Supermassive Games made the branching narrative horror game genre their own with "Until Dawn" - a game I played, and played, and miserably failed to get any better at with each subsequent attempt. So naturally as a natural born sucker, I was in for any kind of sequel or similar game from Supermassive.
Amazingly, "The Quarry" actually is that rare beast, a game that has a satisfying tantalising demo so after playing the PS5 version I just waited until the game did the usual rapid price drop and went in.
"The Quarry" is a horror story where everything you do will subtly change the fates of the characters therein, and the direction the story takes. Supermassive are obviously pretty proud of their branching narrative - to the point where they gleefully rub your nose in it at the end of the game, showing you all the places where your bad decision (or in my case, your fat thumbs) let you down.
The story starts off with two youngsters off to spend their summer counselling at Hackett's Quarry, a kid's outdoor camp. After an incident on the road, the two initial characters realise that something dark lurks in those woods, and the local law enforcement (played brilliantly by a scenery-chewing Ted Raimi, one of many horror stalwarts who cameo in the game) seems to be more threatening than whatever shambles around out there in the trees.
The story really begins to unfold however when you pick up the action just as the camp is closing for the summer, and the helpers who actually made it intact to camp are packing those kids off back home and saying their goodbyes.
One brainless jock (there's always one) doesn't want the summer to end (or more accurately, wants one more chance to nail his summer fling) literally throws a spanner in the works just as everyone's packing up the van to go, and kicks off the events of the game proper.
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| Yeah, it's all his fault...! |
As with "Until Dawn", the gameplay swaps between simple decision making, some interactive exploring and the bit that drives me absolutely mad, a series of quick time events. Now I don't know if I should really blame Yu Suzuki for the one videogame mechanic that I've hated pretty much since I first encountered it all those years back in Shenmue, but I really, REALLY hate Quick Time Events with a passion. Yet here we are in the 21st century, still having to suffer the bloody things - and sadly in "The Quarry" they literally mean the difference between life and death.
As the game unfolds you start to realise that Hackett's Quarry is the eye of the hurricane when it comes to the weird goings on, and Supermassive draw on many movie influences to cram this game with just about every horror trope and cliche you can think of, but in a way that just makes you want to keep playing right until the bitter end - or ends, because there are many, many ways to round off the game.
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| "Great, you let me die AGAIN because you couldn't hit the X button quickly enough!" |
In between scenes, just like in "Until Dawn" you'll visit a weird entity (in this case a haggard and boggle-eyed old lady) who guides you through the game by asking you to collect tarot cards. In reward she'll show you tantalising possible glimpses of future scenes to come, which may or may not play out depending on what you do. Even more so than their previous game, Supermassive have gone crazy with weaving a complex narrative that twists and turns and goes off at tangents despite following an over-arching plot.
These youngsters are a really interesting and mixed bunch, and as you play through the game you start to develop favourite characters, quite often only to have your hopes for their triumph dashed as those rotten QTEs usually see them leaping to their doom or suffering a grisly fate at the hands (or claws, teeth, shotgun blasts) of the game's antagonists, a strange hillbilly family with a dark secret only revealed towards the end.
I've done my best to write about the game without spoilers but having played through three times (and come out with a different ending each time) I can safely say that this game delivers on its promises. I would desperately have loved to see Supermassive dispense with the QTEs and come up with something better than button mashing to deal with the more interactive scenes, but you can't have i all - but what is here is slick, satisfying and actually quite funny in places despite the goriness.
8/10
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