The Quiet Man is a unique approach in storytelling using a protagonist that does not have the ability to hear the world around him. You, as the player, are also subject to piecing together the story without the use of dialogue during the first playthrough of the game. Theoretically, this could have been a great game that stands out from the rest by giving the player a small glimpse into the life of someone processing trauma while also living with a disability, but it was quite apparent that not much effort was put into the game as a whole.
Most of the game is spent watching live action cutscenes in silence. This, by itself, isn’t that bad but the constant switching between live action and mediocre looking 3D models gives it a very sloppy feel. This would be better if the story was something to be enjoyed but because the player is deprived of dialogue, the cutscenes are hard to understand and most of the time straight up nonsensical. Not to mention, while engaged in combat, story related content flashes on the screen, which, presumably, is important but it’s very hard to pay attention to what it is while repeatedly mashing the punch button.
On that note, the combat in this game is genuinely terrible. The grabs do not work, neither do the kicks for that matter. It wasn’t until two or three chapters in the game I was made aware of a special turbo-like button that changes the protag’s normal moves into all finishing moves that deal much more damage than usual. Only from being told by other people and spamming every button during fights out of sheer boredom would someone ever find out about it. The game genuinely feels like you stare into space for 20 minutes at a time then spam the punch button until someone dies.
In conclusion, someone definitely had an idea for a game and people really did code, test, and release it. The question of why someone on the team didn’t raise concerns about the overall quality of the game before it was greenlighted for release is honestly beyond me. It should be a complete embarrassment to SquareEnix to be associated with a lazy, half-assed project such as this. Amazing they have the gall to charge people $15 for three hours of pure garbage. I want the $3 I paid for this game on sale back.
Most of the game is spent watching live action cutscenes in silence. This, by itself, isn’t that bad but the constant switching between live action and mediocre looking 3D models gives it a very sloppy feel. This would be better if the story was something to be enjoyed but because the player is deprived of dialogue, the cutscenes are hard to understand and most of the time straight up nonsensical. Not to mention, while engaged in combat, story related content flashes on the screen, which, presumably, is important but it’s very hard to pay attention to what it is while repeatedly mashing the punch button.
On that note, the combat in this game is genuinely terrible. The grabs do not work, neither do the kicks for that matter. It wasn’t until two or three chapters in the game I was made aware of a special turbo-like button that changes the protag’s normal moves into all finishing moves that deal much more damage than usual. Only from being told by other people and spamming every button during fights out of sheer boredom would someone ever find out about it. The game genuinely feels like you stare into space for 20 minutes at a time then spam the punch button until someone dies.
In conclusion, someone definitely had an idea for a game and people really did code, test, and release it. The question of why someone on the team didn’t raise concerns about the overall quality of the game before it was greenlighted for release is honestly beyond me. It should be a complete embarrassment to SquareEnix to be associated with a lazy, half-assed project such as this. Amazing they have the gall to charge people $15 for three hours of pure garbage. I want the $3 I paid for this game on sale back.
I’ve been mulling it over, and I genuinely think this is the worst game I’ve ever played.
it was the game of all times
This review contains spoilers
Why would they do this?
I would've given it 5 stars if they just had sound in the cut scenes.
And I get that he's deaf, but also I'm pretty sure that he can understand what people are saying to him, so we could at least get subtitles.
Also, I know for sure I don't have the best understanding of the plot of this game, but was he even deaf? Was the ending implying that he JUST lost his hearing, or was he doing a sort of traumatic regression to when he first lost his hearing?
Did they think after making people play through the game as is, they would really have the patience to go through it again?
Why would they make the cut scenes so long and visually uninteresting?
And all the incest stuff, jeez. lol this game is wild.
I really have a lot of questions, and I'm sure a lot of them would be answered in the game itself.
But, yeah, I mean, that part where you play as Quiet Man. Pretty sick lol
I would've given it 5 stars if they just had sound in the cut scenes.
And I get that he's deaf, but also I'm pretty sure that he can understand what people are saying to him, so we could at least get subtitles.
Also, I know for sure I don't have the best understanding of the plot of this game, but was he even deaf? Was the ending implying that he JUST lost his hearing, or was he doing a sort of traumatic regression to when he first lost his hearing?
Did they think after making people play through the game as is, they would really have the patience to go through it again?
