The Quiet Apocalypse

I wanted to like this game. I really did. It starts out with a scale of landscape that is rare, giving a sense to size of the great wilds. The decent points of interest along the earlier story are paced well enough to tolerate. After a while, the story itself kicks up suddenly (and somewhat out of left field) with enough hook to forgive the increasingly long treks of boring nothing. However, there is so much jank in this game, that it only took a rather large iron straw to break the camel's back. From the flashlight having to be manually reloaded if reading a document to ladders killing you if you down crawl down them and finally, and this is a big one, save points only happening in the incredibly rare buildings with no option to manually save. This is what killed it for me. The portion between Red Hell checkpoint and the next stop is an unforgivably long walk of nothing, with nothing to see, nothing to do, and like me if you slip on a hill that isn't obviously dangerous and fall to your death 70% of the way through a 20 minute walk and die, you're back at the beginning of that walk. No thanks. A shame too, because I wanted to know what happens. But not at the cost of my hand. In a game focused on such long amounts of walking, it's bewildering there is no autorun key. Holding shift for 10 minutes at a time is not a game mechanic. I wish the developers(s) well on future endeavors, here are a few notes that might help in that regard: Audio. - The story is incredibly dark and macabre in some places, so walking into the scene of horror with random meditation piano music playing deflates the gravity of what we are reading or seeing. - It's nice to hear sounds of the forest, but there is absolutely no life anywhere, which makes it seem hollow. Seeing a bird flit every now and then or some animal in the distance bound away would have a gone long way. Quality over quantity. - A large swath of a land with nothing in it is a waste of yours and our time. Walking sims only thrive if there is something accompanying the journey. A vista, a story told in the environment, a chase, etc... - You had a compelling story with multiple layers, but it's end up being drowned in frustrating game play. Remember, the biggest sin of any entertainment media is to be boring and quantity over quality is a fast road there. Show don't tell. - There was quite a few opportunities to tell the story of what was going on through environment setup, the aftermath. - It would have been better for the main character to be put into a strange situation and tail his father rather than be guided, (I mean, how many knives does his father?). - Can you imagine, for instance, if the main character gathered enough clues to open the Hobbs Hill containers and find what was there rather than the dad giving it way in the previous point of interest pamphlet? By Design - Your making a game, first and foremost. The mechanics and elements that support gameplay matter. - It's strange that you bring attention to the crosshair being small (which I would occasionally think was dirt on my monitor) and yet force us to have the objectives taking up the entire upper left with no option to turn it off. - Or that when a useable object is targeted, it changes to a useless invisible dark circle? - Or it doesn't change at all over items that go into the inventory? - Why do we have stamina if 1) it takes 3 minutes of continuous running to drain, refills in 10 seconds, and 2) running is the only way to stay at a sane pace. - Why does the flashlight run of batteries in 100 seconds and yet I have 100 batteries in my inventory? - Why am I travelling at night? Shouldn't this be more dangerous to the point of sleeping through it unless forced otherwise through dangers? (Camp Carter was a nightmare to orient to if arriving at night) - Box physics. This is a small gripe, but I tried not to chuckle every time I picked up one of these cubic gyroscopes, which breaks immersion.

You know, I didn't know what to expect, but this is a very nice little game! It is basically a walking simulator with no fighting, but it has an interesting and mysterious story about a worldwide catastrophe. PROS. The story pulled me in, always wanting to know more. Little by little, the story is revealed in letters found in abandoned buildings. The graphics are great -- not over-the-top, but very realistic with lots of fine detail and interesting clutter in the buildings. One of the most unusual things is the size of the world -- 154 sq miles! That's huge -- larger than Ghost Recon (105 sq mi), Witcher 3 (84 sq mi), WoW (80 sq mi), GTA V (49 sq mi), Red Dead 2 (29 sq mi), and far larger than Skyrim (15 sq mi). CONS. There's only one: the settings say there is a keybind for Run, but it doesn't work -- you can only walk. Dev, please fix this! Even though it takes a bit too much time getting from one objective to another, I can still live with it. After all, it is a walking simulator, and the scenery is varied and interesting. SUMMARY. If you want a relaxing game that has an interesting, mysterious story, this is it. A real diamond in the rough, and obviously, a labor of love. Nicely done, Dev.

