PN Review: The Quiet Collection

Use your wits and a bit of mischief to solve puzzles in four classic, lighthearted adventure games!

The Quiet Collection is a point n click compilation, whose old school charm extends beyond the genre it represents.  While those lacking a graphic adventure background may fail to see all this collection offers, retro minded gamers interested in the types of experiences that dominated  earlier times will find the Quiet Collection delivers a fun if uneven experience.

As this collection contains four separate games, let’s  briefly look at each.  Quiet, Please! is first, introducing the characters and recurring gameplay.  A young girl’s simple desire for peace and quiet after a rough school day is made challenging by a noisy family and quirky neighbor Mr. Peabody.  Good humor manifests itself from the start, successfully drawing you in with a desire to see what follows.

Next is Quiet Christmas, and it’s easily the weakest of the bunch for numerous reasons.  Among them are the fact it takes place in the same house from Quiet Please, with no new locales or characters introduced.  Overly familiar, easier, and even shorter than its predecessor!  I will admit a certain joy in (spoilers) popping an inflatable Santa or hurling snowballs at a carolling Mr. Peabody (bah humbug!) but that’s about all.

Things improve immensely with Vacation Vexation, as you try to find a quiet place on the beach to unwind with a good book.  Taking place on a large seaside boardwalk, it’s full of new places and characters to interact with, and is at least three times longer than xmas.  There’s even an arcade, with high quality knockoffs of games like Frogger, Space Invaders, and more.  These are actually better than many standalone eShop games (you can enter initials for multiple saved high scores!)  It gives some replayability in a genre not known for it.

Candy, Please!, another holiday themed entry, is the final game.  Unfortunately it returns to the same house introduced in Quiet, Please!.  The gameplay does extend to the street however, breaking up the monotony.  An opportunity is missed with the neighbors though, who really have no personalities save Mr. Peabody.  It’s a strange entry overall, being the only one whose ultimate goal has nothing to do with quiet.  Instead there’s a tedious costume creation aspect, the only time here when backtracking becomes annoying.

The heart of each game in this collection is clever puzzle solving.  The challenge will vary greatly depending in a sizable part the player’s experience level with the genre.  Everything is pretty logical within the game’s universe though, and there’s none of those outlandish type puzzles that marred the Sierra point n click games from yesteryear.  With curiosity, patience and careful thinking you’ll be rewarded with plenty of satisfying aha moments!

Quiet Collection’s Pixel art gravitates towards the simplistic side.  Everything’s colorful though, with surprising amounts of little details and fun animations.  Some may find them too dated, but there’s a charm in the presentation that retro gamers will likely appreciate.  Perhaps in staying true to its title, there’s no music to speak of here.  Some incidental tunes chime in occasionally (character singing, ice cream truck jingle, etc.) but this game’s audio focus is mainly on sound effects, and trying to silence them.  In the case of the meowing kittens (who give baby Mario sans Yoshi a run for his money in the annoyance department) silence is a great thing.  Control is fine, either tapping with the stylus via traditional point n click games or using the d-pad and buttons.

At just $$4.99 (slightly cheaper than individual buys on mobile) the Quiet Collection offers a very fair value, even with its shorter length.  Though uneven, the overall experience is definitely an entertaining one.  There’s much potential here, so I’ll look forward to Nostatic’s next release with anticipation.