Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, PC
It’s been clear that the creators at Supermassive Games fancy themselves movie makers as much as game developers ever since 2015’s Until Dawn, which cemented their reputation for crafting interactive dramas that draw on classic horror films. After focusing on the annual The Dark Pictures Anthology series since 2019, The Quarry marks the studio’s first big new property in years, but anyone expecting a creative leap will be disappointed – although there are minor evolutions, this will be overly familiar territory for gamers and moviegoers alike.
Spot the tropes: a bunch of summer camp counsellors find themselves trapped in the woods after the kids go home, only to learn something is out there hunting them, all while the suspicious camp owner and a creepy smalltown sheriff hover around the hot young cast as their lives descend into bloody chaos. The Quarry is a bit more ambitious than the teen slashers it’s inspired by, with a plot that layers in multiple horror hallmarks in some genuinely interesting and intersecting ways, but anyone who grew up on a steady diet of ‘80s and ‘90s fear flicks won’t find much new here.
That said, the clear homages and nods to classics of the genre are often cleverly done, and it all clearly comes from a place of love for the source material. One of the best touches is the implementation of animated tutorials that play like episodes of The Twilight Zone, complete with Rod Serling-like voiceovers. It’s also one of the best-looking games of the year, both in terms of the environments and its incredibly well-captured cast – Ted Raimi! David Arquette! Justice Smith! Brenda Song! Evan Evagora! More! – that all actually look like the actors in question. It’s the closest any game has yet come to bridging the uncanny valley, allowing the cast to really perform in their roles.
If you’ve played one of Supermassive’s movie-games before, you’ve effectively already played _The Quarry_ in all but name.
The problem is, if you’ve played one of Supermassive’s movie-games before, you’ve effectively already played The Quarry in all but name. Mechanically, you can expect the same mix of mild exploration, crucial choices, and Quick Time Events to determine success in any given scene. There are some fun twists – you might not want to beat all those QTEs, for instance – but nothing that redefines the genre.
Another problem is length. Where the Dark Pictures games hit that sweet spot of being long enough to tell a satisfying story, but short enough to complete in one ‘movie night’ session with friends – a mode The Quarry replicates, allowing one controller to be passed around so the choices and actions of each of the game’s main playable cast rest in the hands of a particular player – the 10+ hour run time here renders repeated social playthroughs effectively impossible. Sure, you could split runs through the game over multiple nights, but anyone who’s ever tried to get the same group of friends to commit to watching the extended cuts of all three The Lord Of The Rings movies consecutively will appreciate how tough that is.
That’s the biggest shame, because the story, familiar though it may be in places, offers some interesting swerves depending on choices made. There are enough diverging paths based on seemingly insignificant decisions that ultimately determine who and how many characters survive, meaning you’ll likely want to give The Quarry multiple plays – but given you could probably watch every Nightmare On Elm Street in about the same time as one playthrough, that’s probably going to win over most horror aficionados.