The Quiet Apocalypse is more than a walking simulator... it is 'find your way across the wilderness with a compass' simulator and it does a good job of capturing a sense of orienteering. Your direction may be SE, but if there is a mountain or cliff in the way, you have to choose a safe path around and then readjust your bearings once you've cleared the obstacle. Climbing to a hill top and scanning for landmarks (such as radio towers) is also helpful. On steep slopes, moving diagonally is much safer than facing downhill at a run. So, there is a sense of planning your route which I enjoyed. You begin your journey with a note from your father that has instructions on how to follow him. You move from one way-point to the next, finding notes from your father along the way. You also build a story of what happened to the people and the world through other notes that are lying about. At first, the level of instructions for each quest seemed excessive. But, this is to get you into the swing of the game. With such a vast geography, specific travel instructions became beneficial because it kept me on track without getting lost. The game has a map which shows points of interest and your current position/direction which is essential to efficient travel. All notes you find are stored in your inventory which is also handy for reviewing the clues and instructions they provide. Several areas have mini-quests to find keys and unlock doors. There were 3 puzzle areas that were a nice break from travel. You find batteries for your flashlight and syringes/vials for healing as you proceed. I had very little use for either (it stayed daylight most of the time and my injuries from falling were never severe). The landscape is varied and detailed and the sound track consists of environmental noises and music in some areas. You are on a solitary journey and the absence of characters and conversation lends to your feeling of being alone in a big world. The game auto-saves at way-points and then saves as you exit structures. You always have two save files to choose from. These may be 45 minutes apart, or 3 minutes apart, depending on your current position and actions. One caveat is that there is no save when you are in the wilderness. Since it may take 30 - 45 minutes to move between way-points, I had to plan on finishing each run between points in one sitting rather than stopping mid-way (and thus losing progress). For completionists, all but 1 achievement are hard to miss if you can follow instructions, use a compass, and navigate in a general direction. I enjoyed this game, despite the very long periods of running through the wilderness. You cover a lot of ground and my time spent in this game reflects the distances I traveled. A 4-wheeler would have been nice but I'm not complaining! It should be noted that the ability to run was added after the initial release. This improved travel times and I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the game had I been limited to walking. I recommend this to those who enjoy an unhurried scenic journey with an interesting story (albeit one that ends rather abruptly and without further explanation).

Alright. [i]The Quiet Apocalypse[/i] is done and dusted. I really enjoyed this game. It is the epitome of a walking simulator, which I generally enjoy, and it's the type of game that really has you thinking about it after you wrap it up. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3252553208 This is a game that's all about the story and the journey to uncover the various pieces that make the whole picture clear. I will say that this is also obviously a product of living through COVID, even if it possibly didn't begin development that way. Not really sure how far back this was being written, but yeah. The story is multi-faceted, where there are a few distinct storylines that all come together to provide a very nuanced tale of impending manmade or human influenced doom being preempted by a naturally occurring extinction event. Which was really, really cool. I found myself easily picturing and hearing the people being described in or actually writing the notes that convey the story throughout. In fact, it was easy to forget that this game has no voice acting, so evocative was the writing and so detailed were the notes you find on your journey. It's rare that the writing in games is this focused and high quality. I saw people had trouble finding certain locations, but for me, following the instructions in the notes was adequate to find all but one location, and I didn't really put any effort into finding that location since I had chosen a different path to the main objective at that point in the game. The gameplay itself is 100% walking simulator. There are a couple lite puzzles and one reasonably involved one, and a fair amount of locations, with a lot of walking from place to place. One negative is there is no toggle for fast walking. You have to hold down the shift button. And given how vast this game is and just how much walking you actually do in between objectives, that was a fairly serious oversight that I'd guess is a leading cause for people not finishing this game. Holding down the shift button for ten-ish hours isn't ideal. That aside, the locations are pretty cool and the world, while clearly pushing the limits of the landscape streaming, still looks really nice. It is repetitive, but effective nonetheless. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3252934735 The game does stutter and freeze periodically as implied in the product description. However, that aside, it ran perfectly on my PC with k/m. The same can't be said for the Steam Deck or a gamepad however. It was virtually unplayable on the Steam Deck, where the stuttering and framerate drops were significant; and gamepad requires remapping, after which it still feels kind of off. I would also note that the quest objective for getting to the White Desert is wrong at first. When it tells you to go to the NE corner of the area, don't do that initially. Go North instead. It's only after completing two objectives to the North that it triggers the true time in which you would actually go to the NE corner. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3253080601 I mentioned it previously, but the story kind of blew my mind in a way. The way it continued to evolve throughout the game was very impressive and I'll be thinking about this one for some time to come. I saw the developer had mentioned making a side story game with some survival horror mechanics. I think that would suit this world well and hopefully he's still working on that idea. Additionally, there is a clear opportunity for a true sequel as well, which I'd be interested in. All in all, I would highly recommend this game to anyone who has the patience to walk vast stretches of in game maps and loves a great story. [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code] [code]Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/code]

This is a really interesting game and I am definitely enjoying exploring the world! I had no issues with the game speed. Please relax and enjoy. I had a small issue with my save file, and dev sorted it out for me almost immediately. Weather system is particularly nice, with realistic clouds and gaps in clouds seeing through to stars etc.

