A spiritual sequel to Supermassive’s Until Dawn, The Quarry is a horror game that’s more like an interactive movie than a game. It was released in June 2022 and received fairly good reviews. Given the number of actors straight from Hollywood in the game, it’s not a big surprise.
That’s because it’s primarily driven by your interest in the characters, some of which are intensely recognizable as they are modeled after the actors who play them. Imagine watching Scream or Halloween and being able to decide if the cast opens a door or goes up some stairs. You can decide if these actors live or die.
The story is perfect for fans of monsters and slasher films. It opens with a group of camp counselors closing the camp for the fall, but their ride out of the deep forest camp has broken down, leaving them alone, fending for themselves. Filled with surprises, it’s your goal to keep the cast alive as they face mysterious hunters and monsters.
On paper, the concept works, but after playing the game and receiving one of the best results, I’d argue it’s not for everyone.
Three reasons why The Quarry works
Why it works #1: So casual you barely have to play
If you’re not much a gamer, The Quarry might be for you. Unlike a fighting game or an open-world RPG, the controls are pretty simple, with on-screen prompts asking you to click a specific button. That lowers your anxiety with complex controls and allows you to soak up the horror vibes and story.
In fact, The Quarry offers a Movie Mode that requires some setup but no controls. You can unlock Movie Mode if you beat the game or purchase the deluxe version. This mode is proof the designers have faith that the story and the horrors within can hold up even if you’re not making decisions for the characters on the fly.
Why it works #2: The cast brings the characters to life
This game is filled with great actors, many recognizable from films and television. The most famous actor from Scream is David Arquette, who gets plenty to do in the opening scenes. Ted Raimi is another prominent actor who has appeared in many horror films and plays a significant part in the narrative. Both supply great acting and depth to complex characters.
Skyler Gisondo, who you might know from Righteous Gemstones, plays an essential character at the start, while Ariel Winter from Modern Family is a main character. You either know the rest of the cast or they’re likely familiar to you. When it comes to playable characters, when you’re deciding what they say, the acting ability motivates you to pick wisely. The performances also change the game from controlling digital characters to controlling actors in a real-life movie.
Why it works #3: The longest horror movie you’ll ever see
There’s a reason horror movies tend to have multiple sequels, and that’s because we want more. But what if instead of sequels you instead could get a ten-hour horror experience? That’s The Quarry, which takes at least ten hours to beat on top of an incentive to play it more than once to get different outcomes.
The game’s length allows the storytellers to explore smaller moments between characters. That makes The Quarry incredibly unique in the horror genre where characters are closer to stereotypes than three-dimensional people.
Two reasons why The Quarry doesn’t work
Why it doesn’t work #1: Dialogue choices can be arbitrary
With multiple dialogue options in any given scene, you’re bound to get choices that seem pointless or uninteresting. In general, dialogue choices are aggressive or peaceful, though either option could mean good or bad things for the characters. You can become frustrated when a dialogue choice might mean conflict even though that outcome wasn’t obvious.
Ultimately, these seemingly arbitrary choices can later mean death for your characters. That’s impossible to gather in many cases because you won’t know how things may play out on the first playthrough. When any given scene only allows for dialogue choices as part of the gameplay, that can make the experience boring as you cycle through the dialogue in a scene.
Why it doesn’t work #2: Clunky controls
Picking which dialogue to say or quick-time button-mashing moments aren’t the only controls at your disposal. No, you can also awkwardly walk around static rooms as you desperately seek out objects to interact with. I say desperate because your movement is so slow — even in quick mode — that it can take ages to click on the three objects in any given space to clear the room and progress the story.
You can imagine these discovery scenes were aiming to create a sense of calm between bloody action, but after a while, you’ll realize you’re never in danger during these parts of the game. That makes them even more tedious and the clunky slowness even more maddening.
Conclusion:
Given the reasons above, you’ll likely know if The Quarry is for you. Personally, I found the experience unique and fun, with stretches that were addictive. Those kept the overall experience excellent, even when boring dialogue slowed things down.
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