New A Quiet Place survival horror game borrows Alien: Isolation’s scariest feature to use your own voice against you

The upcoming survival horror game A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead will feature microphone detection that allows creatures to hear your real-life voice.

“They’re coming for you. Don’t make a sound! …literally,” reads a tweet from the game’s official Twitter feed. “A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead features microphone detection, bringing the creatures’ terror right into your own room.” The announcement is accompanied by a deeply unsettling video of a man playing the game with a PS5 controller and triggering an ambush with a subtle sigh, suggesting the monsters in the game have the same sensitive hearing that they do in the popular movies the game is based on.

I absolutely love this, and honestly with a game centered around monsters that rely solely on their hearing to track down prey, it would almost be a disappointment if it didn’t feature microphone detection. That said, it’s far from the first game to use this mechanic; off the top of my head, Lethal Company, Phasmophobia, and Fears to Fathom all do something similar to great effect.

The cult classic survival horror game Alien: Isolation from 2014 is by far the scariest example, in my opinion. The Xenomorph would still be a colossally scary and intelligent video game antagonist without the ability to hear your voice, but with that additional advantage it just dials the fear up to 11. Thank goodness Alien: Isolation 2 is finally, legitimately on the way. 

If A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead even approaches Alien: Isolation’s enemy design and couples that with super-sensitive mic detection, we’re in for a tense ride when it launches for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on October 17.

In a GamesRadar+ exclusive, A Quiet Place video game narrative designer explains how it bridges the gap between Day One and the original movie.