优化非常差。 刚进游戏，主菜单和游戏UI就是一股小作坊半成品的味道。 开场就走了20多分钟的路，后续任务还是要走路，距离还不短，堪比防退款机制。 也没有像宣传上的风景，只有破烂的房子、稀疏的枯树，还有一片死水湖，湖里的鱼个个都跟人一样大。 对比了一下宣传的视频，相同的地点、似是而非的画面。 而且没有中文。 果断退款。

400km² offene Welt - 50GB groß - dennoch ist das innen total leer. Man läuft gefühlt 30-60min herum, es gibt keine Wege, keine Straßen, alles sieht gleich aus und ist oft einfach nur Flach. Die Berge sehen aus, als hätte ein Kind mit einem Editor rumgespielt. Bei jedem POI (Point of interesting) liegt einer oder mehrere Zettel rum, die bissel was erzählen. Es gibt eine kleine Questreihe, die uns von Gebäude zu Gebäude schickt. Überall erklingen per Zufall Geräusche, auch von Tieren, egal wo man ist. Ja, es macht viel Sinn ein Waldtier zu hören, wenn man sich ca. 100m auf einer Hängebrücke befindet. Wenn man die Beschreibung liest, hört sich das alles toll an, weswegen ich das gekauft habe. Aber es ist einfach Stinklangweilig. Warum machen viele Entwickler immer so riesen Welten, die aber total leer sind. Dann lieber kleiner mit mehr Inhalt. Es gibt 12 Erfolge, wo man Hauptsächlich was Erkunden bzw. erreichen muss. Aber leider zählen die Erfolge bis Dato NICHT zu den Statistiken. Das heißt, egal ob 100%, es gibt kein "perfektes Spiel". Das hat glaube damit zu tun, dass es bis heute viel zu wenig gekauft haben. Zudem gibt es bis heute keine deutschen Texte. Wer also nur "Schul" English kann, wird hier kaum was verstehen. Für 1,61€ kann man dennoch nichts falsch machen. Werde trz versuchen es 100% zu machen. Auch wenn es leider Schwer fällt. Ich empfehle das Spiel trz NICHT. Man muss sich mal Vorstellen. Das Game hat nichts zu bieten, keine Sequenzen, keine Sprachausgabe bzw. hab ich bislang nichts mitbekommen und ist dennoch teils größer als sehr viele AAA Games. Woher nimmt das Game so viel GB weg? Die Map Größe kann es nicht sein. The Witcher 3 ist zwar nur 136km² groß, bietet aber gefühlt 20x mehr Inhalt, sieht besser aus und ist nur stück größer von den GB.

I didn't find this game fun. I played for 4 hours to see if it would get better and have given up. don't wait that long!

I like walking sims. But there has to be balance, and this one tips the scales between walking and doing heavily in the "walking" part. would be fun if either there was stuff to do along the way, faster walking, or less distance. Just sayin" Still giving it a thumbs up. I want the devs to keep after it. EDIT: Now that I've played a bit more, I like it more, unfortunately, I hit the wrong item on the menu, and erased all of my progress. Starting over. BOTTOM LINE: I've logged about 12 hours and love the game...with caveats. I just slipped down the side of a hill and died about 30 minutes into my trip to the gunsmith's house to pick up a gun left there for me, and the game restarts me back at the checkpoint. I feel very safe in restating my first objection, TOO MUCH WALKING. This game has all the makings of a great walking adventure. Please don't make the mistake the Drizzlepaath games do and waste so much time in travel. You could literally fill this map with easily 10 times the activities, or shrink it, or even supply a motorcycle. I think you have a winner on your hands, just less walking between adventures.

I love the visuals of this game. It is nice to look at and the story is interesting and disturbing enough to the point I have played. I realize they added a run feature, but it is not very fast; more like a fast walk. The destinations, in my opinion, are spaced too far apart. It took me 20 minutes to reach the desert from the forest with absolutely nothing interesting going on in that time. That is honestly the only complaint I have. It really is unappealing to fall and die or crash and be set back 20 minutes of walking to get back to where you were.