The Quiet Man (video game)

The Quiet Man is an action-adventure beat 'em up video game developed by Human Head Studios and published by Square Enix for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4. The game's story is told through lengthy full motion video sequences, some of which feature live-action actors, inserted between the gameplay sequences, and it features a deaf protagonist, which is reflected by having most of the events except for the opening and ending scenes having heavily muted sound with no subtitles regardless of the settings, being a deliberate choice from the developers.

The Quiet Man
Developer(s)Human Head Studios
Publisher(s)Square Enix
Producer(s)Kensei Fujinaga
Programmer(s)Shaun Nivens
Artist(s)Ashley Welch
Writer(s)Joe Kelly
EngineUnreal Engine
Platform(s)
ReleaseNovember 1, 2018
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

The Quiet Man was critically panned upon its release, with the complaints stemming from issues with the story, the underdeveloped gameplay sequences, and the lack of commitment displayed towards the deafness gimmick, with the inconsistent portrayal of the protagonist's deafness and the game's cinematics being realized in a sound film way that would not work without sound like a proper silent film would. In response, the audio was restored in a post-release update as an optional feature.

Gameplay

Most of the game consists of full motion videos, but players participate most intensely during combat scenarios.[1] Wordless on screen symbols explain how combat can proceed.[1] Players have the option of punching, kicking, and evasion, as well as combination moves.[2] There is also a “focus” mode where players can “beat down” their opponent with a flurry of blows.[2]

Plot

A young and deaf boy named Dane interrupts a quarrel between his friend, Taye, and a bully, Isaac, that results in Dane's mother Lorraine getting shot when Taye and Isaac struggle over a gun. Isaac takes credit for the killing and is arrested while Taye runs away. Dane's policeman father, Robert, blames Dane for his wife's death and becomes abusive toward him. Dane, traumatized by these events, makes up a character in his drawings named "The Quiet Man", who resembles a plague doctor.

Years later, Dane serves as an enforcer for Taye, who runs a nightclub and leads an American Mafia-styled mob. Taye expresses concern about his girlfriend, a singer named Lala (who appears identical to Lorraine), who has been receiving mysterious letters addressed to her by a stalker. When Dane escorts Lala to the nightclub, her performance is interrupted by an ambush from SOL 33, a rival gang led by Isaac. The stalker, who looks like Dane's "Quiet Man" drawing, kidnaps Lala during the confusion. Taye's associate B-Money (Daniel Kelly) wants Dane to call Taye about the escalation of the gang war, but Dane prefers to recover Lala on his own. B-Money ignores Dane's advice and calls Taye anyway, inciting the mob boss's anger.

Dane tracks Lala's trail throughout the city, leading him to Isaac's penthouse. There Dane fights Isaac, throwing him out a window, and rescues Lala. While escaping the building they encounter Taye, who angrily believes that Dane is the stalker and tried to trick Taye into a gang war with Isaac out of jealously over Lala. Lala explains to Taye that she faked her own kidnapping, but Taye decides to have them both killed. Robert, now a detective, appears and saves them both.

As Dane and Robert pursue Taye to his office, Taye shoots Robert and tries to explain to Dane that the death of Lorraine was an accident. Taye is interrupted by Lala before he can shoot Dane, and Taye chases her up to the roof. A wounded Robert encourages Dane to put on The Quiet Man mask to save Lala. As The Quiet Man, Dane confronts Taye and fights off his men. After losing a fight with Dane, Taye decides to shoot Lala but Dane takes the bullet for her. Injured, Dane reawakens with supernatural abilities, and kills Taye. Robert appears wearing the Quiet Man mask and reveals he was the stalker, and helped Lala fake her own kidnapping in order to manipulate Dane into killing Isaac and Taye to get revenge for Lorraine. Dane and Robert fight, ending in both of them collapsing from their injuries.

A post-credits scene has Dane being released from prison as a result of his actions, and meeting up with Robert, ready to make amends for the events that have unfolded.

Development and release

The Quiet Man was announced during Square Enix's press conference at E3 2018.[3][4][5] To give an insight of the game's concept, a series of planned producer letters by Kensei Fujinaga were posted on the game's Twitter account. The first one dated July 2, 2018 explains the power of "words".[6][7][8] On August 9, 2018, Fujinaga hosted a special livestream showcasing the gameplay, story, and cinematics[9]

Man of Action Studios, a group of comic book writers helped create The Quiet Man's story.[10] One of the game's greatest challenges was to make the game have an action feel, but eliminate much of the traditional menus and bars that track battle progress and abilities in most games in order to retain a cinematic feel.[10]

The Quiet Man was released on November 1, 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows.[11] A downloadable patch for the game named Answered, which provides a second play-through that restores the sounds, dialogue and soundtrack to the game was released a week later, on November 8, 2018.[12]

Reception

The teaser trailer was met with a mixed critical response. Shack News, Press-Start and ComicsBeat found it interesting.[19][20][21] Polygon, SegmentNext and Screen Rant labeled it conceptually intriguing.[22][23][24] Destructoid named it bizarre.[25] The Ball State Daily News called it bad.[26]

The Quiet Man received "generally unfavorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.[14] It was Metacritic's Official Worst Game of 2018, meaning it was the lowest-scoring of 2018.[27] PC Gamer described the game as a "spectacular disaster" and added "there are lots of bad games, but for a game that was announced at E3 and made by a major publisher and studio to be this catastrophic is something."[28] Destructoid gave it a 4 out of 10, stating that the game failed to deliver on its advertisement of "high-production live action, realistic CG and pulse-pounding action gameplay", and though it had some high points, "they soon [gave] way to glaring faults."[15]

