The Loud Man: Is The Quiet Man Any Better With Sound?

What was once a silent game, Square Enix has added sound to The Quiet Man. Is the game truly better with sound? Let's find out.


Published: November 9, 2018 2:00 PM /

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The Quiet Man Header loading screen with 3 characters standing side by side

It's clear something is wrong. We live in a world where The Quiet Man exists. We shouldn't, but we do. I already gave my views on the game, but there's recently been a patch that adds sound back to the game. Titled The Quiet Man Answered, this patch claims to make it so you can actually understand the game's plot. Does this understanding make the game good? I lose another three hours of my life to play The Quiet Man again and find out.

Things actually start off pretty weird. When loading up this new mode, you'll first face the final boss. Following this, The Quiet Man then reverses back through a few key scenes, showing you how they played out with sound. The idea isn't bad, but there's one big problem. Playing the final boss first promptly spoils the game's big twist. So you can basically skip the rest of your playthrough if that's all you cared about.

 

the quiet man review spoopy
Oooh, so spooky

 

When it comes to the cutscenes, the sound only really exposes how bad the writing is. At one point a character refers to himself as "a tall glass of iced tea", which is not exactly something I'd want to call myself. Another character tries to taunt someone by saying "you need more assholes". My personal favorite line is "you guys couldn't find your handcuffs if they were clamped to your own fucking dicks."

The female lead character's name is actually "Lala", which is hilarious considering her only real personality trait is her singing. Every conversation with Dane (the hooded bloke you play as) feels weird, as he often gives really short answers to everyone. In fact, the first level consists of him doing little other than awkwardly mumbling "the case".

At least it makes the cutscenes more bearable. If you're going to be forced into watching five minutes of characters talking, it's nice to hear them actually talk. I didn't find myself falling asleep as I did in the original playthrough. As for the plot itself, it's pretty far in "good enough" territory.

I will admit that I liked how some of my assumptions on what the major plot elements consisted of were totally wrong, and how characters like Dane or Lala aren't really as pure as they appeared. On the other hand, there wasn't much to keep me hooked for the full three hours, and ultimately this is just generic action movie nonsense.

 

the quiet man review gun
Please just shoot me so I don't have to play The Quiet Man anymore.

In my original review, I joked that one of The Quiet Man's only positives was the possibility of good voice acting. In truth, the voice acting also lands in "good enough" territory. No one really stands out as being exceptional. If I had to point out one thing,

Lala always sounds bored even when it doesn't seem appropriate. One guy with a ponytail (whose name I can't remember) has a hilariously fake Boston accent. As you can imagine, it doesn't make many of his serious scenes convey much other than humor.

However, there's one thing that really bothers me about this patch. One of the selling points of The Quiet Man on the game's Steam page is that it's "leaving it up to the player to make their own interpretation as the search for the masked man unfolds".

After this new content, it's tough to really say that there's a story that you can interpret on your own now. It doesn't actually matter what your interpretations are, The Quiet Man has one story that plays out one way and you either guessed right or wrong. There are no deeper plot points or symbols for you to figure out. By adding the sound back, the game plays its hand and shows that.

 

the quiet man review flashback
I'm so glad I can see what I'm doing. Thanks, guys.

One area of The Quiet Man actually benefits greatly from the addition of sound, and that's the gameplay. With actual noises behind them, combat has far more oomph. You can actually hear your blows land. You can notice the enemies reacting to each hit. It's all way better than the muffled thumps in the first playthrough. That said, the combat can still be hilariously broken by backing enemies against walls and mashing out light combos. Thanks to that, it doesn't really matter that much.

When I originally reviewed The Quiet Man I gave it a 1/10. If this was the version of the game I first reviewed, I probably would be giving it a 3. So yes, The Quiet Man is better with sound. However, it really doesn't take much to be better than The Quiet Man. I would still never recommend you play this game, and I'm still totally baffled at its existence.

TechRaptor played The Quiet Man on PlayStation 4 with a copy purchased by the author. The game is also available on PC and Xbox One.

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Samuel Guglielmo TechRaptor
| Reviews Editor

I'm Sam. I have been playing video games since my parents brought home a PlayStation whenever that came out. Started writing for TechRaptor for 2016 and,… More about Samuel

More Info About This Game
Learn more about The Quiet Man
Game Page The Quiet Man
Developer
Human Head Studios
Publisher
Square Enix
Platforms
PlayStation 4, PC
Release Date
November 1, 2018 (Calendar)
Genre
Brawler
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