The Quarry - Review

Supermassive Games are a game developer who have managed to carve out their own niche within the video games industry and this is due mostly to their excellent horror themed games such as Until Dawn and the acclaimed Dark Pictures Anthology, continuing along with the horror them comes Supermassive’s latest release entitled the “The Quarry.”

The game is set at a fictional location called “Hackett’s Quarry” and the story revolves around a group of teenage camp counsellors closing up the camp at the end of another long summer, that is until one of the characters throws a spanner in the works due to being lovesick and forces everybody to stay at the camp another night. At a normal camp this wouldn’t be a problem, however Hackett’s Quarry isn’t a normal camp and it harbors many, many dark secrets, all of which will be revealed to you in time and of course depending on the choices you make in the game. The quarry is a game of choices and the consequences those choices have, this is something you will realise as you make your way through the interactive experience, as per Supermassive’s other horror themed titles, The Quarry isn’t something you just play, it is something you experience.

For those who have never experienced games like the excellent Until Dawn or any of the Dark Pictures offerings, let me break down how The Quarry works for you, if you are old enough to remember arcade games like Space Ace and Dragons Lair then you will probably have a grasp of how you make choices in the game, basically you are playing an interactive horror movie but you have several ways of controlling how things pan out. The most important mechanic the game offers for sculpturing the narrative the way you want is through choices, throughout the game you will take control of different characters and push the story forward through choices that you make. These choices can be as simple as deciding whether to take a particular branch at a fork in the road through to unleashing the fury of a shotgun in a particular situation.

All of these choices have a consequence, some of them good and some of them bad, some that might play out immediately or several chapters later in the story, The Quarry does a great job of allowing you to control the narrative at crucial points in the storyline. Choices aren’t the only thing that can alter the path of the story though, you will need to be alert and keep your hands close by your keyboard or gamepad because just when you least expect it a prompt will appear on your screen, these events range from simply pushing the right stick in a particular direction through to having to hold your breath in certain situations to remain undetected, there are even collectables in the game such as tarot cards and evidence both of which can have an effect on how you might choose to make future decisions.

A game that basically boils down to choices would ultimately end up boring if you didn’t care about the characters or the plot, fortunately both are pretty good when it comes to The Quarry. Whilst the characters in the game fit the usual stereotypes seen from the genre, the confident girl who comes across as bitchy yet is really insecure, the prankster and practical joker guy, the headstrong female and the lovesick jock these characters are fortunately all played out very competently by the capable cast, the standouts being Grace Zabriskie as Eliza and Lin Shaye who has pretty much become the go to actress when a creepy woman in a horror movie is called for. Graphically the game is fantastic and at several times I forgot I was playing a game and thought I was watching a movie; the cinematography can be utterly stunning at certain locations.

The characters themselves are also rendered in near perfect detail down to actual pores on their skin, however there were a few times in the story when things went all ‘uncanny valley’ with certain expressions making some of the cast look like robots rather than actual humans. The soundtrack is also of high quality from the ambient and sometimes really creepy music that plays in the background through to the music tracks that play at the start of several of the chapters in the game, I would name some of my favorites here but I went searching online for information regarding the soundtrack but I unfortunately couldn’t seem to find any.

The Quarry and all the stereotypes and horror movie tropes that come with it has a story with just enough intrigue to sink it’s fangs into you right from the start and make you feel compelled to play it to see how the ending will pan out, speaking of endings, the game has 186 of them and I am sure nobody but the most dedicated completionists will see them all, but they do demonstrate just how many of the choices you make can actually effect the ending of the game.

You can expect your initial journey through the story to take about 10 hours, I am pretty much a ‘one and done’ type of guy with these type of games and I let my choices stand as an ultimate truth of sorts when it comes to the narrative, however there is replayability here if you seek it, whether it be trying to influence the story to reach different endings or through the ‘movie mode’ which allows you to choose from some set choices at the beginning and then you can kick back and watch the game as if it were a horror movie, there is also a co-op mode that I can imagine would be good at parties as it allows other people to vote on which choice to take at certain branches in the game, there is also an online multi-player mode however this has been delayed and won’t be available at launch.

If you are a horror movie fan that has never played one of Supermassive’s offerings then The Quarry is a great place to immerse yourself in the genre, if you are already a fan of the genre then this is a must purchase, the superb cast and soundtrack and intriguing story make the journey through The Quarry a memorable one.

The Score

7.5

Review code provided by 2K

The Pros

+Graphics are absolutely stunning

+The story while full of tropes and stereotypes still manages to be intriguing and memorable

+The cast is spectacular and deliver great performances with a couple of stand outs

The Cons

-Whilst the incredible amount of endings do lend to replays through the game some people will find that this is a ‘one and done’

-Certain points of the story have pacing issues with some of the chapters feeling drawn out and too long

-No online multiplayer at launch