For: PS5, PS4, XBX, XB1
From: Supermassive Games
Rating: ★★★★
By SIMON BISHOP
The Quarry is an interesting proposition for me; I loved Supermassive’s previous interactive horror drama Until Dawn (despite having generally no interest in horror movies or indeed games), and was actually really excited about the release of this.
These games play out like a game equivalent of a choose-your-own-adventure book; you make decisions (sometimes under considerable duress), and seemingly innocuous decisions you make early on can have far-reaching consequences as you progress through the game.
The interactivity component of the game relies on being able to search certain areas, choose your own dialogue during conversations, and perhaps most importantly, succeeding (or failing miserably) at Quick Time Event button presses as you play through the game.
The Quarry focuses on nine camp counsellors on their annual trip to Hackett’s Quarry, a retreat akin to school camps here in New Zealand. Somewhat predictably, it all turns pear-shaped, and your decisions ultimately decide how many (or how few!) of them survive the night.
There’s some high profile actors in this too (you might remember Rami Malek featured in the previous game and went on to win an Oscar!). This time around the most notable person is probably Ariel Winter from Modern Family, but Justice Smith also plays a role (he was in the Detective Pikachu movie!). The likenesses of the actors is stunning too — graphically this game looks immense. They’ve really done a great job on it again.
If I had any complaints about how it looks, it would be the film grain effect (there for cinematic effect), which makes it all look a bit hazy. But, I can understand the direction they’ve chosen.
With these games, I always view any character’s death as a failure on my part to correctly ward off the danger. This time around, once you’ve finished the game once (or purchased the Deluxe edition), you get a Death Rewind function, which enables you to travel back in time to the point at which you doomed your character to death.
"This sounds fantastic!", I think, as one of my favourites is expunged before my very eyes. However, you may have made that decision a very long way back in the game, so be wary as to whether you really want to give that character a second chance at surviving the night, as you may be signing yourself up for replaying the last hour (or more!) of your game.
On the topic of replayability, much like the other games, you’re encouraged to make multiple playthroughs to see the various outcomes (or in my case, try to get all the trophies). Once again, this ultimately becomes laborious — because decisions happen relatively infrequently, and you can’t really skip through the game, it ends up with you watching through hours of scenes you’ve already seen before, or in the case of trophies, making decisions you aren’t entirely comfortable with.
The game definitely feels like a Supermassive Games game. It has interludes in between chapters featuring the Hag, an old lady who will offer you glimpses or hints as to the future if you find tarot cards during the previous chapter. This is very similar to both the therapist in Until Dawn, and the narrator during the Dark Pictures Trilogy.
So in a sense, it feels like another game in the series. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you’ve played those before and are looking for some kind of radical reinvention of the theme, you’re not going to find it.
For me though, that actually is kind of a positive. I wanted another Until Dawn, and effectively, and to some degree, that’s what I’ve got. If you too want more Until Dawn, give The Quarry a go.
- PC horror fans rejoice! The people behind PS4 exclusive Until Dawn have released a spiritual successor for us to enjoy on our PCs at last.
Performance was solid throughout my playthough, with the only major dips and stutters happening with a scene change (usually from chapter to chapter). Some have reported stutters frequently throughout the game as well; however this seems to be an issue with the 2K Launcher, which you can bypass. The recommended specs are a tad high, so if you’re on a budget machine you may struggle without turning settings down.
If you have the power to run them though, the graphics are astounding at some points ... only offset by how laughably bad they can also be. I was playing on the "Ultra" default setting, and there were times that I forgot I was playing a video game. I honestly thought I was watching live footage. Then other times something looked so horrible that it pulled me right out of the experience. The water graphics and sunlight beams are two candidates for this.
The game does recommend a controller, but playing with a keyboard was fine; though some of the investigation sections have fixed camera angles (think early Resident Evil) and when the camera switches positions, it ocasionally spins your character around on keyboard. The Quick Time Events were all fine and I didn’t have any drop out on me, though watch out for your mouse, as it can activate QTE prompts.
There’s no real PC specific options apart from the standard graphics settings and keyboard rebinds. In fact, to get to the settings, you have to press ‘E’ on the main menu, instead of there just being a standard option — which is kind of strange and very easily missed.
There is nothing overtly wrong with The Quarry’s PC port, and the enhanced graphics are a treat , but apart from that, it’s just a port that exists. We’d rather have it than not and if you have the machine for it, the increased graphics may make this port the version you go for. — Michael Robertson
