It wasn’t a dark & stormy night when SuperMassive Games released “Until Dawn”, but the overall creepiness & horror the game created left gamers wanting more chances to make life or death choices of famous Hollywood actors playing horny teens. Rather than stick to the cabin the woods nature of “Until Dawn”, the developers hit the high seas, explored the Puritan past, and fought for freedom with the first of several entries in the much shorter, though similar “The Dark Pictures Anthology”. Going back to the 1980s “Slasher”-inspired roots that made “Until Dawn” a favorite amongst PS4 players, “The Quarry” seems to be the latest love letter to a movie genre lauded by horror fans since its origins. Having really enjoyed “Until Dawn” and felt “The Dark Pictures Anthology” games were solid experiences, I was ready to jump into the deep end of this potentially infested figurative lake head first.
Did I Complete “The Quarry”?
As per the norm in regards to SuperMassive Games’ most recent creations, the officially promoted spiritual successor to “Until Dawn” doesn’t change the formula much in terms of gameplay, character depictions, and, of course trophies & achievements. After a little over ten hours, I completed my first playthrough completely blind; picking up a plethora of collectibles while keeping a majority of the protagonists/camp counselors alive (though Brenda Song’s character “Kaitlyn” was anything other than the “Final Girl” standing). After completing the story, the player is presented with the option of turning on a death rewind feature where, during their next playthroughs, can re-do a scene where a character dies up to three times.
Another reward for the gamer after completing the story is “Chapter Select”. Unfortunately, chapter select in “The Quarry” works nothing like the versions from its predecessors or even other games like “Uncharted 4” that provides a player more than the ability to pick where they want to restart the story. “The Quarry’s” chapter select not only resets the choices & decisions made by the player beyond the chapter chosen, but also erases all collectible progress up to that chapter selected; meaning players can’t just jump around chapters and pick up the treasures they missed initially.
To top it off, chapter select is removed from the menu after the player chooses the option until the player goes through the story and epilogue again. This decision in regards to chapter select purposefully extends the play time especially for those looking to see what happens if they make a different decision, fail a quick-time event, or want to earn those achievements/trophies that pretty much needs a player restart the story from chapter two or three and continue through the entire narrative.
After another twenty-five hours I performed several successful playthroughs that kept everyone alive, attained all the collectibles (a feat that took two playthroughs as one set of collectibles can’t be obtained fully if the player attempts to finish another set due to a mandatory early chapter decision voiding gamers of the necessary collectible), and earned the “Hard Pass” trophy that can only be obtained if someone has the disc version and hasn’t updated the game to the most recent patches as of this review (1.03 on PS4/Xbox One/PC, 1.02 on PS5); earning another platinum trophy in the process.
Did “The Quarry” Live Up to the Hype?
“The Quarry” focuses its gameplay around the basis of choice. The player has the ability to move a character around (though using the “Walk Faster” button barely adds any speed to a character’s steps), interact with certain objects and people with the touch of a button, and stare at the pause screen featuring the faces of whoever is being utilized to advance the story (and the sheer terror that envelops them as the game progresses). Through the power of two-way choices and directional-input-oriented quick-time events where the player, in the case of consoles, moves the analog stick in one direction or another, players may or may not help the protagonists stuck at their summer jobs as camp counselors survive through the night while being hunted by humans & inhumans alike.
A majority of the gameplay is actually quite forgiving in terms of allowing the player enough time to make a choice without feeling rushed, or a QTE failure rate becoming way too high. Shooting though, can be a little finicky without the auto-aim assist to guide the player especially in the more hectic situations. One of the biggest changes in regards to gameplay is the “Hold Your Breathe” sequences. Instead of tapping a button in the rhythm of a character’s elevated heart-rate, all the player has to do is hold down a particular button until the game signals that the character is safe to exhale. Hold the button beyond that safety moment and the character will reveal themselves by accident.
