Review: The Quarry Is a Bloody Good Time

Supermassive Games has become the home of interactive horror games. They made a name for themselves in the horror genre with 2015’s Until Dawn and have continued to release horror games ever since. Like many fans of Until Dawn, I always wondered why the game never received any type of follow-up or sequel. Well, after six years, Supermassive has finally released one: The Quarry. 

Biggest Take-Aways

• The game is a worthy successor to 2015’s Until Dawn, combining thrills and clever story techniques.
• Choices are the difference between life and death as you control eight characters through the game.
• Justice Smith, Brenda Song, Evan Evagora, Ariel Winter, and David Arquette add star appeal to the story, making it feel like a good B horror movie.
• At $70, many may find the game to be overpriced.
• Final score: 9/10

The Quarry is a Game With Great Casting

In the years since Until Dawn, Supermassive has nearly perfected video game graphics. The first thing you’ll notice about The Quarry is just how good it looks. The way character models react to lights and shadows makes the game look just like a horror flick. Performance capture has been improved here as well. Actors’ faces are recorded while they do motion capture allowing you to see every little movement in their faces during gameplay. Like Until Dawn, the game features a cast of famous actors.

You’ll find yourself pointing at the screen as you see people like Justice Smith, Brenda Song, Evan Evagora, Ariel Winter, and David Arquette. The game’s story is centered around Hackett’s Quarry, a summer camp in the woods. It’s time for the camp counselors to go home except they can’t leave due to a car malfunction. They’re forced to spend another night there and end up experiencing a night full of horrors. 

The cast does a great job with their performances. No one felt like they were phoning it in or overacting. My favorite was Brenda Song as Kaitlyn. It was the first time I’d seen her in anything other than “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” on Disney Channel and she killed it. She was the perfect mix of snarky and serious and it made me want to watch her do more roles like this one. 

All of the other characters are great too. Travis, played by Ted Raimi, is so creepy and unsettling thanks to the game’s performance capture, especially during the game’s opening moments. The game’s story is the perfect tribute to the horror genre. This cast of characters was tailor-made for a story as cheesy and fun as this one is. Thankfully you get to spend enough time with each camp counselor to learn more about them.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

During the game’s 10 chapters, you’ll be controlling all 8 of them. While controlling a character, you’ll be able to explore certain areas to find clues, evidence, and tarot cards. Clues can give more information on a particular character or place. Finding evidence will affect the game’s ending and what the public knows about the supernatural activity in Hackett’s Quarry. Tarot cards can give players a preview of a potential future, allowing them to reconsider the choices they may make. 

These choices make up most of The Quarry’s gameplay. They can be as simple as deciding how to respond to an insult or saving a person’s life. What makes the choices so good is that no matter how simple they may seem, it does matter. Acting like a sarcastic jerk to a character may cause them not like you. Asking a character for advice instead of just taking action, can make another character lose respect for you. You’ll find yourself wanting a reload checkpoint option so you can go back and undo your poor choices.

There may not be checkpoints in the game, but a similar feature does exist. If you beat the game at least once, you’ll be given the ability to use Death Rewind. If you own the game’s Deluxe Edition, you’ll automatically have it unlocked before you start playing for the first time. This gives you three lives during a playthrough. These lives can be used to save a character’s life. 

The only downside to this feature is that while it saves a character’s life, sometimes it makes you lose progress to do so. Jacob died at one point during my playthrough so the game forced me to replay about 20 minutes of gameplay so I could make a decision that would save his life. In another example, a character is killed because I was too slow to react. The game rewound to a minute before and allowed me to try again. It’s a great feature that most interactive games don’t have but I just wish it wasn’t so time-consuming. 

Despite my best efforts, I failed to keep everyone alive at the end of the game and ended up with what is considered to be the worst ending. If I hadn’t hesitated, I would have gotten what is considered to be the best ending. Without spoiling any of the endings, I will say that the game does not go out on a whimper and manages to pull out some interesting plot twists before the credits roll. Speaking of credits, if you collect a lot of evidence during your playthrough, you’ll want to sit through the credits.

Perfect for Casuals but is it Worth Full Price?

The Quarry is a game that will surely appeal to casual gamers and people who don’t even play games. It’s something people can just sit back and watch on YouTube or play with their friends thanks to the game’s co-op mode and Movie Mode, which lets players watch the game’s cutscenes like a horror movie. 

My only problem with this game may be the price. The standard PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions cost 69.99. I received a code from 2K for the PS5 version and was shocked when I saw the price on the PSN store. My entire playthrough was 10 hours long. For many, $70 is a steep price to pay for eight to 10 hours of content but we will let you be the judge of that. Branching choices do offer replay value but you are still mostly following similar story beats.

When the credits rolled, I found myself wanting to redownload Until Dawn after I finished my second playthrough of The Quarry of course. I enjoyed my time with this game. As someone who is a casual horror movie fan, it’s perfect for me. It feels like a passionate love letter to the genre filled with all of the signature tropes and stereotypes. It also has a lot of replayability thanks to the many paths you can take based on your decisions made during the campaign. This is another hit for Supermassive Games and I can’t wait to see what they do next.