FMV brawler The Quiet Man out now
Weeeiird
The FMV revival continues today with the launch of The Quiet Man, a brawler which is supposed to switch "seamlessly" between live-action video, in-game cutscenes, and playable fisticuffs. It's not a game I'd expect Square Enix to publish, not a game I'd expect Human Head (the studio behind the 2006 Prey) to make, and not a game I'd expect Imogen Heap to sing the theme song for, but here we are.
The Quiet Man will put us in the cool leather jacket of Dane, a fella hunting for a missing singer who (going by videos) seems to have been swiped by a kooky killer. Off he goes, punching and kicking his way to answers across a curious mix of mediums. Squeenix say it's about three hours long, so it's a bit like a long movie where you do the punching.
Because Dane is deaf, the game takes the curious step of heavily muffling sound and voices. Even the subtitles go along with this, only transcribing the rare bits of dialogue that are meant to be heard. As well as a stylistic flourish, this is meant to build mystery.
Squeenix plan to add an extra mode for second playthroughs, 'The Quiet Man - Answered -', which will have full sound and voices to "offer answers to the unique mysteries" of the game. This isn't in at launch, I suppose because they want mystery to linger, but will be patched in after "approximately one week".
The Quiet Man is out now on Steam. It'll normally cost £12/€15/$15, but launches with a 10% discount offered until November 8th.
What I've seen of the game looks not good but god, keep the FMV coming.
