The Quarry | Review

Initial Release Date: June 10, 2022

Developer: Supermassive Games

Genres: Adventure Game, Survival Horror, Interactive storytelling, Adventure

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, Microsoft Windows

Publishers: 2K Sports, 2K Games

Introduction: Only a few hours since the end credits rolled on my playthrough of Supermassive Games The Quarry the spiritual sequel to 2015’s Until Dawn. I beaten Until Dawn and at that time it was my co-sleeper game of the year along with Dying Light. The Quarry is similar to structure with Until Dawn. You have the cheesy teenage slasher flick thing going on. You can watch The Quarry’s introduction sequence HERE.

Presentation: The Quarry much like it’s predecessor Until Dawn centers around QTE gameplay sequences, walking segments and dialogue tree choices that shape the outcome for a group of teens in what’s basically a slasher flick videogame. The overall look and feel minus the odd ugly animations screams AAA quality through and through. The graphics are top notch, motion capture and voice acting really sold the story for me.

At times it felt like I was at the drive-in (I am 45) watching an early 80’s slasher film. There are moments where The Quarry nails that feeling it wants to give and other times when you go “what the hell was that”. Below I explain the good and bad in regards to The Quarry.

Story: The Quarry’s story revolves around a fictional town called Hackett’s Quarry in USA. You play as one of the many teenage camp counselors with summer coming to an end, it’s time to go home, until. You take on the role as either Max, Laura, Ryan, Jacob, Abi, Emma, Dylan, Kaitlyn or Nick. Each teen has his or her own personality that intertwines with decisions related to the story. The story is simple. The teens are trapped in Hackett’s Quarry and have to survive one night under a full moon. You know where this is going right?

The monsters in The Quarry are lycons or werewolves if you want to get technical. During my playthrough the story went like this. Some counselors became werewolves, some were killed by werewolves. The Hackett family at first tried to protect the teens from the werewolf fullmoon threat. Let’s just say I killed Constance (momma Hackett).

After the latter all of the Hacketts including Travis, Bobby and Jedediah tried to kill the teen counselors. The story is cheesy teen slasher film goodness. I laughed so many times playing the game. I laughed when my counselors got killed especially Emma. I did not take the story serious at all. Story would rate on the mediocre scale. Depending on the choices the player makes I guess the story can change good or worse.

Gameplay: The Quarry’s gameplay sequences are broken into dialogue choices, quick-time events and walking, exploring segments. The pacing is what ties this game’s gameplay together. Never at anytime did I feel like there were too many QTEs, dialogue trees or walking segments. You can collect tarot cards during walking segments which you give to fortune teller Eliza during intermissions. The Quarry Default Game Options Video.

Dialogue trees were the most boring gameplay aspects but had the largest impact on story. QTE’s usually involved running from werewolves that were actually fun. Also, believe it or not but there are shooting gameplay segments where you aim and shoot shotguns. The latter is stationary, you just aim and shoot. So yeah, what little gameplay their is in The Quarry I enjoyed it for the most part. Here you can watch a few of my The Quarry Videos.

Visuals: The graphics were outstanding. Some of the best facial visuals I seen so far in 2022. The character’s faces, the ground, almost everything looked stellar until you actually move the character. The animations are just weird, ugly and bad in The Quarry. Necks bend into odd shapes when you walk around. Like what are you looking at broke neck? Other than the jank ass odd animations The Quarry is a beautiful videogame. I played this on my Playstation 5 for reference.

Music/Sound: Music and sound design were really good overall. Music really fit into what The Quarry is, a teen slasher flick. I did not personally recognize any of the artists but I dug the tunes enough. Sound design centered around the actors and actresses voice-overs. Pretty much most of the cast was believable. However, I thought Ryan seemed weird the entire game. Maybe it was his, brooding, emo, goth persona. Justice Smith you can do better.

Final Thoughts: The Quarry took me around 8 hours to complete much like Until Dawn. there are multiple paths for each character that will bump the replay value up significantly. The Quarry gives the player agency in choice while being entertained in a teen campy slasher flick. It accomplished that in my opinion. Thank you for reading – Jason