The Quarry [PlayStation 5] | REVIEW

Supermassive Games have become synonymous with horror-driven storytelling in their video games, with their work on Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology underlining them as one of the best in the biz. Whilst a new release in The Dark Pictures Anthology series was expected this year, they’ve also surprised gamers with another all-new title in The Quarry.

Whilst a standalone game in its own right, The Quarry brings with it all of the hallmarks that Supermassive Games are known for… you know, multiple playable characters, a branching storyline where your choices matter, plenty of QTEs, and, of course, a TON of frights to keep players on the edge of their seat. Thankfully, the team has also been consistent with quality, with The Quarry offering another gripping escapade that’ll demand multiple playthroughs if you want to see everything it has to offer.

Check out some screenshots down below:

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The Quarry sets itself up in true ‘horror movie’ fashion, with a group of camp counsellors spending one last night at Hackett’s Quarry after working there over the summer. You know what this means, right? Yep, boozy shenanigans and partying… the perfect recipe for a night of horror. That’s exactly what follows too, with both sinister folk and creepy creatures ensuring that there’ll be frights aplenty (and a whole lotta blood) for these poor camp counsellors.

Just one question remains: how many will survive the night? Well… that’s up to you.

I won’t go into depth about the narrative just to avoid spoilers, but I will say that The Quarry introduces plenty of cool and eerie scenarios for its characters to face, whilst the top-notch writing ensures the cast is believable – and, most importantly, likeable. The interactions between them are great and it’s easy to see that they’re a close group of friends, whilst the romantic links will bring with them a sense of familiarity to anyone who has had a summer fling before. The cast (including familiar names such as David Arquette, Ariel Winter and Skyler Gisondo) play their roles brilliantly and you’ll genuinely find yourself rooting for their survival as you play. Sure, there are some cliches found across both the storytelling and the characters, but the classic horror tropes work in the game’s favour more than anything.

“Knowing death could be around the corner at any time makes the whole experience more engrossing, especially when you’re controlling one of your favourite characters and don’t want them to meet a grisly end.”

As I said, the cast are all very likable, which makes the high stakes of their potential death all the more intriguing. As has been the case with other Supermassive Games horror releases, The Quarry sees players having to make decisions that will ultimately determine the fate of the characters – whether that’s making the wrong choice in a conversation, going to the wrong place, or failing a QTE. Knowing death could be around the corner at any time makes the whole experience more engrossing, especially when you’re controlling one of your favourite characters and don’t want them to meet a grisly end.

Ultimately, the best possible outcome would see you going through the game with every character surviving the ordeal, though to only experience that one ending would be a disservice to The Quarry. With SO many potential ways for events to play out and SO many ways for characters to meet their maker, it’s almost a necessity to play through multiple times and see how differently things could go. There’s no right or wrong way to approach the game, but instead countless ways for the world and its characters to be shaped by your decisions. It’s nothing new, sure, but the branching paths are still the highlight of the experience and give The Quarry plenty of replay value.

Gameplay-wise, it’s more of the same we’ve come to expect, with a mixture of exploration with minor interactions, dialogue choices, and QTEs to complete. The Quarry doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, so if you’ve enjoyed that sort of thing before, you’ll enjoy it again here. The world is more expansive than Supermassive Games’ more recent releases and you can expect the game to take around eight hours to beat though, so it feels on a more larger scale overall. It has the usual multiplayer options available too, with players able to pass the controller around when switching between characters (supporting up to seven extra players) – online multiplayer is also coming to the game, though it’s not available at launch.

Check out some screenshots down below:

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One cool addition is the Movie Mode, which lets you watch the game like it was a movie as opposed to playing it out. I know, I know, why would you want to watch it when you could play it? Well, it gives you the option to see how the game could end based on varying circumstances, whether that’s with everyone surviving or everyone meeting a BRUTAL end (in the aptly named Gorefest). Of course, it’s a lot better to experience the game as an interactive medium, but for those who just want to watch what essentially is a horror movie, it’s certainly a welcome addition.

Visually, The Quarry looks fantastic; both with the atmospheric environments that bring with them a strong sense of creepiness thanks to some excellent lighting effects and also with the character models that are beautifully animated. Supermassive Games have been masters of facial animations in their releases and that trend continues here, whether that’s with facial movements when talking or their expressions when displaying emotions (which is more often than not dread). I did have a few occasions where pop-in occurred and camera could hinder some sequences when in more confined areas, but other than that The Quarry is a beautiful looking game.

Developer: Supermassive Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
Website: https://quarrygame.2k.com/