Why would they make the cut scenes so long and visually uninteresting?
And all the incest stuff, jeez. lol this game is wild.
I really have a lot of questions, and I'm sure a lot of them would be answered in the game itself.
But, yeah, I mean, that part where you play as Quiet Man. Pretty sick lol
I just wanted my father's applause.
this game is truly incredible, its a bad comedy without audio, and the audio actually makes it even worse, like suddenly the game feels racist and the story feels twice as stupid once you can understand it how incredible
Artsy Fartsy bullshit.
Este juego es una basura, es lo único que puedo decir, no vale la pena ni perder el tiempo en explicarlo.
This game is a technical and narrative mess, but I can't say I didn't have fun playing it. The in-engine cutscenes are something else.
This game was announced at E3 before covid was a thing...imagine the horror of knowing this was one of the last titles to leave your legacy with...
People like Dane might be deaf, but they could still hear the bulls*** for what it was...
People like Dane might be deaf, but they could still hear the bulls*** for what it was...
Defies any possible rating. Congratulations or I'm sorry to whoever created it.
With sound.
sure play quiet man. whatever.
sure play quiet man. whatever.
I lost a bet over a dreadful State of Play and my hopium for a Metal Gear collection. The result: My PlayStation library is tainted because of this game.
This review contains spoilers
I have many feelings about The Quiet Man. Not all of them are bad, although most of them are. This will be laden with spoilers so beware if you're planning to play this game after reading this review (although I'm not entirely sure why you would).
The premise (I think- I'll get to that in a minute(1) ) for The Quiet Man involves a young deaf man, who for reasons never explained in my first playthrough (another thing I'll get to later(2) ), is supernaturally strong, fast and durable- to the point where getting stabbed is something you can relatively just walk off. I'm willing to give it a slight pass as it's an action game, but there are some mechanical things(3) that make this narratively dissonant. Your character's mother(4) was killed in an accident, and again, I think(1) that afterward a police officer takes you in. That police officer might also be your father, but I'm not entirely sure. You then spend the game going after your mother's killer, and then after a masked individual who stole your friend's girlfriend(4), culminating in a showdown on a rooftop.
1- Let's talk about the issue with the storytelling in this game. As I stated, your character is deaf. Due to that, whenever anyone talks, it sounds like their voice is being replaced with menu noises from a PS2. Everyone has this crystalline, floaty, echoing sound that replaces any actual words that they speak... meaning that you, as the player, has absolutely no idea what's happening at any given time. You start the game by taking out some thugs and getting a briefcase that you return to your friend, and then are either asked, or hired, or maybe force your way into (again, you have absolutely zero way of knowing.) going along with your friend's girlfriend(4) to some club she sings and plays piano at, before she's kidnapped and such.
In-universe, there's a degree of sense. Your character cannot hear anything and so everyone talking to him comes across as noise. That's fine. As a -player- it's nothing short of infuriating. You do a bunch of 3D beat-em-up fights(3) and then there's some characters that make noises at one another, and then you're beating up more people. The cutscenes are long and plentiful, using FMV real actor sequences interspersed with gameplay. But having zero context to anything doesn't add intrigue- it's just confusing. You don't know the motivations beyond 'save girl' for anything that's happening. There could be some potential context clues but they're all so minor that it's impossible to determine. It just makes trying to find a reason to keep playing a chore.
2- After you clear the game once, you do unlock a new mode where there are voice overs. This supposedly reveals more about the plot itself, but I cannot get up the care to try to play through the game a second time. Possibly this could increase the enjoyment of the game but seeing how things were handled in the other aspects, my hopes aren't high. The fact that there could be a mode that alleviates a major frustration with the game is still not enough reason to replay it is telling.
3- The core of the game are beat-em-up scenes where your deaf character takes on groups of thugs, gangsters and eventually what I think is a private security detail. Your footing on the ground doesn't seem to matter as any kick or punch you throw has you gliding forward with each movement, which makes your attacks feel as if they have no weight. Adding to that, and perhaps the LARGEST grievance I have, is that when you can actually play the game, there is no sound. No sound, no music, nothing. Just swinging your fists and feet into a soundless void. Nothing has impact, nothing has any real stakes.
