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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Relying on its unique premise, “The Quiet Man” had a chance to deliver an amazing experience. Instead, what ended up being released was a confusing and mediocre action game.
“The Quiet Man” takes place over one night in New York. Players control Dane, a deaf man who is an expert street fighter. What sets this game apart from the crowd is the deaf protagonist. Early on, sound is almost completely removed from the game. There is no music and no subtitles, instead there is only slight sounds from impacts of strikes and indiscernible sounds when other characters are speaking. It’s like watching the game through a foot of glass. With such an interesting premise, I was excited going in. The idea of game without sound and making the player interpret the events of the game based on what they can see is unique. What ends up happening though is that the story is incomprehensible. There are things that can be inferred, but the exact narrative and the twists and turns the story takes are completely lost. There is so little visual information on what is happening that discerning the story is nigh impossible. There are times that Dane speaks with other characters through sign language or lip reading. Even in these moments the player is not let in on what is happening. If Dane is getting information, then the player should as well. It just adds to the confusion. It is almost as if the player is trying to piece things together with pieces from different puzzles. The game just drops the player into action, it never explains the systems or buttons. “The Quiet Man” is a basic brawler. There is a punch, kick and dodge command. There is also a sort of focus or rush mode where Dane can attack an enemy without them blocking or dodging, and the combo ends in a cinematic take down. The action sequences, if they can be called that, are so simplistic that they can be completed in one’s sleep. There are no strategies or complex button commands, just mash the attack button until all the enemies fall down. There are a few boss fights, but even they can be won by just constantly attacking. With the lack of explanation there might be a few hidden combat maneuvers that the player would have no way of knowing how to execute. “The Quiet Man” switches between live action cinematics and rendered scenes. The switches are fluid and pretty, but it is impossible to judge character performances without the sound in the game. The biggest technical issue came at the end where the fixed camera angle made fighting near impossible and ruined what could have been a cool moment. The fixed camera angle also took away from combat take downs. The camera would be blocked by enemies or Dane himself. “The Quiet Man” has a neat premise that surrounds a mediocre game. Even with sound, the game would be a forgettable brawler. There was so much potential surrounding this title that it is sad that the end product was so disappointing. Score: 4/10 There will be an update sometime this week. This update will add sound and subtitles back to the game. I will update this review after the update to the game. |
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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