In a video review, critic Jim Sterling called the game "a miserable and exhausting time", saying that the game's story was impossible to understand with the lack of dialogue, especially since certain visual plot details are obscured from view, and that the cutscenes were excessively long and would be even with audio or substantial comprehensible details. They were aware of the then-upcoming Answered update but did not believe it would adequately fix the problem, as audible dialogue is locked behind a New Game Plus, still forcing players to complete the game without dialogue the first time. They also found combat sequences either mindless due to a lack of transitional animations allowing them to corner and stunlock any given enemy, including bosses, or extremely difficult to follow due to a poor camera and distracting cutscenes being overlaid during combat.[29] They later placed The Quiet Man at the top of their worst games of 2018 list, calling it "an abject, stupid failure" in both gameplay and story, and further lambasting the story by opining that the mere existence of the Answered update proved its execution to be fundamentally flawed and that, in its incomprehensibility, it inadvertently portrayed deaf people as incapable of understanding the world around them.[30]

References
  1. Valentine, Robin (November 6, 2018). "The Quiet Man is The Room of video games and a once-in-a-generation trainwreck". Games Radar. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  2. Welsh, Oli (November 7, 2018). "The Quiet Man review - a juvenile, incompetent embarrassment". Eurogamer. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  3. Ahern, Colm (June 11, 2018). "The Quiet Man trailer had a wonderful live-action bit". VideoGamer.com. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  4. Makuch, Eddie (June 11, 2018). "Square Enix Reveals New PS4/PC Game "The Quiet Man" At E3 2018, Can Be Completed In One Sitting". GameSpot.com. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  5. Hurley, Leon (June 11, 2018). "The Quiet Man "seamlessly blends live action and CG" and can be "completed in one sitting"". gamesradar.com. Future Publishing. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  6. Jenni (July 2, 2018). "The Quiet Man's First Producer Letter Says "Words Are Life"". siliconera.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
  7. S., Shibu (July 3, 2018). "The Quiet Man Story and Concept Clues Revealed By Square Enix". gametransformers.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
  8. Fogel, Stefanie (July 3, 2018). "'The Quiet Man's' Producer Talks About the Power of Words". variety.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
  9. White, Lucas (August 9, 2018). "Square Enix Shows Off The Quiet Man Gameplay During Livestream". PlayStation LifeStyle. Archived from the original on November 19, 2019. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  10. Reeves, Ben (August 22, 2018). "I Talked To The Quiet Man Developers And I'm Still Confused". Game Informer. Archived from the original on August 22, 2019. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  11. Radulovic, Petrana (October 3, 2018). "The Quiet Man gets a new trailer — and a release date". Polygon. Archived from the original on October 24, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  12. Romano, Sal (November 8, 2018). "The Quiet Man 'Answered' update now available". Gematsu. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  13. "The Quiet Man for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on November 9, 2018. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  14. "The Quiet Man for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on November 9, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  15. Carter, Chris (November 4, 2018). "Review: The Quiet Man". Destructoid. Archived from the original on November 9, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  16. Marsh, Calum (November 7, 2018). "The Quiet Man Review - Silence Is Not Golden". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 9, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  17. Griffin, David (November 6, 2018). "The Quiet Man Reviews". IGN. Archived from the original on November 9, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  18. "The Quiet Man review – fascinatingly awful". Metro. November 6, 2018. Archived from the original on November 9, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  19. Vincent, Brittany (June 11, 2018). "E3 2018: Square Enix's The Quiet Man Shows Off Bouncer-Like Melee Combat". shakenews.com. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  20. Gibbons, Brodie (June 12, 2018). "THE QUIET MAN SHOWN OFF BY SQUARE ENIX". press-start.com.au. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  21. Nieves, Davey (June 11, 2018). "E3 2018: Square Enix shows off more Tomb Raider and announces a major collaboration with Capcom". ComicsBeat.com. Heidi MacDonald. Archived from the original on jimAugust 25, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018. Check date values in: |archive-date= (help)
  22. Kuchera, Ben (June 11, 2018). "Square Enix announces mysterious game called The Quiet Man". polygon.com. Vox Media. Archived from the original on September 3, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  23. Tufail, Arslan (June 11, 2018). "Square Enix Announces A New IP Titled The Quiet Man, Possibly Featuring A Deaf Protagonist And Hand-to-Hand Combat". segmentnext.com. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  24. Gordon, Rob (June 11, 2018). "The Quiet Man Is A Mysterious New Game From Square Enix". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  25. Chris Carter (June 11, 2018). "Square Enix unveils 'The Quiet Man' with a bizzare [sic] trailer". destructoid.com. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on June 11, 2018. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  26. Tanner, Kinney (June 11, 2018). "E3 2018 reflection and recap: Square-Enix". ballstatedaily.com. The Ball State Daily News. Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  27. "#1: The Quiet Man (PS4)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  28. Wilde, Tyler (November 1, 2018). "The Quiet Man is spectacularly bad". Destructoid. Archived from the original on November 4, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  29. "The Quiet Man - Pretentious Broken Garbage (Jimpressions)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2018-11-17. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
  30. "Top Ten Shittiest Games of 2018 (The Jimquisition)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2018-12-31. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
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