Beyond that, the character has two attack buttons, and varying them can give you different combo strings. These never change (with one exception(5)) and you never learn new moves or techniques or anything, aside from a 'Focus Mode' which you only get information on if you lose a fight (which displays your mother(4) and then you're back in the fight with basically no consequence aside from restarting it) which is L2. Or LT, I guess, depending on when you started gaming. The worst part about these rather boring strings is that they are intentional. The developers wanted to tell a story and didn't want the player to get bogged down in extensive technical fighting so they made this weird, floaty, impactless, brainless system that never changes. Genuinely worse (SOMEHOW) than watching actors with PS2 voices talk to each other.
4- Sharp-eyed individuals may have noticed that I tagged both 'Your friend's girlfriend' and 'mother' with the same tag. For reasons that I cannot comprehend (although maybe it'll become clear to me if I replay this godforsaken game) they use the same actress for both your character's mother, and your sort-of love interest. She's with your best friend, but she clearly wants your character, and he has turned her down multiple times if the flashbacks and other scenes are to be trusted (although without being able to hear what the hell is going on at any point, it's hard to say).
It just gives the entire game a really gross feeling because of the very obvious sexual tension between this woman and your character, intermixed with flashbacks of his mother when it's the same actress. It just makes it seem as if he's protecting her and wants to be close to her because she looks exactly like his mother which yes, he did traumatically lose as a child, but there's still a great deal of incestual vibes that come up from it that just make everything feel...gross. Supposedly she also knows your police dad (who may or may not be your real dad) and so that almost makes it even worse.
5- The ending is a nonstop ride of batshit. Your friend turns on you (or maybe you turn on him, it's not really clear) and you end up getting shot, which is the first thing that really puts you down. However, there are flashbacks in dealing with a child psychiatrist where the child version of Dane (your character's name (which I just remembered)) is drawing a weird bird creature with his mother. It's the same mask that the kidnapper that took your friend's girlfriend wore, only kidDane tells the psychiatrist that it's him...and so then you put on the mask and despite being shot, you are now even stronger and faster and more durable than before. Then you go and fight your friend who is a muay thai expert for no real reason and you have to fight him multiple times before he shoots you more, and then doublets you in the head while you're on the ground.
Then you just...come back as some revenant of vengeance and you're even more stronger and more faster than with just the mask on and you murderkill all sorts of your friend's private security force. Then you do it to him before the super power wears off, but you're still alive, and then it turns out your police dad was the guy who wore the mask and did the kidnapping in the first place so then you fight him after you're exhausted (both your character and you, the player, for having dealt with this bullshit for this long) before it finally rolls credits once you've won.
-
There are few redeeming qualities, which I will highlight here-
-The transitions from FMV to gameplay are generally pretty smooth.
-Sometimes during the easier fights, there are flashes of things going on in Dane's mind that sort of replace the background. I thought these were a neat way to show what he was thinking while doing mindless button mashing.
-Dane has personality. Not much of one, but given everything else they bungled, I'm genuinely surprised to see that he does have a personality of his own and isn't just a blank slate.
-The transition into bird reaper of kicking ass -was- cool in an edgy way which I frankly enjoyed, but at that point I was so done with the game I really couldn't care less.
-
All-in-all, just watch a let's play. This game isn't worth playing and the only mildly interesting parts are the story anyway and even then there's basically nothing of importance here because of the fact that you have no idea what the hell is going on at any story juncture.
Final Rating: dirty stinky doodoo farts
The premise (I think- I'll get to that in a minute(1) ) for The Quiet Man involves a young deaf man, who for reasons never explained in my first playthrough (another thing I'll get to later(2) ), is supernaturally strong, fast and durable- to the point where getting stabbed is something you can relatively just walk off. I'm willing to give it a slight pass as it's an action game, but there are some mechanical things(3) that make this narratively dissonant. Your character's mother(4) was killed in an accident, and again, I think(1) that afterward a police officer takes you in. That police officer might also be your father, but I'm not entirely sure. You then spend the game going after your mother's killer, and then after a masked individual who stole your friend's girlfriend(4), culminating in a showdown on a rooftop.
