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

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A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead's creatures can hear you through your microphone

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead
(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

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.

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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.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.