Review: FULL QUIET is an Ambitious Return to NES Gaming
Full Quiet is an 8-bit survival game full of combat and puzzles. It was released last year on Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox (affiliate link) with an upcoming release on NES. The game is developed by Retrotainment Games and published by 8-Bit Legit. The team was kind enough to supply me with a review copy of the game for Nintendo Switch, but all thoughts below are my own.
Out here, static is the enemy...
Get lost in this challenging, mysterious, open-world adventure as you encounter strange creatures, solve puzzles, and figure out how to restore the radio relay grid in order to find your missing son. Look for clues along the way and manage your resources while you decode the secrets of Full Quiet.
Your puzzle solving, combat and survival skills will be tested... Do you have what it takes to silence the forest and drive out those who have emerged into our world?
This game is an interesting one. If you have a fondness for classic NES gaming where you need the manual to really get anywhere and the gameplay is pretty challenging, you will want to consider Full Quiet. It definitely feels ambitious and while I was not able to finish playing through, others have reported that it takes approximately 20 hours to complete. That’s pretty incredible for an NES title. Let’s dive a little deeper though.
Visually, the game looks solid for the most part. There were a couple instances where the background looked a little off because part of it would scroll as I moved and other parts didn’t, but overall I feel like it is done very well. Sonically, the game has nice music and sound effects to help build the atmosphere and create a sense of pressure and isolation.
The story of Full Quiet has you looking for your son after some creatures that I’m guessing are aliens show up. It is something where to get a better picture of the story, you’ll want to consult the manual very much like old NES games. I honestly have no gripes with the story at all. There’s mystery, desperation, and the little bits you pick up as you play really help move things forward in my opinion.
Now let’s talk about Full Quiet’s gameplay. One of the aspects of the game that confused me the most at the beginning was the navigation of the world. Left, right, up, and down do not always correspond to the map and it took me a minute to figure this out. In the bottom left corner, there will be a letter indicating which cardinal direction you are facing which corresponds to the map. Once I figured that out, things started making a lot more sense as I tried navigating the world. Overall, I thought this was a cool and unique way of expanding the map. I also enjoyed the various puzzles for the ham radio and circuit. You will need to be familiar with morse code for some of the puzzles, but thankfully the manual has a guide for morse code. This brings us to the first real negative about Full Quiet though.
In the digital version of Full Quiet, you press a button to access the manual in-game. This isn’t the worst thing in the world except for two aspects. First, the morse code guide is necessary, but it is fairly clumsy to utilize effectively. You have to memorize parts of the message, consult the code guide, take note of the letter, and then repeat until you have the message decoded. It’s doable, but clumsy. Alternatively, you could use your phone or computer to pull up a morse code guide, but in my opinion I want the game to provide me with all the tools needed in a not clumsy manner. The other problem with this is that the manual is the ideal place to put notes in. However, you can’t take notes in the digital manual that I could find. Of course, this is remedied by having a notebook or note app for this purpose, but once again, I would have preferred that the game provide everything I need. I will say that this is a lesser problem as anyone who purchases the complete-in-box NES version will receive a physical manual and both of these problems are alleviated.
The controls for Full Quiet also require some discussion. As I said earlier, the game is very ambitious. You can walk, jump, shoot, roll, and reload. You can grab ledges to crawl up on and if you’re fast enough, you can grab a ledge or pole and swing forward. Unfortunately, the controls were frustrating to me for these two actions. To grab the ledge, you have to press Up in mid-air to grab it and then Up again to climb up. To swing forward, you have to ‘keep your forward momentum’ and so you have a very small window of opportunity after you grab a ledge to press A again. This was very frustrating to me and possibly my biggest gripe.
Another note about the controller is not a complaint, but curiosity. On the Nintendo Switch, Full Quiet uses the D-pad, four face buttons, plus, minus, and two triggers. How will all of this translate to the NES which has a D-pad, two face buttons, Start, and Select. That’s significantly fewer input options so I’m a little concerned that the controls will become too cumbersome. I hope that it translates well.
Full Quiet is not a game for everyone. My wife started playing it and almost immediately quit. However, what it sets out to do, it does well. The game looks great for 8-bit, it sounds great for 8-bit, and overall gameplay is pretty solid. I’m still on the fence if I will return to it and finish it, but I know there are people who will legitimately love this game. I did enjoy the variety of puzzles and the combat was fine (simple side-scrolling shooter, nothing to write home about). If you want an NES game that has you refer to the manual and experience challenging gameplay like the olden days of gaming, you probably would enjoy playing Full Quiet. The digital copies are only $10 which I think is fair if you are that target audience. If you are more on the fence, I would say wait for a sale and then grab it.