1- Let's talk about the issue with the storytelling in this game. As I stated, your character is deaf. Due to that, whenever anyone talks, it sounds like their voice is being replaced with menu noises from a PS2. Everyone has this crystalline, floaty, echoing sound that replaces any actual words that they speak... meaning that you, as the player, has absolutely no idea what's happening at any given time. You start the game by taking out some thugs and getting a briefcase that you return to your friend, and then are either asked, or hired, or maybe force your way into (again, you have absolutely zero way of knowing.) going along with your friend's girlfriend(4) to some club she sings and plays piano at, before she's kidnapped and such.
In-universe, there's a degree of sense. Your character cannot hear anything and so everyone talking to him comes across as noise. That's fine. As a -player- it's nothing short of infuriating. You do a bunch of 3D beat-em-up fights(3) and then there's some characters that make noises at one another, and then you're beating up more people. The cutscenes are long and plentiful, using FMV real actor sequences interspersed with gameplay. But having zero context to anything doesn't add intrigue- it's just confusing. You don't know the motivations beyond 'save girl' for anything that's happening. There could be some potential context clues but they're all so minor that it's impossible to determine. It just makes trying to find a reason to keep playing a chore.
2- After you clear the game once, you do unlock a new mode where there are voice overs. This supposedly reveals more about the plot itself, but I cannot get up the care to try to play through the game a second time. Possibly this could increase the enjoyment of the game but seeing how things were handled in the other aspects, my hopes aren't high. The fact that there could be a mode that alleviates a major frustration with the game is still not enough reason to replay it is telling.
3- The core of the game are beat-em-up scenes where your deaf character takes on groups of thugs, gangsters and eventually what I think is a private security detail. Your footing on the ground doesn't seem to matter as any kick or punch you throw has you gliding forward with each movement, which makes your attacks feel as if they have no weight. Adding to that, and perhaps the LARGEST grievance I have, is that when you can actually play the game, there is no sound. No sound, no music, nothing. Just swinging your fists and feet into a soundless void. Nothing has impact, nothing has any real stakes.
Beyond that, the character has two attack buttons, and varying them can give you different combo strings. These never change (with one exception(5)) and you never learn new moves or techniques or anything, aside from a 'Focus Mode' which you only get information on if you lose a fight (which displays your mother(4) and then you're back in the fight with basically no consequence aside from restarting it) which is L2. Or LT, I guess, depending on when you started gaming. The worst part about these rather boring strings is that they are intentional. The developers wanted to tell a story and didn't want the player to get bogged down in extensive technical fighting so they made this weird, floaty, impactless, brainless system that never changes. Genuinely worse (SOMEHOW) than watching actors with PS2 voices talk to each other.
4- Sharp-eyed individuals may have noticed that I tagged both 'Your friend's girlfriend' and 'mother' with the same tag. For reasons that I cannot comprehend (although maybe it'll become clear to me if I replay this godforsaken game) they use the same actress for both your character's mother, and your sort-of love interest. She's with your best friend, but she clearly wants your character, and he has turned her down multiple times if the flashbacks and other scenes are to be trusted (although without being able to hear what the hell is going on at any point, it's hard to say).
It just gives the entire game a really gross feeling because of the very obvious sexual tension between this woman and your character, intermixed with flashbacks of his mother when it's the same actress. It just makes it seem as if he's protecting her and wants to be close to her because she looks exactly like his mother which yes, he did traumatically lose as a child, but there's still a great deal of incestual vibes that come up from it that just make everything feel...gross. Supposedly she also knows your police dad (who may or may not be your real dad) and so that almost makes it even worse.
5- The ending is a nonstop ride of batshit. Your friend turns on you (or maybe you turn on him, it's not really clear) and you end up getting shot, which is the first thing that really puts you down. However, there are flashbacks in dealing with a child psychiatrist where the child version of Dane (your character's name (which I just remembered)) is drawing a weird bird creature with his mother. It's the same mask that the kidnapper that took your friend's girlfriend wore, only kidDane tells the psychiatrist that it's him...and so then you put on the mask and despite being shot, you are now even stronger and faster and more durable than before. Then you go and fight your friend who is a muay thai expert for no real reason and you have to fight him multiple times before he shoots you more, and then doublets you in the head while you're on the ground.
Then you just...come back as some revenant of vengeance and you're even more stronger and more faster than with just the mask on and you murderkill all sorts of your friend's private security force. Then you do it to him before the super power wears off, but you're still alive, and then it turns out your police dad was the guy who wore the mask and did the kidnapping in the first place so then you fight him after you're exhausted (both your character and you, the player, for having dealt with this bullshit for this long) before it finally rolls credits once you've won.
