The Quarry is the spiritual successor to Until Dawn and, as expected, delivers chills, thrills and plenty of kills. However, the drama and comedy elevate the formula to new heights.
The Quarry is to teen horror what Until Dawn was to slashers. Accordingly, how you feel about the new interactive horror drama from Supermassive Games will depend largely on how much affection you have for its genre.
Before we go into the finer details, let’s cover what The Quarry is and isn’t. Firstly, the gameplay on display here isn’t going to win any awards for innovation; so if your looking for a traditional video game you best look elsewhere. Similarly, if you go into this experience wanting to be scared shitless you’re probably going to leave a bit disappointed.
The Quarry doesn’t want to be Resident Evil or the video game equivalent of Hereditary. It wants to translate the gleeful terror and hilarity of cult classics like Evil Dead and Friday the 13th into an interactive experience. Every jump scare or creepy moment is counterbalanced by something that will make you either giggle or roll your eyes.
This is a B movie packaged as a video game – and if that sounds even somewhat appealing you should stop reading this and do yourself the favour of picking up The Quarry. It delivers that specific pleasure in a big way.
Welcome to The Quarry
The Quarry starts with a classic teen horror setup: a bunch of camp counsellors trapped in a remote location. At first there is plenty of drama to distract from the reality that something isn’t right; interpersonal relationships, sex, fear of the future, beers, teenage douchebaggery, bullying. However, after a few things go wrong shit starts to get weird.
You control a cast of teen horror stereotypes, most of whom are surprisingly well written. You get to decide how characters behave, which consequently means you’ll end up playing the game you want. On my first playthrough my characters generally acted with empathy and intelligence.
That said, it’s equally valid, and just as entertaining, to have them all act like a bunch of boneheaded morons (something which is actually at times nearly impossible to avoid).
Once the setup is complete, which is actually a really fun passage of gameplay, The Quarry gets stuck into the guts of the story; corrupt cops, family mysteries, creepy old women, and of course, monsters. It’s a wildly good time, and most players will relish the opportunity to craft a horror experience to their own tastes.
Quality performers and music
It’s immediately apparent how much care has gone into the production of The Quarry. The cast is made up of genre stalwarts such as David Arquette (Scream), Lance Henriksen (Aliens), Ted Raimi (Creepshow) and Justice Smith (Jurassic World), and the performances are stellar.
The motion capture and gorgeously rendered graphics, when played on a decent machine, look great. And they should, considering this is by no means a large and expansive game. Still, credit where credit is due: The Quarry is simply beautiful to look at.
Also worthy of praise is the music of The Quarry. Composer Ian Livingstone has done a great job crafting a score that ramps up the tension, while simultaneously nodding to some of the more on-the-nose tendencies of the genre. There are also a bunch of well-chosen songs that contribute a cinematic vibe to the game.
Solid replay value
While The Quarry will only take most players roughly 10 hours to complete there is substantial replay value. As mentioned above, the decisions you make drastically effect how characters behave, and therefore how events transpire.
Your first playthrough will likely see numerous characters die that needn’t, and if you’re anything like this reviewer you’ll want to see the other side of the coin. Replayability is inbuilt into developer Supermassive’s DNA, and The Quarry is arguably their best game yet.
Summer camp is over. Your choices will shape the fates of 9 teenage counselors as they struggle to survive the night. Welcome to Hackett’s Quarry. You won’t believe what you’ll become.
Published by @2K, #TheQuarry releases June 10.
🏕️ https://t.co/LUROk7gQok pic.twitter.com/LDcsXQtP7Q— Supermassive Games 🔛 #TheQuarry (@SuperMGames) March 17, 2022
In fact, perhaps the most impressive thing about The Quarry is that right after completing the main story I wanted to jump back in – but this time with a friend on the couch. There is a great deal of fun to be had debating decisions and commiserating over hilarious failures, turning the game from a solitary experience into a riotous shared one (preferably with a few drinks).
The Quarry platforms and release information
The Quarry is not cross platform and it doesn’t support cross generation play. Keeping in mind how much fun it is to play with others, we recommend purchasing the game on a platform you share with friends.
We played The Quarry on PC and it looked great and ran like a dream. The game is also available on PS5, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The Quarry releases June 10, 2022.
