After gaining a little buzz with its unique premise, “The Quiet Man” releases as a disappointing mess of a game.
Square Enix debuted “The Quiet Man” earlier this year at E3. Featuring live action cut scenes and a silent world, players control deaf protagonist Dane. “The Quiet Man”, at least on the first play through, is a silent game. There is little to no sound, save for mild impact sounds and indiscernible dialogue. It is as if the player is watching everything occur through a pane of glass or underwater. Players must complete the game once before having a chance to play the game with sound. On the silent play through, players are supposed to experience the world as Dane would. The first time through players can interoperate the events of the game based on what little context clues are given. Sadly, there are not many. “The Quiet Man” has no subtitles. Players are left in the dark unless they can read lips, a skill Dane has. There are times that Dane responds to characters after being spoken or signed to. These moments should have had some sort of subtitle to give the player the information that Dane is receiving, or at least subtitles for what Dane himself is saying. Things are not fixed when sound returns on the second time through. This time players know what is being said, but the story itself is subpar at best. It tries to be this twisty-turny mystery narrative, that gets lost within itself. There are plot holes and things that make sense throughout the entire game. It was as if Square was just trying to throw as many twists into the game as they could, and it ends up ruining any semblance of coherent narrative. A poor narrative could be excused if the gameplay was any good, but “The Quiet Man” fails in this aspect as well. “The Quiet Man” is an unremarkable brawler. The player goes from area to area, fighting the same three guys over and over. This sometimes works, but “The Quiet Man” can be completed by pressing the attack button repeatedly with zero strategy. There is no satisfaction or sense of accomplishment for fighting in this game, with some sequences dragging on for tens of minutes for no particular reason. There is no tutorial or explanation of mechanics, it just drops the player into the game expecting them to figure it out. “The Quiet Man” is a bad game that tried to get by on its unique premise. There was potential here, but the game fails to impress on every level. It is a short cheap experience that is not even worth its low monetary cost. Score: 4/10
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AuthorI am A.J. Goelz. I'm a gamer first and a writer second. I hope you enjoy the content on this page and check out the rest of my content on YouTube. Archives
April 2019
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