-
There are few redeeming qualities, which I will highlight here-
-The transitions from FMV to gameplay are generally pretty smooth.
-Sometimes during the easier fights, there are flashes of things going on in Dane's mind that sort of replace the background. I thought these were a neat way to show what he was thinking while doing mindless button mashing.
-Dane has personality. Not much of one, but given everything else they bungled, I'm genuinely surprised to see that he does have a personality of his own and isn't just a blank slate.
-The transition into bird reaper of kicking ass -was- cool in an edgy way which I frankly enjoyed, but at that point I was so done with the game I really couldn't care less.
-
All-in-all, just watch a let's play. This game isn't worth playing and the only mildly interesting parts are the story anyway and even then there's basically nothing of importance here because of the fact that you have no idea what the hell is going on at any story juncture.
Final Rating: dirty stinky doodoo farts
it's ass don't worry lmao
The combat is mushy and the story is nonsensical and I think I like this game more than anyone on the planet. I recommend playing this with a buddy and roasting it the whole time.
The best part was when the quiet man said: [...]
Truly breathtaking
Truly breathtaking
L'exemple même du jeu de merde que tu veux faire en rigolant, et que chaque minute supplémentaire passée te fait :
- regretter de l'avoir lancé
- relativiser sur TOUS les jeux de merde auxquels on voudrait jouer "pour la science"
Rien. Ne. Va.
N'y touchez pas.
- regretter de l'avoir lancé
- relativiser sur TOUS les jeux de merde auxquels on voudrait jouer "pour la science"
Rien. Ne. Va.
N'y touchez pas.
"The Quiet Man Freudian analysis"
O que fizeram aqui kkkkkkkk
The game wants to be a movie but it sucks at being a movie too. I don't think I've ever played something so arrogantly confident in gameplay this rotten. This is an all-around pretentious piece of trash that's rightfully taken its seat next to the other infamous failures of the industry.
Zero stars, one for every brain cell the game has.
Zero stars, one for every brain cell the game has.
i'm pretty sure i know one of the only existing fans of this game. he picked this for a game club that i participated in and it was only $2 so well... 🙂
didn't really know much about this other than the fact that it was infamously bad to an extent you don't frequently see these days. beyond that i didn't realize that this had actual combat/beat em up gameplay on top of the narrative based stuff. i wish i had stayed unaware but it's too late now.
the two gameplay formats are at complete odds with each other. the story has no flow to it because you're constantly being interrupted (in a jarring fashion) by another fight sequence. i could see a better execution of either the combat gameplay or the narrative itself appealing to fans of those kinds of things but given that they are both miserable slogs it doesn't make anyone happy.
i know there's a second run where you get sound and such but there's no fixing this for me. i'm not bothering.
didn't really know much about this other than the fact that it was infamously bad to an extent you don't frequently see these days. beyond that i didn't realize that this had actual combat/beat em up gameplay on top of the narrative based stuff. i wish i had stayed unaware but it's too late now.
the two gameplay formats are at complete odds with each other. the story has no flow to it because you're constantly being interrupted (in a jarring fashion) by another fight sequence. i could see a better execution of either the combat gameplay or the narrative itself appealing to fans of those kinds of things but given that they are both miserable slogs it doesn't make anyone happy.
i know there's a second run where you get sound and such but there's no fixing this for me. i'm not bothering.
(BacklogBeat's Game Club - May 2024 nomination)
@Sgulgi, welcome to your tape.
This game is so incomprehensibly bad that I can't help but feel like it was intentionally trying to be the next big cult camp classic. Terrible gameplay, insanely bad narrative, horrible acting, awful art direction...the list just goes on. I hate rating games this low, but I genuinely do not have a single good thing to say about this game.
Square Enix is the most unserious company on the planet.
@Sgulgi, welcome to your tape.
This game is so incomprehensibly bad that I can't help but feel like it was intentionally trying to be the next big cult camp classic. Terrible gameplay, insanely bad narrative, horrible acting, awful art direction...the list just goes on. I hate rating games this low, but I genuinely do not have a single good thing to say about this game.
Square Enix is the most unserious company on the planet.