Alright. The Quiet Apocalypse 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.

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]