by Michael Sarnoski (Pig), heads into theatres on June 28.

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