Supermassive Games has carved a really great little corner for themselves in the horror game genre. In some ways, they are essentially glorified feature films with very little to do, the interactive element is there more than enough to keep the player engaged with their stories. Finding fame and praise with their 2015 title, Until Dawn, and subsequent smaller games from The Dark Pictures Anthology, this new standalone installment, The Quarry really harkens back to why Supermassive Games is so great at what they do and is easily just as good as Until Dawn.
Rather than a story set in a cabin in the woods type environment, we are put into a story very similar to that of a “Friday the 13th” film, where it’s the final day of summer camp and you play as nine different camp counselors stuck at camp for one more night before they leave. Unfortunately for our lead characters, staying one extra night is a very, very bad idea. Like all prior games from the developers, they hire a killer cast for their characters, in this case, many of which have a popular horror background. Some of these legends include David Arquette, Lance Henrikson, Lin Shaye, and Ted Raimi.
Like Peter Stormare in Until Dawn, or Pip Torrens in The Dark Pictures Anthology, this, too, has their own Curator type character where in-between chapters you will be speaking to a fourth wall breaking character discussing the choices you’ve made so far and giving you hints at what may be to come. The actor, actually actress to fill that role in The Quarry is none other than the legendary, Grace Zabriskie. I’ve been a huge fan of hers since her performance in Twin Peaks, and it was really cool to see her tackle this new medium of acting, she did an amazing job. What makes this game slightly different from the rest is there are tarot cards you can find while playing and you can show them to Grace Zabriskie’s character, Eliza. In doing so you will get a bit more of a peak behind the curtain of what dangers may lay ahead.
The game is very easy to understand and pick up. There is the occasional QuickTime event, as well as clues you can discover when free roaming. Aside from that, the experience is mostly cinematic. You will be presented with several “this or that” type choices that will cement a “path chosen.” Your decisions are very important, the lives of these characters rest upon how you want to play it and have the story unfold. It’s true that by the end of this game you can have every character die by the end or have them all live, as well as a mix of everything in-between. There are 10 chapters in total that are also accompanied by a stellar and freaky prologue and epilogue. There is even a mode where you don’t even need to play the game and just watch it like an episodic movie.
As far as cinematic and interactive horror games go, The Quarry sits up there with some of the greats, including Until Dawn. It’s very cinematic, well-acted, and suspenseful and violent when it needs to be. It doesn’t really reinvent the wheel as much as Until Dawn did, but that shouldn’t be a detriment to what was accomplished here. The developers love the genre and know what they’re doing. They even like to pay homage and get a little meta at times with their fellow horror fans playing the game. I highly recommend playing with at least one friend and experience the game together and make some of the hard choices together.
9/10
For more information, visit: https://www.supermassivegames.com/games/the-quarry
Related: Reviews by Nick Navarro
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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