Can you survive until the sun comes up?

I was surprised to see Supermassive Games announcing and showing off The Quarry. They were still knee deep in the Dark Pictures Anthology with a new one supposedly coming near the end of this year. So, seeing a brand-new game outside of the existing Dark Pictures series took me off guard. As I have been reviewing the Dark Pictures game with one exception, I figured, why not give The Quarry a shot. This is obvious from the opening scene, but The Quarry is way above the quality of The Dark Pictures Anthology.

For those that haven’t played Until Dawn or any of the Dark Pictures game, The Quarry plays a lot like those. Players will take on the roles of different people, in The Quarry, camp counselors, as they make decisions and have conversations within the story of the game. Some of these decisions and interactions will result in either good things or bad things happening either directly then or way down the line in a different chapter. The butterfly effect is in full force here.

Platforms: Xbox, PS, PC
MSRP: $69.99
Price I’d pay: $69.99

As far as the story goes, I don’t want to get into it too much. This game lives and breathes on its story and characters. What I will say is, On the final day of summer camp, six camp counselors are stuck out in the woods with no way to get out and there are multiple hazards and dangerous people all out to get them.

As I said previously, this game is very heavy on the decisions. Players will make decisions that can change the story so far that players may see different outcomes four or five chapters down the line. Or maybe certain scenes won’t even play for another player, all because of what they decided to do at the beginning of the game.

In between each chapter, players are taken to a mysterious fortune teller who, if players manage to find her tarot cards, will give them a glimpse of a possible future event. This could both help or hinder the player as we don’t know what these outcomes mean.

Of course, any fan of Supermassive Games knows what they’re getting into here. The formula remains the same for the most part. There are both choices and diverging paths along with how the characters feel about one another based on how they respond to questions and situations. How does the rapport system work? I’m not sure. I just tried to have everyone get along. I’m sure after I finish my next playthrough I’ll make sure to be a douche to everyone.

The other aspect of the game are the quick time events. These have been in every Supermassive horror game. What stands out was the fact that The Quarry didn’t have much of these interactions. Especially not as many as Until Dawn. That’s one thing I have to say about The Quarry, it feels like a much more passive game than an action game. They really push for the social interactions and choices over the action and chase scenes. Sure, it’s nice to not have a character die due to me missing a quick time event but give me a little to do every now and again. I played this game with my wife and even she, who is not a video game player was saying “Shouldn’t you be playing this? Like, why aren’t you controlling this?”

Then there are the issues of when I did get to play the action, the game didn’t register my inputs and ended up killing a character. I usually don’t get upset at a game anymore, but this thoroughly pissed me off. It was even in the last 30 minutes of the game. Now, you could say I just missed the input, but I play a good number of shooters and if I missed this giant target bum-rushing me, I need to stop playing video games.

One thing I must give this game is the performances. Both visuals and sound design are superb. The Series X version looks and plays fantastically. There were times I was looking at the game thinking it was real-world picture. This along with some great music and sound choices make the atmosphere work so well for the horror theme.

Aside from the small issues I had, one of which made me upset, I still enjoyed my time with the game. So much that I played halfway through it, stopped, convinced my wife to join me since she liked Until Dawn, and then played through it again. Oh, and my wife and I are wanting to play through it again to try out the opposite decisions. I still find Until Dawn an overall better experience, but The Quarry is a fun time especially with some friends arguing what we need to do in a situation.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Great story
  • Wonderful atmosphere
  • Good performances
Bad
  • A much more passive experience
  • Some interactions feel glitchy or delayed
8
Great
Written by
Drew is the Community Manager here at ZTGD and his accent simply woos the ladies. His rage is only surpassed by the great one himself and no one should stand between him and his Twizzlers.