Though the developers promised over 100 different endings, the more impressive presentation is how many options there are for things to go right or wrong. While achievement/trophy hunting it becomes apparent just how much work the developers put in to making almost every playthrough a unique experience even if it’s something as small as choosing to scare an ex-boyfriend with a clown mask or following the trail back to the camp after wandering off when a session of truth or dare goes wrong. Some of the choices tie into the new “Interrupt” option where the player is given a timed event that can be interrupted by another character such as one obviously ill character hugging another protagonist a little too tightly.
From a narrative perspective, “The Quarry” sticks to what not only made its predecessors enjoyable, but also the horror genre its based off of including a mixture of archetypical teens looking forward to a life after high school such as the social media influencer wannabe/stereotypical beauty queen Emma (Halston Sage), prototypical jock who actually quite sensitive in Jacob (Zach Tinker), and, arguably, the most enjoyable protagonist, the eccentric Dylan (Miles Robbins) who definitely proves that a person shouldn’t judged by first impression. David Arquette’s character “Chris” acts as the main camp counselor with, obviously, something to hide who, unfortunately, doesn’t get as much screen time as one would’ve expected.
It must be stated that certain story elements, while contrived as expected, do a great job tying the lore together without the player feeling especially constricted to the narrative beats; at least during the first playthrough. Subsequent runs shows just how stiff the story is and the protagonists being protected by the unseen gaming god unless the player literally puts the controller down during the most dangerous moments. This lack of stakes a majority of the time is complimented by Eliza (Grace Zabriskie) who uses the tarot card collectibles as a way to give gamers a chance to see into the potential future including character deaths similar to the totem collectibles from “Until Dawn”.
Like “Until Dawn” before it, “The Quarry” looks great in regards to the character models; though the eye movement & general ocular focus between characters during certain situations go out of alignment. Mouth movement alongside lip syncing can be a little off at times and makes for some weird moments; same for female characters’ hair physics. There are some frame rate drops here & there with no major game-breaking bugs or hard crashes after nearly twenty hours and several playthroughs other than issues obviously caused by recent patches. As expected, the sound quality and general soundtrack is fantastic including some licensed music that, if the player is streaming, should definitely enable “Streamer Mode” to avoid those copyright claims; though some of the game’s charm will be lost in “Streamer Mode”.
There are two different modes beyond the single-player offering: “Movie Night” and “Couch Co-op”. “Co-op” acts like the same mode in “The Dark Pictures Anthology” with players choosing certain characters to control while either passing the controller back & forth when playing locally or working together via private online lobbies. Sadly, the online multiplayer mode won’t be available until July; at least a month after the game’s release.
“Movie Night” acts a director’s chair mode where the player can watch all the action without the interaction other than changing a few settings including whether or not all the protagonists live or die, their penchant for certain reactions, and just how brutal things can get for a counselor like Ariel Winter’s “Abigail” character when she opts not to shoot an infected threat.
It also must be noted that “The Quarry” has some of the best visually designed tutorials this side of “Fallout Shelter”.
Similar to the other SuperMassive Games before it, “The Quarry” does a great job embracing what works and what used to work in the genre it is inspired by; though this experience feels a lot more like an interactive movie than a game that plays out like an interactive movie like “Until Dawn” or “The Dark Pictures Anthology” series by taking the action away from the player more than its predecessors.
Should You Play “The Quarry”?
Not surprisingly, “The Quarry” doesn’t shake things up to the point of alienating fans of the genre and SuperMassive’s previous games; opting to simply improve upon the “Until Dawn” gameplay mechanics and storytelling. The story reaches the same highs & lows as it predecessors while the characterization definitely leaves something to be desired alongside a rather poorly paced opening few hours and one exceedingly long chapter two-thirds into the narrative. Gamers who enjoy these type of games and/or horror movies that would perfectly fit in the 1980s will feel “The Quarry” is a journey worth taking.
On the opposite end, gamers who have grown tired of the genre SuperMassive Games has established themselves in, or just don’t like these “interactive dramas” in general, nothing about “The Quarry” will change a gamer’s mind. Actually, there may be some things that encourages every gamer to give “The Quarry” a chance: a celebration of junk food made for kids, sick insult burns, trying to turn “Jesus wept” into an explicative, and learning that whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.
